Expansion

[ramses II.]

I've read that you should expand around your capital, building coastal cities, leaving the centre for later in order to keep your people happy and not to lose so many shields by corruption.
Others mean that you should expand right towards the borders of an AI civ as fast as possible.
My exploring units - diplos, chariots, warriors and horsemen - often find NONE-settlers and advanced tribes. And sometimes they manage to capture an enemy capital before they could build a 2nd city.
I had ganes where I had 3 centres of expansion.

What's your way of expansion? A "compact" empire where they cities are build like onionskins or a wide spread empire as I prefer?

[Scouse Gits]

There are two aspects to expansion. There is the planned aspect of growth...and also the unplanned.

Early exploration will reveal the nature of your local terrain and this may influence the type of game you play. I lean towards an ICS strategy when there are few grassland tiles available.

It is preferable to have early cities near the capital to reduce corruption and waste, with the added advantage that road connections are quicker to establish.

There is a definite bonus having your capital ringed with suburbs or feeder cities, so long as they are not built within the capital's limits.

The benefits are:
1) Quick caravan delivery for early wonders.
2) The possibility that the suburbs can share the capital's specials. For instance if your metropolis has gold, it may not be able to use it early in the game as growth is compromised. Let another town use it for a few turns and enjoy the extra trade.
3) Cities close to the capital gain the benefits of early extra trade with road/rail connections…the correct transport links are easier to establish.
4) There is a defensive value in having the big city protected by smaller ones.

However, if you have another civ on your doorstep then you must build choke points/strategic cities to stop them crawling over your cornfields. This is a priority. If they are in the way of your expansion …bribery is often the answer.

Unplanned expansion is usually via nomads or advance tribes. Sometimes the cities gained are of little use in the early game, but it is crucial to maintain aggressive exploration to seek out huts. A useful tactic is to load your first trireme with a two movement unit - diplo is preferred - and a settler. Don't only look for villages but also for those small islands with several whales. Once you have an offshore city, freight returns are increased and a two continent trading policy becomes an option.

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SG(2)

[Messer Niccolò]

The Gits are absolutely right.
The only thing they forget to mention is that when you expand, expand and, again, expand, you will need micromanagement and you usually end up with a lot of small villages and two or three big cities (it depends on your desire of micromanagement ).
This is why I often build a max of 20 cities (, lazy boy!) fully improved, instead of the 123,450 ICSers usually have.
But it's only a matter of style, currently I'm playing a archipelago huge map game and, surprise, I have built more than 30 cities on different islands.
And I trade all my caravans towards RHODES, that's usually my SSC, which is on a small island...
I've been using three moves triremes for the most part of the gambe , now galleons and transport ("Magellaned" of course) make the things a lot easier.


One turn=15 minutes is quite too much for me, of course if I have only to move camels and ships....

[Scouse Gits]

Yup MN has also got it sussed - the primary constraint upon expansion is your own patience - mine lasts about 30-40 mins per turn -- after that a Monster has been created ... this is not necessarily a bad thing there are several options:

1. Go hang micromanagement and enjoy conquering the rest of the world - you are now unbeatable.
2. Compartmentalise your Empire - helped by judicious renaming (so as to group the compartments in the alphabetic list of cities) and only micromanage the A-list cities (normally the heartland) and play the rest on 'autopilot' - there might be a sleazy section - a wanabe section - a barracks section etc
3. The hard one - continue micromanagement - this often leads to a less enjoyable game, but can have great effect -- I draw your attention to the final set of turns played by SG[2] in the previous Succession - a veritable tour do force

Basically - play to enjoy yourself - whatever turns you on - so mote it be!

SG[1]

[Messer Niccolò]

I know that the "wrath of the Gits" would be upon me for not going micromanagement...