Coastal Cities. To build or not to build?

[isau]

Weirdly, England is probably the civ least likely to go for a coast settling strategy because of its unique district :S

It's possible you'd want both a coastal city and a Harbor. Such a city could be considered "specialized" compared to an inland city that just happens to have a Harbor built in it.

For example, if there are Government policies similar to the Navigation tree in Civ V, there could be a policy like "+1 food +2 gold for every water tile adjacent to a city or Harbor." That would provide incentive to build in a particular way.

Basically I think its likely we will see at least 4 kinds of cities relative to the coast:

Inland landlocked (inland, no harbor)
Inland accessible (inland with a harbor)
Coastal generic (coastal, no harbor)
Coastal specialized (coastal, with harbor)

 

[shaglio]

Imagine a group of 1-hex islands.

Since you brought it up, I'll have to go back and re-watch all the videos and scour the screenshots to see if we have evidence of any 1-tile islands. I don't remember seeing any off the top of my head (not even in the mini maps), but I'm currently trapped at work Perhaps they've been coded out of the map scripts.

 

[Mort_Q]

I'll have to go back and re-watch all the videos and scour the screenshots to see if we have evidence of any 1-tile islands.

There seems to be one - and only one - in the mini-map in the First Look: England video.

<edit> There are a few in the mini-map for the First Look: Builders video too, it seems. </edit>

 

[qwerty25]

Just wanted to add if you missed it. Disembarking onto a coastal city only costs one movement point. At least for the builder in the latest video.

Edit: Clarification; disembark means from ocean tile to land. Embark means from land to ocean.

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[shaglio]

There seems to be one - and only one - in the mini-map in the First Look: England video.

<edit> There are a few in the mini-map for the First Look: Builders video too, it seems. </edit>

Yeah, looking at the Builders video, there's one to the Northeast of the big continent in the West on the mini-map. So never mind my mad ramblings

 

[ftl]

They could also resolve this by making coast and ocean tiles a little better. Maybe make some resources that are only found in ocean tiles, not coast, and you probably have to actually settle on the coast to get one.

 

[CaptainUnknown]

I think ocean front cities could have bonus appeal, which we still aren't sure 100% how that factors in.

Someone suggested that policies may redeem coastal cities, but we must remember that due to the opportunity cost of choosing specific policy AND settling coastal would mean that the policy itself would have to be borderline OP to match a land city and a multitude of any other policies since that "slot" is not permanently filled for a water tile buff. Not trying to say it isn't possible, but it will need to be probably balanced, otherwise we are left with just an illusion of choice and lack of Civics flexibility if we settled coastal.

 

[stealth_nsk]

What do we know about embarkment at this point? Have we seen a unit embark that wasn't from a city or harbor?

In England video Redcoats disembarked and one of their abilities is to move/attack after disembarkation. Since it was stated like this, we could assume other units can't move/attack after disembark.

Also, I believe it was mentioned somewhere what units can't embark/disembark on cliffs.

Just wanted to add if you missed it. Disembarking onto a coastal city only costs one movement point. At least for the builder in the latest video.

Good catch. This could be done for the promotional video only, though.

 

[Hakan-i Cihan]

In England video Redcoats disembarked and one of their abilities is to move/attack after disembarkation. Since it was stated like this, we could assume other units can't move/attack after disembark.

It is slightly different, they stated that Redcoats disembark without losing a movement point. Thus we don't know yet whether normal units lose all movement points after disembarking or not (unless it was stated in other sources than the video about England). I can imagine that since the builder was able to move after disembarking, that this could be either due to the coastal city or that normal units can do this all the time with only losing 1 movement point for disembarking.

 

[stealth_nsk]

It is slightly different, they stated that Redcoats disembark without losing a movement point. Thus we don't know yet whether normal units lose all movement points after disembarking or not (unless it was stated in other sources than the video about England). I can imagine that since the builder was able to move after disembarking, that this could be either due to the coastal city or that normal units can do this all the time with only losing 1 movement point for disembarking.

Thanks for correction, yes, that's possible.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

Weirdly, England is probably the civ least likely to go for a coast settling strategy because of its unique district :S

Coastal cities can still build harbors, and coastal cities will probably help with the Eurekas to get the harbor


Also-coastal city benefit...a ship in a coastal city is defended from attack/a coastal city can have a ranged ship inside adding another attack from the city

 

[qwerty25]

It is slightly different, they stated that Redcoats disembark without losing a movement point. Thus we don't know yet whether normal units lose all movement points after disembarking or not (unless it was stated in other sources than the video about England). I can imagine that since the builder was able to move after disembarking, that this could be either due to the coastal city or that normal units can do this all the time with only losing 1 movement point for disembarking.

Just to note. In the video for the builder [in the ocean] it clearly [can disembark for only 1mp] because of the coastal city. You can tell because it cant move two tiles to the left. It has to move into the city first and then one tile up left to the tile. Instead of directly two tiles left.


Edit: clarifications.

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[AriochIV]

Just to note. In the video for the builder its clearly because of the coastal city. You can tell because it cant move two tiles to the left. It has to move into the city first and then one tile up left to the tile. Instead of directly two tiles left.

It's because of the cliffs; a unit can't embark from a cliffs tile.

 

[King Rad]

Just wanted to add if you missed it. Disembarking onto a coastal city only costs one movement point. At least for the builder in the latest video.

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I'm not certain this is the case. In the video, the builder moves from the city to the coastal tile. Note that at that point its icon is 'grayed out' (1.07 mark). Then when it becomes active again (1.09), the player clicks on it and has it build an improvement. So I think builders still use all their movement points going from the land to the sea or from the sea to the land.

 

[King Rad]

edit: my bad; you were talking about its ability to move back onto the land, which does appear to offer the ability to move through the coastal city to the adjacent tiles, although it apparently can't move onto the land via the coast and continue moving. also, it's unclear (since there's a jump in the video) as to whether moving to the sea from the city uses all movement points or not

 

[Hakan-i Cihan]

Just to note. In the video for the builder its clearly because of the coastal city. You can tell because it cant move two tiles to the left. It has to move into the city first and then one tile up left to the tile. Instead of directly two tiles left.

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Yes, I see your point. Apparently it is due to the city that the builder just loses 1 movement-point and can move afterwards.

 

[sugerdady87]

In the past year and a half or so, I stopped preferring coastal cities to inland one in Civ 5. Now in Civ 6, it seems like the problem is even worse since you can't build districts on them. The loss of farmable tiles in Civ 5 was to big a loss when going tall, more so in the late game. Depending on how many Ocean tiles you had, the extra 50% food per internal trade route still didn't overcome that loss. Early on, it's a big advantage though.

In multiplayer, building coastal cities is suicide.

 

[qwerty25]

It's because of the cliffs; a unit can't embark from a cliffs tile.

I cant check the video right now, but if true then youre right.

Edit: youre wrong?

There is no cliff to the left of the builder in the ocean. There is a cliff to the bottom right of it and it cant move into it.

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[Inhalaattori]

Wonders are one thing we havent really talked about. Do we know if you can build for example Great Lighthouse, Colossus or Venetian Arsenal if your city is not coastal?

Do we know if building city on the coast (or on the river) will give you some trade benefits?

It is also possible that there are buildings, civics or civilizations that get benefits for settling on the coast.

 

[AriochIV]

I cant check the video right now, but if true then youre right.

Edit: youre wrong?

There is no cliff to the left of the builder in the ocean. There is a cliff to the bottom right of it and it cant move into it.

The Stone tile has cliffs on all four hex sides that face the water, so it has to go through the city to embark from the beach.

Spoiler :

Or am I misunderstanding what you're saying?

[edit] Are you talking about this? It does appear that disembarking on a city tile only costs 1 move, and disembarking on a beach costs 2 (or ends movement).

Spoiler :