Well I have finally got to play this game after spending a good couple of months without a PC that can run it. Played Civ III on and off for a good few years so when I moved to Civ IV... Well, the differences are imedieately appareant. Having quite a bit of fun but I do have one source of annoyance...

Those. Damn. Plains.

I can not seem to find anything to do with them. One food all of the time. Sure, you can place a farm there but two food and one production point doesn't seem to be that good. And even then it is supposing you even have any rivers near the plains. If not you just have this very unprodudctive piece of land sitting there with nothing I can find that developes it.

So what do you do with a city that has a lot of plains? Is there much you can do?

Also, I have been hearing a lot about specialisation of cities. Obviously wealthy cities would be a lot of cottages/costal cities? Science same? What is the best sort of landscape for getting the most out of production? Or specialists? (I would assume high food?)

Anyway, apologies for question spam. It is a very good game. I especially like a lot of the humour in there. My favourite is either Sputnik or The Internet. :-p

Plains are obviously inferior to grassland, but with enough food resources, can still be used effectively. In science cities, build cottages on them, and in production cities, build farms.

As for city specialization, there are numerous posts and articles about them, so i suggest you read those.

Plains are obviously inferior to grassland, but with enough food resources, can still be used effectively. In science cities, build cottages on them, and in production cities, build farms.

As for city specialization, there are numerous posts and articles about them, so i suggest you read those.

Farms for production? How does that work?

I enjoy seeing chain irrigated plains, so civil service is an important tech to aim for me. Maybe you can even get it early with CS slingshot. With each worked plain tile contribution one hammer, your city will have pretty decent production.

Plains are definitely not good tiles, but farming them can be quite useful. A city with farmed plains can be a good production city: since all terrain types are somewhat useful, and obviously cottages are not the way to go with plains as they don't support themselves, this type of terrain is well suited for production. Don't underestimate the hammer from the plains! It's something a grassland tile will never have, until state property/workshops. A medium-sized city, with 12 citizens, produces 13 hammers, which is not bad at all. Add the bonus of a forge and possibly factory and you have a good production. Plus, when you discover biology, these cities will boom and you will be able to put even some workshops in them, or cottages.
A full plains city is a half-city early on, it should have at least a food resource in it. Food bonuses always help very much.
Plains cities are not the best production cities, obviously. The perfect production can be achieved with one or two food bonuses, and lots of hills. The food tile can support several mines. The key for production cities is, maximize food on every tile that can produce more than 2 food. In other tiles go for productive improvements. It may sound obvious, but it isn't, at least for me. In a production city plains tiles should have a workshop, not a farm. I used to do this mistake.
The only cities which do not need food bonuses are commerce cities, as long as they have many grassland tiles and they can rush improvements.
For GP farm, find a spot that has 3 food resources. That will be perfect for a specialist factory. Only work tiles that yield more than two food, the rest of the pop will turn into specialists.
Just my two cents, this is the guideline that I use most of the time. Hope it helps :)

A Plains tile gives 1 food 1 hammer. A citizen eats 2 food per turn.

This tile clearly does not support itself foodwise.


Enter the Production City.

The typical Production City begins its life working one or more Big Food tiles so that it may work some Big Production tiles which happen to lack food. These usualy come in the form of hills and resources like iron, copper, stone, or marble.

A single +4 Food tile supports a single +0 Food tile, or two +1 Food tiles. It is very simplifying to think of things this way. Big Food pays for Big Production.

Now consider than once the Big Food is used up making the Big Production possible, you have maxed your population. It can't grow.

But wait.. all those plains tiles.. if we farm them then the tile provides 2 food and 1 hammer .. clearly not Big Production but the tile supports itself! Its a free hammer if you irrigate it.

Free Hammers for your production cities... think about it.. not so easy on grassland...

In the late game after the tech Biology, the output of the Plains Farm is +3 food +1 hammer... so 2 of them support themselves plus a hammer-giving specialist.

Farms for production? How does that work?
You need mines for production - and farms to feed the miners. ;)

Aha. I did tend to overlook the food bonuses. The same idea can kind of be used from Civ 3 with the foodplains/hills/mountains strat.

**Avoid** a city on plains unless there is a big food or 2 (at least). Unless its the only way to get that must have resource. Otherwise its just a crappy city in a crappy land.

**Avoid** a city on plains unless there is a big food or 2 (at least). Unless its the only way to get that must have resource. Otherwise its just a crappy city in a crappy land.
Of course a "plains only" site is crap, but I have never seen any kind of plains site that has nothing at all nearby (and usually that "something" is cows and/or horses plus a good food resource, like wheat or pigs or sheep) - that means your preconditions are always fulfilled and thus you always have to (and should) build on the plains.

Plains need two things: water and patience. Water is essential at the start, and patience is necessary because you see their full value only after Biology.

Chain farming + biology can make pure plain city resonable.
Othewise River/Irrigation make sort of self sustained city. If you luck better site for a city, you have to use what you got.
Generally every site has a few Grasslands and may be special resource or 2 or may be coast. This could sustain your city untill proper tecnology arived.
You may need to have this sort of cities if you need special resources or just wanted to claim land.

I love watermill plains w/ state property, and prefer plains/forest to grass/forest for lumbermills.

Tip 1: Don't build cities where there are too many plains
Tip 2: If you do build a city there (for a resource) try to avoid the plains (most cities use a third of their available squares. keep that in mind)
Tip 3: If you can't avoid them any longer, build a farm on them and wait for biology
Tip 4: If you happen to have a zillion foodsources nearby, then putting a cottage on them is not a bad idea ;)

I just started a new game on the great plains map. NIGHTMARE. just chop rush as usual and you'll be fine right? guess what, THERE ARE NO TREES.

I just started a new game on the great plains map. NIGHTMARE. just chop rush as usual and you'll be fine right? guess what, THERE ARE NO TREES.

LOL! That was my experience, too. The first five great plains maps I played, I got stuck on the "bad" side of the map. Finally, on the sixth, my start position was on the "good" side. What a difference!

the good side being the side with the sea on it right?

Just use the special tiles. Don't use the plains at all. Freeze the city size when the special tiles are all being worked. You don't have to use all the tiles.

Occasionally a city which is very short of production may use a farmed plain. Otherwise I don't bother with them at all.

Those. Damn. Plains.

I can not seem to find anything to do with them. One food all of the time. Sure, you can place a farm there but two food and one production point doesn't seem to be that good. And even then it is supposing you even have any rivers near the plains. If not you just have this very unprodudctive piece of land sitting there with nothing I can find that developes it.

So what do you do with a city that has a lot of plains? Is there much you can do?


I'm not so negative about plain tile, but we must agree on how much is a lot of plains :rolleyes:
I mean for me a city with 4-6 flatland plain it's a good city and if there are food resources or floodplains in the fat cross can be even better than a grassland city.
If my starting position has more than 6 plain and no food resource i regenerate the map or don't build my city there !!
But let's say how i usually manage these tiles with regard of city specialization:

a) commerce city

i build cottage over plain tiles. let's make an example in a city with irrigated corn you have a 6 food surplus so you can work six tiles with cottage on plain
These tiles once yor city get to size 7 will produce a respectable amount of commerce along with 7 hammers (1 from the city tile) that let's you build some esssential city building without working a mine. I guess this situation can be quite common in great plains map where there are a lot of food resources.

b) production city

sometimes i can farm the tile just for get the free hammer but i can say it don't give very much. If the tile are near a river i wait until i can build watermill, at the beginning they don't give too much but with the appropriate tech and civic choiche they will give 2f 3h 3c (4c with financial trait). To be honest i don't use state property so much so i must consider 1f 3h 3c that is better than a grassland hill with mine

c) GP farm

well, this is hard. So i must agree that it's not a good idea to build a GP farm over plain. You must consider to make a GP farm on plains after biology but i don't think it is a viable strategy for a normal game.

the good side being the side with the sea on it right?

Sea? Every time I've played a Great Plains map, the left side of the map is pretty barren terrain, but the right side is covered with forests and lots of grasslands, with a river running through it. Hmm... I guess it does empty into a small sea -- I just never paid attention to it since most of the map is land. I had finally accepted that the player must always start in the bad terrain on those maps. When I started my sixth Great Plains map, though, I found myself surrounded by grassland forests and near a river. I knew then I would be working right to left instead of left to right.

I dunno my capital (moved to it) last game had insane production with mad plains. The first thing i look at is bonus food resources and irrigation. They arnt really useless squares its just your more interested in commerce. It ended up being one of those 1 unit a turn cities. Just plan out your cities to handle 2 food per a square. If they can grow large and still average two food without irrigation then go cottages. And if they can grow large and still average two food but need irrigation then thats ok they will have mad production. And if they cant go grow large cause you have no irrigation then you settled the wrong spot. I think planning out which is production and which is commerce is a bit unnatural. Just plan the food to average 2 a square. If you need to irrigate irrigate.. if dont need to irrigate enjoy your commerce and prolly weak shields before sufferage)

Thats the easy strat and fairly effective.

The hard one is using specialist with mad food (irrigating even when you have way over an average of 2 food per a worked square.. ie 3 food irrigated squares). But that didnt add up to me. Seemed like if you were better to just use cottages.

Some people really love their specialist though. Make the extra great people makes it work.

you all can avoid the plains if you want, i love em. one food one hammer is a great starting point, it's all about putting the right improvements in your fat cross to get the desired effect. imagine the opposite, all grassland, to get any hammers except the one from the city, you have to make workshops, which, in effect, turns that square into plains, which you hate. also plains give your city +1 hammer, +2 if it's on a hill!