my bigest problem is im never quite sure how many cottages i should build within a cities fat cross. let's take an example city. i start my city next to a river, with two plain hills, corn bonus, cow bonus, the rest grass with three forrests. i would build three farms including the corn farm, put mines on both the hills, and go five cottages, then build a farm over one of the forrest, and finnally two more cotteges. would this be a good strat?

my bigest problem is im never quite sure how many cottages i should build within a cities fat cross. let's take an example city. i start my city next to a river, with two plain hills, corn bonus, cow bonus, the rest grass with three forrests. i would build three farms including the corn farm, put mines on both the hills, and go five cottages, then build a farm over one of the forrest, and finnally two more cotteges. would this be a good strat?

I'm not what one would call an expert at Civilization, but the problem it seems is that you lack spamming. Build corn and cow, mine the hills to be replaced with windmills later (opt.), and everything else cottaged. From the sounds of it, you have surplus food to accomplish this, so might as well milk the money as much as possible.

If you are really not sure, you could just put your workers on auto-mode. They will auto-build cottages for you as they see fit.

If you are really not sure, you could just put your workers on auto-mode. They will auto-build cottages for you as they see fit.

:eek: I'm really hoping that's sarcasm.

________

Phillip,

As Amagius recommends, the Pasturised Cows and the Irrigated Farmed Corn will make up for the food deficits from the Plains Hills and the Forests. As such - no need for extra Farms, you can Cottage all of the Grassland and the ex-Forest if you wish.

If the city is denying other areas within your empire of fresh water, then you may need to build a few Farms to chain-irrigate over to these other areas however.

Such a city would also make a good 'Great Person Farm' - in which case you'd be looking at more Farms.

Finally, towards the end of the game you might consider converting the city onto a 'production powerhouse' under State Property by knocking over your Towns for Watermills and Workshops - but hopefully you'll have other cities addressing your production needs. This is a tactic typically used in the final stages of a Space Race where the need for high production exceeds the need for high commerce.

In the city mentioned, I would chop the forests, improve the corn and cows, put cottages on every tile except the corn/cow/plains hills. I would put mines on the plains hills early in case you need some production and then windmills on them post-machinery.

What are cottages?

What are cottages?

I think those are the object of fanatism for quite a portion of people on this forum.
Worship for the financial trait is said to be highly correlated.

I think those are the object of fanatism for quite a portion of people on this forum.
Worship for the financial trait is said to be highly correlated.

it is also said that cottages are a tile improvement that some people don't know the use...

it is also said that cottages are a tile improvement that some people don't know the use...

:lol: HAHA ! Dead on.

(Re: letting the workers automate)

:eek: I'm really hoping that's sarcasm.


It's not such a bad thing to automate your workers. Just remember to have "leave forests alone" and "don't plough over existing improvements" checked in the options.

After you have some experience with what works and what doesn't, directing your workers on your own is a very good idea. The AI does a not-entirely-horrible job of directing the workers, though.

I think that most people should start off automating their workers... as long as they watch the workers to see what they are doing. And as long as they plan on taking over the job themselves eventually.

Of course farm the corn and pasture the cows. At that point you have to decide what you want for this city. If you want it to be a commerce city or mixed use city, first cottage the grasslands next to rivers.

Down the road you can decide if you want to farm or cottage the plains, and windmill or mine the hills, depending on whether you want this to be a mixed-use city or a strict commerce city (one where you might build Oxford, for example).

If you decide you want it to be a production city, such as your heroic epic/west point city, don't cottage anything. Build farms and/or workshops and mine the hills.

If you decide you want it to be a gp farm or if a shrine is born there such that you can turn it into a religion/money city, farm everything flat (except the cow pasture) and later windmill the hills.

What are cottages?

Cottages are the worst improvement in the game.

However, they have a mysterious relationship with towns, the best improvement in the game.

Cottages are the worst improvement in the game.

However, they have a mysterious relationship with towns, the best improvement in the game.

LOL - seriously.

Cheers.

I personally will prefer an additional farm in earlier stage. Sometimes after whipping for infrastructure or emergency military units you want the city to regrow faster for a while. You won't be using all tiles that early anyway (even you eliminate the happiness cap by hereditary ruling, you can't take out the unhealthiness cap). Later I'll change it back to a cottage or if I run state properties, a watermill. But that's just me.

There are many things in both LIFE & Civ IV that money won't buy.... Hence the power of the workshop. Oddly enough, the workshop can also funnel mass shields into commerce when/if needed, so it's a 2 birds with 1 stone matter again.

It's not such a bad thing to automate your workers. Just remember to have "leave forests alone" and "don't plough over existing improvements" checked in the options.

The only instance where I would concur with this is when you first get the game and have no idea as to what you're doing - you don't understand specialisation, haven't grasped the benefit of counting food surpluses and deficits, and haven't yet come to terms with specialist vs. cottage vs. (insert other) -based economies. Of course the AI barely gets any of this either :rolleyes:.

The AI does a not-entirely-horrible job of directing the workers, though.

Surely you mean "The AI does an entirely-horrible job of directing the workers". ;)

After you have some experience with what works and what doesn't, directing your workers on your own is a very good idea.

Agreed! :) ... albeit rather than let the AI "experience" what works and doesn't work, the player would be better off experience this more directly for themselves.

The only instance where I would concur with this is when you first get the game and have no idea as to what you're doing - you don't understand specialisation, haven't grasped the benefit of counting food surpluses and deficits, and haven't yet come to terms with specialist vs. cottage vs. (insert other) -based economies. Of course the AI barely gets any of this either :rolleyes:.


Yep. Pretty much what I think too. The AI does successfully hook up resources in a reasonable order and builds roads in a sort-of reasonable way. The AI does a much better job of this than a brand new player does. Just like you said. I also put one or two workers on autopilot late in the game still - for the rare resources that I just happen to overlook (gems hiding in a newly conquored jungle, for instance).

I still miss a resource simply because I have the resource-finder turned off (it slows down my computer for some reason and it makes clicking on units difficult). The autopilot workers find these late in the game and make up for my Attention Deficit Disorder.


Surely you mean "The AI does an entirely-horrible job of directing the workers". ;)

Nah. It's not at all good, but it's easily fixable and it's not entirely horrible. Just not nearly as good as someone who actually knows what they are doing would choose.


Agreed! :) ... albeit rather than let the AI "experience" what works and doesn't work, the player would be better off experience this more directly for themselves.

I agree. For the first games you play, letting the AI run free can teach you some tricks, though. I learned how rivers do/do not connect resources by watching automated workers and clicking on my city to see if the resourece had been connnected to try to explain why the AI would have done such a wacky thing with the roads. It looked bizzare, but when I looked closer, I discovered the rivers-count-as-roads rule for resource connectivity.

Also, if you really can't be bothered to control all of your workers (again, late in the game when you have a ton of workers and an even heavier ton of cities), letting the AI choose what to do is better than fortifying the workers or disbanding them.

In principal, I agree with you. In practice, there are some times (not often and never in the first two thirds of the game anymore) that I think letting the AI take charge is okay.

Cottages are the worst improvement in the game.

However, they have a mysterious relationship with towns, the best improvement in the game.


:rofl: what took you so long to get to this thread Dave? :lol:

Cottages are the worst improvement in the game.

However, they have a mysterious relationship with towns, the best improvement in the game.

That gave me a good laugh, thank you :D

As for the OP, I think you just have to keep experimenting. I've still not yet determined the best number of cottages to build, and when/where to replace them with improvements that show up later. It varies from game to game, and is obviously influenced by the hundred other factors you're dealing with.

I'll confess, I haven't ever really tried a cottage spam strategy (though I had more luck trying a SE). I tend to focus on production first, which inevitably leads to using that production for military ends and conquest...winning or losing, but I go out fighting a lot.

What are cottages?

Cottages are the worst improvement in the game.

However, they have a mysterious relationship with towns, the best improvement in the game.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

We have Christ and the Anti Christ debating theology :mischief:

Trouble is, I can't work which one is which.

ive heard that bts made the workers smarter, so if i specalized cities in the city management screen supposedly atomated workers will notice that and will build based on what i set the management for, im not sure how well this will work or not, but i am trying to reduce the amount of micro management i do.

One cottage per town should be enough, preferably on a spot where you can't irrigate anyways. :)

I dunno, if you are financial a cottage next to a river gets 3 commerce straight away, and +1 commerce anyway even if you are not. It's always a good plan to save some irrigated tiles for farms though so you can chain irrigation to low food cities though after civil service.

I only build alot of cottages if I am playing a financial leader, food and specialists for me otherwise. But I build alot more than 1 per city if I am financial, it's all about maximising your leader traits isn't it?

lol Financial plus Monarchy Beeline, Switch to HR civic and Settle City locations where there's lots of nice Grassland and Flood plains with Nearby Food resources eg- Wheat, Pigs etc... then Grow you're pop while working those cottages and keep increasing you're happy cap with HR Civic.

The Mayans look like the best Civ For this, Financial/Expansive, expansive allows for cheap Ganaries which allow you to you're pop even faster and they start with Myst so you're one step closer to Monarchy, you could possibly Oracle Slingshot to Monarchy, assuming you're playing with BTS expansion, if not play the Inca's

lol Financial plus Monarchy Beeline, Switch to HR civic and Settle City locations where there's lots of nice Grassland and Flood plains with Nearby Food resources eg- Wheat, Pigs etc... then Grow you're pop while working those cottages and keep increasing you're happy cap with HR Civic.

The Mayans look like the best Civ For this, Financial/Expansive, expansive allows for cheap Ganaries which allow you to you're pop even faster and they start with Myst so you're one step closer to Monarchy, you could possibly Oracle Slingshot to Monarchy, assuming you're playing with BTS expansion, if not play the Inca's


The Mayans should head straight for construction once you get worker techs and pottery. Ball courts are fabulous - a +3 happy building. Thats enough happiness for immediate needs and catapults to help in war. What more do you need? Its like getting the +3 happy from running representation, but without having to build the pyramids.

Mayans are great: Nice early war followed by growing really large cities. Kind of like Mehmed, except with a nice early UU to help the war effort.

my bigest problem is I'm never quite sure how many cottages I should build within a cities fat cross. let's take an example city. I start my city next to a river, with two plain hills, corn bonus, cow bonus, the rest grass with three forests. I would build three farms including the corn farm, put mines on both the hills, and go five cottages, then build a farm over one of the forest, and finnally two more cotteges. would this be a good strat?

Yes:
If it's going to be a commerce/research city, that's a good enough strat, since you can use the cow/mines to speed up the library and other research improvements. Mines can be converted to windmills as soon as you get the tech to build them, and might even give you an outside chance at some gems or gold before then.

No:
If it's going to be a production city I don't build a single cottage, ever. Corn, cow, two plains hills and two forests is a perfect early production city. I would leave the grass near the forests completely unimproved to increase the chance a forest will grow. Corn and farms can give you the pop to work the mines and forests.

Cottages are the worst improvement in the game.

However, they have a mysterious relationship with towns, the best improvement in the game.

Hilarious!