Mountain Cities

[Seeker]

This thread is inspired by MP, where I have often seen cities built on high defense terrain, ie wine, both mined and unmined.

The Question is, what makes for a good mountain city? When will you build a mountain city?

1. A special, ie gold.

2. 2 settlers so you can have a mined special.

3. more than one good food terrain in radius ie bannana, multiple grassland, corn.

4. You have pyramids, so you're not worried too much about city growth.

5. your a democracy and you know than no one can get a high defense unit off a walled mountain city.

How many of these factors have to be fulfilled before you build a mountain city?

Why do so few people in MP build mountain cities?

What do you recommend as a method for dealing with mountain cities?

1. Not dealing with them, going around, ie what are boats for.

2. bribing the little things if you can.

3. occupy food squares, poison wells, starve and defend their resource squares.

4. blow up the walls and send 20 howitzers at them (if you can do this...)

[Smash]

ya,I'm seeing more and more of these.
At least 1 food special is great but any will do.What makes these cities viable is 2x production.1x they take forever to grow.I do it strictly for defensive purposes.

Bypass or seige. Being a stubborn fool at times,I have lost countless units against walled defenders so I would say frontal assault is too costly.Unless you have vastly superior technology(not very likely im MP)If I knew I would capture more of these.Without a road or river it is near impossible to move a pre worked settler in without losing it.Unless 2x movement but nobody plays that silliness anymore.Do they?

[Ming]

I love in them in Double Production MP...
A good food special is nice, but any food terrain will do. I put them in choke points, or on the oceans to fill in gaps. I love watching somebody try to take them out

[My Wife Hates CIV]

again, MP, a race through the science chart... weeeeeeeeeeeee

is there a war game somewhere in there?!?

[Ming]

Why do you say that MWHC?
In any tactical war game, you always like to dig into the best defensive positions. Taking the high ground is a well known tactic in any war game. Mountain squares that can serve as choke points is the smart thing to do. What does that have to with the race for sciences?

[Sten Sture]

I'm not sure if I should put this here or in the worst MP strats thread... I hate building cities with a mountain adjacent to the city center. One time I started a game on a moderate sized peninsula with a ton of 1 square mountains and no rivers or specials. I couldn't find any places to build without a mtn adjacent so I built my first two cities on mountains. Without any food specials, my cities took forever to grow at all and building settlers was next to impossible. Mountain cities are great, but choose the right time to build them!



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anyone lived in a pretty how town
with up so floating many bells down

[War4ever]

in no city bribe i will build cities on gold or copper/ore or wine.... why not.... great defense easy to build a wonder or caravans from and no one is taking this city from a direct assault.... great way to protect some inner cities

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War is the answer when you need to strike first.

War is the answer when you think you should strike first

war is the answer when you think others may strike first.

[Miner]

The only time I build mountain cities is to take advantage of Iron or Gold. Even then I would rather build on a mined Hill and place the 2nd worker on the mountain.
For Gold, with Marketplace & Library you can get significant amounts of research & money (works even better with Adam Smith).
With Iron, slap in a Factory (works even better with Hoover) and stick the 2nd worker on another mined hill. Over 20 production with everything RR'd. Even if you are not a Demo (which I don't play), turning these size 2 cites to Capitalisation gives a lot of money.

I never build a city on a mountain for defensive purposes. I prefer to use stacked units in Fortresses to hold off chokepoints as they cannot be bribed.

[BlackJack]

I suggest "strategic" defense as another reason to build a mountain city - the perfect spot to close off a portion of your territory just happens to be a mountain. All I need is some grassland squares - two to make up for the mountain, one for growth , and one for every hill/forest you think you're going to take advantage of. You'll end-up with a size 20+ city.

They take a bit of effort/resources though so I don't start them early in the game. I try to irrigate and road two of the grasslands first. I start mining then build. Granary/Pyramids is nice, but I really grow 'em with Love.

The bribery threat seems to be the same as with anyother city???

I've only played the AI and I don't think I've ever come across a mountain city. I think you've got the options though. If I did and just had to deal with it, emphasis on the "had to", I'd put poisoning up there with bribery. And out of curiosity, wouldn't a howitzer take out any pre-Tactics unit and still have movement left to back of counterattack range???

[Matthew]

Vet howitzers with their 18 attack strength and 2 fire power can knock even vet fortified mech infantry off of mountains, but you'd better have a 2 to 1 advantage in numbers. Bombers likewise. But before these things come along, unless you have a very good lead in military techs or know that a mountain city is weakly defended, just leave it alone.

[geofelt]

Sometimes, you have to build on a mountain. With micro sized maps, the terrain is often mountainous. I do it for strategic purposes and consolidating teritory.

[rah]

I'll build on almost anything if it's the middle of a four special pattern.

[SmartFart]

Yeah...only the ocean square can stop me in this one.