Best Map Type For GP Farm

[EGJ]

I'm currently playing Cultural games on quick speed trying to get #1 HOF slots. One key to these games is getting the best possible GP farm. I'm wondering which map type has the potential to yield the best GP farm (i.e., fat cross with the biggest food surplus).

I used to play Inland Sea, but recently I discovered a HOF game played on Great Plains (the eastern side of the map) that had a phenomenal GP farm. Now I play Great Plains but I haven't been able to generate a map that is nearly as good as that one.

 

[Mesix]

The problem with Great Plains (also Boreal or Highlands) is that there are limited types of resources. When going for a cultural win, it is important to have access to a lot of happy resources so that your cities can grow very large.

On the other hand, if you are turing off research early and running a high cultural slider, you get a lot of happiness from theaters and colleseums. In this case, a Boreal map might work really well. I often get Boreal maps with 3-4 deer, 1-2 wheet, and other misc. resources (gems, silver, horses, stone, etc.) in the BFC.

 

[EGJ]

The problem with Great Plains (also Boreal or Highlands) is that there are limited types of resources. When going for a cultural win, it is important to have access to a lot of happy resources so that your cities can grow very large.

On the other hand, if you are turing off research early and running a high cultural slider, you get a lot of happiness from theaters and colleseums. In this case, a Boreal map might work really well. I often get Boreal maps with 3-4 deer, 1-2 wheet, and other misc. resources (gems, silver, horses, stone, etc.) in the BFC.

I turn up the culture slider fairly early so happiness resources are not a huge issue. (It would be nice to have them before I turn up the culture slider, but it's not mandatory.) Health resources are more of a problem; often my GP farm cannot grow as big as I want because of health.

I'm still on Vanilla so don't have access to Boreal maps, but I'll try them if/when I upgrade to BTS.

 

[FiveAces]

IMO for GP farm site Great Plains has best chance. It is not that difficult to get 2 corn, deer, pigs etc. all bunched up in the NE corner. Problem with Great Plains though is it's cramped, which means you run out of space quickly, esp on higher diff levels.

 

[ruff_hi]

rainforest - lots of food in a city site is easy. Just have to chop the jungle.

 

[killercane]

You can get 7 food bonuses or so on GP in the Eastern portion of a smaller size map. Hard to beat!

 

[EGJ]

You can get 7 food bonuses or so on GP in the Eastern portion of a smaller size map. Hard to beat!

I notice you say "smaller size" map. I've been trying to get a great start on a large map and it's just not happening. I very rarely get put on the east side of the map and when I do, I don't see a tremendous GP farm site.

So I take it there's something about the smaller size that yields the great GP farm sites on Great Plains?

 

[killercane]

The best explanation I have is that when the map generator makes city sites, on the smaller size map they overlap as far as food goes, and results in bountiful food spots in the resource strong east. There is a chieftain or settler game of mine on there, that was the huge food spot. The marble is over there as well.

Im sure you can find a 5 seafood, 1 or 2 landbased food setup but Im not sure if there are any map settings you can use to increase the likelihood of finding such a spot.