Chopping for hammers...what's the story?

[Sherlock]

Newbie question here: You can have your workers 'chop' to increase production in a local city, right?

How exactly does this work? You can always 'clear' a tile, but after you research something you get hammers for it?

Does this ever get obsolete with another tech?

Is it jungles you can chop for hammers, or forests or both? Is there one research tech that lets you 'clear' and another that lets you 'get hammers for clear'?

This seems pretty simple and I recall using it before, but I can't seem to get it straight lately. I keep thinking I'll see a 'chop this down for +20 prod in Athens' kind of message and I'm not seeing it.

I'm re-learning the game and trying to get the basics right.

Thanks for all comments and suggestions.

 

[Ghpstage]

Newbie question here: You can have your workers 'chop' to increase production in a local city, right?

It adds a single lump sum of (think its 20 on normal?) to whatever you are building at the time.

Ho

w exactly does this work? You can always 'clear' a tile, but after you research something you get hammers for it?

You can only clear a tile after you have bronze working, at which point you will start getting for it immediately. Once you have the mathematics tech, the yield is increased by 50%

Does this ever get obsolete with another tech?

No never

Is it jungles you can chop for hammers, or forests or both? Is there one research tech that lets you 'clear' and another that lets you 'get hammers for clear'?

Only forests give you . Clearing jungle needs a later tech (iron working), and the jungle being present reduces tile and adds to nearby cities so clear them anyway.

This seems pretty simple and I recall using it before, but I can't seem to get it straight lately. I keep thinking I'll see a 'chop this down for +20 prod in Athens' kind of message and I'm not seeing it.

Just one lump sum of on the turn it is finished chopping

 

[swineflu]

Here's the best answer I can give you...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWRyj5cHIQA

Chop! Chop! Chop!

Seriously though chop early, chop often, it is the key to fast early develpment.

 

[kooboo]

Here's the best answer I can give you...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWRyj5cHIQA

Chop! Chop! Chop!

I'll quote some YouTuber:

I can die happy now

 

[swineflu]

Best quote in the comments on Youtube for that one...

"I kinda want that song on my Ipod"

If you watch that video twice in a row it's very hard to get out of your head. In fact it may just be the most difficult song ever made to get out of your head. I wish there was a way of measuring such things....

 

[mystyfly]

Back to topic...

How exactly does this work? You can always 'clear' a tile, but after you research something you get hammers for it?

You can clear any tile after the proper tech. To clear jungle you need IW, to clear forests you need BW. You only get hammers for forests, base is 20 on normal. The hammers scale with gamespeed so it's 30 on epic, and so on. Researching maths increases those hammers by 50%. You can also chop forests outside your bfc (and outside your cultural borders too!) but the hammers gained decrease with distance from the city. If you clear a tile within multiple cities' BFC the hammers will go the the city which can work that tile (go to the city screen and click on the tile).

Does this ever get obsolete with another tech?

No.


PS That video is hilarious

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

It adds a single lump sum of (think its 20 on normal?) to whatever you are building at the time.

Unless I'm misremembering, not quite right: 20 to whatever "finishable" build is next at the top of the queue when you hit end turn.

In most cases, this means that the hammers go to what you are building at the time. However, if you shuffle a few things around during the turn that the chop finishes, all of the hammers go to whatever is at the top of the queue at the end of the turn (this is changed behavior from the original version). Also, research/wealth/espionage/and presumably some moddable stuff doesn't take tree hammers; instead they are held in some magic escrow account until you put something real in the queue.

 

[kooboo]

Also, research/wealth/espionage/and presumably some moddable stuff doesn't take tree hammers; instead they are held in some magic escrow account until you put something real in the queue.

Aye. I'm curious though if the chop hammers in the escrow decay over time, like hammers already invested in buildings that are not in the top of the queue.

 

[Iranon]

If they decay, it's very slow.

Excess hammers converted into gold are NOT discounted the multipliers the previous queue items, so chopping while building science, then hurrying a building with discounts results in a tidy sum of money.

Extreme case: chopping multiple forests while building science, then whipping a wall with a Protective leader with access to stone while in Organised Religion... 97.5 gold per forest.

 

[Don Carnage]

Chop for important wonders, a fast invasion force or other important builds.

But remember that forests give health (0.4 IIRC), so it can be beneficial to leave a couple of them by each city in the early/mid game, so you can grow your cities quickly when you get Hereditary Rule. Since forests help any city within 2 board squares, one strategy is to place cities only 3-4 squares apart and have forest in between help both cities.

When you chop a forest, you gain hammers, but loose the forest health and tile yield. Don't chop the last forest in a low production city, leave it some production at least until you get better workshops.

When you chop a jungle, you gain health, and gain a grassland square, the best square in the game. It's a win-win situation, but remember jungle hills make for excellent border forts.

 

[fantsu]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUjLxpVly0o

chop chop

(damn I'm old)

 

[MadmanAtW]

Other things to remember about forests: yes they give health, but they also give defense bonus- while I might sometimes leave forests in my BFC I will tend to chop in every tile adjacent to my city to make sure an attacker can't besiege me from a defensive position. Also, forests can regrow, there's a chance based on the number of forests in adjacent compass direction tiles (diagonals don't count). The growth chance (I should call it growth rather than regrowth, as tiles that started the game as plains or grassland can get forests or jungles later) is increased by forests with Preserves, and reduced if the tile they are growing into has a road. (If it has any other improvement, even one that can usually coexist with a forest, prevents forest growth, I believe.)

As such early in the game I will deliberately chop my forests in a checkerboard pattern to see if I can get one or two regrowths before I finish clearcutting; also I used this in a recent game to chop two forests to help the National Park along, and eventually managed to regrow those tiles. (Watch out for other players in a MP game, though, as they may decide to be jerks and build roads through your tiles. )

 

[trouble_maker]

Can you build a lumbermill or forest preserve on a jungle tile. Does this get rid of the unhealthiness

 

[kooboo]

Can you build a lumbermill or forest preserve on a jungle tile. Does this get rid of the unhealthiness

No. Yes. No.

 

[EmperorFool]

Aye. I'm curious though if the chop hammers in the escrow decay over time.

Chop and overflow hammers not yet applied to an item do not decay over time. They remain in separate bins that are not touched by the decay code.

Forests give health (0.4 IIRC).

Forests provide 0.5 each, jungles cause 0.25 each, and flood plains cause 0.4 each. Fallout causes 0.5, too. These are all from CIV4FeatureInfos.xml.