Specialized Cities in Civilization V

Trying to build all-purpose cities is like trying to build all-purpose cars: off-roading ten-seater sports car convertibles just don't work. Cities must specialize and focus on certain tasks to achieve maximum efficiency and efficacy.

Three specialized cities can effectively be more powerful than six or more all-purpose cities. There are a handful of types of specialization you should focus on.

Think of your cities as well-oiled, purpose built machines.

Great Person / Wonder Machine (+Production, +Food, +Great Person)

• Terrain:

  1. Desert (+25% production)
  2. Water (+1 food/tile)
  3. Ocean (+2 production/resource)
  4. Fresh Water (+15% food; +25% great people generation)
  5. Rivers (+1 production/tile; +2 food)
  6. Lakes (Aztec: +2 food/tile)
  7. Forest (Iroquois: +1 production/tile)

• Resources:

  1. Fish/Whale (+2 production/resource)
  2. Coal (+50% production)
  3. Uranium (+25% production)
  4. Aluminum (+1 production/each)

• Buildings:

  1. Granary (+2 food)
  2. Workshop (+20% production of buildings)
  3. Garden (+25% great people generation)
  4. Factory (+50% production)
  5. Watermill/Floating Gardens (+2 food) (City must border a river)
  6. Hospital (-50% food needed for city growth)
  7. Medical lab (-25% food needed for city growth) (Requires Hospital)
  8. Hydro Plant (+1 production for every tile bordering a river)
  9. Lighthouse (+1 food from water tiles)
  10. Workshop/Longhouse (+20% production of buildings/+1 production from each worked forest tile)
  11. Nuclear Plant (+25% production)
  12. Solar plant (+25% production) (City must border a desert)
  13. Seaport (+2 production from sea resources)
  14. Windmill (+15% production) (City cannot be on hills)

Do NOT build your wonder city on a Hill: you receive +15% production w/ Windmill when your city is not on a hill. The Research Lab (+25% Production) would also be useful, but unfortunately it essentially costs 10 gold/turn (maintenance) with all it's prerequisites.

Gold Machine (+Gold)

• Terrain:

  1. Ocean (only with Commerce social policy)

• Resources:

  1. Gold (+3 gold/each)
  2. Silver (+3 gold/each)
  3. Luxuries (trade for +gold/turn, especially for Arabia w/ Bazaar)

• Buildings:

  1. Trading Post
  2. Market/Bazaar (+25% gold)
  3. Bank/Satrap's Court (+25% gold) (Requires Market/Bazaar)
  4. Harbor (Forms a naval trade route with the capital city)
  5. Mint (Each worked gold and silver source of the city produces an extra +3 gold)
  6. Stock Exchange (+33% gold) (Requires Bank/Satrap's Court)
  7. Paper Maker (+4 gold)

Military Machine (+Military production, +XP, +Production)

• Terrain:

  1. See +Production terrains for the Wonder machine above

• Resources:

  1. Iron (+15% production of land units)
  2. Horses/Cattle/Sheep (+25% production for mounted units)
  3. See +Production resources for the Wonder machine above

• Buildings:

  1. Barracks/Krepost (+15 XP for all new land units built in this city)
  2. Military Academy (+15 XP for all land units) (Requires Barracks/Krepost)
  3. Armory (+15 XP for land units) (Requires a Barracks/Krepost)
  4. Arsenal (+20% production of land units) (Requires Military Academy)
  5. Forge (+15% production of land units)
  6. Harbor (+25% production of naval units)
  7. Stable (+25% production for mounted units) (City must have a pasture nearby)
  8. See +Production buildings for the Wonder machine above

Any +Production terrain/resources/buildings useful for your Great Person / Wonder machine are also useful to your Military machine. In essense, the foundation of your Military machine is a Wonder machine, minus the focus on +Food and +Great Persons, with the additional focus on +Military Production and +XP.

Science Machine (+Science)

• Terrain:

  1. Jungles (+2 science/tile)
  2. Mountains (+50% science)

• Resources:

  1. Aluminum (+50% production of spaceship parts)
  2. Coal (+50% production; +50% production of spaceship parts)

• Buildings:

  1. Observatory (+50% science)
  2. Library/Paper Maker (+1 science for every 2 citizens in the city)
  3. University/Wat (+50% science, +2 science from worked jungle tiles) (Requires Library/Paper Maker)
  4. Public School (+50% science) (Requires University/Wat)
  5. Research Lab (+25% production) (Requires Public School)
  6. Factory (+50% production)
  7. Spaceship Factory (+50% production of spaceship parts) (Requires Factory)

You may not need a science city unless you're going for a Space Race victory. It may also not be worthwhile unless you have an aluminum resource. For these reasons, I would avoid settling a science machine until the Industrial Era (when Electricity reveals Aluminum).

Every City (+Happiness, +Culture)

• Resources:

  1. Horses (+3 happiness/gold/turn)
  2. Ivory (+3 happiness/gold/turn)
  3. Incense (+2 culture)
  4. Wine (+2 culture)
  5. Each luxury (+5 happiness or +gold/turn via trade for surplus luxuries)

• Buildings for Culture:

  1. Broadcast Tower (+100% culture) (Requires Museum)
  2. Songhai Mud Pyramid Mosque (+5 culture)
  3. Monastery (+2 culture from nearby Incense and Wine)
  4. Museum (+2.5 culture/gold/turn) (Requires Opera House)
  5. Egyptian Burial Tomb (+2 culture/gold/turn; +2 happiness/gold/turn)
  6. Monument (+2 culture/gold/turn)
  7. Opera House (+1.666 culture/gold/turn) (Requires temple, burial tomb or mud pyramid)
  8. Siamese Wat (+1.5 culture/gold/turn)
  9. Temple (+1.5 culture/gold/turn) (requires Monument)
  10. Indian Mughal Fort (+0.666 culture/gold/turn)

• Buildings for Happiness:

  1. Persian Satrap's Court (+2 happiness)
  2. Courthouse (No unhappiness from unoccupied cities)
  3. Egyptian Burial Tomb (+2 happiness/gold/turn; +2 culture/gold/turn)
  4. Colosseum (+1.333 happiness/gold/turn)
  5. Circus (+1 happiness/gold/turn)
  6. Theater (+0.8 happiness/gold/turn) (Requires Colosseum)
  7. Stadium (+0.666 happiness/gold/turn) (Requires Theater)

Be selective! Happiness and culture usually cost gold, so try to strike an efficient balance between the amount of gold you earn per turn and the amount of culture/happiness you want to maintain.

Related Articles:

• Specialized Cities tagg.im/thread/86
• Victory Conditions tagg.im/thread/87
• Strategic Resources tagg.im/thread/88

Is something out of date with a recent patch? Do you see a typo? Do you have something to add? Your feedback is welcome!

Edited 1 year ago