[GS] Do you use canals?

[MisterBoomBoom]

The Panama Canal tile itself (the tile you place, the wonder tile) does NOT count as a canal. The two canal districts it creates, though, do count. I’ve used that fact to make fun IZ adjacency art before, including a +18IZ as Japan.
You can see examples of this linked in my IZ guide.

Thank you very much! Hammer porn! Can't wait to check it out!

 

[ReMarkibal]

Canals and canal-city systems are indispensable for pursuing a maritime strategy on continent-island maps. They are the only way to bypass the impassable north and south ice fields and allow a "two-ocean" fleet. As long as you don't expect much growth in cities built to form the route, canals are useful.
The Panama Canal could work for only one blockage in the entire game. It would be a waste to use it for the same purpose given the barren terrain.

 

[Thormodr]

I like them and use them. They are obviously map dependant but they sure come in handy when you need them.
I hope canals and mountain tunnels are permanent additions to the game. That and bridges. A generic golden gate bridge would be awesome.

 

[Alaindor]

I once used a canal to "correct" a stupid mistake I had made earlier: produced a ship in a city close to the coast but sitting on a small inland lake, and I hadn't realized the ship would pop on the lake (and yes, I never revert to a previous save, feels like cheating to me, I accept my mistakes...). So eventually, the canal (when available) unlocked that ship later on

Otherwise, they're very situational. My best case was the Panama canal to link a large inland sea with the ocean. Great adjacency bonuses AND trade route bonuses!

 

[E.man]

Canal?

Haven't seen that yet.

 

[Linklite]

Pretty much the same. I think I've only built canals in the Real Earth map. Repeatedly where the Suez is - it's very useful to be able to have a way to get a ship to transferneteeen the north Atlantic and the Pacific without going around Africa. As q result, My major dockyards ate normally there and us where I keep my ships during peacetime (the Saudi Coast and the Mediterranean) - nicely placed to get to most places reasonably quickly in the advent of war. Allows me to control all the seas with a single group of ships.

I've only built one once - by California. Made a similar mistake to Alaindor and my ship got trapped in a lake. Usually, I just delete them, but decided this time that I'd rescue it instead.

Just not worth the effort most times. By the time that I don't have more important things to do with my production, the individual cities don't matter anymore and I'm just doing busy work while I wait for my Victory to be fulfilled.

 

[Socrates99]

I use them all the time for IZ adjs. They're especially best when you get a clump of small lakes. I've had times where I've had an aqueduct and 2 or 3 canals all on one IZ. Not exactly optimal because that's a lot of cogs to invest in getting...more cogs but a coal plant in one of those super IZs is so nice for the rest of the cities in range.

As far as using them to connect bodies of water its hyper situational. Hope they remain in game though. Those situations do come up and it's so nice to have canals available.

 

[Victoria]

Canals are such an English thing because of half price 4 charge engineers and +4 factories etc.

 

[Socrates99]

Canals are such an English thing because of half price 4 charge engineers and +4 factories etc.

Makes sense though. Isnt England covered in canals?

 

[Leucarum]

When they are useful they are really useful... Not something I build every game but every now and again you get a map where a few well placed canals completely changes up the game. And it's nice that their introduction means you don't have to place canal cities in suboptimal spots to make things work when they could be game changing...

 

[Disgustipated]

Hardly ever build them, but maybe I should. Even for the IZ adjacency. I find they come so late in the game, by that point in pushing for victory districts/buildings.

I will still build one if I can significantly shorten transit time around a continent.

 

[Socrates99]

Hardly ever build them, but maybe I should. Even for the IZ adjacency. I find they come so late in the game, by that point in pushing for victory districts/buildings.

I will still build one if I can significantly shorten transit time around a continent.

Like Victoria mentioned engineer rushing them works nicely if you're worried about production costs. If you have a major production hub that can spit out an engineer in a couple turns it makes building them way less cumbersome.

 

[E.man]

Makes sense though. Isnt England covered in canals?

I was reading history. British had an international empire but bad domestic roads. To move industrial amounts of gear around their wet island they did canals. They were quickly replaced by rail.

 

[Victoria]

move industrial amounts of gear around their wet island they did canals. They were quickly replaced by rail.

Yes it was the industrial era that really caused canals because of the huge amounts of heavy goods that had to me moved around. Everywhere I go there is still canals, they did not fill many in, they just fenced them off.

 

[UWHabs]

Like Victoria mentioned engineer rushing them works nicely if you're worried about production costs. If you have a major production hub that can spit out an engineer in a couple turns it makes building them way less cumbersome.

Especially if you hit the world congress resolution to halve costs of units, they get the discount. Half cost engineers can really go wild in setting up dams and canals around your empire.

 

[Victoria]

Especially if you hit the world congress resolution to halve costs of units, they get the discount. Half cost engineers can really go wild in setting up dams and canals around your empire.

Or build roads on the plains that spell out rude words

 

[Fluphen Azine]

After reading about how many players do not levy CS units I wanted to come in here and ask the bigger question.
Do you build IZ's, Dams and Canals?
I rarely do this.
Many games I don't build one IZ as I usually take them.
I have played around with them a few games where I was able to get 200 or 300 production but I still just stick with Campus, Commercial Hub and Theater Squares as my go to for just about every city.
I was going to make a separate thread but I think the IZ question goes along with the Canal Thread.

 

[Victoria]

Do you build IZ's, Dams and Canals?

If you want to play efficiently like on deity then you need to concentrate on what is needed. That is far far less often IZ, canals and dams,
Which is why I play on emperor. Then my main trouble is do I want to play a longer game where each turn takes longer. When I am in those moods sure, I like dams because they go hydro and I just like that. And I like canals for my ships which I will not heavily build in shorter games. IZ’s often pay off in longer games rather than shorter but I will build em in shorter because of the adjacency. Then there is Germany, playing them you get a cheap IZ as a extra build in every city so you would be crazy not to.

 

[Disgustipated]

Do you build IZ's, Dams and Canals?

Yes. It may not be ideal, but I still do it. I'm a production whore. A carryover from my days of civ2 and Smac where you really could create some massive productive cities. I remember cranking modern units out in a couple turns in those games. Sadly, that's much more difficult to do in civ6.

I haven't ran the math, so I'm not sure I gain much production advantage by building them, but I feel like I drag my games out long enough that they give some advantage. I no longer go for quick victories. I also play marathon speed lately, seems like it helps significantly with production speeds on marathon.

I also love great engineers, and also build the mausoleum. I admit it's a tougher decision for me since I always play with corporation mode on. It's a decision of commercial hub or IZ with me.

 

[Socrates99]

After reading about how many players do not levy CS units I wanted to come in here and ask the bigger question.
Do you build IZ's, Dams and Canals?
I rarely do this.
Many games I don't build one IZ as I usually take them.
I have played around with them a few games where I was able to get 200 or 300 production but I still just stick with Campus, Commercial Hub and Theater Squares as my go to for just about every city.
I was going to make a separate thread but I think the IZ question goes along with the Canal Thread.

Only where I can get great adj without overlapping power plant coverage. Dams and canals are primarily to boost IZs. If you can get a +6 or better IZ with a coal plant that covers at least two other cities itll pay for itself especially if you run production boosting cards for whatever those cities it covers are building.

Short answer, not many but at least a couple every game. They just take planning to be effective.