The Appian Way

The Four Phases of CityBuilding

Phase 1: Initiation

This phase begins with the start of the level and ends when you have established your city as an economically self-sufficient entity. During this phase you develop and maximise your trade income to provide the necessary funds to keep Caesar off your back and continue growing your city. The step-by-step guide runs a bit like this:

• Lay down the first housing block (c. 65 tiles), and provide it with clean water, protection against fire, damage and disease, and 5 temples.
• Start the first export industry.
• Start feeding folks, and soak up the excess unemployment in export industry number two.
• Add entertainment and education facilities to the housing block - use the employment for export industry three, or (on more dangerous levels) to start up the army.
• If unemployment runs out, and trade is still not maximised, then add a second housing block to provide the workers.

Obviously there is a need to be flexible here. Depending on the size of your first export industry, second (and subsequent) export industries may be started a little later in the scheme. Precisely when you start your army depends on how soon you are expecting an invasion, but it should always be after the first export industry. Army building is an ongoing process that will often continue well into phase two.

Phase one ends when your export industries are maxed out, your army is coming along nicely, and most housing is at small casa. You have established the economic base for the city, and it is now time to expand.

Phase 2: Propagation

At the end of phase one, your city is still in its infancy, with, in all probability, a small population, mostly employed in making you money. In order to grow your city, while still remaining self-sufficient, you will gradually need to look towards a second source of income: taxes.

When the first housing block reaches small casa, I add a forum, and put my tax rate above 0 for the very first time. Thereafter, a forum is added to every housing block as soon as it reaches small casa. Everyone in the city must pay their way. Of course, while you will make a fair amount of money by taxing your workforce, it is much more lucrative to tax a different group of people: those wine-swilling patricians.

The first act of phase two in my cities is to begin the first patrician housing block. I always try to evolve Patrician housing to the highest possible level: Luxury Palace if possible, Grand Villa if not. An additional plebeian block is developed alongside the patrician block to provide the necessary labour.

Depending on the target population, and prosperity, it may be necessary to add a second patrician block, together with another plebeian block to supply labour.

In addition to the patrician blocks, phase two also involves the establishment of domestic finished goods industries to supply the patrician blocks, and, later, the plebeian blocks. Once again, additional plebeian blocks may be necessary to furnish the required number of employees.

Phase two of my cities ends when all the patrician blocks, most of the plebeian blocks, and the domestic industries have been established. Your target prosperity rating and population should now be within your reach; you now enter the finishing straight.

Phase 3: Termination

Phase three is the endgame. In the last few years of my cities, I set about tidying up all the loose ends in my city. In other words, I attend to my culture rating. The employees required for this task are usually furnished by developing my plebeian blocks to their final level (usually small insulae), and occasionally by adding an additional plebeian block. Libraries, Theatres, Schools and Academies are added wherever there is space. Nowadays the majority of my housing blocks contain space for additional culture buildings, but a degree of 'culture parking' tends to occur if my target is 100 culture. Once you have achieved your culture rating, you have only to wait for that peace rating to rise.

You will notice that I referred in my title to the four phases of city-building. Doubtless you are wondering what happened to phase four. Well, I have been a little bit sneaky here. The fourth phase of citybuilding is actually the first: phase zero, as it were.

Phase 0: Planning

This is, in my opinion, the most important phase of city-building. Many mistakes can be avoided by the simple expedient of a little planning. However, the amount of planning you do is entirely up to you. That said, I would recommend the following as a bare minimum:

• Exports
  What you intend to export and how many raw material producers and workshops you will need. Also where export industries will be located.
• Housing areas
  The approximate location of any housing areas, and the intended housing level.
• Food and Goods
  The location of farms/wharves, and the approximate location of domestic goods industries.
• Military
  The composition of your army, and the approximate location of any defences (walls, towers, forts).

This website was created by Mark Snow a.k.a. Caesar Alan. Most of the information presented here was gleaned from a number of other websites. Where possible I have credited my sources. You are free to use any of the information here, provided you acknowledge your source!