Photo guide to terrain, improvements, and city placement.

brokguitar

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The purpose of this guide is to allow you to have a visual look at
the terrain, resources, improvements, and city placement ideas by
using screen shots. Information that was not found in the game
manual or in the game civilpedia was taken from world builder and
play testing.

*This does not include any technology bonuses.(yet)

This is a link to stuporstars guide which gives great detail on terrain,improvements,
and how civics/technology bonus effect yields.
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Lets start off by looking at what the basic terrain tiles you will expect to see in your game.

This picture allows you to get a feel for the look of the terrain, what features(such as hills,forest,etc..)
you can expect to see on the terrain and most importantly, how much Food (represented by bread slices),
Production(represented by hammers), and Commerce (represented by gold coins) is standardly given.
We will call this FPC for short.This is important because your city will use the surrounding terrains FPC to help
build units/buildings/wonders,grow population for larger cities, and have money to use/research science faster.

Food will become a loaf after it reaches 5 slices,
5 Hammers will turn into a anvil,
and 5 coins will turn into a moneybag.


I would like to point out the best producers of FPC. The floodplains and oasis(+3F/2C, not shown)tiles
have the highest amount of food with 3 slices. The highest productivity comes from a forested hill/plain
with 3 hammers.The highest producer of commerce comes from the coast tiles Worth 2 gold coins. Now
Lets look at the worst producers in the picture. There are two tile types that provide no FPC whatsoever,
these being the desert and snow tiles. Jungles will decrease the food output of a tile. Snow and jungle
tiles do not benefit from the extra commerce provided by rivers.

Terrain effects the movements of your units and some effect your cities health. Tiles without features
will cost 1mp to move units. Tiles with features(hills, forest, jungles) cost 2mp to move. Impassable
terrain include mountain peeksand glacier ice. Forests provide your city with a +0.4 health bonus
where floodplains have -0.4 and jungles a -0.25. Having a city next to a fresh water lake or river
will give your city a +2 to health.

Terrain tiles will provide defensive bonuses for a city or a unit allowed to use terrain defenses.
A hill tile by itself will provide you with a 25% bonus and is the only tile a city can gain a bonus off of.
A forest or jungle tile by itself will provide a 50% bonus. A hill tile with a forest or jungle on it will
provide you with 75% bonus. Any attack crossing a river will provide a extra 25% bonus to the
defender. This equals out to a total of 100% bonus if all conditions are met. After the discovery
of mathematics, you will be able to build a fort improvement giving a defense bonus of 25%. Building
a fort will result in chopping down a Forest/Jungle tile.


Forests will never grow on Desert or Snow tiles. Forests will remain on grass, plains, and
tundra only. Jungles will only grow on grassland tiles. Forests and Jungles will grow on hills
of these terrain types.
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As you look around the map you will also notice Resources. Resources are very important to
your city. They not only provide bonuses for your city to grow larger and happier,they are necessary
for you to build a stronger military. When reading the charts, any number bonus is added to the
terrain types natural FPC. ex:CORN+1F(unimproved)+2F(improved) on a grass tile will provide 3Food(unimproved)
and 5 Food(improved).

Resources will come in these three categories:

Luxuries-All luxuries provide happiness bonuses for your city.

NAME---BONUS-----W/IMPROVEMENT
DYES---+1C--------+4C----(Plantation)
SUGAR--+1F--------+1F/+3C----(Plantation)
GEMS---+1C--------+1P/+5C----(Mine)
IVORY---+1P-------+1P/+1C----(Camp)
WINE----+1C-------+1F/+2C----(Winery)
SPICES--+1C-------+1F/+2C----(Plantation)
SILK-----+1C-------+3C--------(Plantation)
SILVER--+1C-------+1P/+4C----(Mine)
FURS----+1C-------+3C--------(Camp)
INCENSE-+1C-------+5C--------(Plantation)
GOLD----+1C--------+1P/+6C---(Mine)
WHALE---+1F-------+1P/+2C---(Whaling Boat)

Food-All foods provide health bonuses for your city.(exception of OASIS)

NAME-----BONUS--W/IMPROVEMENTS
BANANAS--+1F------+2F------(Plantation)
CLAM------+1F------+2F------(Fishing Boats)
CORN------+1F------+2F------(Farm)
COW------+1F-------+2P------(Pasture)
CRAB------+1F------+2F------(Fishing Boats)
DEER------+1F------+2F-------(Camp)
FISH------+1F------+3F-------(Fishing Boats)
PIG-------+1F------+3F-------(Pasture)
RICE------+1F------+1F-------(Farm)
SHEEP----+1F------+2/+1C----(Pasture)
WHEAT---+1F------+2F-------(Farm)

General/Strategic-Used to create new unit types for construction and/or provide faster wonder construction.

NAME------BONUS---W/IMPROVEMENTS
ALUMINUM--+1P------+3P/+1C-----(Mine)
COAL-------+1P------+3P--------(Mine)
COPPER----+1P-------+3P--------(Mine)
HORSES----+1P-------+2P/+1C---(Pasture)
IRON-------+1P-------+3P--------(Mine)
MARBLE----+1P-------+1P/+2C----(Quarry)
OIL--------+1P-------+2P/+1C----(Well or Offshore Platform)
STONE-----+1P-------+2P--------(Quarry)
URANIUM---+0--------+3C--------(Mine)

1)Incense will always be on the desert.
2)Bananas,Dyes,Rice,Spices,and Sugar will always be on grasslands.
3)Wine and Wheat are always in plains.
4)Fur are always on tundra or snow.
5)Ivory,Corn,Cows,Pig,Sheep,and Silks always on grasslands or plains.
(this has been edited since last posting, I found deer on plains tiles which never occured before while testing)
I tend to find the rest spread out on all terrain types.

This tiles may contain hills, forests, or jungle but still remain on this tile type.

Now we have a good idea about the terrain and resources, lets take a look what can be done on these tiles.
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This photo gives a look at what can be done to improve the standard FPC output of terrain tiles.

Improvements can be built on terrain tiles after your city has produced a worker and you have
researched the corresponding technology. Improvements can drastically increase the FPC for
your city and should be done as soon as possible. Glacier ice, mountain peeks, and oasis tiles
cannot be improved.


A Cottage(shown above) is built to increase the commerce of a tile by one. After 10 turns,
cottages turn into Hamlets(+2C), Hamlets turn into Villages(+3C) after 20 turns,
and finally a village will turn into Towns(+4C) after 40 turns.

Roads have no added benefits besides connecting resources and adding movement to units.
Rails will add (+1P) to mines and lumber mills and better movement. Rails/Roads are not required to
get the full effects from improved tiles. Clearing a forest will deposit extra hammers for your city.
If you are building a improvement over a forest it is not necessary to clear it first because you will
receive the bonus hammers as normal. Jungles provide no extra hammers for clearing.

There are improvements used to acquire resources and provide their benefits to your city. For land tiles,
roads/rails must be linked from the resource to your city via trade network. For water tiles a work boat
must be constructed. Resources must be within your cultural boundaries to receive their benefits.


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* WORKER TIMES FOR IMPROVEMENTS
WT=WORKER TURNS DNA=DOES NOT APPLY
*This does not include any technology, leader traits, or civic bonuses.

Improvement--GRASS/PLAINS TILE--W/FOREST--W/JUNGLE-
ROADS-------------2WT-----------2WT--------2WT------
RAILROAD-----------3WT----------3WT--------3WT------
FARM---------------5WT----------8WT--------9WT-----
WORKSHOP---------6WT----------9WT---------10WT---
COTTAGE-----------4WT----------7WT--------8WT-----
WATERMILL---------8WT----------11WT-------12WT----
PLANTATION--------5WT----------8WT--------9WT-----
MINE---------------4WT-----------7WT-------8WT-----
PASTURE-----------4WT-----------7WT-------8WT-----
CAMP--------------4WT-----------4WT--------4WT-----
QUARRY -----------6WT-----------9WT-------10WT----
WINERY -----------5WT-----------8WT-------DNA------
LUMBER MILL -------DNA----------8WT-------DNA------
WINDMILL----------5WT-----------8WT-------9WT-----
CHOP TILE----------DNA----------3WT-------4WT------
FORT---------------6WT----------9WT-------10WT----

IMPROVEMENT--TUNDRA--W/FOREST--SNOW--DESERT
ROADS----------3WT-----3WT--------3WT----3WT
RAILROAD-------4WT-----4WT--------5WT-----4WT
FARM-----------7WT----10WT-------DNA------8WT
WORKSHOP-----8WT----11WT--------DNA-----9WT
LUMBERMILL----DNA-----10WT-------DNA-----DNA
WATERMILL----10WT----14WT-------12WT----10WT
COTTAGE------5WT----- 9WT--------DNA-----6WT
CAMP----------5WT-----5WT--------6WT-----DNA
PLANTATION---DNA------DNA--------DNA------7WT
MINE-----------5WT----9WT--------5WT------6WT
PASTURE------5WT-----DNA---------DNA------DNA
CHOP TILE-----DNA-------4WT-------DNA-----DNA
FORT----------8WT------11WT-------9WT-----8WT

The techs workers need to make these improvements are as follows:

Hunting-allows Camps 40SP(science points)
Fishing-allows Fishing boats 40SP
Mining-allows Mine 50SP
Agriculture-allows Farms 60SP
Wheel-allows Roads 60SP
Pottery-allows Cottage 80SP
Masonry-allows Quarry 80SP
Animal Husbandry-allows Pasture 100SP
Bronze Working-allows Chop/Clear Forest 120SP
Iron Working-allows Chop/Clear jungle 200SP
Mathmatics-allows Forts 250SP
Monarchy-allows Winery 300SP
Calender-allows Plantations 350SP
Metal casting-allows Workshops 450SP
Optics-allows Whaling Boats 600SP
Machinery-allows Windmills and Watermills 700SP
Replaceable parts-allows Lumber mills 1600SP
Railroad-allows Railroads 2200SP
Combustion-allows Wells 2400SP
Plastics-allows Offshore Platform 4000SP


Civics choices may effect the FPC of a improved tile or the way a worker produces:

Universal Suffrage : +1 hammers gained from a Town
Bureaucracy:+50% hammers, +50% gold in capital
Free Speech:+2 gold gained from a Town
Serfdom:workers 50% faster
Emancipation:+100% growth for Cottage, Hamlet, Village
State Property:+1 food from Workshop & Watermill
Environmentalism:+1 happy from Jungle & Forest, +5 health in all cities

There are Leaders that effect the financial earnings of your cities by use of their traits.
Financial leaders such as: Catherine, Elizabeth, Huayna, Mansa, Qin, Washington, and Victoria
all receive a +1 Commerce bonus to all tiles receiving 2 Commerce.

If you would like to see what technologies add to the improvements FPC,
check out stuporstars guide.
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Lets get started on city placement. Cities are the backbone of your civilization and the more FPC available,
the stronger you will become. When choosing a spot to settle, be aware of the surroundings. Are you
close to resources ? Is there a river or lake you can settle by? Will you have to cut down jungles to grow?
These type of questions you should always ask yourself when placing cities.

When you settle your city you will see a border surrounding it. This border allows you to use and improve
the terrain inside of it. In the beginning you will have a 9 square boundary. As culture in your city develops,
your boundary will expand.

As time passes your borders will expand beyond that but, you will only use the yields of the land as
far as the expanded boundary in the photo. It should be noted that resources
inside your cultural borders are yours and can be improved to provide resources to help your city grow.
You cannot however gain from the resources FPC if it is outside any of your cities expanded boundary.

Certain terrain tiles will effect your cities by being on,next, or near them. Any city built on a hill will
always receive a 25% defensive bonus.This is cumulative with the 25% defensive bonus when
defending across rivers. If you settle next to a river or lake the city will gain a +2 health bonus.
This will help your city later as it grows in population. Forests will provide a health bonus of +.40
when inside your cities expanded borders. If you have a floodplain inside your cities expanded border,
it results in a -.40 health for your city. Jungles will result in a -.25 health for your city. Rivers act as
roads when it comes to connecting a trade network. To connect a resource to your city, it must be
connected to a trade network to receive the benefits.

You may want to build a city just to block another civ from gaining access into land you want to
settle in the future. Without a Open Border agreement, a civ can no longer pass through your lands cultural borders.
A city also can be built to serve as a canal or bridge to pass between two seas or a sea and ocean.
This allows you to bring ships to areas others cannot.


There are Leaders that will provide you with a health bonus as a trait. These Expansive leaders are:
Bismark, Cyrus, Genghis, Isabella, Julius, Peter, and Victoria.
Having this trait gains a +2 health bonus to all cities.


There are a few limitations when settling a city. A city cannot be settled within 2 squares of another
city and you cannot settle on impassible terrain.



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This section is not saying you must place cities on these locations. It shows you what happens when
you do place them on certain terrain and resources. Please use your own judgment on where to place
your cities.

I would like to show a photo of city placement on different terrains and the effects it has on the cities FPC.
Looking at the photo you should see a green arrow pointing to the only city that has a different FPC
ratio than the others and that is hills/plains settlement. It produces two food, two hammers,
and one commerce compared to other terrain types producing two food, one hammer, and one commerce.
Not much of a difference when placing.


Now, lets take a look at what happens when a city is placed on certain resource/terrain combos.

When Bananas, Rice, Sugar, Sheep, Corn, Cows, and Pigs are on Grassland Tiles Only(no hills)
you are able to produce One Extra Bread Slice more than normal when you settle on top of them.



When Coal, Copper, Iron, Marble, Oil, Stone, Aluminum, Horses, and Ivory are on Plains Tiles Only(no hills)
you are able to produce One Extra hammer more than normal when you settle on top of them.


Now if these same resources are on a PLAINS/HILL tile you can produce Two Extra Hammers more
than normal.


When Dye, Gold, Gems,Incense, Fur, Silk, Silver, Spice, and Wine are next to a river, you will receive
One Extra Commerce more then normal when you settle on top of them.

Now, you do not have to have any technology to gain the extra FPC bonus provided by these resources.
You do however have to have the technology if you want to connect these resources to your
trade network and receive health, happiness, and strategic bonus. In most instances, it would be better
for you to improve a resource than to settle on them.

MORE TO COME.........
 
This guide will certainly change my train of thought in regards of how I start my civilizations.

I probably will never pass up the opportunity to take a HUGE production lead early on in the game, by settling down on a Plains/Hill tile with a Stone/Marble/Ivory/Horse tile on it. That'd definitally be something that is definitally worth the 1-2 turns it takes to settle down.
 
But if you plop your town on top of it, you can no longer improve upon the terrain adding much more than 1 extra food or hammer.
 
The huge early lead you'll get for your first city by putting it there will more than make up for the long-term production/food loss.
 
Dairuka said:
The huge early lead you'll get for your first city by putting it there will more than make up for the long-term production/food loss.

Indeed. In addition you do not have to devote X number of worker turns to improve the tile or road it to your trade network.

Granted, a one-time bonus but in the ancient era shaving even a half-dozen turns off the time it takes to gain access to a resource, in addition to the instantaneous enhanced production ability of that ancient era city... ooooh! Shiny! :D
 
Thank you, your guide is extremely useful!!

As you had started in the previous thread b4 moving here, it may be useful to try and list the real limitations to resources, i.e. on what tiles may appear each resource. I copy/paste brokguitar's first statement:
"1)Incense will always be on the desert.
2)Bananas,Dyes,Rice,Spices,and Sugar will always be on grasslands.
3)Wine and Wheat is always in plains.
4)Fur and Deer always tundra or snow.
5)Ivory,Corn,Cows,Pig,Sheep,and Silks always on grasslands or plains."
What about the other? Oil, stone, marble, gems, ecc...?
 
great stuff, keep it coming!
 
Does settling in a resource tile automatically grant you the resource, or is it lost forever? And if it DOES grant you the resource, why not settle in them all the time?

I didn't quite get that part. Also, to recieve forest health bonuses, does the forest have to be in the immediate 2 tiles surrounding your city or can it be anywhere between your cultural borders?
 
CrusherEAGLE said:
Does settling in a resource tile automatically grant you the resource, or is it lost forever? And if it DOES grant you the resource, why not settle in them all the time?
The resource becomes available after you have researched the improvement needed to gain that resource. After that technology is researched the city will automatically start receiving the benefits.



CrusherEAGLE said:
I didn't quite get that part. Also, to receive forest health bonuses, does the forest have to be in the immediate 2 tiles surrounding your city or can it be anywhere between your cultural borders?
Must be within your expanded border (use the pic for reference).
 
The food/production bonus to the city ontop of a resource needs no technology.

The resource itself is available(to all connected cities) as soon as required technologý is díscovered.

EDIT: Bah! I really have to stop watching TV and writing at the same time. Then other wouldn't beat me to the post :)
 
Is it better to settle a city on a tile with three production hammers or two food slices and a gold (for example)? Or does it matter as long as the city is close to these things for improvements to take advantage of?

After finding a defensive bonus, I tend to settle new cities on tiles with extra hammers, assuming that the city will produce units more quickly. Suggestions?
 
A couple of thingies. First of all, you tend to use the word "then" instead of "than" (I know--ridiculously nitpicky, but what do you expect from a 41 year old nerd?). Second: did I miss it or did you not tell us the production time for improving hills? Third: You did not specify, does the presence of trees (either forest or jungle) add to the time? In other words, road on forested grass costs 4WT?
 
rcoutme said:
A couple of thingies. First of all, you tend to use the word "then" instead of "than" (I know--ridiculously nitpicky, but what do you expect from a 41 year old nerd?). Second: did I miss it or did you not tell us the production time for improving hills? Third: You did not specify, does the presence of trees (either forest or jungle) add to the time? In other words, road on forested grass costs 4WT?
Being nitpicky is ok ;) as long as you have a good point.
MINE---------------4WT-----------7WT-------8WT-----
This means its 4wt to build a mine 7wt with forest on it and 8wt for jungle. You cant build a mine on flatland unless there is a resource on it. Same with windmill.
 
Muze said:
Is it better to settle a city on a tile with three production hammers or two food slices and a gold (for example)? Or does it matter as long as the city is close to these things for improvements to take advantage of?

After finding a defensive bonus, I tend to settle new cities on tiles with extra hammers, assuming that the city will produce units more quickly. Suggestions?

People are going to have opinions about this. I would say that if you are just starting the game and are looking to place you first city, place it ON the resource if it will give your central city tile a production boost. The reason for this is that in the earliest stages of the game your city population will be low (meaning you may not have an extra citizen to work the resource if it were "outside" of your city), you may not have a worker available to improve the tile, or the technology to build the appropriate improvement.

By placing your city on the resource you can get a 100-200% increase in your production from day one. This will have a huge impact on the early game as it will allow you to crank out scouts, warriors, settlers and early city improvements at a much faster rate. Telegraphed over the whole game this faster start will prove to be much more valuable than the production lost by properly improving and working the tile (that you wouldn't be able to take advantage until many turns into the game).

By the same token, I would never build on a resource in the later game simply because you would miss out on the increased production. I would build any city after the first next to the resource and connect/improve it as fast as I could.

The one exception to this is if the resource is a critical strategic resource and I need access to it NOW. If I'm in the midst of a war and oil suddenly appears somewhere just outside of my borders, settling ON it can save critical turns where I could be building units rather than improving the tile so I can use the resource.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Muze
Is it better to settle a city on a tile with three production hammers or two food slices and a gold (for example)? Or does it matter as long as the city is close to these things for improvements to take advantage of?

After finding a defensive bonus, I tend to settle new cities on tiles with extra hammers, assuming that the city will produce units more quickly. Suggestions?

People are going to have opinions about this. I would say that if you are just starting the game and are looking to place you first city, place it ON the resource if it will give your central city tile a production boost. The reason for this is that in the earliest stages of the game your city population will be low (meaning you may not have an extra citizen to work the resource if it were "outside" of your city), you may not have a worker available to improve the tile, or the technology to build the appropriate improvement.

Hmm, I guess you weren't answering my question as much as you were simply responding generally to the thread. Not that I don't appreciate the information, if it was indeed directed towards me, but that's not the question I asked.
 
can someone post the pictures somewhere else? photobucket reached the limit.

thanks
zip
 
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