City spacings

[pa314]

Usually when I play CTP2 I leave enough space between my cities so that they can grow to a reasonable size before they start nicking each others food etc.
I do this because by the time my cities get to this size the game is usually over (exception - Impossible difficulty level), however, looking around at the threads I see that many people build their cities much closer together. Obviously this saves time in the beginning but it prevents your cities from reaching their full potential.
In Civ 1&2 this wasn't a problem, but what should I do?
I would like take to a vote- How many people leave # spaces between their cities?
Oh and if you have a good reason for doing what you do, please reply.

Thanx

[HuangShang]

3, but accutally, i dont place them according to spacing, does everone else?

anywany, they dont get closer to 2 so i pick 3 as an average

[Maquiladora]

Hard to answer but i would say 4 spaces between each city, leaving each one to expand once.

In cradle id probably leave my earlier cities, like my capital to expand to 3 or 4 though. In apolyton pack id still go for 2 borders each.

If you can make out the terrible screenshot you can see where i veered off a perfect pattern to place cities on a river or by the sea instead. Im not saying its perfect, its just what i do. You can see the only city to expand twice has been my capital (circled in red) so far but the others are on the ready to burst too, but then again the game is almost won now so.

Probabaly not perfect, that big patch of fog of war between those cities on the coast is a bad idea in apolyton pack with barbarians all over, but you cant see a 12 stack of cavalry to the left.

[Maquiladora]

forgot screenshot

[Locutus]

I always want to control as much territory as possible (if only to minimize the territory my opponents can control), so due to the city limit I always try build build cities as far away from each other as possible. But of course, with cities far apart, it's necessary to have a good road network. So connecting borders is vital (as roads can only be built within borders), forcing me to keep most of my cities within 8 tiles of each other. To maximize resource collection in the early game and to reduce the barbarian threat, my inner cities are usually even closer together, which makes that I usually build cities 5-8 tiles apart. My rule of thumb is that at least every other city should be able to expand twice, so 5 tiles apart is normally the minimum. Because my games usually end before the modern age, expanding more than twice rarely happens, so strategic considerations aside, 6 would be the ideal distance to have between cities and because of that I voted for 6 in this poll.

[Martin Gühmann]

One thing you have to consider is that cities in CTP2 have a maximum size of 60 in the standart game. Therefore even if the city covers the maximum number of tiles possible additional food is just a waste, so only additional commerce and production does make sense. But if the city is such big you don't need the additional ressources anymore, they will only add something to the pollution of this city. So you don't need cities that cover the maximum radius, smaller radii are also ok and you can found more cities in the early and the more cities you have in the early game the more powerfull you are in the early game.

-Martin

[pa314]

Everybody that views this thread please vote- there have been 39 viewings and only 4 votes, we'll get a mush better picture of the different types of stratergy if everybody votes.

Thanx.

[Maquiladora]

Yeah but each of the posters have viewed this thread at least 2 or 3 times too, and then theres the lurker factor. Also i think the number is a little open to interpretation, you could count 5 spaces from one city to another, but thats 4 spaces in between, somewhat confusing poll too.

[RunsWithDwarf]

Well, I tried to vote 4 but it keeps telling me my session is invalid.
But I was under the impression that the cities area of influence would not extend beyond 2 tiles out from the city anyhow.
Have I been somehow missinformed?

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by RunsWithDwarf
Have I been somehow missinformed?

Yes. To make your city to expand beyond size 18 (or was it beyond size 17) in the original game you need an aqueduct. If the city expands beyond this size the city radius grow from two to three in the original game. There are more buildings that allows a city to grow beyond a certain size. Size 60 is the upper limit in the original game and will cover the area that is claimed by this city for your empire.

-Martin

[Locutus]

Originally posted by RunsWithDwarf
Well, I tried to vote 4 but it keeps telling me my session is invalid.

Log out and log back in. Then you should be able to vote again... in theory anyway

[centrifuge]

I don't know my exact spacing, it sometimes will vary depending upon the terrain. In the early stages of the game I do kind of like Locutus pointed out and try to extend my border as much as possible as quickly as possible. Usually I just take my new settlers to a square or two outside of my Empire's border.

[Tamerlin]

I usually try to let 8 tiles between my cities as I like them to grow, this can partly explain why I have some troubles to end the game before the time limit as I am loosing time in the earlier part of the game (I think I will create a thread in the future on this subject as I would like to win through the Science victory and end the game sooner, the advices of the veterans will greatly help...).

But I like to watch at my cities growing anyway, it's fun...

[RunsWithDwarf]

Still no luck, Locutus.
It keeps telling me its an invalid session, then gives me an option to try a new session below that, bit when I click on it, I get the same results.
I don't know perhaps I'm doing something wrong, I tried your suggestion, of logging off then logging back on twice and recieved the same results. So I don't know what the problem may be.
I'm having no trouble posting however, which I guess is all that really counts in the end Ay!
At least I tried.

[HuangShang]

uhoh, Locutus has a new pic