cottage spaming for a dummy

[phillip1882]

my bigest problem is im never quite sure how many cottages i should build within a cities fat cross. let's take an example city. i start my city next to a river, with two plain hills, corn bonus, cow bonus, the rest grass with three forrests. i would build three farms including the corn farm, put mines on both the hills, and go five cottages, then build a farm over one of the forrest, and finnally two more cotteges. would this be a good strat?

 

[Amagius]

my bigest problem is im never quite sure how many cottages i should build within a cities fat cross. let's take an example city. i start my city next to a river, with two plain hills, corn bonus, cow bonus, the rest grass with three forrests. i would build three farms including the corn farm, put mines on both the hills, and go five cottages, then build a farm over one of the forrest, and finnally two more cotteges. would this be a good strat?

I'm not what one would call an expert at Civilization, but the problem it seems is that you lack spamming. Build corn and cow, mine the hills to be replaced with windmills later (opt.), and everything else cottaged. From the sounds of it, you have surplus food to accomplish this, so might as well milk the money as much as possible.

 

[The Bowman]

If you are really not sure, you could just put your workers on auto-mode. They will auto-build cottages for you as they see fit.

 

[Cam_H]

If you are really not sure, you could just put your workers on auto-mode. They will auto-build cottages for you as they see fit.

I'm really hoping that's sarcasm.

________

Phillip,

As Amagius recommends, the Pasturised Cows and the Irrigated Farmed Corn will make up for the food deficits from the Plains Hills and the Forests. As such - no need for extra Farms, you can Cottage all of the Grassland and the ex-Forest if you wish.

If the city is denying other areas within your empire of fresh water, then you may need to build a few Farms to chain-irrigate over to these other areas however.

Such a city would also make a good 'Great Person Farm' - in which case you'd be looking at more Farms.

Finally, towards the end of the game you might consider converting the city onto a 'production powerhouse' under State Property by knocking over your Towns for Watermills and Workshops - but hopefully you'll have other cities addressing your production needs. This is a tactic typically used in the final stages of a Space Race where the need for high production exceeds the need for high commerce.

 

[futurehermit]

In the city mentioned, I would chop the forests, improve the corn and cows, put cottages on every tile except the corn/cow/plains hills. I would put mines on the plains hills early in case you need some production and then windmills on them post-machinery.

 

[obsolete]

What are cottages?

 

[Charou]

What are cottages?

I think those are the object of fanatism for quite a portion of people on this forum.
Worship for the financial trait is said to be highly correlated.

 

[cabert]

I think those are the object of fanatism for quite a portion of people on this forum.
Worship for the financial trait is said to be highly correlated.

it is also said that cottages are a tile improvement that some people don't know the use...

 

[Charou]

it is also said that cottages are a tile improvement that some people don't know the use...

HAHA ! Dead on.

 

[popejubal]

(Re: letting the workers automate)

I'm really hoping that's sarcasm.

It's not such a bad thing to automate your workers. Just remember to have "leave forests alone" and "don't plough over existing improvements" checked in the options.

After you have some experience with what works and what doesn't, directing your workers on your own is a very good idea. The AI does a not-entirely-horrible job of directing the workers, though.

I think that most people should start off automating their workers... as long as they watch the workers to see what they are doing. And as long as they plan on taking over the job themselves eventually.

 

[svv]

Of course farm the corn and pasture the cows. At that point you have to decide what you want for this city. If you want it to be a commerce city or mixed use city, first cottage the grasslands next to rivers.

Down the road you can decide if you want to farm or cottage the plains, and windmill or mine the hills, depending on whether you want this to be a mixed-use city or a strict commerce city (one where you might build Oxford, for example).

If you decide you want it to be a production city, such as your heroic epic/west point city, don't cottage anything. Build farms and/or workshops and mine the hills.

If you decide you want it to be a gp farm or if a shrine is born there such that you can turn it into a religion/money city, farm everything flat (except the cow pasture) and later windmill the hills.

 

[DaveMcW]

What are cottages?

Cottages are the worst improvement in the game.

However, they have a mysterious relationship with towns, the best improvement in the game.

 

[manu-fan]

Cottages are the worst improvement in the game.

However, they have a mysterious relationship with towns, the best improvement in the game.

LOL - seriously.

Cheers.

 

[gettingfat]

I personally will prefer an additional farm in earlier stage. Sometimes after whipping for infrastructure or emergency military units you want the city to regrow faster for a while. You won't be using all tiles that early anyway (even you eliminate the happiness cap by hereditary ruling, you can't take out the unhealthiness cap). Later I'll change it back to a cottage or if I run state properties, a watermill. But that's just me.

 

[obsolete]

There are many things in both LIFE & Civ IV that money won't buy.... Hence the power of the workshop. Oddly enough, the workshop can also funnel mass shields into commerce when/if needed, so it's a 2 birds with 1 stone matter again.

 

[Cam_H]

It's not such a bad thing to automate your workers. Just remember to have "leave forests alone" and "don't plough over existing improvements" checked in the options.

The only instance where I would concur with this is when you first get the game and have no idea as to what you're doing - you don't understand specialisation, haven't grasped the benefit of counting food surpluses and deficits, and haven't yet come to terms with specialist vs. cottage vs. (insert other) -based economies. Of course the AI barely gets any of this either .

The AI does a not-entirely-horrible job of directing the workers, though.

Surely you mean "The AI does an entirely-horrible job of directing the workers".

After you have some experience with what works and what doesn't, directing your workers on your own is a very good idea.

Agreed! ... albeit rather than let the AI "experience" what works and doesn't work, the player would be better off experience this more directly for themselves.

 

[popejubal]

The only instance where I would concur with this is when you first get the game and have no idea as to what you're doing - you don't understand specialisation, haven't grasped the benefit of counting food surpluses and deficits, and haven't yet come to terms with specialist vs. cottage vs. (insert other) -based economies. Of course the AI barely gets any of this either .

Yep. Pretty much what I think too. The AI does successfully hook up resources in a reasonable order and builds roads in a sort-of reasonable way. The AI does a much better job of this than a brand new player does. Just like you said. I also put one or two workers on autopilot late in the game still - for the rare resources that I just happen to overlook (gems hiding in a newly conquored jungle, for instance).

I still miss a resource simply because I have the resource-finder turned off (it slows down my computer for some reason and it makes clicking on units difficult). The autopilot workers find these late in the game and make up for my Attention Deficit Disorder.

Surely you mean "The AI does an entirely-horrible job of directing the workers".

Nah. It's not at all good, but it's easily fixable and it's not entirely horrible. Just not nearly as good as someone who actually knows what they are doing would choose.

Agreed! ... albeit rather than let the AI "experience" what works and doesn't work, the player would be better off experience this more directly for themselves.

I agree. For the first games you play, letting the AI run free can teach you some tricks, though. I learned how rivers do/do not connect resources by watching automated workers and clicking on my city to see if the resourece had been connnected to try to explain why the AI would have done such a wacky thing with the roads. It looked bizzare, but when I looked closer, I discovered the rivers-count-as-roads rule for resource connectivity.

Also, if you really can't be bothered to control all of your workers (again, late in the game when you have a ton of workers and an even heavier ton of cities), letting the AI choose what to do is better than fortifying the workers or disbanding them.

In principal, I agree with you. In practice, there are some times (not often and never in the first two thirds of the game anymore) that I think letting the AI take charge is okay.

 

[futurehermit]

Cottages are the worst improvement in the game.

However, they have a mysterious relationship with towns, the best improvement in the game.

:rofl: what took you so long to get to this thread Dave?

 

[Huxley Hobbes]

Cottages are the worst improvement in the game.

However, they have a mysterious relationship with towns, the best improvement in the game.

That gave me a good laugh, thank you

As for the OP, I think you just have to keep experimenting. I've still not yet determined the best number of cottages to build, and when/where to replace them with improvements that show up later. It varies from game to game, and is obviously influenced by the hundred other factors you're dealing with.

 

[dozenlong]

I'll confess, I haven't ever really tried a cottage spam strategy (though I had more luck trying a SE). I tend to focus on production first, which inevitably leads to using that production for military ends and conquest...winning or losing, but I go out fighting a lot.