Overview
Have you ever wondered how you should build your empire? Well this guide will go over what a Tall empire is, when you should build a Tall empire and why you should build a Tall empire.
Terminology
Building Tall: Building only a few cities with large populations
Building Wide: Building a lot of cities with relatively small populations
Introduction
There’s really only two ways that you should build in CIv 5: building tall and building wide. This guide will go over when you should build tall and how to build a tall empire. Furthermore, this guide is meant for All DlC’s, but may work for any version of CIv 5 if you modify it.
Why you should build tall
Some people would say that the bigger you are the better you are. That’s not true anymore in BNW. If you have a tall empire you will be at an advantage in the Technology race. How so? Well for every city you found, annex or puppet, you get +2% in tech cost on huge maps. (On large maps it increases to 3% and on standard maps it increases to 5%. For this example I will use the +2% extra cost.) That might not seem like it has much of an effect, but it really does. Now let’s consider that if a Civ has 20 cities, now each tech costs 40% percent more. Yes that civ will have a lot of libraries, universities, public schools etc…, but those buildings really take an effect with population. If your cities have small populations, you’re tech rate will really suffer. Now in a Tall empire you’ll have 4 to 5 cities. That’s only a 8% or 10% extra cost for each tech. As a tall empire your population will be very big, so you’re tech rate will be substantially better. A library gives +1 science for every two population. If you have a city with a population of 20 that’s +10 in tech. A Civ that has many cities might have to build 4 or 5 libraries just to get the same tech rate.
The other advantage that Tall empires get is that happiness isn’t as much of an issue at the beginning of the game. As a Tall empire you can focus more on population buildings instead of happiness buildings because you don’t have to rush or conquer as many cities.
Another advantage is that the AI don’t see you as much of a threat, compared to empires with more cities. This will allow you to focus less on your military and more on gaining city-state allies and research agreements.
Victories to go for as a Tall empire
As already hinted in the last section, the Science Victory and Diplomatic Victory are easiest to get as a Tall empire. Cultural Victory is also another possibiltity, but in BNW you can be a large empire and do very well in a Cultural Victory. If a Tall empire will do well in a Cultural Victory is highly dependent on the map. Obviously, a Domination Victory is really out of the question.
Setting up a Tall empire
Now how you build your tall empire is all based on where you start and who you are, but this is just a basic guideline.
What to build in your Capital
1) Monument
2) Scout (ruins can increase your population)
3) Shrine
4) Worker
5) Settler
6) Granary
7) Settler
8) Watermill or Library (Depends if there is a river or not)
9) Library (if not already built)
10) Caravan (send your caravans to your cities for increased growth)
11) Military unit if needed
12) Settler
13) Caravan
Yes there is a lot of settlers that are being built here, but that’s because you want a few cities with high populations. If you don’t rush settlers, then you won’t get that high of population in the cities other than your capital.
Managing your capital
Make sure that if you don’t need a certain building or unit to put your city on population focus. Also, when buildings settlers remember to put the city on production focus. The city can’t grow anyways when building a settler.
Social Policy
Tradition
1) Legalism
2) Landed elite
3) Monarchy
4) Aristocracy or Oligarchy (your choice)
5) Aristocracy or Oligarchy
After Tradition is finished, the social policies vary by who you are and what victory you’re going for.
What to Purchase
1) Military Unit
2) Shrines or Granaries in new cities
What to Build in your New Cities
WIth the Legalism policy adopted, you won’t have to build a monument. Insteady you can focus on building granaries and shrines (shrines for religion).
Tech Tree
1) Pottery (need to get shrines and granaries)
2) Worker technologies
3) The wheel
After that it really varies on what victory you’re going for, who you are and where you are.
Religion
Religion is very helpful in building a Tall empire. Religion will help your cities grow larger or faster depending on what beliefs and pantheon you pick.
Pantheon
Dance of the Aurora/Desert Folklore: will help you found a religion faster and spread it farther
Fertility Rites: will help you grow faster, it does not effect the maximum cities’ capacity, but will definitely effect how fast it takes to get there
Goddess of the Hunt: If you have a lot of places for camps around you, this is highly recommended. It will help your cities grow faster and bigger.
Sun God: Same idea as Goddess of the Hunt, but with different resources (bananas, citrus and wheat)
Founder Beliefs
Cermonial Beliefs: A happier nation means more Golden Ages
Church Property: More money will allow you to buy more stuff
Tithe: Same effect as Church Property
Follower Beliefs
Swords into Plowshares: As a tall Civ you’re going to want to be peaceful anyways, and this will allow your cities grow much faster, especially when partnered up with fertility rites.
Feed the World: Now the buildings you used to get a religion will also help you in population
Religious Community: If you have a strong religion, Religious Community will help keep your production up with nations with more cities.
Monastaries, Mosques and Pagodas: Any one of them are good to have, but only if the other beliefs above have been taken
Enhancer Beliefs
Defender of the Faith: Very useful when fighting against a Civ with a bigger army
Itinerant Preachers: Now your religion will effect cities that are farther away from you, and you can convert them.
Holy Order: If you have a weak religion, you can use this to buy more inquisitors to keep at least your religion in your own cites.
When you should Build Tall
If your a civ that could build tall or wide, which one should you choose? Well that’s always up to you, but here are some ways to figure out when to build tall.
If you settle and the land isn’t great around your capital, it’s better to build wide. Now what I mean by that has to do with the tiles around your capital. If there is a lot of grassland or if your on the coast, there will be a lot of places for you capital to get food, and it will grow taller than other civ’s capitals. If there is a lot of hills or other production tiles, it’s better to build wide because your capital won’t be able to grow that large, but will be able to build a lot of settlers and other things needed for a wide empire. Also, I should point out that if you’re capital is near or on tundra or desert, in most cases it’s better to build wide because you won’t gain much food for your capital. The exceptions are flood plains in the desert or if you have a lot of deer in the tundra.
Exploration is key to figuring out if you should build tall or wide. If there is a lot of good land to settle by you then you should probably build wide. If there is only a few good spots to settle, then it’s probably better and safer to build tall.
If there is an aggressive Civ near you that could wipe you off the planet, it might be safer to build tall. That way that Civ isn’t annoyed with you for settling near them. Now they might covet your lands still, but at least you don’t have border disagreements.
There are probably other ways to figure out whether to build wide or tall, but I don’t really know any other ways.
Civs that can build the biggest Cities
The Dutch, the Aztecs, the Siamese, the Incas and India can build the Biggest Cities. Now just because they can build the biggest cities, doesn’t necessarily mean that you should build a tall empire.
The Aztecs can build huge cities, because of the Floating Gardens. The floating gardens replace the watermill. The floating gardens give +2 food for lakes, and cities grow 15% faster with it.
The Incas have the terraces. The terraces are a unique improvement that can be built on hills. Terraces give you 1 food plus +1 food for every mountain next to it. For example, if a hill was surrounded by 4 mountains, the terrace would give you 5 food on that tile.
The Dutch have the polders. First of all, the polders look pretty cool with all the different colors. On a more serious note though, polders can be built on marshes and flood plains. The polder gives you +3 food.
The Siamese have a +50% bonus from friendly and allied city-states. That bonus includes +50% food from maritime city-states, more specifically +3 food in your capital when friends with a maritime city-state and +1.5 food to all your other cities when allied with a maritime city-state.
India’s unique ability is to have 1/2 the unhappiness for population in your cities (also double the unhappiness for every city you have). Now this may seem that you can’t build any larger cities than the normal civ because there is no food bonus. Which is partially true; however, once you reach 10 unhappiness your cities will stop growing. India will take longer to reach that point because of their unique ability, so they will be able to grow for a longer period of time than the normal civ can grow.
Other Guide(s)
How to win by a Domination Victory
Ending Remarks
Thank you for reading this guide. If you have any ideas on how to make this guide better or what guide I should make next, please comment below.