City managment

[WeDDo]

I play on emperor and I still don't know if I should keep food focus on city most of the time or default focus, should I manually set specialists or should I have them as default? When I go for food I lack production early, but I get enough late. So maybe someone can tell me what to do.

[identity001]

After watching some deity gameplay videos, from what I can tell, it is best to set cities to focus production and manually adjust for food intake when necessary. Might be different for different playstyles though.

Manually set your specialists. The AI does a "fair" job at placing them but I have far too often found them focusing things I no longer needed them to focus.

[WeDDo]

But like I said I have very low production early. Also I don't know when to set specialists to production building that have slots, because when I set that the production gets even lower, so I usually only use specialists on science slots. Can you link some guide or suggest how to manage cities better?

[identity001]

This is the video I am using to prepare myself for deity. Soon as I feel ready to play the game again anyways. Pay close attention to everything he does.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbWBwoNd-Tw

This is for a domination victory though he leaves all but science victory active so, not a pure domination match which is much harder to achieve an actual domination victory in.

Not sure what your kind of playstyle is.

[WeDDo]

I always go for science victory, because I can't manage to get alot of turism or votes or units to do anything else.. I watch this guy already. I learn from him to emperor.

[Eamos]

When it comes to managing cities, it switches all the time in terms of what you focus on. City management gets really complex and is very situational. You shouldn't be focused on what setting the entire game. However, as a general guideline, because you are going for a scientific victory, my advice to you is to put your cities on population focus when you don't need to build whatever you're building in your city and put your city on default focus when you do need what you're building in your city. Also, if you're building a settler put your city on production focus -your city doesn't grow during that period of time anyways. If you want more specifics just message me.

[WeDDo]

So what should I focus if for example Im not going for science victory?

[D3bs]

I have over 3K hours in the game and can still find city management a challenge.

As a general rule, if I don't use default focus, I will set the city to food focus and fill slots which correspond with what I am prioritising at that time. Then, depending on both food and production I will fill other slots in order of priority. I tend not to use gold focus until either late game or I am at war, and then it's usually only one city.

Production focus I will only use to rush a wonder, but very rarely because food focus will increase both population and production, or for International Games when I am pushing a culture victory.

So, for example, if you are focussing on culture or you want the Great Writers then fill both writing slots otherwise just fill one.

I would recommend, however, that you always fill any available science slots; whether you are going for a science victory or not.

[Eamos]

Originally posted by WeDDo:

So what should I focus if for example Im not going for science victory?

Well it gets pretty complicated for some of the other victories, but I'll give my best overview.

Domination:

The basic idea for Domination is to have a bigger and better army than your opponents. At first glance, you might say that you should be on production focus; however, that's not completely the case. For a majority of the game, I would honestly keep my city on default focus. The reason for this is that you need to keep your cities growing a decent rate to keep your tech rate up, while still continuing to build a lot of troops. The only times I would put your cities on production focus is when you need an army quickly or you are beginning to lose a war.

Cultural:

The issue that you have with a Cultural Victory is that you need to have cities with a big enough population to support all the guilds, while still having enough production to build needed wonders and buildings. My strategy is pretty similar to a scientific victory; however, you will probably keep your cities slightly more on default focus because there's more buildings that you have to build. Another idea that you might think about is having one city that has a lot of population that can support all the guilds that you need for great people while also having a city that has a high production rate to build wonders before anyone else. The problem with a cultural victory is that there are multiple ways of accomplishing it.

Diplomatic:

To be honest, I don't know this victory as well as the others because I don't find it as entertaining, but I'll give it my best. Diplomats and city-states are the only ways that you can win by Diplomatic. The only way you can get those two things is with money and technology. In terms of city-management I recommend going default focus and maybe production focus on anything that gives you gold (caravans, cargo boats, markets etc...). When building scientific buildings, I recommend being on default focus. Any other time, I would be on population focus so I can keep my tech rate up.

Conclusion:

Every game and civ varies too much to have one best strategy. The only real overall strategy is to keep your cities growing at a reasonable rate, while still having good production.

I hope this helps. Again, if you have any questions just message me.

[WeDDo]

Thanks for your reply it answered all of my questions.

[Bullwinkle]

On G&K, I like to have a mix of different cities set to different parameters. Pick one or 2 cities for growth over production early. Turn off food orientation when happiness is negative. Turn it on when they are celebrating after you connected a resources they were longing for.

[zxcvbob]

I'm playing my first game at Emperor level. I'm tied for 1st place in science (finally) and 2nd in population, but still in last place for production and next-to-last place in something else. Things should get better when Paris comes out of resistance in a couple of turns (Paris has manufactories and chateaus) and when I finish the Statue of Liberty. I'm going to annex Paris right away rather than leave it a puppet; it's too valuable to just leave it a gold farm.

I think I set up this game for "strategic balance", but I have no oil and no aluminum and very little coal. I can't compete with the AI's for CS alliances. I'm friends with about half of he AI's (maybe they like me because I'm not competing successfully for the CS's) so maybe I can trade some horses for oil. My cashflow is positive but I don't have much gold right now.

I need to get everybody else at war with each other...

[PipHoff -GER-]

ALWAYS set your cities to production focus and manually lock food tiles or whatever you need at the moment. You get free hammers from new citizens growing into hammer tiles without impeding overall growth this way.