Newbie question about City Growth

[klok]

Hi,

I started to play yesterday, and I noticed that the computer civilizations always had bigger cities much faster than me.

So I tried to change somme City and Empire settings and I finally found that by setting Rations to 2 (minimum), my cities would grow very fast (even faster than the computer cities) and the only drawback would be only -1 to happiness ?!

So should this setting (rations) always be at minimum value ?
I understand that I can feed more people if I give them less food, but the growth speed gain seems unbalanced.

[Barley]

Your food settings should always be set to minimum i.e. 2 (where possible), though depending on game needs you sometimes may have to focus more on production or Science.

I generally leave my food for as much growth as possible. Some improvements, temple, Theatre etc will help you out max your Empire sliders for growth etc by reducing unhappiness, as will wonders such as Ramanyana. Farms also help empire growth.

The AI players always grow or start better in games as the AI has an advantage (programming), depending on the dificulty setting you are at will also determine how fast your empire grows. So if you play at impossible you will notice its harder as more people are unhappy.

For more details (as there are lots of tips) have a look through some of the CTP2 threads especially the FAQ and Strategy ones.

When youve learnt a bit more try playing some multiplayers games. If you want a game email me at Bart_975@hotmail.com

[Maquiladora]

Dont sacrifice your growth for anything, even though it looks tempting, youll fall behind quickly once your being outgrown by other civs. Theres plenty of ways to compensate for low science or low production, and that includes growing bigger.

[Locutus]

And if you can't keep your Rations at a minimum (or if you want to maximize growth even further), you can also use Farmers to increase your food production. (But keep an eye on the numbers: in some cases, in cities in very fertile areas, Farmers will actually make you produce less food!) Also, build Farms, Farms, Farms!

Some of the links in Q27 of the CtP2 FAQ explain in more detail how the resource system works and how to use it to maximize resource collection.