Is there a reason not to chop woods?

[Konfuchie]

I see different youtubers act differently when it comes down to wood copping. Since I am not deity beater lvl kinda player I'd like to know more about wood chopping since I can't seem to learn this through watching playthroughs.

When to chop, when not to chop?

 

[Frank327]

You get lumbermill tech relatively early in the game, which is a +1 production improvement, and an extra +1 production on river tiles. So generally your river forests will turn into great production tiles (5 yield) and river forest hill tiles will be amazing (6 yield). Non-river forests will still give decent production so if the city is production poor it helps keeping them around.

Mostly it's about city planning. If you need or want the forest for higher future production then don't chop. If you plan to build a district or farm on the forest tile later on, chop it. Forests got a boost compared to earlier games because it gives a +1 production bonus without taking food yield away from the tile.

 

[Konfuchie]

Thank you! I didn't know all the numbers you gave me. I'll try to implement the general ideas.

 

[MadDjinn]

to add to the above:

Don't chop if forests are your primary production (Ie no hills).
Don't chop early unless super needed to clear space for a district because yield gained is scaled throughout the game (later is better).
Don't chop if you want more appealing lands later in the game for Neighbourhoods and national parks (forests get +1 appeal at conservation)

Do chop if: you have more hills than anything else.

the lumbermill vs mine discussion that keeps popping up is sometimes flawed. A mine is +1 right away, but it's another +1 at apprenticeship. Forest on river hill would get +2 from the lumbermill, so improvement wise, it's the same.

mines get their next +1 at Industrialization whereas lumbermills take Steel (much longer before that tech is reached).

the only benefit to going lumbermill over mine for a forested hill is that the yield for chopping the forest goes up over time, so doing it early is more of a waste.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

NOTE: If you place a lumber mill in lieu of chopping in the later eras for more hammers, you have to to remove the improvement (no builder charge) and another build charge to chop the forest.

SO...

If you plan on chopping later things (increased cost districts, later wonders, etc.), then put a lumbermill on the tile if the extra hammers will be worth a builder charge and then chop it in the atomic or later eras.

To answer the OP's question, I will eventually chop everything other than forests next to my holy sites or river forests I lumbermilled early for production boosts. Anything else gets chopped or replaced as needed for district spam later on.

 

[Browd]

Actually, there's no builder charge used when you bulldoze an improvement. But, yes, there is a charge used to remove a terrain feature or harvest a resource.

 

[Iaksones]

On an apples to apples (gears to gears) basis, another aspect to consider is that mines give adjacency bonuses to industrial districts, while lumber mills don't.

Apples to oranges, lumber mills are worth the most on river tiles, which are incidentally can be in high demand for things like chateaus.

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

Chopping can be needed to build farms who can help you get up the critical population. 6 farms give 3 housing and 3 citizens are one more district you can build

The instand production boost is pretty nice and production can be earned by trade.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

Actually, there's no builder charge used when you bulldoze an improvement. But, yes, there is a charge used to remove a terrain feature or harvest a resource.

That's good to know. I didn't risk it before. Modifying my post.

 

[chazzycat]

the only benefit to going lumbermill over mine for a forested hill is that the yield for chopping the forest goes up over time, so doing it early is more of a waste.

that and saving 1 builder charge

 

[FooTooAy]

What about Rainforests? I see no reason to NOT chop them except where you're going to build a Campus.

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

There is little reason not to chop down keep rainforest because farms have better yields. You may want to keep rainforest on resources due to +1 food and plantation can exist with rainforest.

 

[avl8]

If you play with Catherine you can find out hidden agendas early on by sending 25gold delegation to AI.
Then if you find that AI is Environmentalist than you get heavy relation hit if you chop or bulldoze any tile.
In my recent emperor game Kongo declared on me 2 turns after I chopped a forest! Not a big problem, but gets against my RP

Thats another reason for me not to chop early

 

[Zenstrive]

I think, for now, there is no reason to NOT CHOP forest around your fifth cities onward, since by then you may already have 4 trade routes running.
Build a city, redirect all trade routes to originate from that city, and put them on internal routes. Build Industrial zone first on that city. Buy city center buildings with gold or faith.
Farm or mines the non district target tiles.

 

[rpgalon]

Lumber Mills are amazing, I only chop forests that are on hills without rivers, or forests that are on tiles I will never reach.

Mines give +1 -> +2 with apprenticeship -> +3 at Industrialization

Lumber Mills give +2 (forest feature + improvement) -> +3 on river / or at Steel tech -> +4 on river with Steel tech

A plains hill, with forest, on river becomes a 1 food 6 production tile with steel tech.

Food is useless if you use trade routes correctly. so plain > grassland.

 

[LanguishViking]

If you are norway and get feed the world your holy sites get plus 1 food per adjacent forest. So leave them alone for an early food and production boost and a later appeal boost for neighborhoods.

 

[WackenOpenAir]

The argument to chop later rather than early is imo an invalid one.

The amount of production gained may go up with time, but the value of production (or food) goes down much, much faster.
Its similar to real life. If i offer you 1000$ right now or 2000$ 30 years from now, you'd be daft not to take the 1000$ now.
Inflation is a bigger factor than the difference. / If you invest the 1000$ now, you'll have much more than 2000 in 30 years.

So i claim the opposite. As soon as you have improved workers (5 action or even 6), choose what you want to chop, chop those tiles as soon as you can put the production to good use. (which usually means asap, though sometimes you may want to wait for a tech, or you have an even better use like a wonder to build later)

 

[Victoria]

to be fair, this post is 3 months old. The game was so new then

 

[WackenOpenAir]

Ah sorry
i must have gotten here trough googling stuff.
I guess inflation has devalued my comment

 

[Victoria]

Lol, nvm. I have commented on older threads after doing a forum search