City Placement question

[NaSMaX]

Does placing a city over stones or a forest give a boost in production? Or should I just built it next to some?

Same with over a marsh, does it give a boost in food?

 

[Balkans]

No, yes, no. You need to harvest and chop for boosts.

 

[chazzycat]

Settling on top of a plains hill gives you an extra cog, that's about it. The things you described (stone, forest, or marsh) would not.

Basically the city has minimum 2 food 1 cog output (2F1C) regardless of terrain. To get anything more than that, the tile has to have higher base output, not including improvements or features (like forest).

- Stone can only be found in grassland, so it always has 2F1C base output. So settling on it gives you the standard 2F1C just the same as a normal tile. But you cannot build a quarry, nor harvest the stone, so this is strictly a bad idea.
- Forest gets removed when you found a city, so its presence doesn't change any calculation of the city hex output. It would, however, mean there is 1 less forest to chop, so it's probably not ideal.
- Same as forest, marsh would be automatically removed upon founding the city, so it only matters in that you have 1 less thing to chop.

Some other interesting cases:
- Ivory. Ivory adds 1 production and can be found in plains hills! This makes for the best possible tile to settle on (1F3C base output, brought up to 2F3C by the food minimum)
- Cattle. Cattle can only be found on grass, and has 3F0C output. The food is greater than the minimum, so you get to keep it. The production is less than minimum, so you get 1 free cog and your total output for the city would be 3F1C. You cannot build a pasture, which is also 1 cog, so that's a wash. So, settling on cattle may be worth considering sometimes, depending on various factors (namely, the eureka for pastures, and what other tiles are nearby).
- Grassland hills. This was a big change from Civ5 in that grassland hills only have an output of 2F1C now. Hence there is no benefit to settling on these anymore, only the loss of a future mine. Having a forest on it doesn't help either.

 

[DizzKneeLand33]

So the plains hill gives an extra hammer/cog? Sounds like a reversion back to 4.... good to know!

 

[UWHabs]

Settling on top of a plains hill gives you an extra cog, that's about it. The things you described (stone, forest, or marsh) would not.

Basically the city has minimum 2 food 1 cog output (2F1C) regardless of terrain. To get anything more than that, the tile has to have higher base output, not including improvements or features (like forest).

- Stone can only be found in grassland, so it always has 2F1C base output. So settling on it gives you the standard 2F1C just the same as a normal tile. But you cannot build a quarry, nor harvest the stone, so this is strictly a bad idea.
- Forest gets removed when you found a city, so its presence doesn't change any calculation of the city hex output. It would, however, mean there is 1 less forest to chop, so it's probably not ideal.
- Same as forest, marsh would be automatically removed upon founding the city, so it only matters in that you have 1 less thing to chop.

Some other interesting cases:
- Ivory. Ivory adds 1 production and can be found in plains hills! This makes for the best possible tile to settle on (1F3C base output, brought up to 2F3C by the food minimum)
- Cattle. Cattle can only be found on grass, and has 3F0C output. The food is greater than the minimum, so you get to keep it. The production is less than minimum, so you get 1 free cog and your total output for the city would be 3F1C. You cannot build a pasture, which is also 1 cog, so that's a wash. So, settling on cattle may be worth considering sometimes, depending on various factors (namely, the eureka for pastures, and what other tiles are nearby).
- Grassland hills. This was a big change from Civ5 in that grassland hills only have an output of 2F1C now. Hence there is no benefit to settling on these anymore, only the loss of a future mine. Having a forest on it doesn't help either.

Doesn't settling on bonus resources destroy them? So in the above, I think the cattle would get wiped out by settling on it, bringing it back to a 2f tile.
Ivory (and other luxury resources) don't get killed, so you should be able to get bonuses from them if they give you anything other than the 2f1c

 

[joncnunn]

Doesn't settling on bonus resources destroy them? So in the above, I think the cattle would get wiped out by settling on it, bringing it back to a 2f tile.
Ivory (and other luxury resources) don't get killed, so you should be able to get bonuses from them if they give you anything other than the 2f1c

As I recall (when this topic came up in October after release) placing a district destroys bonus resources, but not cities.

 

[c4c6]

- Same as forest, marsh would be automatically removed upon founding the city, so it only matters in that you have 1 less thing to chop.

- Cattle. Cattle can only be found on grass, and has 3F0C output. The food is greater than the minimum, so you get to keep it. The production is less than minimum, so you get 1 free cog and your total output for the city would be 3F1C.

Just like to add:
- feature rainforest (aka jungle) provides food / behaves like marsh.
- Rice. Results in 3F1C like Cattle.

This thread to-hill-or-not-to-hill discusses also good (initial) settlement places.

 

[ShinigamiKenji]

Sometimes the extra science, culture or faith form some luxuries or strategic resources may help in the very early game.

However, be careful if you haven't researched the tech for that luxury (for example, Irrigation for Coffee). If you settle without that tech, you won't ever get the luxury for amenities or trade.

 

[PYITE]

Gypsum is same as Ivory.
Gypsum plains hill will give city 2F 3C

Settling on 3 gold resources (chocolate, cotton, diamonds ...) will give city +3G.
A chocolate or diamond plain hill gives 2F 2C 3G

Settling on luxury without tech will give you the amenities but can't trade it. It doesn't destroy it.

Settling next to a natural wonder will give you the bonus of that tile. A plain hill next to Torre Del Paine will give city 2F 4C.

It is almost always better to settle on tiles that will give something better than 2F 1C. Especially luxuries that only give initial +1 gold when improved.

 

[UWHabs]

Gypsum is same as Ivory.
Gypsum plains hill will give city 2F 3C

Settling on 3 gold resources (chocolate, cotton, diamonds ...) will give city +3G.
A chocolate or diamond plain hill gives 2F 2C 3G

Settling on luxury without tech will give you the amenities but can't trade it. It doesn't destroy it.

Settling next to a natural wonder will give you the bonus of that tile. A plain hill next to Torre Del Paine will give city 2F 4C.

It is almost always better to settle on tiles that will give something better than 2F 1C. Especially luxuries that only give initial +1 gold when improved.

A lot of times you also want to manage it based on what's available in the rest of the city, too. If the city has a lot of other production, then settling on the plains hill makes sense. But if you don't have a lot of production tiles, then I will often want to keep the plains hill available for a mine. Grass hills are obviously the worst to settle on, as you don't get the bonus from it, and you also can't mine it either.

 

[PYITE]

A lot of times you also want to manage it based on what's available in the rest of the city, too. If the city has a lot of other production, then settling on the plains hill makes sense. But if you don't have a lot of production tiles, then I will often want to keep the plains hill available for a mine. Grass hills are obviously the worst to settle on, as you don't get the bonus from it, and you also can't mine it either.

Yes. That exception and things like fresh water availability are the reasons why better than 2F 1C is only, "almost always better" and not always better.

 

[Futumch]

In addition: Placing a wonder before a tech reveals the appropriate resource will maintain the resource. For example you build the Pyramids, and then later on when Aluminium becomes visible, it can sometimes be under the Pyramids. The resource still counts as present. I have often had working Uranium mines going on already mined hills the same turn Uranium was revealed.

 

[UWHabs]

In addition: Placing a wonder before a tech reveals the appropriate resource will maintain the resource. For example you build the Pyramids, and then later on when Aluminium becomes visible, it can sometimes be under the Pyramids. The resource still counts as present. I have often had working Uranium mines going on already mined hills the same turn Uranium was revealed.

But on the flipside, if your resources are all covered, you don't get the eurekas for them. I've often had all my sources of Niter covered by districts so that I can't get the rifling eureka for having a niter mine. Or alternately, if you place a district/wonder before revealing the tech, you can build it. But if I want to place a district in a spot and then a niter/aluminum/etc... pops on that spot, you can't place a district there.

 

[ShinigamiKenji]

Settling on luxury without tech will give you the amenities but can't trade it. It doesn't destroy it.

Wut, when did they fix this? I remember people reported it didn't work.

 

[PYITE]

Wut, when did they fix this? I remember people reported it didn't work.

I think the winter patch, but I'm not sure. I just started a game to double check; settled on chocolate 1st turn and it showed up in amenities listing.

 

[Evolena]

It shows in the listing, but if it is your only remaining copy, it doesn't give amenities to any city (at least if settled without the tech).

 

[PYITE]

It shows in the listing, but if it is your only remaining copy, it doesn't give amenities to any city (at least if settled without the tech).

Correct you are. My bad.