Do you mean the cities that I'm back-filling presently, or the cities that I've already got up and running? It's not quite clear to me whether you're talking about my past or future plans.
Very briefly, the general rules I used earlier on in the expansion phase were:
#1: Expand towards powerful economic resources first (e.g. Gold, Gems).
#2: Claim as many forward locations as possible to maximise land available for back-filling later (e.g. cities of Pardus and Leo, border agreements with Luddite/Plako/Rego).
#3: Back-fill the best locations first - almost always meaning highest food output first, along with grabbing strategic resources if they haven't already been claimed.
#4: Fill in the remaining sites roughly in the order of how good they are - mostly measured by food output, but also availability (e.g. Iron Working needed for jungle sites).
I think this is generally a pretty reliable game plan for solid expansion, as long as you play the diplomatic game to make sure that your neighbours won't be on your back too soon. You've also got to pace yourself, of course, so that you don't end up with an economy too far in the gutter to be recovered easily.
So in the future, I'll be settling all the back-fill city locations I've marked out roughly in order of food output. I'm also keeping in mind that the border locations - Fish city near Plako, Clam/Cow near Luddite, Fish/Copper on the island near Rego - need to be filled out sooner rather than later. That's mainly to secure my verbal claims in the area, so as to discourage any "bright ideas" about poaching that might surface if I leave them unsettled for too long. In fact, two of those three locations I'm settling this turn and next, so that should be all good.
As for city management at new cities, there's nothing particularly revolutionary there. The standard build queue is now Granary / Forge / Christian buildings / Courthouse / Lighthouse with a few exceptions and rearrangements in the order. Most of the new cities are whipped on a 4 -> 2 cycle until they get these critical buildings up and running. After that, they'll be mostly left to grow and blossom into new commercial centres.
Earlier on I wasn't whipping at all (in fact I only switched to Slavery just before 1 AD), and that was mostly because I felt it was necessary to maximise my economic potential at the time due to the vast amount of land on this map. Perhaps a dubious decision, but it worked out reasonably well in my opinion. Now that I have a number of strong economic centres established to support the steadily growing number of new cities, I can afford to make much more liberal use of the whip, especially in those new cities - so I'm doing so.
Hope that covers what you were asking for. Feel free to let me know if you want me to cover anything in more detail, or if I missed something that you were asking for.
Very briefly, the general rules I used earlier on in the expansion phase were:
#1: Expand towards powerful economic resources first (e.g. Gold, Gems).
#2: Claim as many forward locations as possible to maximise land available for back-filling later (e.g. cities of Pardus and Leo, border agreements with Luddite/Plako/Rego).
#3: Back-fill the best locations first - almost always meaning highest food output first, along with grabbing strategic resources if they haven't already been claimed.
#4: Fill in the remaining sites roughly in the order of how good they are - mostly measured by food output, but also availability (e.g. Iron Working needed for jungle sites).
I think this is generally a pretty reliable game plan for solid expansion, as long as you play the diplomatic game to make sure that your neighbours won't be on your back too soon. You've also got to pace yourself, of course, so that you don't end up with an economy too far in the gutter to be recovered easily.
So in the future, I'll be settling all the back-fill city locations I've marked out roughly in order of food output. I'm also keeping in mind that the border locations - Fish city near Plako, Clam/Cow near Luddite, Fish/Copper on the island near Rego - need to be filled out sooner rather than later. That's mainly to secure my verbal claims in the area, so as to discourage any "bright ideas" about poaching that might surface if I leave them unsettled for too long. In fact, two of those three locations I'm settling this turn and next, so that should be all good.
As for city management at new cities, there's nothing particularly revolutionary there. The standard build queue is now Granary / Forge / Christian buildings / Courthouse / Lighthouse with a few exceptions and rearrangements in the order. Most of the new cities are whipped on a 4 -> 2 cycle until they get these critical buildings up and running. After that, they'll be mostly left to grow and blossom into new commercial centres.
Earlier on I wasn't whipping at all (in fact I only switched to Slavery just before 1 AD), and that was mostly because I felt it was necessary to maximise my economic potential at the time due to the vast amount of land on this map. Perhaps a dubious decision, but it worked out reasonably well in my opinion. Now that I have a number of strong economic centres established to support the steadily growing number of new cities, I can afford to make much more liberal use of the whip, especially in those new cities - so I'm doing so.
Hope that covers what you were asking for. Feel free to let me know if you want me to cover anything in more detail, or if I missed something that you were asking for.
Not that it does us any good from a trade perspective, since every other nation has the same resource. Still, good for the economy.
