Which cities get granaries?

[Jaguar]

Obviously, the ones with 5 fpt, but of the other ones, do you want to build granaries in the ones with high production but low food, or the ones with high food low production?

[Jon Shafer]

Always high food.

You can use those to produce Workers to add to the slower-growing cities to increase their population so that they never need to grow.

With that in mind, adding Granaries to slow-growing cities is a waste of shields.

[Shr3dZ]

Only cities with a fresh water source, me thinks...

[zorbop]

I usually put graneries in every city that has any growth at all...

[Harovan]

All cities get granaries, except may be the total corrupt ones. The question is, which get granaries first. The high food cities, obviously. In my Civ3 days I built 2-3 granaries early on and used them as settler/worker factories. Even without a big food surplus a granary serves well for this purpose. All other productive cities get granaries as soon as the REX phase is over.

[joncnunn]

1. Cities with their own free aquaduct from fresh water, usally high priority.

2. Worker / Settler pumps, usally as the first (and sometimes only) improvement.

3. After building an Aquaduct, if I can fit a Granery in to finish one to three turns before the city will grow from 7 to 8 or from 8 to 9 I'll usually do so.

4. After buildig a Hospital, I'll time a Granery build to finish right before it grows from 13 to 14 on those that still don't have them.

Originally posted by Shr3dZ
Only cities with a fresh water source, me thinks...

[Dominae]

Originally posted by Trip
Always high food.

You can use those to produce Workers to add to the slower-growing cities to increase their population so that they never need to grow.

With that in mind, adding Granaries to slow-growing cities is a waste of shields.

I think Trip is assuming a rather specific kind of start, the one where you get a bonus Food resource or four within 3-4 tiles of your starting location. With those, I agree that it's better to put Granaries in those cities that will be exploiting said Food. But I would not chase a Food resource across the map just to try and build a Granary there that will take forever because of distance Corruption.

Granaries are good in slow-growing cities, too. In fact, they're essential on low-Food starts. Just look at AU503: Pillage and Plunder, for instance.

[Jon Shafer]

Yes, depends on your start. He asked about high food or low food so I'm assuming he was talking about a situation when you have both.

[Theseus]

For me, it's the Settler/Worker Pumps that *must* have Granaries... other than that, it's sporadic, and way low on my priority list of builds.

Maybe it's an artifact of the time we've had playing C3 and derivatives: I want to achieve my 'win type' faster and faster, and Granaries just don't seem to be part of that.

[Cookie Monster]

cities with high food output are the first priority to get a granary.

all other cities must have granaries but not right away. If you want to remain competitive with the ai in the population category than granaries are a must.

[joncnunn]

Granery is usually my first imporvement in the capital when not Religious.

[WackenOpenAir]

Cities with low corruption and fresh water.

fresh water to allow them to actually grow large.
Low corruption so that the lux slider keeps happiness up without needing significantly higher % than the smaller cities.

[Shr3dZ]

I hardly ever build more than a half dozen granaries, just in my key cities. But up until a couple weeks ago Id never built even one granary so what do I know.

I just think that after you finish REXing that its more beneficial to build up the temples/libraries/marketplaces rather than help those smaller cities rush to a city size 6 (by building a granary) just to wait there for me to finish those 3 things before they get an aqueduct.

Usually I get a chance to think once my cities are close to size 12, maybe then I should buy more granaries while they wait for sanitation...

[gunkulator]

Originally posted by WackenOpenAir
Cities with low corruption and fresh water.

There's also a case to be made for cities with high courruption. The only thing they can produce is food so you might as well take advantage of any high food surplus with a granary for a worker pump.

If the city has a 5 food surplus, you can pay 32 gold and pump out a worker every 2 turns. If there's only 4 food surplus, you pay 28 gold for a 3 turn worker pump.

The ideal time to buy that granary is around the time of railroad, when you simply can't get enough workers.

[Cookie Monster]

Good thoughts about granaries.

I think it is sound to build only in cities that have high growth during the early game but towards the late middle game it's time to start maxing out your cities pops with hospitals and granaries.