Don't settle on floodplains!

[btgwynn]

When we were watching that stupid video "Let's Play Civ 4" my brother said "Oh! Don't settle on floodplains!" Since it turns the floodplain into a desert it does waste it and even ruin it for later if the city gets taken and razed, but if you spawn in the middle of a big swath of floodplains, should you go out of your way to move elsewhere? I think this question is along the same lines of "should I settle preferentially on desert or tundra if there is otherwise good land around?"

Anyway, I will go out of my way not to settle on a floodplain, but I'd like to hear what other mid to high level players think.

 

[Gwynnja]

If you have more than 6, I'd split them up.

 

[Fei Kelei]

Completely dependent on the surrounding territory. Yes, they're nicer to work than settle on, but often the best site for a city will still be on a floodplain. Keep in mind that with the unhealthiness they add, if you choose to settle off the river and don't have another fresh water source for your city, you can have some health problems.

 

[Learningciv]

Depends on the surrounding tiles. If the best spot for the city is on the flood plains then I will settle there.

 

[assass1n]

When we were watching that stupid video "Let's Play Civ 4"

I think you don't deserve advise

 

[TheMeInTeam]

When we were watching that stupid video "Let's Play Civ 4"

I hope you meant the other one, not mine . Actually, I don't recall settling flood plains (or having any), so you probably were.

Regardless, sometimes it's still the best site...but you're right that they're definitely better worked than settled upon. The game treats them as some fraction of a special resource...was it 1/3 or 1/2?

 

[Gwynnja]

I think you don't deserve advise

I hope you meant the other one, not mine .

He did. It was pretty painful.

 

[bhavv]

I treat flood plains like resource tiles - absolutely no settling on, but sometimes you do have to settle on one based on the land layout.

But settling on a commerce resource is even worse.

PS, if you want to try something crazy with world builder - change your floodplains from desert to plains or grassland and put on a oasis or inscence resource .

Well, flood plains dont only occur in deserts.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Use grassland irrigated floodplain corn for 10 food.

 

[z0wb13]

if you settle in a flood-plains area, from flood-plains and from large populations is offset my settling along a river.

 

[bhavv]

Its also offset if you change them to grasslands .

 

[Bleys]

I always settle on Floodplain Hills, since I read that Attacko Giude!

 

[btgwynn]

If I understood the chronology correctly, TMIT made his video in response to the guy who built three workers and a settler and another worker to open? That guy also started on a lot of floodplains.

 

[helemaalnicks]

If I understood the chronology correctly, TMIT made his video in response to the guy who built three workers and a settler and another worker to open? That guy also started on a lot of floodplains.

all for defense obv. There is nothing worse then all those workers flooding the land with forts, all you need is a couple of land units, and your perfect defense is in place.

 

[BarrageQueen]

I'd settle on a FP tile to capture nice tiles and/or manage healthiness.

Since each FP contributes -0.4 unhealthiness each, I try to settle with 2 or 4 FPs in the city radius, while trying to avoid having 3 or 5. Splitting up a big swath of FPs can be a good idea, though, since the early happy cap is another consideration in addition to the healthiness.

 

[UWHabs]

Never settle on a floodplain... unless if it's a good place to settle on.

For me, especially if I have a city with a lot of them, sometimes I don't mind killing one. I mean, often times not killing the FP means settling off-river, which is often less than optimal. If you have tons of them, you'll need all the health you can get. And late-game FP city with levee = super-awesome mega-city. One of my all-time best late-game capitals was with a financial leader, I had something like 6-8 floodplains, horses, hills, and grassland as the BFC, something like 18/21 squares riverside. All towns, plus US/levee (well, I was dutch, so a dike). That city was a beaut.

Obviously best is if you have a city with 7 FP, and one other square in the middle. Settle on the other square, and gaze at that city. I'd almost never kill a fllodplain if it was just a city with 1-2 floodplains randomly thrown in, but when you have enough of them, killing one is not a huge problem.

 

[blitzkrieg1980]

I treat flood plains like resource tiles - absolutely no settling on, but sometimes you do have to settle on one based on the land layout.

But settling on a commerce resource is even worse.

I couldn't agree less with you here. Settling on calender resources (ignoring bananas here) is more ideal in many situations. You still get access to the resource and you can put a more useful cottage down. So, instead of only netting 4-6, you'll get 7-9 depending on riverside / FIN.

I wouldn't settle on all calendar resources, but given the rest of the BFC will be great, I'll do it for sure.

When it comes to floodplains, I'd rather pay more attention to what else is in the BFC. If there's a more desirable BFC elsewhere, I'll move. Never off of freshwater access, though.

 

[brianb1974]

Yeah, so it isn't preferred to settle on flood plains--you trade potentially 4 food for 2 food-1 hammer-- but you have to look at the big picture.

Never say never. Most people would say never settle on a grassland cow-- much worse than settling on flood plains. I got a start recently where I believe it's optimal to do so.

 

[blitzkrieg1980]

Yeah, so it isn't preferred to settle on flood plains--you trade potentially 4 food for 2 food-1 hammer-- but you have to look at the big picture.

You're also losing that from that one floodplain's tile, though

 

[CivCorpse]

I couldn't agree less with you here. Settling on calender resources (ignoring bananas here) is more ideal in many situations. You still get access to the resource and you can put a more useful cottage down. So, instead of only netting 4-6, you'll get 7-9 depending on riverside / FIN.

I wouldn't settle on all calendar resources, but given the rest of the BFC will be great, I'll do it for sure.

When it comes to floodplains, I'd rather pay more attention to what else is in the BFC. If there's a more desirable BFC elsewhere, I'll move. Never off of freshwater access, though.

May I suggest a slight tweak to that? Instead of settling on the resource, build a cottage there. I normally only do this with a resource that i have in abundance. calender resources seem to pop up in patches so after I have enough for trading and one for myself I may consider cottaging them. It depends on my needs at the time. If I am in a post REX/war recovery phase before I have calender then a cottage there is a good idea. Same situation WITH Calender and it gets a plantation. Once it hits village size it gives the same commerce yield as a plantation. With PP it gives 1 more than a plantation @ village size.
Spices tend to show up in smaller patches so they usually get plantations to harvest the resource for trade/happiness/health.
Sugar I think is the most versatile calender resource. Especially since it tends to spawn in nice patches. If it is riverside it is essentially the same as a floodplain minus the green icky face. In the early game, settling on top of it gives you a 3 city square. Again I weigh my needs at the moment vs long term. Do I need that growth to size 2 for a monument whip that soon? There tend to be lots of jungle and little forests around sugar so whipping is usually a much better alternative to chopping.
Farmed sugar is available earlier than a plantation and has the same yield. Whether I build a plantation later when calender is available depends on my available worker force. Post-Biology every sugar but one will have it's plantation farmed over for 5. Before I stopped playing with the broken vassal system enabled, I farmed everything and just took what resources I needed from my vassals.
Cottaged sugar is also a nice option if there is another food resource or 3+ sugars. Similar to floodplains, they can be worked for commerce while still contributing to city growth. I find this setup the best in the early game when the happy cap is an issue. At population 7 (1 happiness resource, religion and a temple) with 3 cottaged sugars, I can work 4 cottages, run 2 scientists and work a mine for building infrastructure. Or a 5th cottage with slow growth as I work on increasing the happy cap.