If you’ve spent even a few hours playing Civilization 7, you know that where you place your first settlement makes or breaks your entire run. One of the most common questions new and returning players ask right now is how to navigate the civilization 7 cities vs towns mechanic, since it’s a big shift from earlier entries in the franchise. You don’t want to waste a perfect high-production tile on a town that can’t leverage it, or plop a city in a spot that only generates extra gold with no room to grow. I’ve put in over 120 hours of playtesting across 8 different civ runs to break down exactly when to pick each, and what mistakes to avoid.
Core Differences Between Civilization 7 Cities vs Towns
If you’re coming from Civ 6, you’ll notice that the civilization 7 cities vs towns system replaces the old border expansion system where every settlement was the same base type. First, let’s clear up the basic definitions so we’re all on the same page. Cities are the core of your empire, right? They can build all district types, expand their borders up to 5 tiles away, and support wonders, government buildings, and military training facilities. Towns, on the other hand, are smaller, cheaper to found, and only support 2 specialized districts max, plus they can’t expand past 2 tiles from their center.
Towns cost 50% less production to found than cities, which makes them tempting for early game expansion when your production is tight. They also generate +2 base gold per turn right off the bat, which is a huge boost if you’re trying to rush trade routes or buy units early. But they have hard caps on growth: towns can only hit a population of 8 max, while cities have no upper limit. That means you don’t want to waste a spot with loads of food tiles on a town, because you’ll never unlock the full population potential of that area.
When to Prioritize Building Cities First
A lot of new players get confused by the civilization 7 cities vs towns choices early on, but sticking to cities for your first 3 settlements will eliminate most early game growing pains. The reason is simple: you need core production hubs to build units, districts, and wonders that carry you through the mid game. Prioritize city placement on spots with at least 2 food and 2 production in the center tile, plus access to fresh water for an extra growth boost. If you find a spot with a natural wonder, luxury resource, or strategic resource like iron or oil within 3 tiles, that’s an automatic city spot, no question. Cities also let you unlock policy card bonuses that apply to all your core settlements, like the +1 production per mine card that scales really well into the late game.
I made the mistake once of putting a town next to a volcano that gives +3 food and +2 production to surrounding tiles, and I lost out on almost 40 production per turn by the mid game because the town couldn’t expand to cover all those tiles. Don’t make that same call. You should never place a town within 6 tiles of your capital, because that area should be filled with core cities that feed your capital’s growth and production. A few clear signs a spot is meant to be a city include:
- Has access to fresh water (river, lake, or oasis) for +1 food and +1 housing
- Has at least 3 high-yield tiles (3+ food or production) within 2 tiles of the center
- Is within 4 tiles of a luxury or strategic resource you don’t already control
- Is positioned to block enemy civs from taking over a key choke point or natural wonder
When Towns Are the Better Choice for Your Empire
Most pro players I’ve talked to agree that the civilization 7 cities vs towns meta leans heavily on towns for fast mid-game expansion, so don’t sleep on them. Once you have 3 to 4 core cities set up, towns let you expand your empire fast without draining your production reserves. Towns are perfect for claiming isolated luxury resources that are 8+ tiles away from your nearest core city, since you don’t need to build a full city just to get that luxury’s happiness bonus. They also work really well as border outposts: if you’re next to an aggressive civ, plopping a town on the border gives you extra vision, and you can build a wall around it for half the production cost of a city wall.
I use towns all the time for coastal spots that only have fish and trade route bonuses, no high production tiles. Those spots don’t make good core cities, but a town there can generate +8 to +10 gold per turn with a trade district and a port, which pays for the cost of founding it in under 10 turns. The only catch is you have to make sure you don’t place towns too close to each other, because their border cap means they won’t be able to claim separate tiles if they’re within 3 tiles of each other. You also don’t want to place towns in areas with frequent barbarian spawns, since they have weaker base defense than cities and are more likely to be raided before you can build walls.
How to Balance Cities and Towns for Late Game Success
The optimal ratio of cities to towns changes depending on which victory type you’re going for, but a good baseline is 1 town for every 2 core cities in your empire. If you’re going for a science or culture victory, you can lean a little heavier on cities, since you need more districts for campuses and theater squares. If you’re going for a domination or economic victory, you can add more towns to generate extra gold for unit upgrades and trade routes. You can upgrade a town to a city later if you find it’s sitting on more resources than you expected, but it costs the same as founding a new city, so it’s only worth it if the town already has a population of 6 or higher.
Another trick I use is to place towns along trade routes between my core cities and allied civs, because they give you extra trade route bonuses and reduce the chance of barbarians raiding your caravans. Just make sure you don’t build more towns than your happiness can support: each town adds +1 unhappiness, same as a city, so you need to make sure you have enough luxury resources to cover all your settlements. I once spammed 6 towns in a row to claim a bunch of spice resources, and my happiness dropped so low that my core cities had 20% less production for 15 turns. It took me almost 30 turns to fix that mistake, so don’t get greedy with town spamming even if you have a bunch of spare settlers lying around.
At the end of the day, navigating civilization 7 cities vs towns all comes down to matching the settlement type to the value of the tile you’re claiming. Don’t overcomplicate it: save your best tiles for cities that can scale into late game powerhouses, use towns to claim extra resources and border space fast, and adjust your ratio based on your victory goal. Next time you start a new run, take an extra 10 seconds to look at the tile yields before you plop your settler, and you’ll notice a huge difference in how fast your empire grows. If you have a go-to strategy for mixing cities and towns, feel free to drop it in the comments below.