Cottage - a new land improvement

One very useful (and new) land improvement is the cottage.

It can be built after the pottery tech is discovered which means pretty early and that's the interest of it.

Its main benefit is extra gold and gold IS important in Civ4.

But the amount of gold it produces can vary. Indeed a cottage tile worked by a city can evolve after a certain number of turns into a hamlet then into a town. And these are even more productive. Of course special civics and later techs can also add extra bonus. With all that you must understand building some cottages early (especially on flood plains if you are lucky enough to have some near your starting place) can be extremely productive on the long term.

So especially if you are used to previous Civ games, don't focus on usual mines/irrigation/roads and keep your mind open for these cottages !

I have chosen NOT to follow those directions.

Instead, Michael Jackson.

LouLong said:

So especially if you are used to previous Civ games, don't focus on usual mines/irrigation/roads and keep your mind open for these cottages !

Click to expand...

Bonjour, commet allez vous?

I started using cottages immediately. They are particularly useful for tiles that produce 2 or 3 food, but no shields, as they generate a shield as well. That makes them perfect for flood plains, until water mills come out.

Don

I only managed a couple of games till now, so I'm still a newbie I guess... but my preference has been to build a farm if possible (near fresh water and such), if not then build cottages, and if not even that (hills and such) then build mines. When wind and watermills come in later on.. I tend to prefer windmills. You can see I am more towards growth than production