Founding a city?

[Rook]

What is a good spot for a city?

What do you look for in tiles?

What do you think about the computer's choices for city locations?

Emphasis on hammers, coin, or food?

Resources?

[rjmatsleepers]

It depends on the state of the game. I want commerce from my first city - on the coast as well if possible. I usually found my second city in a location that will give me a lot of hammers so that it becomes my production city. The next few are likely to be sited to secure access to key resources - particularly copper or iron. After that, it's likely to be about controlling land area. If I'm on a crowded continent, I may have to build them in whatever spot is available. From time to time I build a city close to an AI city in order to start hitting it with culture.

RJM at Seeper's

[Jvstin]

Originally posted by rjmatsleepers
It depends on the state of the game. I want commerce from my first city - on the coast as well if possible. I usually found my second city in a location that will give me a lot of hammers so that it becomes my production city. The next few are likely to be sited to secure access to key resources - particularly copper or iron. After that, it's likely to be about controlling land area. If I'm on a crowded continent, I may have to build them in whatever spot is available. From time to time I build a city close to an AI city in order to start hitting it with culture.

RJM at Seeper's

Yep, it depends on what you need. Did you just research Iron Working and need to get access Iron to pump out Prateorians? Are you looking to bottleneck Bismarck on the peninsula he's stuck on? Do you want to play culture war with a culture-weak Civ?

Me, as a general rule, I do like to put cities on Rivers whenever possible, because of the commerce bonuses. A river-coast junction is even sweeter, since the AI doesn't do well with naval actions.

[marvinkosh]

Water - be it river, lake or sea - seems a crucial factor in deciding where to found early cities. After Civil Service, you can create access to fresh water where none existed before, and so siting close to fresh water is not such a high priority.

Particularly in Marathon mode, I aim to site a city where it will net the most valuable resources after it has expanded, even if it doesn't get to work all of them as tiles. How I value a resource depends on whether I already have it or if I can trade it for something I can't get.

[Imran Siddiqui]

coastline/river/resource seems to be the popular choice and, of course, I don't agree. Though at times I drop a city where none of those may exist in order to control borders (like drop in a city between two cities whose borders don't connect if I have a close neighbor, so the neighbor can't bisect me).

[Rook]

OK, here's what I really want to know. I am playing a game and currently have 4 cities. One city is almost completley surrounded by water. I put it there to gain access to several resources. The other city is my capital which I placed where the computer started me. The other two I tried to place in places that I thought would provide a lot of hammers. My strategy was to emphasize my captial and these other two cities with as many wonders as I could build. So far it has been a failure. My capital is doing fine, but the others are stagnate in growth. I guess I got too many hammers and not enough food. So I am looking at my capital to see what makes it such a great city. Trying to figure it out is giving me a headache though. So what is it? Is there a formula? Is more plains better than grassland or should I have an equal of both?

[Urban Ranger]

You can't ignore food while looking for production (or commerce). You have to balance growth with output. A high production city is actually one that has several food resources (or flood plains tiles) and several hammer resources (copper, iron, etc.) or at least plains hills in the fat cross. Cows are very good in this sense because they give you both food and hammers.

Speaking of which, my captial city tends to start on an excellent site. If it does well, my whole empire will be ahead of the competition. Otherwise, it will be a struggle.

[Qwertqwert]

I look for nearby resources first, if it's between 2 then I go for the most food in begining and coast or shields later.

[rjmatsleepers]

Originally posted by Rook
OK, here's what I really want to know. I am playing a game and currently have 4 cities. One city is almost completley surrounded by water. I put it there to gain access to several resources. The other city is my capital which I placed where the computer started me. The other two I tried to place in places that I thought would provide a lot of hammers. My strategy was to emphasize my captial and these other two cities with as many wonders as I could build. So far it has been a failure. My capital is doing fine, but the others are stagnate in growth. I guess I got too many hammers and not enough food. So I am looking at my capital to see what makes it such a great city. Trying to figure it out is giving me a headache though. So what is it? Is there a formula? Is more plains better than grassland or should I have an equal of both?

As Urban Ranger said, some food specials in your production city will help things along. The other point to remember is that some good production sites don't really produce until later in the game when you have lumbermills, railroads, factories, power and 2 extra food from farms.

RJM at Sleeper's

[Son of David]

In Civ3 it used to be that a city would not be able to grow past size 6 without an aqueduct unless it was directly next to a river or source or fresh water, so I developed a habit of putting cities near rivers if at all possible.

I believe that in Civ4 you get a health bonus from being right next to rivers instead. Although, I do not know the exact extent of the bonus. . . .

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Son of David
In Civ3 it used to be that a city would not be able to grow past size 6 without an aqueduct unless it was directly next to a river or source or fresh water, so I developed a habit of putting cities near rivers if at all possible.

You still get the benefit of being able to build hydro power and the Three Gorges Dam.

[CerberusIV]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger


You still get the benefit of being able to build hydro power and the Three Gorges Dam.

I believe it is more restrictive in Civ4. In CivIII (and 2 IIRC) you could build hydro plants and Hoover Dam if there was a river within the city radius (even if it just ran along the edge 2 tiles away). In Civ4 the city has to be actually on the river.

With the +2 health bonus and the tile commerce bonus it is best to put cities on rivers unless there is a good reason not to.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by CerberusIV
I believe it is more restrictive in Civ4. In CivIII (and 2 IIRC) you could build hydro plants and Hoover Dam if there was a river within the city radius (even if it just ran along the edge 2 tiles away). In Civ4 the city has to be actually on the river.

I skipped Civ 3