Best tile for special improvements

[Carassius]

How does one select the best tile for the special improvements: academies, landmarks, etc.? Initially, I thought it was best if it was a poor tile, but now I have flipped my thinking on that. Opinions?

Is there a limit to how many times one can add the special improvement to the same city? I just added a second academy to my science city -- is this a good strategy?

 

[Scarpa]

I don't know about *best* but grassland is nice because the 2 food mean you can work it and still feed the citizen used for it. As for multiple Great Tiles per city, I don't see why not, except that I almost never put academies and manufacturies down, GS are better used to bulb techs late game and GE are better used to rush wonders. I do tend to put multiple landmarks down in cultural games though. I don't think I've ever gotten a Great Merchant.

 

[Torvald]

Good question.

I myself generally pick the least productive tiles, such as desert tiles, to place Great Person improvements.

Later in the game, when most tiles have been improved in some way, I will settle Great Engineers on top of mines, and Great Scientists & Great Artists on top of villages. As far as Great Merchants, I always send them to a nearby city state to earn some cold, hard cash and obtain a little friendship.

Would like to hear what most other folks do in regards to placing GP improvements.

P.S. Just saw the above post (must have been made while I was busy typing), and I appreciate the comment about using plains tiles because they already have enough food to work the tile. Perhaps my idea of using desert tiles is not so good after all.

 

[Brichals]

I normally use a non river grassland tile, as said before, it's food neutral. I guess it can vary a lot depending on what tiles you have and what kind of city you are running, i.e. gold heavy, food heavy, production heavy etc.

 

[Hammer Rabbi]

i've really enjoyed playing a Great Person strategy taking some of the wonders and policies that help with getting them. This is mostly for the fun factor as there are plenty of other victory strategies that are more efficient/successful.

Mostly, GE's are best for rushing production, Generals for using in combat or popping a Golden Age, GAs for culture bombing for a resource you need (be careful about doing that to neighbors--it can start a DOW), and GMs for the trade mission or popping a Golden Age. But Scientists are good for the academies very early in the game if playing Babylon. Otherwise you hold them until mid to late game to buy techs. When strategically used, the scientists on ramped up Great Person generation late game (industrial age and on) are just SO necessary and so fun for the come-from-behind non-military victories. It does require a good bit of civilian micromanagement to make sure you arent getting the lesser needed GPs. but get GE's and GS's, as many as you can as they are just absolutely the most useful for any strategy.

Keep in mind, this is for fun and i'm not successful using this strategy past Emperor, but it was enjoyable nonetheless to see a new GP every few turn once you reach the late 1800s.

 

[Catastrophe90]

Depends. I usually go for either a Grassland tile or a resource tile. Putting a Landmark on a Oil or Coal deposit saves me the hassle to drag a worker around.

 

[krc]

One of the standard suggestions from earlier threads related to this topic was to try to settle GPs on a sheep tile. An undeveloped sheep tile gives 1 and 2 . Putting a GS on a sheep tile adds 6 and will always be a tile worth working.

 

[Glassmage]

I put GP improvements on desert tiles or nonbonus tiles.

 

[TPQ]

River side plains are good for manufactury placement if you get a hydro plant in the late game. Otherwise, river side grassland. Manufactury on a hill is generally wasting a hill.

Generally, you really want a tile with at least two base food for whatever GP improvement so you can feed the citizen who works the tile.

 

[TyBoy]

For the most part it shouldn't make any difference. Non-GP improvements all give 1 point to start out with and 2 after their renaissance era boost tech. This is true for standard improvements as well as the ones that go on bonus resources only. The base value of the tile generally shouldn't matter. There are a few exceptions that are somewhat uncommon situations.

Exceptions:
1. You were going to completely forego or limit as much as possible one of the basic improvement types (farm, mine, trading post) in the city you are settling your GP. In this case it's better to settle your GP on a tile that is limited to the improvement type or its bonus resource equivalent (i.e. if you don't want any mines at your city, settle the GP on a stone resource).
2. It's so early in the game and/or your city location is so good that there are a significant number of bonus resource tiles your city can't work for lack of population. In this case you can gain the 1 point for the bonus resource for however many turns it would have been before you had enough population to work that tile. This one doesn't come up much since GP take a while to generate and cities often grow in population faster than they acquire new bonus tiles to work.
3. You're settling the GP in what is currently a border city and you might have to defend it. In general, put the GP on the empire side of the city and not the frontier side. You don't want it to get occupied or pillaged.
4. There is one type of improvement that gets 2 points significantly sooner than the others. If you would otherwise build a freshwater farm on a tile don't put a GP there unless you have so many freshwater farm tiles that you won't be able to work them all until you get fertilizer anyway. Otherwise you'll end up working a 1 point improvement and a GP improvement when you could have been working a 2 food farm and a GP improvement. The same applies if you expect to be getting some of the renaissance booster techs significantly sooner than others. It's better to settle the GP on a tile that won't get boosted until later. Actually, even if you're not delaying any of the techs the improvements that get boosted first will still be better for a while as you research the others.
5. A city has so few of a class of tiles that you need to improve them all in the usual way. If a city is located in a sea of flat grassland with only 2 hills around it you probably don't want to plop down your GP on one of those hills. You'll probably need to get as much production as you can from that city so you don't want to sacrifice a mine when you could sacrifice a farm or trading post.

Those are all the exceptions I can think of. Other than #4 they all are pretty uncommon situations and even then only the freshwater farm situation seems to be a significant enough boost to really worry about.

 

[black213]

I plant them usually on grassland/plains near a river or not.

 

[The_Quasar]

I bring up the city map, and consider those tiles the city is not using at that time... I choose the one it's most unlikely to use, no matter what type of tile it is... I may consider up to 3 cities before deciding on a tile. Whether a tile has been improved has no relevance here, imho, I'm looking for a tile that will not affect the (future) growth or health of the city.