How much jungle is enough jungle?

[Bliss]

Hello everyone.

So I have this match where I was spawned totally surrounded by jungle. Luckily it was a coastal city, with 3 resources (2 pearls and 1 fish) on the sea.

What should be a valid strategy in this situation? For myself, I left all the jungle there so I could use them with universities. Now, I'm at the late game with insane science and a medium sized city with the same production as my Capital.

Is there a point where a balanced city is potentially better than a focused one? Where does this point start? Should I compensate this situation with more cities production-oriented?

Thanks in advance.

 

[joncnunn]

Well, sometimes you have to clear Jungle to get at the resources:
Say if Gems had been your primary luxury instead of Pearls
And Coal is often found underneath Jungle.

And sometimes there is a severe food or hammers problem; when this is the case; it tends to be some of the fresh water Jungle tiles to be cleared for food or production
(e.g. replacing River-jungle-hills with Farm for production; replacing River-jungle-flat with Farm for Food)

 

[danaphanous]

Yeah, you can calculate a good balance. Obviously, having all jungle tiles with university is worthless if you can't work them, all that potential science is going to waste. As jungle usually provides 2 food it's tempting to clear none of it, but you will then have awful production. I would either: leave it all and ship in a food trade ship to keep it growing at a good pace and buy some buildings to keep it up to speed or: if it is growing too slowly or the production is unaccetable: or clear 2-3 tiles next to fresh water for 4 food tiles. This plus your fish should give you a good rate of growth for a while. It will slow down later but just keep building all the food buildings: granary, aqueduct, hospital...etc. and you should be fine. If it is really making itself worth it in science alone I would probably sacrifice some on production to keep it that way...especially if it has an observatory.

 

[Sherlock]

What's the basic story on jungle and research?

If you build a university and have a jungle tile being worked it increases your beakers?

This is one of many things I've never understood that well......

 

[joncnunn]

What's the basic story on jungle and research?

If you build a university and have a jungle tile being worked it increases your beakers?

This is one of many things I've never understood that well......

Universities increase the science yield of local Jungle by 2 each.

 

[GoStu]

What's the basic story on jungle and research?
If you build a university and have a jungle tile being worked it increases your beakers?
This is one of many things I've never understood that well......

The University in the city adds +2 Science to every Jungle Tile.

As to the original question, I find the answer to the question depends on civ and which city it is. A very rough rule of thumb I use for a 'core' jungle city (e.g. one founded early game and I expect to be a solid center to my empire) is about 50% Jungle. Riverfront tiles are turned into farms, and I'll hope to have a couple mines there. Half the population works the farms/mines in pairs, and the remainder (roughly) works the jungle trading posts.

A jungle capital I expect to run a lot of specialists - I tend to keep one-third of its tiles as jungle. This is of course, if the cities are spaced wide enough that it's not overlapping tiles with a 'core' jungle city.

Later cities I'll allow to work higher percentages of jungle to overcome the science cost of founding the city and to turn a net gain on science. Excess food to grow, and later excess production can be trucked in.

 

[Acken]

Universities increase the science yield of local Jungle by 2 each.

And with a trading post + rationalism it can become a 2food 3science tile (+gold)

 

[Syailendra]

i always clear those riverside tiles for farms. In addition i mined some on hills. It is silly to have a lot of jungle, but you have a hard times building the NC and the univ. I think having 8 to 10 jungle intact is already enough.