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Specialized Cities
I usually build a SSC in my civilization whether or not I am going for expansionist conquest or perfectionist settlement of AC. But in micromanaging my cities today, it occurred to me that one could specialize cities for the general purposes of science, tax, and production.
A science city would be founded near trade specials, oceans, and rivers, would have library, university, and research facility, and squares that did not produce trade would be converted to Einsteins.
A tax city would also be near trade specials, oceans, and rivers, would have a marketplace, bank, and stock exchange, and sqaures that did not produce trade would be converted IRS agents.
[If a player was more of a military expansionist than a perfectionist, "trade cities" would more often be tax cities than science cities]
A production city would be built near shield specials, forests, and hills, would have factory, manufacturing plant, power plants, and offshore oil rigs, and would basically try to have as many production shields as possible while ignoring trade arrows (and food) to turn out units, space-ship parts, and wonders.
[One could even imagine a "food city" that specialized in food production and sent food caravans to the other types of cities to support the population while they specialized on science, trade, or production.]
Money from the tax cities could be used to help finance production of the city improvements in the science cities and production in the production cities. City improvements would be specific to the type of city, perhaps lowering the overall costs compared to when libraries or marketplaces are spread across many cities.
I know that I do this to some extent in all of my games, having cities where I favor production and others science or taxes, but I was wondering if anyone has applied this strategy in a more pure, or direct sense. And if so, are there real obvious advantages to this micromanagement strategy, or is it not as effective as a well-rounded strategy and not worth the time and effort in the course of an entire game?
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One hundred victories in one hundred battles is not skillful. Subduing the other's military without battle is skillful.
Sunzi, The Art of War
A science city would be founded near trade specials, oceans, and rivers, would have library, university, and research facility, and squares that did not produce trade would be converted to Einsteins.
A tax city would also be near trade specials, oceans, and rivers, would have a marketplace, bank, and stock exchange, and sqaures that did not produce trade would be converted IRS agents.
[If a player was more of a military expansionist than a perfectionist, "trade cities" would more often be tax cities than science cities]
A production city would be built near shield specials, forests, and hills, would have factory, manufacturing plant, power plants, and offshore oil rigs, and would basically try to have as many production shields as possible while ignoring trade arrows (and food) to turn out units, space-ship parts, and wonders.
[One could even imagine a "food city" that specialized in food production and sent food caravans to the other types of cities to support the population while they specialized on science, trade, or production.]
Money from the tax cities could be used to help finance production of the city improvements in the science cities and production in the production cities. City improvements would be specific to the type of city, perhaps lowering the overall costs compared to when libraries or marketplaces are spread across many cities.
I know that I do this to some extent in all of my games, having cities where I favor production and others science or taxes, but I was wondering if anyone has applied this strategy in a more pure, or direct sense. And if so, are there real obvious advantages to this micromanagement strategy, or is it not as effective as a well-rounded strategy and not worth the time and effort in the course of an entire game?
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One hundred victories in one hundred battles is not skillful. Subduing the other's military without battle is skillful.
Sunzi, The Art of War
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