Which tiles are best to work?

[joshinda]

I always end up picking city locations with as much grassland as possible, because I've always thought higher pop = better.

Now I realise how silly I am, because by including hills and plains I don't need as many citizens to get the same production, so more happiness for me

I know science is very dependent on pop though, so I'm not sure where the ideal balance is - do I keep a smaller pop, work more hills and stay happy more easily or do I spam farms to grow for science? I know it depends on no. of cities as well but what is ideal?

 

[CoolLizy]

I tend to like hills by rivers. You get additional food from the fresh water by farming them, along with the production from the hill and commerce from being by a river.

I think all in all it depends on how you want to specialize the specific city.

 

[Tabarnak]

A riversided spot with plains and wheat is a good compromise between production and growth. I like these spots. A rush buyed granary in a brand new city with 2-3 wheats/deers tiles can give you pretty awesome results.

 

[Babri]

It depends. If you are going for a small 3-5 city empire then spamming farms on grasslands could be a good idea. Freedom & Tradition could help u alot in this case. If you are going for Wide empire or a big Tall Empire then u probably have to keep a balance between farms & TPs on plains/grasslands & mines on hills.

 

[pxpdoo]

I'm sure you know this, but you need luxuries and gold, and strategic resources. Force-feeding a city Big Macs will make it fat - but all of those citizens need to be entertained and protected...

 

[KillingMeSoftly]

It's very situational depending on the needs of your Empire and the needs of that particular city. But my favorite are hills along rivers, because you can build Farms. The fresh water adds one food, it has two production base, and one gold from being along the river. Civil Services bumps it to two food, making it an all around solid tile. I also like building Trading Posts on hills along rivers for my puppet cities. Though I pretty much build nothing but Trading Posts for all my puppets.

I also like Jungles along rivers once you have University. When you have Economics that's 2 Food, 2 Science, and 3 Gold. One of the policies in Rationalism boosts that to 2 Food, 3 Science, 3 Gold. Pretty solid!