Cottages or Farms or Mines? Why, When and how to use them correctly?

[wc3promet]

Cottages or Farms or Mines?
Why do you build each of them?
When to mass each of them? Peacetime, Wartime?
How to use them correctly?

 

[Gazaridis]

You really have to specialise your cities. I generally divide my cities between commerce cities and production cities, with maybe one great person city. For a commerce city you need lots of grassland and build cottages everywhere you can. For a production city, which can be anywhere really (although areas with hills and plains are the obvious choice) you would want to mine the hills, farm the plains and grassland. When you get to the middle ages workshops become the equivalent of a mined hill so you can use them too. With these two, the only reason to build a farm is so that another person can be supported on a cottage/mine/workshop.For a great person city farm everywhere you can, you need to maximise your food to support specialists.

In previous civs the rule was if in doubt, farm it. Now its if in doubt, cottage it.

 

[The Lardossen]

Do this:

- Give any resource it's proper improvement
- Cut down all trees to hurry whatever improvement or worker you're building (even for new cities founded far away it's important to finish the courthouse asap!)

Make an assesment of the terrain. See if there will be a serious lack of food. If there isnt:
- Build cottages on floodplains next to rivers
- Build cottages on grassland next to rivers
- Build cottages on plains next to rivers
- Build cottages on grassland not next to rivers
- Build cottages on plains not next to rivers
- Build mines on grasshils
- Build mines on plainshills
- Build windmills on deserthills

If there might be a lack of food:
- Build a farm on +/- two floodplains or grassland
- Build cottages on floodplains next to rivers (usually not available, since there's a lack of food)
- Build cottages on grassland next to rivers (usually not available, since there's a lack of food)
- Build cottages on plains next to rivers (might be available)
- Build mines on grasshils
- Build mines on plainshills
- Build cottages on grassland not next to rivers
- Build cottages on plains not next to rivers
- Build windmills on deserthills

This way you'll maximize on commerce, or production, which is more needed in smaller cities.

 

[Doomed_UK]

watermills on rivers

 

[bhsup]

Maybe this is one of the reasons why I can't seem to advance beyond noble level (ditto Civ 3). I just automate my workers and let them do their thing. Is it really that much more beneficial to micro-manage workers?

 

[Requies]

Do this:

- Give any resource it's proper improvement

I disagree with this. If you have multiple of a resource, sometimes in the long run, it's better NOT to give that improvement to that resource tile.

Examples:

Ivory/Camp vs. Ivory/Town
Silk/Plantation vs. Silk/Town
Dye/Plantation vs. Dye/Town
Marble/Quarry vs. Marble/Town
Spices Near River/Plantation vs. Spices/Water Mill
Sugar Near River/Plantation vs. Sugar/Water Mill
Wine Near River/Winery vs. Wine/Water Mill

In the short run, the proper improvement almost always will be better, but in the long run, there are times where a Town or Water Mill will outproduce the "proper" improvement. Most of the time you can't go wrong using the "proper" improvement, but there are exceptions.

Also, I would rather have a Mine on the Desert Hill than a Windmill, but that's just preference (after all it's the same as a Plains Hill but has only one less hammer, why treat them differently).

The rest of the advice is pretty sound without any caveats except if you're trying to build "specialists" cities.

Req

 

[Requies]

Maybe this is one of the reasons why I can't seem to advance beyond noble level (ditto Civ 3). I just automate my workers and let them do their thing. Is it really that much more beneficial to micro-manage workers?

Yes, it is in the beginning, at least.

Req

 

[Doomed_UK]

Maybe this is one of the reasons why I can't seem to advance beyond noble level (ditto Civ 3). I just automate my workers and let them do their thing. Is it really that much more beneficial to micro-manage workers?

YES yes yes yes

 

[Samson]

I do not specialise my cities, as it tends to be a case of milatry units in every city at the begining, either to survive or to attack a neigbour. My usual rule is first to irigate some river tiles, and then as I approach the max happines for my cities I build cottages away from the river and mines on the hills depending how important production of techs are. Seems to do me OK.

 

[Ungar]

I posted this in the other cottage vs farm thread.

Take a worker forest chop approach. You sacrafice your city growth at first to get a worker out so he can chop forests for a ton of hammers early on.

Floodplain squares are the best choice for cottages since they have a ton of food and can generate good commerce too.

However, giving it a cottage which doesn't generate that much gold early on isn't a good early move.

I prefer to put farms on floodplains at first to increase food production and population growth.

I stick cottages on grassland squares especially if those grassland squares aren't farmable because they aren't next to a river.

The faster you can grow your population the faster your city can use a grassland square with a cottage on it.

Instead of having a really nice cottage on a floodplains square it is better to get three cottages up and running on grassland squares.

You can always replace the farm on the floodplains square after city growth slows down and you want to turn it into a cash generating machine.

 

[nihil8r]

I almost always follow this formula:

Bonus tiles get their improvement (cows, marble, etc)
Grass gets cottages
Grass with water gets farms
Flood plain gets farms
Plain gets farms
Grass forest gets lumbermill
Plain forest gets farm
Hill gets mine
Forest hill gets lumbermill

Exceptions will be to boost food or shields if a town needs it

 

[Artanis]

Cottages or Farms or Mines?
Why do you build each of them?
When to mass each of them? Peacetime, Wartime?
How to use them correctly?

1-You can't go wrong placing the appropriate improvement on a resource (i.e. Camp for Ivory, Plantation for Sugar, etc.). This is not necessarily the most effective use (as Requies pointed out), but it's never outright bad.

2-Put down as many farms as you'll need, and no more. This includes however much food you'll need to support the 1- and 0-food tiles you plan to work, plus your desired number of specialists.

3-Chop down trees as necessary, preferably starting outside of a city's "fat cross". Speed is always helpful. Crippling a city's production is NOT. In my opinion, getting out a Courthouse ASAP is NOT worthwhile when doing so means the subsequent Lighthouse and Harbor will take 140 turns!

(Summary: chopping after carefully weighing the benefits of immediate hammers vs. long-term production = VERY useful; chopping everything for the sake of chopping everything = not useful).

4-Specialize your cities for commerce or production. A city with a lot of hills and unchopped forests around it would be a good place for mines and lumbermills, while towns will only (indirectly) dilute its effectiveness at building things. Likewise, a city with a lot of self-supporting tiles (i.e. grassland) and/or big-$ tiles (i.e. Silk) is a good place to whore Cottages, with just enough mines/lumbermills/watermills to keep its production at non-worthless levels.

 

[Malodium]

Whats a floodplain?
Ive only noticed 3 types of ground, green, brown, and yellow (desert)
what is each one?

<- noob

 

[Artanis]

Whats a floodplain?
Ive only noticed 3 types of ground, green, brown, and yellow (desert)
what is each one?

<- noob

Green is Grassland. Unimproved, it provides 2 food
Light Brown is Plains. Unimproved, it provides 1 food and 1 hammer
Dark Brown is Tundra. Unimproved, it provides 1 food
White is snow. Unimproved, it provides nothing. (IIRC) It can only have Watermills and resource-appropriate improvements on it.
Yellow is Desert. It can only have resource-appropriate improvements on it*. Unimproved, it provides nothing.
Yellow along a river with a sickly green area along at least one edge is Flood Plain. Unimproved, it provides 3 food and 1 gold.


*ALL hills - even Desert and Snow ones - can have a Mine, Windmill, or resource-appropriate improvement put on them.
"Resource-appropriate improvements" means stuff like a Camp on Ivory, a Plantation on Silk, or a Well on Oil. That sort of thing.


Edit: better info can be found at http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=144029

 

[Malodium]

Green is Grassland. Unimproved, it provides 2 food
Light Brown is Plains. Unimproved, it provides 1 food and 1 hammer
Dark Brown is Tundra. Unimproved, it provides 1 food
White is snow. Unimproved, it provides nothing. (IIRC) It can only have Watermills and resource-appropriate improvements on it.
Yellow is Desert. It can only have resource-appropriate improvements on it*. Unimproved, it provides nothing.
Yellow along a river with a sickly green area along at least one edge is Flood Plain. Unimproved, it provides 3 food and 1 gold.


*ALL hills - even Desert and Snow ones - can have a Mine, Windmill, or resource-appropriate improvement put on them.
"Resource-appropriate improvements" means stuff like a Camp on Ivory, a Plantation on Silk, or a Well on Oil. That sort of thing.


Edit: better info can be found at http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=144029

Thanks!!!! um, yeah ive seen white and dark brown too, forgot Guess im not CivFanatic enough yet!

 

[SomethingWitty]

Um, I guess I do it differently than several other people on this thread.

I build farms on floodplains- to maximize food production. If you've already got one square that you're using for food, you might as well use it to produce lots of food- since cities can only access a few tiles at a time. The same goes with squares I'm using for hammers- I build a mine. I usually just build a town one squares that aren't good for anything else.

 

[Draax]

I plant cottages along rivers and mines on every hill tile. Every single one. I get all giggly when I discover gold or something and I like to maximize that chance. Later, I convert most of my mines to windmills for the extra cash. I leave the mines in my production cities, obviously. After my windmills are done I usually convert many of my river towns into watermills since by that time I have towns elsewhere. Watermills are fricking beautiful the latter half of the game, and having them pillaged doesn't hurt you/help him nearly as much.

As for special tiles go, I usually overwrite ivory and fur when they're obsolete, otherwise I keep the improvement for trade purposes.

 

[incubuspawn]

I disagree with this. If you have multiple of a resource, sometimes in the long run, it's better NOT to give that improvement to that resource tile.

Examples:

Ivory/Camp vs. Ivory/Town
Silk/Plantation vs. Silk/Town
Dye/Plantation vs. Dye/Town
Marble/Quarry vs. Marble/Town
Spices Near River/Plantation vs. Spices/Water Mill
Sugar Near River/Plantation vs. Sugar/Water Mill
Wine Near River/Winery vs. Wine/Water Mill

In the short run, the proper improvement almost always will be better, but in the long run, there are times where a Town or Water Mill will outproduce the "proper" improvement. Most of the time you can't go wrong using the "proper" improvement, but there are exceptions.

Also, I would rather have a Mine on the Desert Hill than a Windmill, but that's just preference (after all it's the same as a Plains Hill but has only one less hammer, why treat them differently).

The rest of the advice is pretty sound without any caveats except if you're trying to build "specialists" cities.

Req

A couple of workers handy to turn that camp into a town, is well worth it. IMO. when that ivory becomes obsolete replace camp with a town. just one examle. another is lumbermills on plains/forest/hill/by a river instead of a mine and replace with a windmill after elctricity ( or not havent nailed this one yet ).