Advice on cities and technology

[William D.]

Greetings,

Big fan of this game, but I struggle with cities. I'm the type who loves to go all out on technology research as fast as possible at the cost of a weak early offense/defense. Problem with this game is that I can only build one new building (which I equate to tech upgrade) each time a city grows. Which means even with a relatively high level city, I don't seem to be able to have all the buildings I want because of the build limit.

I've tried city specialization, which helps, but I always find my kingdom is slow to react when I need a particular resource, because I have to wait for one of my cities to expand before I can build something to meet that new requirement.

Any advice? I guess I just need to get used to the way the game limits player progression, but it's frustrating not being able to build what I want/need when I want/need it.

Thanks!

[William D.]

Iggwilv,

Thanks for that reply! Great advice. I guess my fatal flaw was twofold:

1.) Not building more cities
2.) Relying on conqured cities

I'll try city spamming and see how it goes. I still feel confined by the building restrictions, but I suppose with more cities, this won't feel so bad as I'll be building much more often. I still have to grasp the build trees for advanced units/food/manna, but I'm sure that will come :)

Thanks very much for taking the time to help out a newbie. Much appreciated!

[Grubnick]

Try to specialize certain types of cities if the terrain and resources are good for specializing. Food specialty cities, especially if it is the monster race, can really crank out the food. It doesn't take many to supply your entire empire if they are optimized. Then your other cities don't have to waste build spaces on food.

Likewise cities can focus on unit production, gold or mana.

Cast buff spells - especially temple spells - on your best cites. Don't waste mana on lesser cites.

[Supplican]

Note that once you've built one building that gives you a perk in ANY city (eg Smithy), that perk is available for ANY eligible unit anywhere in your empire, at a cost on gold. You don't need that same building in every city.

[William D.]

Really? That kind of sucks. I thought the entire nation benefitted from my food level, not that each city had different requirements. Shared resources is definitely a bit under documented in this game :)

[GC13]

Originally posted by William D.:

Really? That kind of sucks. I thought the entire nation benefitted from my food level, not that each city had different requirements. Shared resources is definitely a bit under documented in this game :)

No, not really. As long as your nation as a whole is going positive in food production, you'll get full population growth in all of your cities. Likewise, as soon as your nation goes negative, you'll get slowed population growth in all of your cities.

[GC13]

Towns' growth rate should fall as they get bigger.

Hover over the town's growth rate, and it will show you what's influencing it. You shouldn't see the Starvation modifier on a town with negative food, unless your empire is negative overall in which case you should see it on all towns.

[chaotix14]

A towns growth rate drops as it gains more and more people, "level" 16 is about as big as they can get even when boosted with prosperity(the city growth increase buff).


Another side note is, after capturing a city from another race, considder waiting untill that city is at least "level" 2 before destroying it, as it will yield a settler of that race if you do. And always, always check the surroundings of the captured cities and don't be afraid to destroy them to move them 1 or 2 squares if that makes for a more favorable location.


I also want to come back at Iggwilv's to start building food as the humans. There is a much better route to start up your humans. And you basically have to go against what has been said and go for gold.
-First turn you choose which direction your capital is going to make by looking at the surroundings:(list is in priority)
1. Gold boosters. Basically what you are looking for local resources that give more than +3 gold in a 2 hex radius aroudn the city. Things like gold ore, dwarven settlement/elven village/donkeys(if you don't that the unit producing building) or even as simple as a spot to place a harbor. If it's silver or gems, it gets debatable, early on their perks aren't too important(especially the gems), but if you can't secure a second source before getting further into the game, you'll have to change them out for the perks(the human silver perk gives a lot of effective damges to your units). If you see those resources, and plan to use them economically, build a rogues guild in your first turn and build to max out gold production in that city.
2. Snow hexes. If there are a lot of them in the 2 hex radius around your city, dodge the -20% to food and make use of the bonus to gold. Build a rogues guild and go for max gold.
3. Food boosters. Very simple again the 2 hex radius, but now look for pumpkins and pigs. See any of them, then build to max out food.(magic fields can be used for a +10 food, but if you ever do this before researching every spell, you are just wasting potential research points)
4. Plains hexes. It's a free +20% to food production, if there are a lot of plains hexes, use them and build a food city.
5. Look at everything you can see so far, you might even want to send out your units to scout before looking at this point. Look for the same things, but now in the perspective of the second city. See a spot that fits point 3 or 4? Make your capital a gold city. See a spot that
fits point 1 or 2? make your capital a food city.
6. Nothing positive towards either gold or food in the direct vincinity? Well, not every spawn can be lucky. This would mean you are most likely in barren field or a desert and are surrounded by resources that you can't or don't want to use for gold/food. That has it's own benefits, but not this early on and maybe more for the undead race. Build a rogues guild and decide on the build direction after you've placed your second city.
-From there it's the same as with every race, get that settler asap. Then when your rogues guild is up build some rogues. Those are the bread and butter units of the humans, cheap and quick to make, low upkeep(2 gold), decently fast and good against anything except the undead.(even against undead they are only slightly worse than warriors)
-From here on out you should have one city aiming for max gold and one for max food, a few rogues scouting and looting around, and of course more settlers and more city's coming around.

[Mazey]

Originally posted by chaotix14:

A towns growth rate drops as it gains more and more people, "level" 16 is about as big as they can get even when boosted with prosperity(the city growth increase buff).

Combine Prosperity with Blessing of Life and you can get a city above 20, at which point it gets a huge defence boost. A 20 population city is almost impossible to capture.

[cezeri]

Good day,
How can I get the heroes or soldiers that spawn in the main city of the technology I created in this other city?