I hate plains. It sucks if it's farmed, it sucks if it's cottaged. What do you do with plains tiles? Do you just ignore them?

Is there something that make them decent later? Or are they pretty much the "best" of the unusable tiles?

It's workshops/cottages for me usually. I have no idea if that is good solution, but i never seem to figure out anything else for those tiles. ;)

Well so far I am thinking the best strategy is to ignore them and not even waste worker turns improving them.

I always farm or build workshops on them. With caste system workshops give extra hammer. Watermillls are good also in the later game if there is river.

If non-riverside I tend toward workshops, assuming it is not a really food-poor city site. Being able to switch 3-5 hammers on or off depending on the situation can be really helpful. Riverside plains are another question and I play them by ear. Farms can allow you to eek a little something out of a food-poor site but watermills can pay off with later techs and shine in a GA. Cottages are also a viable with enough food, or even in situations where you want to cap growth with a 1F tile.
Heres a screen shot of a capital with a mixture of plains improvements (I am hoping it will be my first immortal win with Tokugawa!). I am about to kill my health with a shale plant but if I can get that situation resolved it should be a 2F per turn grower and pretty soon SP and biology will make the farms and watermills even better.
http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn114/JBossch/Civ4ScreenShot0200.jpg

Same as I do with any other tile.

I use all the relevant improvements (cottages, farms, workshops, or watermills) depending on the food situation in the city and maybe what that city's main role is (production, commerce, drafting, mixed etc). In a SE, I find that cottaging plains goes well with farming grasslands. That gives some tiles giving 1 food (a net -1) and others giving 3 food (a net +1) and that variety of food supply is useful in recovering from loss of population from the whip and drafting rapidly and then not overshooting when re-growth has occured.

Cottages on plains are nice during looooong GAs.

Watermills if possible, farms if I need to chain to grass or a resource that isnt irrigated, and workshops on all others. Eventually those workshops and watermills become better tiles than mined grass hills.

EDITED NOTE: Reading Daves post below mine reminded me of something else, plains are the VERY VERY last tiles I improve (unless used for chain-farming). I leave them open, and unroaded if possible, for the change a forest will grow on them, which I then chop and ignore the tile again.

Ignore them until the industrial age.

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn114/JBossch/Civ4ScreenShot0200.jpg

Civ at 5 AM, JBossch? ;) :nono:

CIV is good 24hours around the clock. :yup: (been there, done that, no didn't got the T-shirt :()

His 7 pm may be your 5 AM though, doesnt the post-clock translate all times into your chosen time-zone, not necessarily the time at wherever the person posting is?

(ok, thats some pretty crappy grammar, LOL, but you get the idea)

It takes time from your computers local(ized) clock, so i'd generally think that is the time poster was playing.

His 7 pm may be your 5 AM though, doesnt the post-clock translate all times into your chosen time-zone, not necessarily the time at wherever the person posting is?

(ok, thats some pretty crappy grammar, LOL, but you get the idea)

The timestamp on the post is localized to wherever you are viewing from; however, the city screenshot above includes the time and that would be the time on that machine which is generally player-local-time.

I farm as many as needed so I can workshop the rest. I then windmill as many hills as needed for extra commerce and workshop more of the farmed ones.

riverside plain = cottage
otherwise ignore them, until you improve all grassland tiles

Civ at 5 AM, JBossch? ;) :nono:

Even worse, posting about Civ at 5 AM. I doubt, however, that many in the CivFanatics community are in a position to judge. ;)

God damn. My record is playing civ from 10 PM to 3 AM.

Heh, when I played the civ4 demo, I played till like 5 AM, then passed out on the couch. Did the same with HoMM5 demo, and Starcraft, and SupCom... I miss Starcraft, even though I was no good at it.

Depends what the land around them is like. If I have a few plains tiles on a mostly financial city with a little surplus food I just cottage them. In a production city I farm them if possible, hammers are hammers early game and lategame 3f plains farms aren't so bad with biology.

Watermill is also a very solid option if riverside, especially under state property.

Heh, when I played the civ4 demo, I played till like 5 AM, then passed out on the couch. Did the same with HoMM5 demo, and Starcraft, and SupCom... I miss Starcraft, even though I was no good at it.


How the hell do you play till you pass out? I wouldn't even be able to micro anything at my level of play.

Even worse, posting about Civ at 5 AM. I doubt, however, that many in the CivFanatics community are in a position to judge. ;)

Are you kidding me? I didn't think anything of it.

Actually, I still don't, I've probably done it more :p.

It's allllll good as long as we can keep our jobs/grades up/etc. Actually, considering my financial situation (grad school, weak income, etc), it makes a lot more sense to be running civ at 5am than being out somewhere. BTS set me about around 20$ + tax and has had a LOT of mileage. ONE night out can set you back more than that easily.......unlike whipping mechanics that's not hard math ;).

@ Genv:

I think people are just different. My roommate can't play civ when tired - he falls asleep waiting for me to finish turns (usually late game when I'm warring, I take about 30 extra seconds than him, early game of course I'm faster, but late game is when he'd be getting tired). This is actually pretty annoying.

On the other hand, I can be so tired that I actually feel physical pain from it, but if I'm sitting up my gameplay WILL be affected, but only mildly so, and we're talking a LOT of fatigue.

It's allllll good as long as we can keep our jobs/grades up/etc.


Well, I guess I did just get a master's degree. :mischief:

@URSExcelsior: :p :p :p

You're all nutjobs and are being relocated to a desert island with Shaka on it.


You start with a settler, worker, and You are shaka's worst enemy.




Good luck!

I like plains. I often cottage them if I can, or maybe a workshop. And they're wonderful in the late game. (espesically riverside plains...cottages with 3 hammers!)

;7050717']You're all nutjobs and are being relocated to a desert island with Shaka on it.


You start with a settler, worker, and You are shaka's worst enemy.




Good luck!

Hmm, let's see... I assume we're on whatever level we usually play, right?

Shaka is an AI, so we should have a short grace period before he'll attack.

Either the island is pure desert, and thus we get nothing but some oases, or there is a plantation resource and grassland or two. Either way, it might only hurt us as much as it hurts Shaka.

We seem to get our choice of civ ;-), so we take one that starts with fishing. Shaka won't have it.

MIGHT work. I imagine it might not on immortal or higher -- you'd be crushed before you catch up, I think -- but I don't really know.

Bostock

:crazyeye::crazyeye::crazyeye: