The growth curve completely prevents tall gameplay
Does Firaxis actually expect us to get 10-100x more food in our cities than in previous titles? Even with farming towns this is unachievable.
The Math
Let’s say you’re playing tall in antiquity. You have 4-6 towns sending a total of 300 food to your capital. How valuable is this food?
At 10 population, that 300 food is worth 20.5% of your capital’s growth threshold (1466). In other words, that food alone would grow your capital in 5 turns.
At 15 population, that food is now worth 4.9% of the growth threshold (6128). It would take 21 turns to grow your capital.
At 20 population, that food is down to 1.8% of the growth threshold (16678). That’s 56 turns to grow!
Do you see how pointless it is to funnel food into a city? You’re sending it into a black hole. There’s also no benefit to hoarding population in your capital, unlike Civ V with the National College (+50% science in one city).
Conclusion
Tall is currently weak. The exponential growth rate prevents large cities from acquiring specialists at a decent rate, even with the support of farming towns. This causes them to fall behind in science and culture. Wide empires get to avoid this problem while also reaping the benefits of more buildings and higher production. Firaxis needs to fix this growth curve if they want tall to be viable at all.
Does Firaxis actually expect us to get 10-100x more food in our cities than in previous titles? Even with farming towns this is unachievable.
The Math
Let’s say you’re playing tall in antiquity. You have 4-6 towns sending a total of 300 food to your capital. How valuable is this food?
At 10 population, that 300 food is worth 20.5% of your capital’s growth threshold (1466). In other words, that food alone would grow your capital in 5 turns.
At 15 population, that food is now worth 4.9% of the growth threshold (6128). It would take 21 turns to grow your capital.
At 20 population, that food is down to 1.8% of the growth threshold (16678). That’s 56 turns to grow!
Do you see how pointless it is to funnel food into a city? You’re sending it into a black hole. There’s also no benefit to hoarding population in your capital, unlike Civ V with the National College (+50% science in one city).
Conclusion
Tall is currently weak. The exponential growth rate prevents large cities from acquiring specialists at a decent rate, even with the support of farming towns. This causes them to fall behind in science and culture. Wide empires get to avoid this problem while also reaping the benefits of more buildings and higher production. Firaxis needs to fix this growth curve if they want tall to be viable at all.