This may be a stupid question...

If I have cities that do not overlap, but I have tiles between the cities that are not part of any cities BFC do I build improvements (farm, cottage, mine, etc..) on those tiles? The tiles I am speaking about are those within my cultural border and those which do not have a resource like cow, sheep, elephant, copper, stone, etc.. Just empty tiles. Also if I do build improvements do I get anything for them? Thanks.

No, you won't get anything from them.

If your workers are sitting around idle, then you could improve them anyway - just in case you want to squeeze a city or two into the gaps later on. It's also possible that an invading army could waste time pillaging those improvements, instead of the ones you can actually work. Build roads first, though.

If there is a hill tile in your cultural border that didn't have a forest on it from 4000 BC, you may want to mine or fort it in case there is a resource there that you do not have the required tech for yet (such as aluminum or coal).

I wonder if mines out of BFC's (or inside, for that matter) increase the chance that a resource will show up there.

No. If the plot has a ressource you would get the Ressource. Otherwise - if it can't be worked by a city, no point improving it.

On mines - i read somewhere, that the mine has to be worked to pop a ressource. Not sure if that's correct tho...

Hills definitely have to be worked to pop a new resource. So only those inside the BFC can get one.

mcorey: I would definitely recommend trying to squeeze an extra city in between your other proper cities as long as it has 4 or 5 useful tiles to work. A little junk city can be an invaluable to its neighbouring cities by working their cottages while they whip in infrastructure, that way you get great building multipliers and fully developed cottages. They're also great whipping and drafting cities themselves that can be severely abused and who cares about the consequences of unhappiness :whipped:

You should remember to chop the forests outside the BFCs though. I usually do that when my workers have nothing important to do.

:eek: WOW!! I really was confused on that point.

Just to clarify unless it is a resource or a hill (future resource find) it's not beneficial to do anything other than create a road/rail. I also read that chop rushing would be good as you get the hammer :hammers: points.

UncleJJ: I thought overlap was not good, are you saying that if I overlap my major city with a suburb city I can work the major cities cottages and get the commerce? Also for these small cities why would I not care about unhappiness wouldn't that effect how much I could work? And one more thing should I keep the growth of these small suburbs low to only working the tiles that benefit the big city and keep it alive to help benefit the big city?

Thanks.

I think what he means is that population in small cities generate few :mad:, allowing whipping like hell. Having 3-4 good food tiles (3-4+) makes for excellent production if you can ignore the whipping :mad:.
And overlap is good, rather have 8 overlapping tiles than 12 unworked. Or the other way around :confused:. Anyway, since most cities won't reach size 20 (until eventually, lategame), a little overlap is nice as it is not the amount of tiles, but the amount of workers that dictate the amount of tiles worked, atleast earlygame.

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UncleJJ: I thought overlap was not good, are you saying that if I overlap my major city with a suburb city I can work the major cities cottages and get the commerce? Also for these small cities why would I not care about unhappiness wouldn't that effect how much I could work? And one more thing should I keep the growth of these small suburbs low to only working the tiles that benefit the big city and keep it alive to help benefit the big city?

Thanks.

A lot of overlap is usually not good if you want both cities to be major cities. Overlap with suburbs is great and recommended, especially if you run bureaucracy in your capital.
You will have to constantly get into the city screens and shift the tiles around to make sure that the major city works the most effective tiles, and that cottages are always being worked.

The suburbs will naturally be kept small, because they won't have enough food to grow like a major city. This is why health and happiness are less of a problem there - they will never grow to happy cap, so it's great for slavery and drafting. Keep the big city people happy while you abuse the residents of the rural areas.

:eek: WOW!! I really was confused on that point.

Just to clarify unless it is a resource or a hill (future resource find) it's not beneficial to do anything other than create a road/rail. I also read that chop rushing would be good as you get the hammer :hammers: points.

UncleJJ: I thought overlap was not good, are you saying that if I overlap my major city with a suburb city I can work the major cities cottages and get the commerce? Also for these small cities why would I not care about unhappiness wouldn't that effect how much I could work? And one more thing should I keep the growth of these small suburbs low to only working the tiles that benefit the big city and keep it alive to help benefit the big city?

Thanks.

There was a very good thread on packing extra cities in between big cities back in January started by InvisibleStalke You can find it here Rack em and pack em gambit - how denser city packing got me to Immortal (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=258432)
The discussion there covers all the reasons why it can be good to overlap your cities.

It seems to require a lot of city-tile management though, and the furthest I ever go in managing my cities is choosing "focus on production" or "focus on XYZ" buttons down there... Sometimes I force some specialists, but I can't get myself to turn off the governor altogether and start deciding what tiles to work, especially later in the game. I do it sometimes with a few cities early on, but after 6 cities or so, no way. I don't automate my workers though, I wouldn't go as far into trusting the AI, hehe.

Also if I do build improvements do I get anything for them?

Hmmm. Slow down an enemy advance as they stop and pillage the useless improvements? :crazyeye:

That's the best I can come up with, so no real use I'm afraid :)

Thanks everyone.
I have another question somewhat on the same topic. Since elephant (ivory) can become obsolete, once it does do I convert the land the elephant is on to something else? Or if I am ahead of the AI do I keep the elephant around to trade?

Thanks.

Thanks everyone.
I have another question somewhat on the same topic. Since elephant (ivory) can become obsolete, once it does do I convert the land the elephant is on to something else? Or if I am ahead of the AI do I keep the elephant around to trade?

Thanks.

Exactly. If other AIs will still benefit from it and will trade or pay you for it, keep it. If nobody wants it anymore, cottage or workshop or watermill it.