Do you overlap city tiles?

[rbj2001]

If you stick a defensive unit on that forested hill yourself, the AI will move onto an adjacent flat tile instead, even if it could easily kill that unit with its stack. AI is not very smart.

 

[nfw]

If you stick a defensive unit on that forested hill yourself, the AI will move onto an adjacent flat tile instead, even if it could easily kill that unit with its stack. AI is not very smart.

Not always, I have put a defender on defensive terrain but got killed by the AI (after taking some losses). I think there's some randomness involved.

 

[UnforcedError]

Not always, I have put a defender on defensive terrain but got killed by the AI (after taking some losses). I think there's some randomness involved.

it also depends who you fight. The likes of Ragnar will very often attack even at low odds, while Lincoln will let you sit there unharmed.

 

[noto2]

If you stick a defensive unit on that forested hill yourself, the AI will move onto an adjacent flat tile instead, even if it could easily kill that unit with its stack. AI is not very smart.

You still play with base AI? Why?? I play Kmod (which is based off the BetterBTSAI mod). I would never go back to the original AI. Kmod monarch is like emperor/immortal base game, at least.

 

[Reg Pither]

There are certainly benefits to overlapping your cities. First, you can share tiles. If a city has three sources of food it can give one to a sister city to help it grow.

Pleeeease tell me I'm not the only one who's played the game as long as I have and had NO IDEA you could do this!!

I always just thought any tiles that were 'blacked out' when a new city was settled nearby were gone to the new city forever. I never even thought to click on them to see what happened... oops

That would explain why I've always avoided overlap!

I'll get me coat...

 

[Lennier]

By "share tiles," they mean have one city work the tile for a while, then have the other work it for a while. Only one city can work a tile at a time, but you can switch which city works it.

 

[Reg Pither]

By "share tiles," they mean have one city work the tile for a while, then have the other work it for a while. Only one city can work a tile at a time, but you can switch which city works it.

That's exactly what I didn't know!

 

[plasmacannon]

Just FYI, this is the same for Civ4 Colonization too.

 

[rah]

Did they ever fix that game?

 

[Drakarska]

Did they ever fix that game?

Actually, the TAC mod improved quite a few things. I gave it a test run last week and found it quite enjoyable. I believe RAR is a variation or modmod of TAC, if you head over to the COL mod forums, you can get some more details.

 

[rah]

Thanks, I'll do that. I gave up on that game a while back out of frustration. I liked some of the concepts but the execution sucked.

Went there, got confused. TAC mod??

A link would be greatly appreciated.

Never mind, found it.

 

[lindsay40k]

Not always, I have put a defender on defensive terrain but got killed by the AI (after taking some losses). I think there's some randomness involved.

I once had a terrifying SoD invade when I was nowhere ready to repel them. Placing Axeman after Axeman in forests with Woodsman baited their aggressive commander to attack, die, attack, kill, move the stack.

Doing it with a couple of Axemen meant the stack left a wounded unit behind that I could mop up with a supporting charge. Doing it from two directions meant the stack split up. It was a very hammer-efficient way of dealing with a pre-catapult invasion, and led to me taking some of their cities and extorting them.

 

[Olson]

meaning, when you settle cities, are you spacing them out so the BFC's aren't overlapping? I try to avoid this as much as possible.. but find myself with an empire with large cultural borders but relatively few cities compared to my IA adversaries who seem to pop down cities every 3 tiles away from each other - but I'm guessing the AI isn't programmed for optimal placement

Any benefits to this? I'm guessing with a few less tiles to work, more citizens can be converted into specialists (as long as there is ample food)

For me, it really depends on what is in the Big Fat Cross (BFC) of the already established city. If a city has more floodplains and bonus food tiles than it can possibly use anytime soon then I'm more likely to settle another city with overlapping tiles. Another situation would be if the established city has more hills than its food supply will support being worked at the time. In that case I'll overlap some of the hills.

Not being able to disband cities, like in CivIII, has taken some getting used to, though. No longer can I create a temporary barracks city within another city's (Zone of Control (cultural boundry/BFC) and disband it when it was no longer needed.

 

[VSarius]

Always overlap. The reduction in maintenance, faster jump on growth, faster cottages, and synergy with US later on are great.

 

[Manco Capac]

For me, it really depends on what is in the Big Fat Cross (BFC) of the already established city. If a city has more floodplains and bonus food tiles than it can possibly use anytime soon then I'm more likely to settle another city with overlapping tiles. Another situation would be if the established city has more hills than its food supply will support being worked at the time. In that case I'll overlap some of the hills.

Not being able to disband cities, like in CivIII, has taken some getting used to, though. No longer can I create a temporary barracks city within another city's (Zone of Control (cultural boundry/BFC) and disband it when it was no longer needed.

Well said. Add to the bunch the easier transit of workers for improving.
Not sure to catch the necessity of disbanding barrack, given it has no maintenance cost like before. Unless you wish a partial return in hammers, that would be an interesting twist in several strategies if that existed.

 

[Abegweit]

Not sure to catch the necessity of disbanding barrack, given it has no maintenance cost like before. Unless you wish a partial return in hammers, that would be an interesting twist in several strategies if that existed.

He's referring to the CivIII concept of a barracks city. This a tiny temporary city which you jam in between two permanent ones. The city is generally used exclusively to train units and thus the only building it gets is a barracks. When the permanent cities grow large enough, the barracks city is disbanded and its tiles are given over to them. This strategy has several advantages. Since cities have to be two tiles apart in CivIV and cannot be disbanded, it does not work in this game.

 

[Nexlev]

Pleeeease tell me I'm not the only one who's played the game as long as I have and had NO IDEA you could do this!!

I always just thought any tiles that were 'blacked out' when a new city was settled nearby were gone to the new city forever. I never even thought to click on them to see what happened... oops

That would explain why I've always avoided overlap!

I'll get me coat...

I played civ IV for almost a year before I realized you could switch tiles among cities, and I lurked here for probably 3 months before I figured it out. Although I saw people mentioning it on the forums a couple times, no one ever said specifically how it was done and for some reason I still didn't think it was possible. So you're not the only thick headed one

 

[Reg Pither]

I played civ IV for almost a year before I realized you could switch tiles among cities, and I lurked here for probably 3 months before I figured it out. Although I saw people mentioning it on the forums a couple times, no one ever said specifically how it was done and for some reason I still didn't think it was possible. So you're not the only thick headed one

Thanks, Nexlev, I feel a bit better now... if also a bit more thick headed.

 

[Raphs_Sai]

I generally try to avoid overlap, I don't like sharing a major resource (ie. pig tile). I don't really care about overlapping regular tiles. I'll sometimes build cities almost beside each other so I can capture all available coastal resources (fish, crab, clam). Sometimes having 2 cities working the same cottage can be efficient.

I'm a big believer that 1 good and 1 crappy city is better than 2 average cities. If there is overlap, I always pick the better city to get the extra working tiles rather than share them 50/50.

 

[Qgqqqqq]

Sharing is much more powerful with strong tiles like food.