Where to settle?

[The Queen Of UwU]

Hello ive been wondering lately where a good spot for a second, third etc city should or could be founded at thats strategic best. Im aware it depends on the situation and how it looks like around you where youre playing at. But in general, how do you think? I usually get a bit confused where to settle down that it usually takes me more than 100 turns to actually settle down a second city almost cuz i feel like i have to. Im new to the game overall so any tip in general that might be good to know is welcome. I know that your city can expand 3 tiles away from where you settled(not including the tiles you get from the start) so is it a good thing to settle so you cn take advantage as much tiles as possible or does that depends on resources?

[Azunai]

some players prefer spacing their cities a bit further so each city has more potential tiles to work.
i usually put them as close as possible, assuming there's a spot with fresh water. i don't like to settle spots with no river/lake/oasis for fresh water in the early game.

cities in civ6 don't need huge populations to be productive and it's unlikely that a city will grow beyond size ~12-15 before the endgame, so reserving the full 3 "rings" for each city feels like a waste of space that could be used more efficiently by a tighter grid of cities.

[Twelvefield]

Pretty much any city that has a resource will be viable. You can get things that make cruddy cities like tundra or desert into good preformers, so really the resource is the thing. In the early game, fresh water is helpful, and so are hills for early defense. I like keeping cities close so that they are easier to defend. Cities with harbours make lots of trade, so the more of those the better, as long as your nation is safe.

[acara41]

I go for places where there is luxuries (for happiness) and later in the game strategic resources.

I plan for having 4-5 cities. If you build too many cities you end up getting a building penalty whereby its gets near impossible to build anything

[bmrigs]

I prefer a luxury, a production and strategic tiles near me next to a river but a natural defense of mountains on my one side.

[Mansen]

Originally posted by acara41:

I plan for having 4-5 cities. If you build too many cities you end up getting a building penalty whereby its gets near impossible to build anything

This isn't Civ V - As long as you keep expanding onto new amenities, you can go very, VERY wide with no real penalties. Get into trade and watch the money roll in to kickstart any new city.

[Entropie]

Settle close and make sure that your industrial districts have as many city centers as possible in a 6 tile radius (and entertainment districts as well but less important)

That way as soom as you get factories your production goes through the roof.

[Dray Prescot]

Multiple Entertainment Districts will give you the amenities for very large populations in cities. In a Space Race, i.e. Scientific Victory, my 3 Space Ports had 30, 27, and 21 Population. Two of them were my capital (of Sumeria) and the captured Brazilian capital, the 3rd one was Brazil's 2nd city located between those two capitals which I captured. I had mutiple Industrial Districts supporting those cities with the Great Engineer Tesla, plus the Ruhr Wonder, as well as mutiple Entertainment Districts with their Great Engineer bonus as well. I even had my own religion with enough Faith Points to buy 4 National Parks (which ended up not doing me any good).

My only war in the entire game was killing Brazil early after it declared a surprise War on me.

[The Queen Of UwU]

I dont think ive gotten as far as you guys have haha, thu furthest ive gotten is 150 turns and i hadnt gotten that far into the scientific tree yet as i struggled so much with barbarians in the beginning xD

[S-P]

I tend to build my cities 4 tiles apart, this gives them some room to spread but are close enough if you have problems with barbarians/hostile factions.

[Mansen]

Originally posted by S-P:

I tend to build my cities 4 tiles apart, this gives them some room to spread but are close enough if you have problems with barbarians/hostile factions.

A single archer is all you'll ever need for defense - Barbarian or otherwise. They come knocking, you knock back. And then you chase down their camp for some peace and quiet.