Coastal/Ocean Tiles

mimunday

Chieftain
Joined
Oct 21, 2007
Messages
11
I am new to this game. The land tiles are easy to harvest/mine but I cannot figure out the coastal tiles. They all have food and commerce, but how can I use those, other than special items such as fish, clams, crab, etc which a fishing boat takes care of. The lighthouse improvement makes every tile worth +1food, so how do I take advantage of that. thx
 
Mimunday,

Welcome to CivFanatics! :)

You're right in that there's not much you can do directly to coastal tiles other than build Work Boats for any special resources (Clams, Fish, Crabs, Whales, and Oil), but they can form a valuable part of your city's fat-X nonetheless.
  • Financial civs get a bonus +1:commerce: from tiles pulling in 2:commerce: or more - so Coastal tiles are already elevated in value for leaders with the Financial trait.
  • As you note, you gain an extra :food: from a Lighthouse, so these tiles, if nothing else, are self-supporting from a :food: perspective.
  • In the 'Beyond the Sword' expansion, you can build the Maoi Statues national wonder in one of your cities to add a :hammers: to each water tile.
  • The Dutch (again - BtS) can improve their water tiles with their Dike unique building by adding yet another :hammers:.
  • Golden Ages also add :commerce: and :hammers: to tiles already pulling in :commerce: and :hammers: - so you can elevate their usefulness again.
  • [Edit] The Colossus adds an extra :commerce:. [/Edit] :smoke:
There's a lot of advantages from settling cities on the coast from a naval as well as trade perspective - so while you might get some coastal (and more so ocean) tiles that may at first appear 'less than great', it does open you up to other advantages.

I hope this helps ... and welcome again to CivFanatics.
 
Thanks for the response.
So, the dutch and financial minded can take advantage of them.
But I am unclear on the food part. Do you get that additional loaf of bread just for being on the coast and having it within your border?
 
You have to be actively working a given tile in the city big fat cross(BFC) to gain its benefits. So, if your city is size 3, the 3 tiles your city is working is all that you are getting anything out of. By micromanaging your city and assigning various tiles to work you can emphasize food, commerce, and/or shields.
 
Play with Ctrl-Y on (and Ctrl-T and Ctrl-R). Each point of population works one tile or runs one specialist. You can change what each pop point does by opening the city screen and clicking on the white circles. A tile that is worked "harvests" its food, hammers, and commerce.
 
awesome, I wasn't aware that I could change which tiles were worked. Therefore, I will assume that in my main screen, if a bread or hammer is larger, then it is being worked, no matter if the tile has been improved or not, correct?
Thanks all
 
awesome, I wasn't aware that I could change which tiles were worked. Therefore, I will assume that in my main screen, if a bread or hammer is larger, then it is being worked, no matter if the tile has been improved or not, correct?
Thanks all

No. The bread loaf/moneybag/anvil just means that the tile produces five food/commerce/hammers, not that it is worked. You can see small animations on the map for the worked tiles, but best is to open the city screen. There the worked tiles are clearly marked by white circles.

To answer your earlier question, no, the city does not get additional food for being on the coast. It does, however, open up the harbor building, which gives additional health for seafood resources.
 
No. The bread loaf/moneybag/anvil just means that the tile produces five food/commerce/hammers, not that it is worked.

I think he is asking if when a tile yield graphic (with ctrl-y on) is visibly larger the tile is being worked, which is true.
 
And there is also good ol' Colossus, with +1:commerce: on water tiles till Astronomy :king:
So if You're stubborn/Financial/Portuguese/in Golden Age all Your coastal squares can easily produce 2:food: and 5:commerce:, so it's like free-sustainable gold mine :goodjob:
 
You can see which tiles are worked from the main screen, but it isn't compltely obvious. A little hut appears on most land tiles, or there is an animation, like the mine moving, or bananas being picked. On sea tiles, when worked, you will see fishing nets around resources, or a little boat by other tiles. To get an obvious view of the tiles worked (and to change them), go into your city screen (double click on the city name).
 
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