This dude shows up with a spanner and an oily rag

[snoopy369]

7 cities is still less than I'd expect You mentioned Prince in your OP, so I was confused

The risk with 7 cities is that you will always be vulnerable to military incursions. Unless you're playing on a level that permits you to be ahead of everyone else tech-wise, you will not be able to build sufficient military to defend yourself. Admittedly if you play no-aggressive-AI and on a low enough level (prince or below, I suspect), you may not risk problems from this.

Usually, by the mid game, it's good to build 'filler' cities that may well be right in the middle of 'good' cities; they still pay for themselves and can build some military units. Also, coastal 'lighthouse' commerce cities are very valuable - periodically use one or two hammer tiles that is shared with a real city, long enough to build a lighthouse and a library/marketplace, and then just use 2/3 ocean tiles (even better 2/4 with FIN!!).

[johnmcd]

I win spaceship games on emperor with seven cities.

[snoopy369]

Then you should play with Aggressive AI on...

[rjmatsleepers]

Originally posted by snoopy369
7 cities is still less than I'd expect You mentioned Prince in your OP, so I was confused

A senior moment. Apparently, when I posted at the start, I thought I was playing Prince - but the game settings reveal otherwise.

I don't think seven is a magic number of cities. I'd go for eight or nine if it was convenient; rarely 10 or above though.

I don't usualy find any space to infill cities. Perhaps I'm building my initial cities too close together.

RJM

[snoopy369]

It's two different strategies:
1. Build slightly overlapping cities initially, with no infill space.
PRO: Cheaper (less distance maintenance), easier to defend.
CON: Less ultimate territory.

2. Build cities with some space in between, then infill later.
PRO: More territory, possibly slightly better 'good' cities, more commerce/hammers ultimately.
CON: More expensive initially, more territory to defend, harder to defend further away cities.

The latter is common in MP, among those who can defend their territory well; the former is better for those who cannot. Having infill cities will always give a better commerce result at the end, but makes startup harder, so it is probably not good for those who have difficulty managing commerce early in the game.

I should add the caveat that if you do not attack much, and are in a game where nobody attacks much, 7 might be reasonable; but that makes the game on higher levels much harder.

[johnmcd]

Originally posted by snoopy369
Then you should play with Aggressive AI on...

I do!

I rarely war and have great infrastructure. One GP city, one military city and the rest pumping science.

[Blaupanzer]

I thot this was going to a Douglas Adams style joke about the end of the universe being triggered by a spanner in the antimatter engine. I was going to find out which mod contained antimatter and a sense of humor. Ah well.