I normally lurk, rather than post, but I'm feeling inspired, so:
While surfing this thread, I saw Nimlot Persson's small village, and also Jayhawk's idea of putting the market actually -in- the village to make it look more village-like. So, here's the layout that I'm trying at the moment:
LegendI can just hear you muttering: its not very efficient ! But I've done efficient - and efficient is boring. Nimlot is right - small villages encourage you to make richly detailed cities, and make it much easier to achieve perfect harmony feng shui. Thanks Nimlot for giving me the inspiration that I needed !
I have played all of the CB games since Caesar III, and I must admit that my first reaction to Emperor was 'Ho-hum, more of the same'. But actually I am just beginning to realise how richly detailed Emperor is - it may just surpass Caesar III in my estimation as the best CB of all. If ppl haven't been trying small villages and perfect feng shui, I recommend it to those who are looking for something more.
Some notes about using this village: Since it doesn't hold many houses, start the city with a couple of these at the start of the game.
Following the advice of Grumpus and MarvL, (Thanks guys !) devote your early workers to making money, and buy food, if possible. Since this block is not very efficient, its easy to get bogged down with no workers and no money if you build too slowly.
I have not shown mill or warehouses. Thats because with only a small village to serve, the market ladies will walk quite far to get goods. So you don't need lots of mills / warehouses. You can add a second food market if you need to.
This layout leaves enough space for a grand market if you want more vendors.
Its important to get good desirability around the inspectors tower to get the improved coverage - the inspector's coverage isn't very good on the corners, even with such a short walker length. I have found that just adding walls around the tower is often sufficient.
If anybody is interested, I'll upload my Chang-an from the Han dynasty so that you can see it working in a complete city.
"Pythagosaurus was the father of the triangle"