Name your favorite material to go for.

[fantsu]

As I try to wake you guys up, lets talk about raw materials in civ iv: col.
Mainly Cotton, Fur, Sugar and Tobacco.

I mean the balance in the vanilla game isn't perfect but its quite interesting how they build up these.

First of all. I don't like cotton. Betsy Ross comes way too late to take advantage of cloth production. Then again she isn't really that contested so of course cottonfields might save you later on. Eli Whitney + Betsy Ross is murdering combo but I think it goes too far to even try it out.

With sugar... well McCormick is super late, but he still does something else too great food source for all of those coastal colonies. Even better with mapscripts with lots of water around.

Tobacco is my favorite. Rolfe comes so early and I think that with vanilla mapscripts tobacco usually lumps up nicely too.

Furs... well. I usually don't have much furs. I tend to steer my start towards the middle of the map so furs are usually out of my reach. John Jacob Astor is ok I guess.

Any other pointers?

 

[dalgo]

That's a good question fantsu. In my case I prefer a long game on a large map so market prices will decline if I sell too much of any one product. Consequently I try to diversify and build up production in all four goods. As Tobacco and Cotton are usually plentiful the two FF I find most useful are John Astor (+ 50% Furs) and Cyris McCormick (+50% Sugar).