sheep OP??

Bear with me.

In my most recent game, playing as Napoleon, I seemed to start in the land of sheep, with lots of plains, desert, and tundra hills. (My first game on a PerfectWorld map. It's interesting.) Paris has 5 sheep within the 3rd ring, and my other two cities each have 3 sheep tiles and 1 horses tiles. I quickly built pastures to overcome the otherwise lackluster start. (My initial luxes were 2 riverside copper and 1 riverside silk. Not just lackluster, but really quite inefficient.)

Anyway, with a fairly late pantheon I got God of the Open Skies, and now I have tons of these 2 food/2 production/1 culture tiles, which are kind of incredible. Paris built Petra and stables, so it has a few 3 food/4 production/1 culture tiles. It's kind of insanely powerful, considering how low sheep usually are on the list of preferred nearby resources.

And yet, when I think of the real-world countries with lots of sheep-herding, I think of Ireland... Wales... New Zealand. Nothing against them (I'm Irish!), but they're not exactly production powerhouses, amirite? Just a bit funny how this bit of the game seems at odds with the real world. Seems to me improvements to sheep tiles should add food and gold, rather than production.

Because they're tasty People work harder if they have Irish Stew. Seriously, I can't say, I rarely have more than one sheep in my capital radius (I have cattle more often) so I never realized it could be quite powerful

The Huns would do well with a pasture-heavy start like that.

Sheep are great; but aren't OP

joncnunn said:

Sheep are great; but aren't OP

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Well yeah, I know, the title was a joke. I just found it funny that they have turned my cities into production powerhouses, which is kind of contrary to real life. Hmm, maybe my citizens are throwing harnesses on whole herds of sheep and having them turn huge turbines? Mills without water or wind - sheep mills! <--Actually wait, that sounds like something else. forget it...

But seriously, this is working kind of amazingly well for the French. With monuments & amphitheaters in 4 cities, plus Open Skies, plus the enhancer belief with culture from shrines, plus pagodas, plus a chateau in each city, I'm getting like (hang on, math in head...) 55 culture per turn, in the medieval era. Add some themed great works and more chateaus soon, and it's gonna get crazy.

subtledoctor said:

when I think of the real-world countries with lots of sheep-herding, I think of Ireland... Wales... New Zealand. Nothing against them (I'm Irish!), but they're not exactly production powerhouses, amirite? Just a bit funny how this bit of the game seems at odds with the real world. Seems to me improvements to sheep tiles should add food and gold, rather than production.

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Ah, but you're thinking of today, which in Civ terms is the endgame. For the bulk of our game, the wool industry has been a major part of the English economy for millennia, and especially when they were top of the table. Textiles are largely imported these days, but for a long thin woollen exports were a major source of English and British prosperity - and the mills were a driving force of industrialisation. Make no mistake, there is a strong link between the humble lamb and economic powerhouses

Of course, we're in a mod where herd and crop resources are mobile and can be relocated to low wage economies, whilst the winners of the Renaissance and Industrial eras tax finance just about enough to prevent food riots amongst the millions of population who used to work in industry until all the mineral resource tiles were depleted

Sheep are awesome because they are on hills. Any resource would be really good if it were on a hill. +2 production plus whatever the resource gives. Pretty sweet.

The only resource that's really OP is salt. Spawning with a cluster of salt is just way too good.

The AI takes the Open Skies pantheon fairly early and consistently. A stable and Fertilizer makes these tiles really good.

Try that as Huns. They are really masters of pasture.

You could also try the polish ducal stable which adds +1 gold to all pasture improvements if you think that sheep should be providing more gold rather than hammers.

Don't try to tie production yields to real life.
Of course it makes no sense that in the year 2049, Paris' production is based on mines and sheep, it's happiness is based on having incense in its empire, and its growth is based on farms.

If you play desert biased civs more on Perfect World maps, you'll really come to appreciate the wonders of sheep.

Dont forget to put some salt on your sheep...

You could say they are... cheap?

I think sheep should provide happiness, for all of those lonely shepherds out there far away from a womans embrace

reddishrecue said:

You could also try the polish ducal stable which adds +1 gold to all pasture improvements if you think that sheep should be providing more gold rather than hammers.

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I quite enjoyed being Poland with Ducal Stables, Petra, Desert Folklore, and a few desert sheep hills (there were more to the west)

I find that a few sheep around give good production while still maintaining solid growth, so you can typically build the Hanging Gardens in your capital.

Pasteurization of the English countryside beginning in the 1500's and going on through to the industrial era is what jump started the industrial revolution (and killed many a peasent)

So don't discount sheep.