http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/133608/Civ4isolated.JPG

As you can see from the in-game label, I plan to cottage this city out. Here's the dilemma: Either way I'm getting the resource bonus of both the sheep and the gold, but I can't decide which I want in my fat cross. If I choose the gold, then I basically have a free Town+ already established, but if I choose the sheep then I get a lot of :food: on one tile.

I don't yet have Civil Service, but am getting it next, so while I can currently only make the couple farms near the fresh water lake, I'll be able to irrigate chain a few grasslands for 3 :food: tiles while cottaging most others as 2 :food: towns.

So what do you guys think is better? A 6 :food: tile from the sheep, or a 3 :hammers: 6 :commerce: tile from the gold?


If it effects your decision, I am isolated on the island. The other two I have contact from because they are on an adjacent continent which my cultural borders reached.

(1) Gold gives a ton of commerce; it's important to be able to work it early game.

(2) If this is supposed to be a cottage city, then you already have a huge food surplus from the corn. Once your city reached the happiness & healthiness caps, it would never use the sheep again.

(3) You could build a coastal town over by the fish. You don't want to crowd it out -- and that city will make much better use of the food bonus from the sheep. (i.e. you would want to use slavery to make buildings, and you want to be able to run lots of specialists there)



I would build that city one square Southwest of where the current settler is, and build two farms to carry irrigation from the lake to the corn. (If you have spare workers and high happiness/healthiness caps, I would also make more farms, and turn them into cottages when the city is near its full size)

Eventually (or maybe even soon, depending on what the rest of your island looks like), I would build a city one tile Northwest of that fish. If you use that city as a GP farm, you would farm all the grassland in its radius. Otherwise, I would make that a cottage/specialist hybrid city.



(Incidentally, the cottage city could instead be a very strong production city; it has 4 good hills to work in the early game, and becomes incredibly strong once it has high happiness/healthiness caps and your workshops have several bonuses)

I thought about it as a production city, but I already have a VERY strong production city elsewhere with a lot of plains hills and the food to sustain them, but good call :)

As for the fish, I'm not sure if I should. I also already have 2 coastal cities established (capital and first settlement) and a 3rd strong one planned. I figure the culture should grab the fish as a resource soon enough, but the commerce generated by a 4th coastal city, especially one reliant on whipping to do any production, seems redundant. Am I just mistaken there or what?

Also, I have about 8 cities total planned on the continent, I think it's a bit overkill to grab 9th. If you'd like, I could load the game back up and take a full continent ss.

I do appreciate the advice about the sheep though. Looking at it again, you're right, that extra food is unnecessary with so many grassland cottages and the corn.

As for the fish, I'm not sure if I should. I also already have 2 coastal cities established (capital and first settlement) and a 3rd strong one planned. I figure the culture should grab the fish as a resource soon enough, but the commerce generated by a 4th coastal city, especially one reliant on whipping to do any production, seems redundant. Am I just mistaken there or what?
More commerce is more commerce; it's not a bad thing. And the site is actually a pretty good one; so in my mind the question isn't "if" it should be settled, but "when". Slavery will help with production, but if you've switched to caste system, then it doesn't even need to build anything; just work the fish, sheep, 4 scientists, and maybe some lakes or cottages! (Of course, if you can use the hill and trees to make a lighthouse and a library, things are much better!)

Settle 1W, and you can work 17 cottages, 1 gold, corn, and a grassland farm. You can make mines early to help with production.

Yeah 1W is deinatly the way to go.. Getting that peak and lakes in the fat cross doesn't help anything(you can cottage over the rest of the hills you know.. That also gives space for a fish/sheep site which can work some specialists(and with a lighthouse the lake titles are 3 food 2 commerce, can potentialy get 2 farms 2 lakes sheep + fish though it might be better to not settle on the hill so it have a tiny bit of production since you don't have access to the whip...)).

Settle 1W, and you can work 17 cottages, 1 gold, corn, and a grassland farm. You can make mines early to help with production.
Hrm. I agree with 1W now too. My original thought was that I wanted 4 hills in range, but that's not the point of this city!