Forts as canals

[sexylemming]

Is that possible in Civ 5, anyone interested in this under rated gem of an ability? It is one of those things that you never use until that perfect one in a thounsand games comes along. I didn't realize that ability had been removed it was going to be incredible useful.

 

[gunnergoz]

I could see it being useful but would the AI know how to use it?

 

[Castar]

Due to the improbability of this being able to be used, let alone being tactically crucial, I don't really see the AI's capability of using this as being an issue at all.

 

[Dunkah]

I've been asking for this for a looong time... They seem reluctant to put it back in...

It is incredibly useful for the human player, but not so much for the AI.

 

[Thalassicus]

This was one of my favorite features in BTS. It's not possible to add to Civ5 with our current modding tools.

 

[rfxmills]

If you're that desperate to have a canal, you can use a city. Makes an interesting gameplay choice between a perfect location for growth/production and the strategic benefit of being able to connect 2 oceans.

 

[Thalassicus]

One-tile isthmuses are very rare. Canal-forts let us connect oceans across a two-tile isthmus, which is more common.

 

[albie_123]

Agreed with Thal - the only real time I can see fort-canals being really useful is to connect a coastal city to the other coast, if it's close.

 

[sexylemming]

Yeah my situation was ocean, land, lake, land, ocean.( ~~~X~X~~~) One city was not an option and I built forts to block the stupid French but it would have been soooo nice to use them for canals as the continent was ice locked in the south and about 25 turns from mid point to mid point around the north.

 

[rfxmills]

One-tile isthmuses are very rare. Canal-forts let us connect oceans across a two-tile isthmus, which is more common.

Real world canals like this are very rare as well. Suez isn't much more than 100 miles long and Panama is even less than that.

I'm not against canals, but I think they should be an improvement in their own right and there should be some serious constraints on them. A minimum distance apart like cities have to be and they act like traversing ice using up your moves for that turn.

To overcome a 2-tile isthmus would require a city and a canal.

Yeah my situation was ocean, land, lake, land, ocean.( ~~~X~X~~~) One city was not an option and I built forts to block the stupid French but it would have been soooo nice to use them for canals as the continent was ice locked in the south and about 25 turns from mid point to mid point around the north.

I feel your pain, in my last game Madrid was inland next to a lake with a strip of land before another lake, then another strip of land and finally the ocean (C~X~X~~~). I was really worried my free caravel was going to turn up impotently on a 1 hex lake! Well done Thal on making it pop on a coast tile which wasn't land locked

 

[Thalassicus]

A great example is the theoretical Nicaragua Canal. If it weren't for the fact Nicaragua and Costa Rica share a disputed border, there would probably be a 170 mile canal connecting the two oceans with Lake Nicaragua. In Civ terms this would be a coast-land-lake-land-coast isthmus.

 

[Dunkah]

Question is: Can it be done?

 

[Thalassicus]

Then Nicaragua canal, or civ canal forts? Yes to the first, no to the second. Unit movement is almost entirely handled in the game core.

 

[Dunkah]

OK then how about a land improvement built by workers that simply allows players to change the hex into water? This would basically cut off one area from another unless you founded a city in the path...

You could make having a city present mandatory... limit it to in contact with the city... max 3 per Civ or something like that...

 

[Thalassicus]

I think that might be feasible.

 

[rfxmills]

Could you make it something which consumes a GE? This means you could have simple rules for the placement of them, but you wouldn't get people doing them at will.