Expansionist Trait = Remorseless Forest-Chopping

[Padmewan]

I started a new game as the Romans in the middle of flood plains and forests. Knowing that the flood plains were unhealth and forests exactly opposite, I left the forests alone, stunting my early growth due to little chopping.

Well, a few centuries into the game I suddenly realised that as an expansive civ (or, technically, having an expansive leader) the Romans are basically ahead 6 forests per city thanks to their +2 health.

What this means is that the bonus that expansive provides essentially negates the "penalty" for chopping down forests, freeing them for maximum, eco-unfriendly exploitation. Sure, you should leave them where you need them (e.g. they're the only source of hammers if you're stuck in the middle of wide grasslands) but no longer must you play as if Defenders of Wildlife were running the civ!

(In real life this would horrify me, but in the game, all I can say is bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha!)

 

[RoddyVR]

i have yet to run into health problems before run into happiness troubles before about size 23.
before calendar getting a lot of happiness is much harder then getting a lot of health, so i've never had an issue with choping down all the forests i could find. as far as i'm concerned, teh expansionist trait is more for people who want to build REALY large cities (ie 30 people and such), cause before hospitals there is no way to get to 30 healthy and even with them its a toughy.

after theatres (and coloseums) getting more happines is easy, but expensive (just up the culture slider) but there is no way to turn money into heath.

 

[Arkanin]

Personally, I think the early growth by deforestation's benefits outweight the later loss of a couple health for anyone; that early expansion snowballs for the rest of the game.

At any rate, I don't have a big problem with health, so go figure.

 

[Masquerouge]

i have yet to run into health problems before run into happiness troubles before about size 23.

what diificulty are you playing on ?

 

[MrCynical]

I also have rarely found health to be a limiting factor to growth, and I'm playing on monarch and emperor levels. Unless you get a really unhealthy start with a lot of flood plains or jungle, cities can usually make it to size 6 or 7 before needing to worry about things like aqueducts.

 

[baboon]

My fav. Civ is currently Bismarck. Industrious, Expansionist and Panzers

 

[Ravellion]

what diificulty are you playing on ?

Each level of diff you lose 1 health, but also usually 1 happiness. 1 health equals half a population, 1 unhappiness a whole. The higher the difficulty, doesn't equal that health suddenly becomes important, because unhappiness will be far more important by then.

Rav

 

[lysander]

Slaughtering trees is simply THE best way to win this game: if you do it early you can get some great wonders built which means GP production for the rest of the game. In my last game I got the pyramids really quickly because of forest chopping and used the Great Engineers that this helped get to rush more wonders. You can get yourself a huge lead by using trees to rush the early game.