which is better coastal city or port district?

[Soran]

im not sure what to go for, is there any other use for a port district other than giving u access to sea units?

[Twelvefield]

Without mods or advanced technology, most ocean squares don't yield much, especially in the early game. A port district is enough to make ships, so that's all you need unless you want to build coastal Wonders. So starting with your first city as coastal isn't optimal, but you might want another city for the Wonders.

[Mansen]

Harbour. Ocean tiles are really poor - especially for more than a single city.

[katzenkrimis]

The best thing about coastal cities is that they are impossible to lose.

The AI is incompetent. It doesn't use balanced attacks. (Land, sea and air)

They just pick one of the above, and get slaughtered.

They can't take coastal cities with land units, because when they try to surround the city, their army ends up at the bottom of the ocean.

The AI doesn't build air units. At all.

The AI can't beat you by sea because you rule the seas. At least you should. In every game.

Embarked enemy units surrounding your battleships isn't exactly a show of force.

[BladeSe7en [ICON_RESOURCE_FURS]]

Originally posted by Soran:

im not sure what to go for, is there any other use for a port district other than giving u access to sea units?

Definitely settle your cities two tiles inland (so the third tile can be a harbor district with ocean wonders if you want them) It will allow you to build more districts and have adequate land for tile improvements. The only time I settle coastal is if it's a canal city or I'm playing on a slow game speed and need the boost for sailing but that's typically my second or third city.

[Mansen]

To be fair land cities are pretty hard to lose as well - unless you're really incompetent, or intentionally trying to lose.

[Frozen Ray]

Originally posted by Soran:

is there any other use for a port district other than giving u access to sea units

Forget about sea units, harbor district bumps your trade route capacity by 1, which places it among the 3 most high-priority districts for your cities (the other two are commercial and industrial). Just think of it as of district that gives you something like 6 food and 6 production, on top of other yeilds (or whatever best option you have). Because of that, you do want harbor districts even for your coastal cities, but you do not necessarily want your cities to be coastal if they can get enough housing 1-2 tiles away from the ocean. Firaxis tried really hard to make sea tiles completely useless in this game. Not sure if I like this change.

[RoBeRt RuLeS]

placing a city by the coast grants +1 housing and allows for the aqueduct to produce +6 housing compared to a city with no water. You should put your city on the coast unless you have a river,oasis, or lake you want to settle by

[Frozen Ray]

Originally posted by RoBeRt RuLeS:

placing a city by the coast grants +1 housing and allows for the aqueduct to produce +6 housing compared to a city with no water. You should put your city on the coast unless you have a river,oasis, or lake you want to settle by

After you built an aqueduct (assuming you can do that, because you have a river or a mountain somewhere nearby), it makes literally no difference if the city was settled on the coast or not. Sea is not a fresh water source.

The in-game description may confuse you, but being coastal is not a permanent +1 housing. It's +1 housing before aqueduct, and aqueduct just evens it out for all non-fresh-water cities (just to make it clear: aqueduct will give 1 less additional housing for the city that was already coastal, so the final number will be the same for all non-fresh-water cities).

[end_game_13]

Originally posted by Frozen Ray:

Originally posted by Soran:

is there any other use for a port district other than giving u access to sea units

Forget about sea units, harbor district bumps your trade route capacity by 1, which places it among the 3 most high-priority districts for your cities (the other two are commercial and industrial). Just think of it as of district that gives you something like 6 food and 6 production, on top of other yeilds (or whatever best option you have). Because of that, you do want harbor districts even for your coastal cities, but you do not necessarily want your cities to be coastal if they can get enough housing 1-2 tiles away from the ocean. Firaxis tried really hard to make sea tiles completely useless in this game. Not sure if I like this change.

Hell you can place harbor districts in lakes as well, only decent way to make them profietable.Kinda pointless to build a ship there , unless you like using that battle ship as a turret since its stuck in that little lake.

[Twelvefield]

Becasue of this, avoid placing your first city by a lake if you can, since your Great Admirals will all be likely trapped in that lake.

[Paulytnz]

Always buid up a harbour if you can as it will be worth it in the long run. As Frozen Ray said it's worth an extra trader as well as an extra +7 gold for the city. Not only that but your other cities sending traders to this city will also get an extra +1 production added on from the harbour. There is also an extra 2 Housing from the distict buildings as well.

Summary: Harbours should always be considered your most important district after your market. Holy sites (for defending your religion) and Industrial come next. Some may say campus but atm with the current state of the game you can get away with only a few campuses in the entire empire.....

[SpiderKhan]

harbour city is better. can build ships without the downsides of being on the coast, and water tiles really seem to suck this game in general. You're almost certainly gonna build a harbor anyway if you can, though later if it's not a coastal city.

[Helen Carnate]

Getting the bonus to ship building and getting certain luxuries that happen to be 3 tiles away are about the only reasons to build right on the coast.