About "Monster Tile"

[crazymarco]

Hey all,
I am new to civ series and I am still learning to play at this moment

One thing I am still frustrating is what improvement should be placed on what kind of tiles. Of course, I know it is different by case as if you city is science-oriented, you farm everywhere to get population! If it is production city, grab hammer as much as you can. But when I am reading different posts here, I saw the phrase "monster tile", seems it is farm on fresh water hill, which will provide abundant food and hammer for growth of city.

So please don't mind that I am still young to civ. Is there any recommendation for which improvement on which tile?

 

[sarah_aus]

hello and welcome
i think with civ, noone STOPS learning, we each pick something up every-time we play.
what i normally do and im by no means an expert, i do my luxury tiles first, then i work into the farms, the best ones are near fresh water. then i do my roads to establish a trade route, then i do a couple of trading posts and basic improvements and then let it develop from there. no matter how large my civ is i only have 2 workers, as they are expensive.
im sorry im not any more helpful, i hope you are enjoying so far

 

[Jellly]

Hey all,
I am new to civ series and I am still learning to play at this moment

One thing I am still frustrating is what improvement should be placed on what kind of tiles. Of course, I know it is different by case as if you city is science-oriented, you farm everywhere to get population! If it is production city, grab hammer as much as you can. But when I am reading different posts here, I saw the phrase "monster tile", seems it is farm on fresh water hill, which will provide abundant food and hammer for growth of city.

So please don't mind that I am still young to civ. Is there any recommendation for which improvement on which tile?

Hey hey

Yeah I agree sarah_aus in that you never stop learning about Civ V. I'll post what I generally do.

Production Town - Try to have all tiles on plains, hills or forests. Build lumber mills in all the forests, mines on the forests and MAYBE one farm. (Generally I rely on growth from one farm or Maritime states)

Science Town - Build next to a river on grasslands/flood plains. Build farms on all the river tiles and trading posts on all the others (+2 science on them when you get the social policy in the rationalism line, and it also supports a strong economy)

Culture Town - If you can, settle next to incense or wine so you get the bonus from the monastary. Otherwise I just stick more trading posts on it so it can function as a secondary science town.

 

[russ555]

How expensive are they? I often have around 10, most of them on automatic, maybe that is why I'm never as rich as my friend.

 

[dalowrider]

While we are on the topic, what is regarded as "fresh water", rivers? oceans? 2 square lakes? a massive sea in the middle of a large continent?

 

[crazymarco]

hello and welcome
i think with civ, noone STOPS learning, we each pick something up every-time we play.
what i normally do and im by no means an expert, i do my luxury tiles first, then i work into the farms, the best ones are near fresh water. then i do my roads to establish a trade route, then i do a couple of trading posts and basic improvements and then let it develop from there. no matter how large my civ is i only have 2 workers, as they are expensive.
im sorry im not any more helpful, i hope you are enjoying so far

Yup! Sarah!

Working on resource is the first pirority as they always are the best tiles! But I am just wondering how to decide the tile to work on farm or trade route.

You arouse my second question - How many workers should be built? As a starter, I just follow the recommended unit that AI suggest me to build. But it seems AI needs UNLIMITED workers! After building several scout at the beginning of the game, the suggestion that AI gives are workers, workers and workers. I just wonder do I need so many of that? As time goes by, it is difficult to manage those multitude of workers as it cannot stack workers on a single tile in CIV 5.

 

[sarah_aus]

How expensive are they? I often have around 10, most of them on automatic, maybe that is why I'm never as rich as my friend.

oh no, they take a lot of resources. you dont need more then 2 (maybe 3 at the beginning but get rid of it before warfare comes)
and the prob with auto run is they will often go over things you already built. for example you build a marble quarry on a tile, and 50 turns later they will build a trading post on it.

 

[crazymarco]

While we are on the topic, what is regarded as "fresh water", rivers? oceans? 2 square lakes? a massive sea in the middle of a large continent?

I mean Rivers that pass through continent. After CS, it will +1 Food.

 

[sarah_aus]

Yup! Sarah!

Working on resource is the first pirority as they always are the best tiles! But I am just wondering how to decide the tile to work on farm or trade route.

You arouse my second question - How many workers should be built? As a starter, I just follow the recommended unit that AI suggest me to build. But it seems AI needs UNLIMITED workers! After building several scout at the beginning of the game, the suggestion that AI gives are workers, workers and workers. I just wonder do I need so many of that? As time goes by, it is difficult to manage those multitude of workers as it cannot stack workers on a single tile in CIV 5.

and dont always build stuff that the AI want you to build. often they will suggest things that you dont need, look at what your civ has and if you need it build it first, and that goes with the production screen too.

 

[Jellly]

Yup, and generally I've found that I only need one worker per turn early on. Later on if I have not expanded much I'll have roughly 1 for every 2/3 towns.

 

[Polycrates]

I think "monster tile" is just for riverside hill; with Civil Service and a farm, you're getting two food and two hammers (and one gold), which is a really good balanced tile for a non-special and a great way to get hammers. One riverside flat grassland farm and one riverside mined hill will get you 4 food 3 hammers with civil service, while two farmed riverside hills will get you 4 food 4 hammers. Not a bad deal.

Also remember that excess food can be used to support specialists as well if you have the right buildings, both to focus output and to generate Great People Points. A science city with a library can support two scientists, for example, which will really help to further specialise the city's output.

Also, I would suggest at least one worker per city. They're expensive, but if your people are working unimproved tiles, you're wasting a lot of potential output. Fewer will get it done, but they won't get it done as quickly, and that can make all the difference. Later on, you can cut this back a bit perhaps. Also, if you've got multiple workers working on a road link simultaneously, there will be less turns where you're paying upkeep on the road but not getting the trade route bonus.

But yeah I'd recommend not automating. Not only do they do a fairly ordinary job of it, but you'll probably get a much better grasp of the mechanics if you're doing it yourself.

 

[crazymarco]

I think "monster tile" is just for riverside hill; with Civil Service and a farm, you're getting two food and two hammers (and one gold), which is a really good balanced tile for a non-special and a great way to get hammers. One riverside flat grassland farm and one riverside mined hill will get you 4 food 3 hammers with civil service, while two farmed riverside hills will get you 4 food 4 hammers. Not a bad deal.

Also remember that excess food can be used to support specialists as well if you have the right buildings, both to focus output and to generate Great People Points. A science city with a library can support two scientists, for example, which will really help to further specialise the city's output.

Also, I would suggest at least one worker per city. They're expensive, but if your people are working unimproved tiles, you're wasting a lot of potential output. Fewer will get it done, but they won't get it done as quickly, and that can make all the difference. Later on, you can cut this back a bit perhaps. Also, if you've got multiple workers working on a road link simultaneously, there will be less turns where you're paying upkeep on the road but not getting the trade route bonus.

But yeah I'd recommend not automating. Not only do they do a fairly ordinary job of it, but you'll probably get a much better grasp of the mechanics if you're doing it yourself.

So seems farm on riverside hill is good for every situation!

 

[drachasor]

So seems farm on riverside hill is good for every situation!

The only exception would be if you already have a lot of food and really need more production (perhaps your only production is from the hills on a river). Outside of that, yeah, it is pretty awesome for any city. All cities need food and hammers to some degree and that does both.

 

[crazymarco]

The only exception would be if you already have a lot of food and really need more production (perhaps your only production is from the hills on a river). Outside of that, yeah, it is pretty awesome for any city. All cities need food and hammers to some degree and that does both.

Should I turn all the riverside tile to farm to grab the +1 Food from CS? In other words, is it easier to create a Science-oriented city with a river passing through (becasue the abundant food source due to the river)?