How does one grow a cities population?

[wikoogle]

I just have a question for anyone who knows. When building "Settler" units. If i just have them join the same city, what does that do for me?
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I was under the impression that it would grow the population of the city and thus let me use more resource tiles.

But I recently heard that it will make the city grow 1 pop. But it cost 1 pop to build one so you dont earn anything by having it join the same city, i guess you could use it to transfer pop between two cities.

If that's true, how best do I grow a cities population. By using the food tiles? More food = faste pop growth right? Any other methods?

[EvilEye007]

Actually a settler unit usually costs your city 2 population to build, but under a Republic it only costs 1 population to build.

Anyways, the main way to grow your cities is to have your workers gather food from the resources around your city. Remember there will be buildings to further increase how much food is produced like granaries and harbors.

However, if you have built a city in an area with very little food resources than yes, you can build settlers in other cities and bring them to settle down in this city.

[RobC]

Building aquaducts speeds city growth also.

[wikoogle]

Actually a settler unit usually costs your city 2 population to build, but under a Republic it only costs 1 population to build.

Anyways, the main way to grow your cities is to have your workers gather food from the resources around your city. Remember there will be buildings to further increase how much food is produced like granaries and harbors.

However, if you have built a city in an area with very little food resources than yes, you can build settlers in other cities and bring them to settle down in this city.

So if a settler costs 2 population build? Does that mean it adds 2 population to a city when you have then settle there?

If you are a republic and thus a settler cost 1 to build, does that mean it still adds 2 population to a city when you settle there?

So if you are Rome, you can build settlers and have them join that same city to grow the population, where as it wouldn't work for civilizations that aren't under a republic since there, they cost 2 pop to build and take 2 pop to settle there.

Is that correct?

[jayeffaar]

No, settlers always add 1 pop to a city, whether they cost 1 or 2 pop points. So, building a settler for the purpose of adding it to the city where it was built is never a good idea. That's not what they're for.

The point of joining a settler to an existing city is to transfer some of the population from one city to another. And you do lose half the people on the way there unless you're a republic.

[Magwill]

Just another thing. The granary only adds a food bonus for Plains, not grass as well.

[cazlar]

As mentioned, using settlers to transfer population is only useful under a republic, otherwise you are pretty much going backwards. And under a republic, you are not actually growing in total, just redistributing (though probably faster overall, as I assume it takes less food to go 2->3 than 10->11, if it is like previous Civs). Some people are using this method to make mega-cities (with pop 31) that are great at both production and trade. Using these, you can even achieve some of the victory conditions during the demo. It remains to be seen if this is a viable long-term strategy at anything other than chieftan level though.

But usually, you just want to store food until you can grow an extra person. Grasslands are OK in that they give you 2 food, but plains are nice once you have a granary built, as that gives 3. Or better yet, have some resources near you city that give you extra food, or food in combination with trade/production/culture/etc.