Which improvement do you build the most of? I'm guessing that most of you build lots of cottages?

Also, I'm curious - which improvement should I build the most of in the beginning of the game? I used to build lots of Farms to grow my cities quickly, but my friend always builds lots of cottages and so I'm wondering that maybe I should do that, so by the time war starts or when I need it, I'll have Towns for quicker research.

Thoughts?

Mines and cottages are what I build most of I suppose.

Hardly ever build workshops though.

Lots of cottages, many mines, modest number of farms.

If the game goes that long, a few lumbermills might show up.

If you are specialising your cities, then you will tend to clump farms and mines in some city fat-Xs and cottages in other fat-Xs in the early game.

Personally I lean towards a proportionately high level of farms as I use the whip a fair amount, but there are so many complicating factors that the best I can do is make an over-generalisation.

Mines and cottages are what I build most of I suppose.

Hardly ever build workshops though.

I have gotten a lot more warlike lately - esp as I started playing more pangea maps. freqently cities captured 1800+ are just not going to be plausible commerce\tech cities - unless the ai already built and developed cottages for me. They can however be turned fairly easily into high production cities - so i spam farms, mines, and workshops. and if they have left me forests - woodshops are terrific at this point. With railroads, they are 2f/4p on forest, 1f/5p on plains.

...woodshops are terrific at this point. With railroads, they are 2f/4p on forest, 1f/5p on plains.
Nope. 2F/3H or 1F/4H, the same as a state property workshop.

Early on, cottages and mines. High production cities tend to have a lot of farms so they can work those hills & production resource tiles. I always farm plains with access to fresh water. However, for most cities the focus is always on commerce - so cottages, cottages, cottages.

Later on I like to put workshops on non-irrigated plains for cities that can support working them for a nice production boost. I also like to put windmills on grasslands hills that don't already have mines on them, for the same reason (A windmill grassland hill is self-sufficient, the 1h is a lot better than nothing)

I generally avoid chopping tundra so I can put lumbermills on them, which is far and away the best use you'll ever get out of a generic tundra tile.

I always farm plains with access to fresh water.

You should really farm more grasslands so that they can support another tile, well two of them can. That is, until biology...which I rarely get.

Plains = farms, Prairie & Flood Plains = Cottage, Ore = Mine, Hills = Windmills (though mines in the early game and maybe in a few picked cities). Watermills late game where possible. A few lumbermills, hardly any workshop, though it could be worth it if I got to communism before getting railroad, which is unlikely.

I usually build 1-2 farms for every city, than mine/cottage everything else. I rarely try to get 20pop/city, because by the time I have the happiness/health to support that, the game is already over.