Farms.

[ridjack]

Another question in my 'Basic Crap I Should Probably Know Already' series!

I'm realizing lately that the AI literally always has more pop than me, and I'm also seeing that they have tons of farms up when I barely have one or two triangles over six cities, if that.

I never prioritize farms except in specific cases, such as wheat, flood plains or a city that needs a lot of growth quickly. I generally get to farms after... pretty much everything else. I'll connect luxes, strategics, get mines up, improve bonuses, sometimes even build roads and only start on farms when everything else is done. I generally don't bother with them unless a triangle can be made, or (with the most recent changes) next to rivers if no/few triangles are possible.

So how do y'all prioritize them? I'm thinking more for the non-Tradition games; in Tradition they're generally a top priority unless something else gives more food quickly.

 

[Bascule2000]

Early mines (not on a resource) are really bad IMO, they're my improvement of last resort. If I haven't got enough workers to develop river farms quickly, I'll build more workers.

 

[ridjack]

I used to feel the same way; it was another thread on here that got me trying them earlier and now they're a pretty high priority for me. That early production makes a world of difference.

 

[Stalker0]

I used to feel the same way; it was another thread on here that got me trying them earlier and now they're a pretty high priority for me. That early production makes a world of difference.

Well thats why your pop is lower. Ultimately mines are very good, but early game farms are the key. A river triangle just gives a ton of food.

 

[Txurce]

Well thats why your pop is lower. Ultimately mines are very good, but early game farms are the key. A river triangle just gives a ton of food.

Playing Progress, farm triangles are my last priority early game. Resources and mines always come first, followed by river farms. Too-low pop is a problem only rarely. And the extra hammers allow me to build those councils you delay, as well as most available/applicable buildings.

 

[CrazyG]

A triangle of farms along a river is a powerful early game investment worth considering on most land.

Mines on hills are generally pretty weak (but can certainly payoff early game, especially with things like settlers)

 

[Txurce]

A triangle of farms along a river is a powerful early game investment worth considering on most land.

Mines on hills are generally pretty weak (but can certainly payoff early game, especially with things like settlers)

So what order you do generally follow, in terms of luxuries & resources, hills, river tiles, and triangle-forming non-river tiles?

 

[ridjack]

So what order you do generally follow, in terms of luxuries & resources, hills, river tiles, and triangle-forming non-river tiles?

Mining Lux, Trapping Lux, Iron Mines/Construction Luix(If I've opened the techs), Calendar Lux, Horses and generic Mines, bonus resources prioritized by whatever yield I'm lacking, river farms. I don't build non-river farms unless there's no option and I can't get the food another way, there's a really good triangle or my Workers have nothing better to do. I try to leave those tiles for my Villages and save myself needing to overwrite a farm to get them.

 

[CrazyG]

So what order you do generally follow, in terms of luxuries & resources, hills, river tiles, and triangle-forming non-river tiles?

When in doubt, just count the yields. Usually luxury first because you can sell it. Even with a low price, it earns more than other improvements will. If you have certain monopolies, like +2 faith, its a very big priority.

My general order
Luxuries
Pantheon resources
Horses
Wheat
Farm triangles
Freshwater farms
Stone
Bison, deer, cattle and sheep
Bananas
Mines/Non river farms (these tiles generally aren't going to worked so they aren't a high priority, also the improvement is only +1 yield, all others are at least 2 yields, often with secondary benefits)

Where iron fits depends on a few things. Are you selling it, building swords now, or saving for swords later?
The other exception is sometimes on produciton light land, you want to create a mine first to help produce stuff, in partiuclar settlers.

Villages are the priority once unlocked, but I should have most of your other tiles upgraded by that time.

 

[Legen]

I'm realizing lately that the AI literally always has more pop than me, and I'm also seeing that they have tons of farms up when I barely have one or two triangles over six cities, if that.

Keep in mind that the AI handicaps provide them food injections when they gain cities, and that their workers finish improvements faster. You shouldn't use the AI as a parameter on how your population and improvements are, as a human player will be behind in most cases.

 

[Mad Madigan]

On higher difficulties the AI starts with a free worker, so its possible for them to get farms up very quickly since they can start building them from turn 1. But as far as human improvement priority goes, I pretty much agree that connecting luxuries and strategic resources is always my top priority. However, when it comes to farms versus (non-resource) mines, I always build farms first. Unless I'm trying to increase production in my Capital for a wonder or speeding up Settler production, I almost never work non-resource mines in my cities until the late game when they're large enough to support specialists and that extra production becomes more crucial. My general rule is that I focus on food-producing tiles and luxury tiles until my city reaches about 8 population, and then I will consider working mines as long as my overall growth doesn't suffer too much. Then at around 16 population I will consider working mines over farms in order to manually constrict my growth, especially if city Unhappiness becomes too much of an issue.

Starting with Progress makes production a slightly higher priority since completing buildings generates Food, but not enough to justify starving your cities to bump up building speed by a couple of turns.

 

[Paramecium]

I build farms on fresh water first and wait for those triangles as long as possible, if they dont have any fresh water. Because you need 3 farms to get the bonus, which will take its time and early on, non fresh water farms are quite weak, so better improve a camp or bananas plantation. Mines are just there if you want to speed a production, because in most cases, if you have the spare food to work a non food tile, you will probably put the citizen in a specialist slot (or if you need a bit more of production, you will likely put it in an engineer slot).

 

[ryanmusante]

Mines/Non river farms (these tiles generally aren't going to worked so they aren't a high priority, also the improvement is only +1 yield, all others are at least 2 yields, often with secondary benefits)

Mines are typically assigned workers by you? What about for production focused cities? Or are you talking specifically about the non river farms ?

 

[Vortok]

Pre-Forge mines are definitely pretty low priority. They're fairly solid after that, though the balanced approach worker distribution often skips a lot of production later on (I'll sometimes lock a worker or two, just to maintain a reasonable production output).

Early food/farms is basically tile infrastructure, leading to better population - and thus city yields - later on. It's the same reason why I have a tendency to focus on production buildings, as it allow me to finish the remaining ones in less overall turns. Could certainly prioritize case by case a bit better, though.

Lumber Mills/Logging camps are usually dead last on my priority list.

I should probably put a higher emphasis on tile buying for river farm triangles, though. Sometimes the auto-expand selections aren't the most cooperative.

 

[Favorius]

I do not like farms except capital in the beginning. Extra food helps settler production. For new cities, luxuries, bonus sources (banana, fish, cow etc), trade posts are priority. Only later eras, farms become important again. Still i rarely get triangles.