Keeping forests alive.

[GGracchus]

Gotta chop em all!

 

[AJ11]

By what math? In epic/huge a chop is 16 hammers, meaning you'd have to chop 7 trees for that one extra settler, and another several trees to chop out the workers required to do the other chops. If you're on an all-forest map that MIGHT be somewhat believable, but on a normal map there's no way in hell you even have that many trees to begin with.

Who said anything about chopping a settler? If you are going to chop, chop a warrior and rush a neighbour's cap.

 

[The7Sins]

Who said anything about chopping a settler? If you are going to chop, chop a warrior and rush a neighbour's cap.

Real men rush using an army of Scouts to conquer the world.

 

[AJ11]

Real men rush using an army of Scouts to conquer the world.

There is nothing wrong with that, as long as you remember that you are playing FFH2 and not vanilla BTS Svart scouts have the same attack as warriors.

 

[azzaman333]

All riverside forests get chopped, and so do all forests in cottage cities. The rest are situational.

 

[-Asterix-]

In epic/huge a chop is 16 hammers, meaning you'd have to chop 7 trees for that one extra settler, and another several trees to chop out the workers required to do the other chops. If you're on an all-forest map that MIGHT be somewhat believable, but on a normal map there's no way in hell you even have that many trees to begin with.

Umm... Do hammers from chops really scale with map size? They do scale according to speed but e.g. on normal a math-chop is 30 hammers so it makes basically 3 chops/settler + some additional hammers. But anyway, chopping + whipping combined is the best early strategy to gather an army fast. For example one axe per city in 4-5 turns is quite slow here...

 

[AJ11]

Umm... Do hammers from chops really scale with map size? They do scale according to speed but e.g. on normal a math-chop is 30 hammers so it makes basically 3 chops/settler + some additional hammers. But anyway, chopping + whipping combined is the best early strategy to gather an army fast. For example one axe per city in 4-5 turns is quite slow here...

It scales with speed only, as far as I know.

 

[InnateGamer]

I thought it scaled UP with slower speed, so on marathon you would get MORE hammers not less. But I've only ever played on quick because it's too slow on my computer to even try to play at any slower speed/more turn I figure. It would be a real downer if you got LESS hammers on slower speed. In the beginning I just make a lot of workers and basically just have them chop all the time. I might build a farm or something like that on a food resource, but other than that I just keep chopping. 7.5 hammers per turn generated by a worker, that's usually better than what a new city does and a worker costs less than a settler and early in the game there's no other way to increase hammers than growing size, founding new cities or chopping forest. Growing one more pop usually costs about half a worker or a little less, that might be worth it if you have a good additional square to work.

 

[AJ11]

I thought it scaled UP with slower speed, so on marathon you would get MORE hammers not less. But I've only ever played on quick because it's too slow on my computer to even try to play at any slower speed/more turn I figure. It would be a real downer if you got LESS hammers on slower speed. In the beginning I just make a lot of workers and basically just have them chop all the time. I might build a farm or something like that on a food resource, but other than that I just keep chopping. 7.5 hammers per turn generated by a worker, that's usually better than what a new city does and a worker costs less than a settler and early in the game there's no other way to increase hammers than growing size, founding new cities or chopping forest. Growing one more pop usually costs about half a worker or a little less, that might be worth it if you have a good additional square to work.

You get more on a slower speed. A chop on Marathon gives you 40 hammers (60 with Math), IIRC.

 

[Skallagrimson]

I should have screenshotted the 16 hammer chops I was getting on CFC Earth challenge (epic/huge). The tiny reward for the health nuke was pissing me off. But it's possible there's a reduced payoff in hammers if they're outside your culture zone--I was doing a lot of ninja-chopping.

 

[Ghpstage]

But it's possible there's a reduced payoff in hammers if they're outside your culture zone

There is, the further away it is the fewer hammers you get.

You get more on a slower speed. A chop on Marathon gives you 40 hammers (60 with Math), IIRC.

Marathon chops are 60, and 90 with Maths. Unlike unit costs they scale correctly meaning by not chopping your losing even more producton potential than on normal speed!

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Chop.

Chops are ~5 hammers/turn for the duration you're chopping, very big in the early game and more with math. It's not as good as a strong special tile but probably the best after that.

Chops also make defense more competent. In MP people WILL use your forests against you if you leave them there...and their chops will put you behind in hammers too .

 

[AJ11]

There is, the further away it is the fewer hammers you get.
Marathon chops are 60, and 90 with Maths. Unlike unit costs they scale correctly meaning by not chopping your losing even more producton potential than on normal speed!

Thanks. I knew there was a 60 involved. Just can't remember if it is before or after Maths.

 

[Sarda]

I tend to run a entirely production economy, so I usually have tons of Lumbermills in my empires, ill chop down forests only if there on hills (were I only put mines) or were I need farms.

 

[Ramesses-Rules]

I usually chop to the health limit in my capital as soon as I get BW, which is always one of the first techs I research. You need the hammers to get your Settlers and Workers out fast at the higher difficulty levels. Then I am usually looking to build Oracle, Pyramids, etc. and the chops help there, too. Once you get to Math and can build Aquaducts, that allows a little more chopping -- maybe even to help build Hanging Garden. If you have a chopped tile undeveloped next to a forested tile, it can eventually regrow the forest there. If I am close to getting Construction, I hold off chopping, because you'll get more hammers per chop post-Construction. When you start a new city, you will rarely go wrong chopping a couple green tiles, especially on rivers, to get it growing fast. My bottomline: cut a lot of trees, but timing is important, and clear-cutting is not a good idea for most cities.

 

[inco]

Construction... mathematics you mean.

 

[Ramesses-Rules]

Construction... mathematics you mean.

Right. I have actually had a couple times where that made the difference between winning or losing in the race to build a wonder.

 

[InnateGamer]

Chop.

Chops are ~5 hammers/turn for the duration you're chopping, very big in the early game and more with math. It's not as good as a strong special tile but probably the best after that.

Chops also make defense more competent. In MP people WILL use your forests against you if you leave them there...and their chops will put you behind in hammers too .

I think chops are always more than 5 hammers per turn, you have to plan the movements of your workers carefully in order to avoid taking unnecessary extra steps.

I didn't know Mathematics increased the number of hammers you get, my forests are usually gone by then

 

[Utenlok]

On a semi-related note, I assume Boreal maps are a choppers dream? I guess India would be borderline OP on that one?

 

[strijder20]

Well Lumber Mills get extra gold and production bonuses later on from technologies and railroad gives them +1 production, so they're really good later on. Sometimes I have forests in between BFCs and so I'll use Forest Preserves to speed up regrowth of forests and replace some of my farms with lumber mills (after Biology they produce an extra food so it's not a big loss.

Sorry, couldn't resist correcting
Lumbermills get NO commerce bonus. 'But... when I build a lumbermill it occasionaly shows 1+c?' Yes, only if it is next to a river. Forests on a river tile remove the commerce. Removing the forest would give you the commerce back.

As for chopping forests - I'm pro, although usually too lazy to actually do it and I get a lot of lumbermills (LOVELY tiles ) later on.