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Civilization VII
Civ 7 City Building and Management Guide
★ Start Here: How to Play | Early Game
★ See the Best Leaders and Civs
★ Tech, Civics, Buildings, Units, & Wonders
★ Economic, Military, Science, Culture Victories
★Recommended Guides: Treasure Fleets
┗ Map Types | Trade Routes | Migrants
The best way to build and manage your cities in Civilization VII (Civ 7) is to utilize your tiles while not overspending on gold and happiness. Learn how to build a city and how to manage your city by reading our guide below!
List of Contents
How to Build a City
| How to Build a City |
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Grow Enough Food
The basis for your settlements' growth is how much food they have. If your strategy focuses on expanding and developing new settlements, the first improvements and buildings for your city and town should increase this yield.
This will scale your settlements' growth with the Age and the other civilizations.
Plan What Districts to Make
Once you set up your settlement, you can already make a rough estimate to where you will make improvements and buildings.
A general rule of thumb is to improve tiles with a high yield or those that have resource. Then, you make buildings on weak yield tiles near your capital and near Wonders.
A good mix of Rural and Urban Districts will help your settlement grow steadily while accommodating new buildings.
How to Use Rural and Urban Districts
Place Warehouses Near Palace/Town Hall
Each Age has their own Warehouses. Since they do not have adjacency bonuses, it is best to place them near your Palace or Town Hall or in the center of clusters of Urban Districts.
This also means that for each Age, you can make a Quarter—two Buildings in one Urban District—for each of these warehouses. Dedicate a space for it or replace old buildings from the past Ages to place new Warehouses.
What are Warehouse Buildings and Bonuses?
Maximize Adjacency Bonus
When planning for your districts and placing key buildings, check if your key buildings have adjacency bonuses for your tiles. They usually grant bonuses based on terrain and resources.
When choosing where to place a building, the game shows you the total yield that building will grant. The color of each tile will signify the effectiveness of the building:
- Green means it has some adjacency bonuses.
- Light green means it has no adjacency bonuses.
- Yellow means its a Rural District and it wil be erased if you choose to build it there.
Build Around Wonders
Whether you find a Natural Wonder or are in a position to build one, make sure to place it somewhere you can build Urban Districts around it. There are buildings that have an adjacency bonus for each nearby Wonder.
Consider Adding Specialists
Civs focusing on culture and science should add Specialists to their cities. For 2 Food and 2 Happiness, the tile will receive a +2 increase to Science and Culture.
You should consider investing in some once you have improved enough tiles or have enough towns to cover the extra food and happiness costs.
Overbuild or Replace Tiles as Needed
If you need to replace a building or a Rural Improvement, you have to weigh the yield you are losing and gaining. You should also avoid replacing Improvements unless you have a surplus of that yield.
You should also replace any buildings from the previous Age. For example, an Altar only has an extra buff from the Antiquity Age. You can replace it with a stronger happiness building like a Temple or an Age-relevant building.
You can also replace buildings with gold and food yields if you have enough towns to provide for that. For food, you can pivot to other yields if your cities are big enough.
Convert to Cities When Town is Maxed
Once a Town has all the Buildings it needs and you have enough gold yield, consider transforming them into cities. This will allow you to build more buildings, increase its yield, and create more slots for Codices (Codex) and Great Works.
This will cost you some gold since that settlement will not produce gold from its production and more buildings will raise the upkeep costs. It is recommended to have at least one town at all times to help cover the upkeep costs of your cities.
Should You Convert a Town Into a City?
Position Your Military Buildings Strategically
There are buildings that change the spawn location of military units. Whether it's for defense or offense, you should place them where they can be quickly deployed.
This can be a chokepoint, somewhere close to tiles that are hard to move to likes river and mountain tiles, or near contested areas. The right position can give you an edge in any battle while providing extra production yield.
How to Manage Your City
| How to Manage Your City |
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Monitor Gold and Happiness
These yields are crucial to maintaining your settlements. Gold and Happiness are important for maintaining your units, buildings, and specialists. Click on the paper icon on the upper left corner when you select your city to check all its upkeep costs and overall income.
If you are low on these, avoid making specialists, units, and buildings while creating buildings that increase these yields. You should also check these yields during crises. A crisis policy could increase the chances of unrest, debt, and low growth.
Choose the Best Town Focus
Towns are best used as supplements for their connected cities. When choosing a Town focus, choose the one that can support your city the best.
A town's production will turn to gold and their food will be sent to cities. Use the focus to provide additional yields to your civilization's goal.
Keep an Eye on Aggressive Civilizations
It is important to have some units stationed in your cities in the case of war. This is especially true if you spot some military aggression nearby your borders or if you are near military-oriented civilizations.
You can station Scouts and other units beyond your settlements' borders to check any unit movement.
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