Civilization 7: Advanced City Management Guide

Introduction

• Civ 7 introduces significant changes from Civ 6, especially in city management.
• The game can be simple or deeply complex, depending on how much you want to learn.
• This guide focuses on advanced city management and is meant for players familiar with the basics.
• The guide is divided into 7 parts, covering the game from antiquity to the exploration era.

Part 1: Empire Planning

• Key Considerations in Early Game (Turn 9):
  • Look for optimal city locations, such as natural wonders.
  • Consider building production over settlers if no strong expansion is apparent.
  • Expansion is advised near neighbors or natural wonders once reaching 5 population.
  • Establishing blocker cities to prevent enemy expansion.

Part 2: Defining Borders (Turn 21)

• Avoid spreading too thin; focus on defensible positions.
• Consider natural terrain like rivers for defense.
• Define borders strategically to minimize conflicts and maximize city efficiency.

Part 3: City Planning (Turn 39)

• Determining City vs. Town:
  • Cities require high production; towns can specialize (e.g., farming town).
  • Aim for a 1:1 town-to-city ratio for efficient feeding.
• Specialization:
  • Focus on farming towns to support cities with food and gold.
  • Consider water access for additional food supply.

Part 4: City Building (Turn 50)

• Building Types and Adjacency Bonuses:
  • Normal buildings (e.g., granary, fishing key) provide standard benefits.
  • Food/Gold buildings benefit from water adjacency.
  • Science/Production buildings benefit from resource adjacency.
  • Happiness/Culture buildings benefit from mountains/natural wonders.

Part 5: Specialists (Turn 57)

• Specialists can be assigned to urban districts, enhancing adjacency bonuses.
• Specialists amplify adjacency bonuses by 0.5 per bonus.
• Use specialists to maximize tile yields; manage happiness costs associated with specialists.

Part 6: Roads (Turn 74)

• Roads connect settlements and allow food transfer.
• Roads form automatically within 11 tiles but have unpredictable connections.
• Trade routes can manually facilitate connections for food transfer.

Part 7: Overbuilding (Exploration Era)

• Overbuilding allows replacing old buildings with new age-appropriate ones.
• Avoid overbuilding on influential buildings unless necessary.
• Maintain adjacency bonuses and adjust building strategies as resources change through eras.

Conclusion

• Civ 7's city management is complex but rewarding.
• Focus on strategic empire planning, city specialization, and efficient resource management.
• Manage relationships with AI to avoid conflicts and optimize city growth.
• Keep learning and adapting strategies as new updates and patches improve gameplay.