
Cities have long been the only kind of Settlement in the Civilization franchise, but Civ 7 is shaking things up with the addition of Towns. This will allow for players to choose where they want to have full autonomy and scaling, versus where they would prefer to be a bit more hands-off and more concise. To help explain this, here are all of the differences between Cities and Towns in Civilization 7.
In Civ 7, when you go to establish your second Settlement, and any subsequent Settlements after your capital, you will create Towns instead of Cities. These towns can eventually be tuned into Cities that function just as your Capital does, but that comes later down the line.
Until then, you will have a Town that is created with a chosen focus that guides its direction. You can choose from one of the following 10 options, according to developers:
These give your Town the ability to grow a certain way, allowing you to go after strategic resources or areas of the map that you want to claim for your empire, without having to commit to running a full-on city. They also feed your cities with food, or through other value-adding resources.
This is made even easier by the fact that Towns are not managed traditionally via a production queue and tile improvements. Instead, they “automatically convert their Production into Gold,” according to devs. However, the more upgrades that you make, the more affordable it becomes to transition this Town into a City, which also costs gold.
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This will boil down to personal choice and your own gameplay, but Cities are going to be, in the long haul, better than Towns. They allow for full control, can house specialists and districts, and will allow you to have more agility with your unit creation and dispersion. But, in the end, there could also be a viable strategy to feeding one to two major Cities with a handful of different Town types.
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In the end, it’s up to you to decide when Civ 7 is fully released on February 11, 2025. Until then, stay tuned for more Civ 7 coverage here, and be on the lookout for our brand-new YouTube channel dedicated to Civilization, CivHaus!
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