TheDifficult3rd
Chieftain
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2005
- Messages
- 19
I have been a long-time CIV player and have been enjoying reading everyones tips on this excellent new version. I think Civ IV may well be the best edition so far and learning the intricacies of it is a pleasure.
Anyway, enough of the meaningless preamble!
I have never really been a big chop-rush devotee but I have well and truly caught the bug this time around. I literally salivate when I see large areas of terrain populated by Forests, thinking about all those Hammers waiting to be harvested.
Chop-rushing is all about gaining a quick production advantage in the early game - chiefly for rushing Workers, Settlers, Axe/Sword rush units and early Wonders such as Stonehenge and Pyramids). You therefore need to work out quickly which Forest tiles to tuck into immediately, and which are best left alone so you can benefit from their production value if production is scarce, Lumbermills later on as well as the nice defence, health and happiness (when running Environmentalism) bonuses.
So, the question for you to ponder when presented with a juicy city radius that is rich in Forest:-
Which Forest tiles do you chop, and which do you leave?
I have been working along the following guidelines and would be interested in your comments:-
- Chop all Grassland/Forest tiles. I want the 2F from the Grassland for Cottages and unless I'm desperately short of Production tiles, I'll happily trade that 1P for the potential 4C of Towns (or 5C with financial or on river).
- Chop all Hill/Grassland/Forest tiles to get the 3P from Mining whilst also still having 1F from the Grassland - a powerful tile.
- Chop all Hill/Plains/Forest tiles and maybe build Mines for the 4P (which is excellent if you have an abundance of food but unbalanced if not! - in which case wait for Windmills for a more balanced 1F 3P 1C tile).
- Chop all Riverside Grassland/Forest or Plain/Forest tiles and build Farms (if there's a need for food) or Cottages (for 5C normally or 6C if Financial!), both of which release the 1C from the River that's negated by the Forest. Then change any riverside Farms to Watermills when appropriate to get the extra 2P and 2C in the later game (making sure you can afford the 1F loss).
- Leave all Plain/Forest tiles to retain the immediate 2P from the Forest and then build Lumbermills when they come available.
- Leave all Tundra/Forest or Snow/Forest tiles and build Lumbermills. You could cash in the Hammers now, but then you're left with a poor tile for the rest of the game.
The above guidelines are subject to the aim of leaving at least 2 Forest tiles remaining in the city radius (or multiples thereof) for the +1 health bonus for each 2 forests. And of course these rules are rules of thumb, not absolutes.
I also have workers Chop THEN improve the tile to get at the Hammers quicker.
Also remember that you can chop outside of your city radius too and still yield Hammers, although the amount diminishes with distance - but these chopping principles should still apply as those tiles are still potential future city sites. Furthermore, once you have settled your most northerly or southerly City, remember to send off a worker into the Tundra and Snow to search for Forest tiles beyond your City radius and tuck into them for their Hammers.
Chopping has been looked at as part of one or two already excellent general guides to Terrain and Improvements (most notably the "Chopping Forests" section of this one by Stuporstar) and building on that here I wanted to tease out the specific issue of which Forest tiles to chop and then sketch out some guidelines. I'll leave the discussions on whether to chop-rush, when to chop or indeed what to build with the spoils to more learned types!
Anyway, enough of the meaningless preamble!
I have never really been a big chop-rush devotee but I have well and truly caught the bug this time around. I literally salivate when I see large areas of terrain populated by Forests, thinking about all those Hammers waiting to be harvested.
Chop-rushing is all about gaining a quick production advantage in the early game - chiefly for rushing Workers, Settlers, Axe/Sword rush units and early Wonders such as Stonehenge and Pyramids). You therefore need to work out quickly which Forest tiles to tuck into immediately, and which are best left alone so you can benefit from their production value if production is scarce, Lumbermills later on as well as the nice defence, health and happiness (when running Environmentalism) bonuses.
So, the question for you to ponder when presented with a juicy city radius that is rich in Forest:-
Which Forest tiles do you chop, and which do you leave?
I have been working along the following guidelines and would be interested in your comments:-
- Chop all Grassland/Forest tiles. I want the 2F from the Grassland for Cottages and unless I'm desperately short of Production tiles, I'll happily trade that 1P for the potential 4C of Towns (or 5C with financial or on river).
- Chop all Hill/Grassland/Forest tiles to get the 3P from Mining whilst also still having 1F from the Grassland - a powerful tile.
- Chop all Hill/Plains/Forest tiles and maybe build Mines for the 4P (which is excellent if you have an abundance of food but unbalanced if not! - in which case wait for Windmills for a more balanced 1F 3P 1C tile).
- Chop all Riverside Grassland/Forest or Plain/Forest tiles and build Farms (if there's a need for food) or Cottages (for 5C normally or 6C if Financial!), both of which release the 1C from the River that's negated by the Forest. Then change any riverside Farms to Watermills when appropriate to get the extra 2P and 2C in the later game (making sure you can afford the 1F loss).
- Leave all Plain/Forest tiles to retain the immediate 2P from the Forest and then build Lumbermills when they come available.
- Leave all Tundra/Forest or Snow/Forest tiles and build Lumbermills. You could cash in the Hammers now, but then you're left with a poor tile for the rest of the game.
The above guidelines are subject to the aim of leaving at least 2 Forest tiles remaining in the city radius (or multiples thereof) for the +1 health bonus for each 2 forests. And of course these rules are rules of thumb, not absolutes.
I also have workers Chop THEN improve the tile to get at the Hammers quicker.
Also remember that you can chop outside of your city radius too and still yield Hammers, although the amount diminishes with distance - but these chopping principles should still apply as those tiles are still potential future city sites. Furthermore, once you have settled your most northerly or southerly City, remember to send off a worker into the Tundra and Snow to search for Forest tiles beyond your City radius and tuck into them for their Hammers.
Chopping has been looked at as part of one or two already excellent general guides to Terrain and Improvements (most notably the "Chopping Forests" section of this one by Stuporstar) and building on that here I wanted to tease out the specific issue of which Forest tiles to chop and then sketch out some guidelines. I'll leave the discussions on whether to chop-rush, when to chop or indeed what to build with the spoils to more learned types!