Building a City on top of a resource

[TomSawyer]

Greetings all. I am sure I have posted here before but since I can not recall that name or password I shall start anew.

If you build a city on top of a resource does that resource get destroyed? Or once you research the appropriate tech does it get worked as though you had placed the proper upgrade there?

I have a game where I started next to stone, fresh water and some forest. IF however I choose to build on top of that stone I will also gain acess to some clams.

I have been tinkering with this for a while now and I think by building on top you do gain the resource. When I built my city in the starting position by the stone it would have taken 40 turns to build stonehenge. Once I gained the wheel for roads and masonry it droped to 15. When I chose to build on top of the stone, researched again the wheel and then masonry it again droped to 15.

IF this is a viable option, building on top of resources may change my strategy as there was some great city building spots I was avoiding

 

[KAuss]

I generally don't build on top of resources unless I have to...

You'll definately get the resourse as an "item" tradeable... However you miss out on the chance to develop it... If you're sitting on top of a cow, thats a 3 food 3 hammer square taken away...

I'd sit happy on a resource if the city can be linked to 4 resources not counting the one I'm sitting on... Sometimes especially early, it's best to keep a low city count and just resource hog... It'll hurt you in the later game when your empire is small and struggle to keep up with the AI though...

Meh, bottom line, it's a do if you must thing...

 

[TomSawyer]

Actually you DO develop it, at least for stone.

If it takes 40 turns to build stonehenge, yet you gain masonry and are sitting on top of the stone and it drops to 15 then the game must considered it "developed".

Time to tinker and build on others such as horses and see what happens.

Or better yet I will try corn. If the city suddenly shows a large loaf of 5 food then watch out

 

[Pfeffersack]

Developed yes in terms of having it available as ressource.And in case of stone this means 50% percent faster building for some wonders or buildings.

But KAuss has a point, too.You miss the bonus output you would get, if you would "harvest" the ressource with the special improvemnt and you even loose the smll "natural" bonus for undeveloped ressources in case of food.

 

[Fieryphoenix]

Worse, when you found on a resource, you get just the two food and one hammer that you do on any other site. So not only do you lose the ability to improve the square, you lose the benefit that just the plain unimproved tile gave.

 

[Pfeffersack]

Worse, when you found on a resource, you get just the two food and one hammer that you do on any other site. So not only do you lose the ability to improve the square, you lose the benefit that just the plain unimproved tile gave.

Really? I cannot comment, because I have never tried (anticipating that it wouldn't do anything good)...so I though it would just cut food, but give you the unimproved amount gold and hammers (as it is when you settle a plain/hill tile, where you get an extra hammer above the standard city tile yield of 2/1/0).

 

[KAuss]

The computer seem to do this a LOT with costal cities though... They do it just so they can get the resource ASAP...

I THINK an exception to the rule would be the "needed" resources... Things like iron in the early game... Horses are important too, but they're a godsend with 4 hammers and food!!! I'd rather sit on top of an iron pile and secure it to make sure I can keep pumping out medival units...

Marble and rock are pretty useless too... They're only fully utilized with a grown city, so it's a safe bet to sit on top of them too if you had to choose...

Things I don't mind sitting on are commerce type resources... Espeically things that require "calendar..." They don't help much early game, so if you can link a cow and horse to the same city, sit on whatever else is in your way!!! Quickly build a farm to make sure both squres can be used!!!

 

[Gufnork]

Yeah, calendar based resources usually suck when developed and usually come in clumps, so I don't mind building cities on those. Haven't thought about protecting my iron that way, will definetly consider it if my only source is near a border.

And some resources gives you an extra food or an extra hammer if you build a city on it. It's still not worth it though.

 

[Dairuka]

Best way to defend an Iron or Oil resource is to build a city on it.

Especially later on when you get an Airport in the city, and won't need roads to keep the resource connected to other cities.