Heroic Navy?

[Zaldrizes]

I know I'm building the Heroic Epic, so I'm not asking if that's the right course or not. Rather, I can not, for the life of me, make up my mind on the best city for its placement. It's between two cities: my capital and my port. My port takes two more turns to produce a swordsman, but my capital can't build ships. I suppose the best way to ask is this:
Does naval combat really matter much in this game to warrant a HE in a non-capital, slightly-lower-production coastal city? (I'm still testing the waters of this game, so to speak, but I don't want to lay down an HE and regret it later.)

 

[cpm4001]

What kind of map are you playing on? If it's a Continents then you probably would want to put the Heroic Epic in your coastal city, while if it's a Pangaea just build it in the capital (I'm assuming you're not playing an Archipelago map.)
Also, keep in mind you can set up an internal trade route to send production to the coastal city once it has a Workshop in it.

 

[Catan_Settler]

What he said. Always in the coastal city so you can use it on ships. If it's Pangaea, you can skip that requirement but even on Pangaea sometimes a few frigates can make all the difference.

 

[Zaldrizes]

Oh yeah, sorry. I'm playing G&K on a huge Continents Plus map on standard speed, and there are three major continents that quite evenly split the 12 civs. They can all be reached via coastal tiles.
So what is this you mention of sending production to a coastal city? I'm all linked up with roads with all six cities, but you're saying I can dedicate one of them to send production there?

 

[Zaldrizes]

What he said. Always in the coastal city so you can use it on ships. If it's Pangaea, you can skip that requirement but even on Pangaea sometimes a few frigates can make all the difference.

Wow, really? I'm glad I asked because I read somewhere else a while ago that the AIs weren't too bright with their navies. Well, this is good, then, as I enjoy a good sea battle.

 

[cpm4001]

So what is this you mention of sending production to a coastal city? I'm all linked up with roads with all six cities, but you're saying I can dedicate one of them to send production there?

Ignore that, I thought you were playing BNW.
No matter - definitely build the Heroic Epic in the coastal city.

 

[FeiLing]

Also: the capital can not gain the 25% railroad bonus.

 

[joncnunn]

Personally, I always place it on a coastal city, because its Privateers that I want with its bonus. I try to build all my land units much earlier when they are still really cheap to build and just upgrade, but nothing upgrades to Privateer.

 

[Zaldrizes]

After careful consideration, I had decided that, since my capital was still growing so dang fast compared to the port, and I was building everything I could in it, including a ton of wonders, I would just suck it up with the ships and build the HE in my land-locked capital.

HOWEVER, I had no idea about Privateers or the 25% bonus. I'm only in the Medieval Era on my first game (I've been playing for at least 100 hours, but I take my time due to obsessive micromanaging), so I've yet to come across them since, at least in my first game, I like to be surprised instead of reading the whole tech tree ahead of time. Now that I've read up on them, holy friggin' awesomeness! I also just realized my port just connected an iron resource three tiles away, so I can build a forge there, whereas, I can't in my capital. That'll make up for some of the land unit production disparity, along with the fact that it has stables AND that sweet railroad production bonus to come. Privateers seriously sound amazing...

This begs the question, though: Should I build Ironworks in my port to kick it up another notch, or should I keep my original strategy of having it in my capital for wonders? While I'm at it, shouldn't I build Alhambra in the port, also? I know it doesn't help ships, but it seems like a nice partner with HE, barracks, and armory for land units.

Thanks, y'all!!!

 

[Zaldrizes]

Actually, forget those last two questions. They're specific and situational depending on the game and strategy, so I'll handle it. Thanks for all your help, as always!