Whats the largest a city can get?

[ElConejo]

I have seen some pretty outragous city sizes, but I dont know what the limit is... any help? is it 21 or 24? (based on city tiles)

[Kloreep]

I believe the data limit is something high, possibly 256.

As far as the possible limit, it does of course depend on terrain. I guess the maximum would be a city surrounded by wheat flood plains.

Per tile, that would be:
3 base food
+2 for wheat
+1 for irrigation
+1 for railroad
=7 each

So that's 140 from the tiles. +2 food from the city tile would make it 142 food, or 71 citizens. (An agricultural civ would get 143 food, and could have a 72th citizen at times with a granary, put since this 72nd citizen would periodically starve I'm not sure if that counts.)

Edit: If you're asking how many tiles a city can work and thus what the maximum number of non-specialist citizens is, there are 20 workable tiles. Once a city hits 21 at least one citizen won't have a tile to work.

[ElConejo]

Wow.
That is quite the analysis, I thank you. And that was exactly what I was asking actually. over 70 citizens? Wow. Has anyone seen or have a screen shot of a city anywhere near that high?

[Kloreep]

Well, I doubt anyone's ever generated a map with a radius area full of wheat flood plains, so I doubt anyone's ever gotten that high except with an edited map.

[ElConejo]

In that case then, whats the largest city you can remember making in your games?

[Theseus]

Hmmm... this was discussed a looong time ago. I think Kloreep's analysis is generally in line with what I remember.

I can think of cities I've seen or gotten myself in the >40 range fairly regularly.

[Mace]

I think I have gotten a size 36 city before. Maybe higher, I can't remember.

You really do have to have a very favorable terrain area to get > size 30.

[Pizza]

Big Cities

I've got to size 31 or 32 in CIV3. But it's hard to do. The people keep complaining and when pollution shows up the city shrinks.

I had a size 161 city once, but that was on Call-To-Power with an environmentalist government late in the game.

[Xorbon]

I rarely get my cities to size 30+. I prefer to maximize shield production so I mine a lot of grassland.

I captured a size 42 or 43 Japanese city from the A.I. once, but it quickly starved due to damaged tiles and extreme unhappiness.

[Addled Platypus]

Never had the terrian or talent to crack 25

nice work on those that do

[ElConejo]

Originally posted by Platypus Rex
Never had the terrian or talent to crack 25

nice work on those that do

LOL Same here, and I doubt I will ever have the terrian talent or time for that matter!!!

[Kloreep]

41 shouldn't be too hard if you don't mind stripping a city of its production. Just make sure a grassland city with a granary and access to all its tiles has them railed, then irrigate all of them. Voila. Start adding workers at the end if growth becomes too slow.