Do you cottage or farm grassland river tiles (when not philo/financial)?

[Artifex1]

If you were NOT (financial/philo) would you cottage cities that were mainly grassland/river.

or is it better to farm them and run specialists?

 

[Verge]

I always cottage. Always.

 

[CivCorpse]

Sometimes I watermillthem as well, if I have the food and I want to use the city as a production city. Late game it is often too late to start cottaging. Especially on Marathon

 

[kniteowl]

Depends on the leader and the map.

It's pretty easy to play SE with the Ind traits especially since the Pathenon is now available with Aesthetics and the AI tend to ignore that branch of the tech tree.

 

[futurehermit]

Depends on the city specialization.

If it's a commerce city (ie., the city is mostly grasslands or whatever) it gets cottaged.

If it's a production city (ie., the city has hills, yadayada) it gets farmed early and watermilled later.

If it's a gpfarm (ie., overall the city has excellent food surplus) it gets farmed.

 

[brianb1974]

Why does it have to be one or the other?

If I've already got a couple good food resources in a city, cottages are prefered.
Otherwise, I'll need a few farms to get the city up and growing. Once it's big enough (nearing health and happy cap), build and work cottages. Maybe eventually cottage over the farms.

Of course it's always good to have a dedicated GP city in which you spam farms.

As with most things in civ, it's all about mixing it up and specializing cities to maximize the benefits of your multipliers.

 

[duende29]

I usually cottage them when they're mostly grasslands and the BFC doesn't have much means of production. But like many people before me say, it depends. On the BFC, the rest of your lands, the rest of your cities, your traits, your style, your overall strategy, etc, etc. For example since I like to run CE hybrids and I like to two cottage cities going early, 1 SE city for GP/Bulbing and the rest in production.

 

[oyzar]

I've farmed plenty of riverside grassland as financial and cottaged as philo... It depends on the city not on your traits... Are you going to generate great people you need food for commerce cottages are usually best and for production there are a various options to chose from(though most begin with farms then get converted to workshops or watermills as appropriate). It should be said that something you want to farm over some grassland in your commerce cities if they are very food poor(think 15+ grassland titles, probably a junglecity some dyes maybe?). And as philo you often end up cottaging up your capital even if you generate gps there just because you then get both value from your trait and from bureaucracy(if you have tons of food already).

 

[UncleJJ]

Why does it have to be one or the other?

If I've already got a couple good food resources in a city, cottages are prefered.
Otherwise, I'll need a few farms to get the city up and growing. Once it's big enough (nearing health and happy cap), build and work cottages. Maybe eventually cottage over the farms.

Of course it's always good to have a dedicated GP city in which you spam farms.

As with most things in civ, it's all about mixing it up and specializing cities to maximize the benefits of your multipliers.

I agree with this approach and will often build farms or watermills or even workhops (depending on techs and civics) in an otherwise cottage city. Despite what some CE experts say (DaveMcW springs to mind ) I am a firm believer in having an adequate infrastructure in a commerce city... it is not all about cottage growth ... infrastructure matters too.

Another minor consideration is, after Civil Service I might have to chain irrigate for another city, then some farms might appear in a city that I would otherwise cottage. I like to plan ahead for such eventualities and don't like to cottage a tile I have to later farm over.

 

[Snovvdog]

Depends on the city location, if it doesn't have a food source I must do 2 farms as growing a city with just 2 positive food income takes ages.
If it has food sources though and a good growth, always cottage and only occasional watermill.

 

[Morgrad]

Farm until Democracy, then cottage.

I usually save at least one nice grassland city site for a production city with watermills and workshops, but that depends on the map, of course!

 

[Zanttu]

The question is same as "Do you always play SE or CE?" and the answer is "I don't ALWAYS play anything." It depends.