futurehermit
Deity
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2006
- Messages
- 5,724
I was thinking today about refining my philosophy of civ4. Generally, I think that land is power.
However, what do you think of this refinement: The prospect of winning increases as a function of the number of grassland (and floodplains, which are basically grasslands on steroids) tiles you control.
Grassland tiles are of course food-neutral and thus can feed themselves, which is great. They also can do a number of things. You can cottage them, which is good as towns are a very powerful tile after the CE civics come online. You can farm them, which is also good as post-biology one grassland farm can support one specialist. They also help with whipping and drafting. You can also workshop them mid-to-late game for some very powerful production, especially with state property. Some of my most powerful production cities were majority grassland tiles that got workshop spammed.
I find that the best games I have are games where I have a large empire consisting mostly of grassland tiles. If I have surroundings that feature a lot of coast, mountains, desert, tundra, and plains I view my chances of winning as diminished relative to seeing lush grasslands around my neighbourhood.
So, what do you think, if land is power, is grassland the secret to that power?
However, what do you think of this refinement: The prospect of winning increases as a function of the number of grassland (and floodplains, which are basically grasslands on steroids) tiles you control.
Grassland tiles are of course food-neutral and thus can feed themselves, which is great. They also can do a number of things. You can cottage them, which is good as towns are a very powerful tile after the CE civics come online. You can farm them, which is also good as post-biology one grassland farm can support one specialist. They also help with whipping and drafting. You can also workshop them mid-to-late game for some very powerful production, especially with state property. Some of my most powerful production cities were majority grassland tiles that got workshop spammed.
I find that the best games I have are games where I have a large empire consisting mostly of grassland tiles. If I have surroundings that feature a lot of coast, mountains, desert, tundra, and plains I view my chances of winning as diminished relative to seeing lush grasslands around my neighbourhood.
So, what do you think, if land is power, is grassland the secret to that power?