Fishing Villages - how do they work?

[sjd74]

Reading the SGs to learn new tactics I keep coming across refs to "fishing villages". Think I may have some small idea*, but there are many of you out there who could explain their benefits. Particularly, a good build order and what tile improvements to favour.

If anyone takes the time to relpy then I will you!

* EDIT: Very corrupt, sometimes remote and always on the coast with a harbour.

[Scuffer]

Habours are always useful to get the extra food in.

[sjd74]

I figured as much.

But what others? Granaries? Marketplaces?
Are Libs and Unis next to useless in such villages?

[punkbass2000]

No, they're essential, I think. I'm not familiar specifically with the term 'fishiing village', but I imagine its a town devoted to being placed where it can take advantage of many water tiles. With a harbour it should always be able to produce 2 fpt and every pop point will generate at least two commerce. Though they can't produce much, they will bring a ton of cash. I don't if granary is worth it, you'd be better off asking in SG forum, but I would think commerce multipliers (markets, libs, etc.) would be quite worth while if you bought them early in the game.

[MikeH]

Fishing villages tend to be built in remote locations, often on tundra or desert. more for the purpose of claiming the land, than with any hopes of a highly productive city. I tend to build a temple after the harbour, so the village has more sea squares to work, a courthouse in the hope of getting more than one shield per turn is a good idea and an aqueduct (probably-cash rushed if you can afford it) to increase the score. You might get one uncorrupt enough to build a barracks and a couple of military units, but don't depend on them to be too productive.

[Scuffer]

Yeah, I guess suggesting habours in a fishing village wasn't very helpful! Like everything else, it'll depend on what's around. I don't bother with culture in them, unless I am looking to close up my national border. Marketplaces & banks are generally worth the effort in my opinion, but the amount of coast tiles is important, as they are more powerful. Unless they are nestled amongst the hills, you could consider mines if you actually want to produce stuff.

[sjd74]

My understanding is that they are very corrupt villages that can be put to a good use. Maybe I'll have to edit the first post to reflect this.
But how?
Improving overall score?
Lots of taxmen for money?
Commercial docks?

Perhaps this is a term that is bandied about and is yet to be fully defined...

[Renata]

Actually I think the term's more often used to represent a low-corruption coastal town that's critically short on food except for the coastal tiles themselves -- it's buried in desert or tundra, in other words.

With a harbor, these towns can grow, and since they're low corruption, you get the very nice commerce from each coastal tile worked. So basically, they're towns near your capital that are near-worthless in terms of production, but quite nice in terms of commerce.

How you manage them depends on the situation, but typically they will eventually need a harbor (of course), a temple or library to expand borders, a marketplace for happiness and commerce multiplication (and/or a library, if you'll be running high-science), and an aqueduct if they're not on a river or lake and the number of available water tiles warrants it. Some of these the towns may be able to build themselves by working forests or mined hills; other things may need to be cash-rushed, if that's worth the money.

Renata

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

Also, it's a good idea to skip the Granary, and join Workers from food-rich, low-commerce cities.

[michael4000]

Then there's offshore platforms. I started a short thread on Offshore Platforms a few weeks ago, and the general consensus seemed to be that in a game that is still in play in the Modern Age, OPs might be a good investment in your fishing villages. In unusual situations where you are cash-rich and shield-poor, buying an OP can be especially good.

[Tomoyo]

A fishing village is a city that is high commerce, low shields, usually in the tundra sticking out into the sea. Harbor + Library should get a pretty good one going. (Library for the culture too)

[JMK]

Originally Posted by sjd74

Reading the SGs to learn new tactics I keep coming across refs to "fishing villages". Think I may have some small idea*, but there are many of you out there who could explain their benefits. Particularly, a good build order and what tile improvements to favour.

If anyone takes the time to relpy then I will you!

* EDIT: Very corrupt, sometimes remote and always on the coast with a harbour.

To my understanding, 'Fishing Village' is not a corrupted place but rather a very low sheilds place.
Build order is explained here
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showth...2&page=6&pp=20

[sjd74]

The ideal long term build order for a fishing village is granary, harbor, temple, aqueduct, market, in that order. Fishing villages either run high food or high shields, never both. High shields means two forests or mined hills and break even food. Well, a fishing village at size two can man two forests, and so it should, until it has a granary. Anything else is bad news for the long term, as precious shields are just pouring down the drain if running high food WITHOUT a granary in place.

Thanks to JMK for the link and Sirion for the wisdom.

So with high food you get lots of gpt with taxmen or research with scientists.

With high shields do you add workers to get a powerhouse of industry?
Or will they just starve and die?

[Scuffer]

If you have high shields, it's not really a fishing village. But anyway, you can add workers as long as you have enough food to support them. Check the city screen to see if you will have enough food. That is, if you added another person, would there be 2 food per turn per citizen. Remember to add in any food work new citizen could generate. If there is, add one, then do it again. lf you don't have enough food, they will starve and die.

[Renata]

Originally Posted by sjd74

Thanks to JMK for the link and Sirion for the wisdom.

So with high food you get lots of gpt with taxmen or research with scientists.

With high shields do you add workers to get a powerhouse of industry?
Or will they just starve and die?

"High food" and "high shields" in a fishing village are both relative terms. It just means to stop growth entirely by working as many forests or mined hill tiles as the population will support (usually only 2), or work all sea tiles (with harbor in place), typically for +2 food per turn. Never a combination making +1 food per turn. Like DocT said, the granary is optional if you have a good supply of workers available to build population as fast or faster. There's no point in specialists in a typical fishing village -- you'll never be able to run more than one per town without a food deficit.

(I had forgotten about the granary in writing my previous reply -- oops!)

Renata

[sjd74]

Ok. So they are not corrupt, yet you still don't get much out of them.

I suppose that why they are still fishing villages and not major container ports.


So what do you get out of them, apart from not much?

?

?

?

[Scuffer]

As described earlier, they are often on desert or tundra, so not many shields there. You don't get many from the water, except coastal tiles (and whales) either. What you can get is good amounts of gold, so maximise that with gold multipliers , and things that maximise science .

[SJ Frank]

Originally Posted by sjd74

So what do you get out of them, apart from not much?

You get a lot of money (or research) out of them.

Take the case of the smallest of fishing villages, a size 6 town in the tundra, with a temple, harbor and marketplace, working 6 tiles of coast, in Republic:

- Each coastal tile produces in 3 gpt, adding the 2gpt from the center tile, the city has 20 raw commerce.
- Let's say that the city is 25% corrupt, so it has only 15 commerce left after corruption.
- Multiply by the marketplace bonus, the city now brings in 23gpt.
- Minus the upkeep of the temple, harbor and marketplace, the city adds net 20gpt to your empire, for the rest of the game.

Not bad for a city that costs 1 settler and 1 tile of land.

[sjd74]

Originally Posted by SJ Frank

Not bad for a city that costs 1 settler and 1 tile of land.

...and a harbour, a marketplace, a temple, a granary.

Eventually the citizens of your crowded cities are going to realise that the lifestyle is much better in the fishing villages and property prices will boom.
This will force out the locals who have been there for hundreds of years. They will be forced to move to the big smoke where urban decay means rents are cheap, living is and landlords refuse to fix the bunged up hotwater service. Then the upwardly mobile children of the citizens who bought up the fishing villages will realise that all this urban decay is so and begin converting the place into mod apartments and the poor fishing villagers, now bereft anywhere to live will become destitute!

Which city improvement fixes that?

Ok, so I got a little but this is my first thread.

So the lesson is gold multipliers for either gpt or science and careful MM to get a stable population with little wasteage.

Maybe then the villagers will be making so much money that when the city folk come to buy them up they will them.

to everyone for posting so far.