Gondola Islands Map Guide for Cities: Skylines

Map Overview

Gondola Island is a map from the Cities: Skylines Plazas & Promenades DLC.

This European map seems to take inspiration from the islands of Italy with the shape of its islands and rivers.

At the center of the map is a main island over 3 tiles long.

Towards the east and west edges of the map you’ll find smaller clusters of islands.

Gondola Island only has 34% buildable land, but fortunately the terrain is fairly flat, allowing you to maximize mostly all of the land you have.

Starting Tile

You start at the center of the main island, and the starting tile is mostly flat land. There is a tiny bit of open water in the northwest corner, and a section of river to the southeast.

Those are your water sources at the start of this map.

If you’re going for a clean energy start, take note that strong wind (i.e., enough to get 8MW out of a wind turbine) can only be found on the western portion of the starting tile.

This tile also has plenty of forest resources, and a little bit of fertile land in the northeastern corner.

External Connections

Gondola Islands has all four external connection types: highway, railway, ship, and air.

The only external highway on this map extends from the south of the map, and goes straight into your starting tile.

This is unlike most other maps, in which your initial highway segment connects to the external highway at a junction. Be mindful of this when building your initial town.

The external railway is also towards the south, and you’ll need to purchase two tiles south of your starting tile before you can access it.

On the other hand, the external ship connection is in the north. You’ll have to purchase at least one tile (the one north of your starting tile) before you can connect to it.

As for air transport, you’ll have no trouble building airports here because the terrain is quite flat – even on some of the smaller islands.

Natural Resources

Gondola Islands has all four natural resource types: fertile land, forest, ore, and oil.

Large patches of fertile land can be found north, south, and west of your starting tile (as well as a small section of your starting tile).

There’s also a large amount of forest resource in your starting tile and adjacent ones.

Ore and oil are not particularly abundant near your starting tile. You’ll have to plan ahead to make the necessary expansions if you’d want to have either of these industries.

Fishing

Gondola Islands has an abundance of shellfish and anchovies, with Anchovy specifically being found along all the coastlines.

There is no tuna or salmon on this map.

First Expansions

North Tile

The tile north of your starting area is probably the most attractive option for your first expansion.

This gives you a big chunk of the main island, including a large patch of fertile land for your industry.

It also gives you a small bit of the main island’s northern coastline, allowing you access to the external ship route.

East Tile

By contrast, the tile east of your starting area is perhaps the worst choice for your first expansion. Mostly because it is almost entirely water, save from a small bit of land.

South Tile

The southern option is another good choice for your first expansion, as it gives you plenty of buildable land with rivers running through.

More importantly, this gives you access to a longer section of the external highway, if you’d like to start making bigger decisions about your city’s road network.

Don’t forget that you’ll need this tile and the tile south of it if you want to use external trains.

West Tile

A large part of this tile is also water, but it has more buildable land than the eastern tile.

This contains a chunk of the main island and part of two much smaller islands in the west. You’ll be able to connect to the outside ship connection from one of those islands.

Milestones

Below are the population targets for each milestone on Gondola Islands

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Liz Villegas

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Liz is a writer and photographer with a love for building and strategy games. Her spare time is often split between lifting, reading, drawing, annoying her dog Mr. Porky Butt, and squinting at stat tables on the wiki pages of whatever game she's currently playing.

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