How do you pillage your own roads?

[The Tyrant]

never did I see a roaded tile grow a forrest. Are you sure, the tyrant?

Quite sure. It surprised me because I didn't think it could happen. I had chopped the tile, roaded it (in preparation to hook up some nearby marble) and moved one tile over to work on the marble tile. I started working the marble and got a message that a forest had grown near that city. 'Went to take a look and it was the very tile I had just chopped/roaded. Granted, this is the first time I've seen a roaded tile grow a forest but it apparently is possible. Hmm... when I get back home I'll have to create a test map in Worldbuilder to see if I can figure out a few things about forest/jungle growth.

 

[King Flevance]

First of all, I have had roaded tiles grow forests plenty of times myself.

Personally I hate the "black spaghetti" approach the AI has towards building roads on every freakin' tile. I like to customize my road-building so there's railroads linking the mainlines between cities, normal roads for stuff off the beaten path like pastures & camps, and no roads at all in unused areas esp. forests & desert. Whenever I attack a neighboring civ, I make sure to pillage the roads to my liking before my culture takes over.

I thought I was the only one who did this. I have actually put off taking over a city before and let the AI heal a lil bit so I could finish pillaging the roads I wanted gone.

I connect my cities through a network of roads that looks good and is still efficient. At least 95% as efficient as layer of spaghetti on the map. And as far as that other 5% is concerned, if you need that 5% that badly, then you are doing something more wrong than your road layout. A couple of time out of about 100 games now I have found myself going "darn, wish I had a road there" but the REAL problem was I was caught with my pants down so to speak, not the lack of road. I still would be able to show up 1-2 turns later.

I don't see what the big deal is about people not wanting to allow self road pillaging. It makes the game more fun for some of us as it allows us to customize our empire more to our liking and really doesnt effect strategy all that much anyways.


P.S. If you really want to pillage your roads, put something over the minimap so you can't see it. Then zoom in on the road so you see as little "unrevealed land" (if it applies) and enter world builder. Select the -build road- option and right click any road you want gone. Some times I do this method when I dont want to take time out to pillage roads and am in a military campaign. It just sucks waiting for WB to load and then for the game to load when you exit.

I will go conquering and when I am done, I go into WB and get rid of any roads I took all at once. Although, I think this should be brought in the game as no arguement really supports why you should be able to.

 

[LincolnOfRome]

There practically no reason I can see to pillage your own road.

I'm replying to this after 16 years. The original poster's children had children. I believe roads have a 50% chance of preventing forests from spreading. I'm playing a boreal map and the roads keep forests from spreading. A one food tile is useless, but a one food + three hammer tile is useful. Tundra forest with railroad and lumber mill is quite good. I often build forest preserves late game so the tundra towns can be productive.

 

[Kaitzilla]

The only way to pillage your roads is if they are outside your borders.

Gift your city or cities away to an AI, declare war, pillage the road, take the cities back by force.

 

[Pangaea]

(not sure if this works)

1. Tech up
2. Gift techs to AIs up to Fission and Rocketry
3. Declare war
4. Wait



This strikes me as an efficient solution

 

[Lennier]

I'm replying to this after 16 years. The original poster's children had children.

Best admission of necroing I've seen.

 

[6K Man]

I'm replying to this after 16 years. The original poster's children had children. I believe roads have a 50% chance of preventing forests from spreading. I'm playing a boreal map and the roads keep forests from spreading. A one food tile is useless, but a one food + three hammer tile is useful. Tundra forest with railroad and lumber mill is quite good. I often build forest preserves late game so the tundra towns can be productive.

By the time you get Replaceable Parts and Railroad, the odds of forest growth on a per turn basis are really low. I see your point (if I settle late game polar cities I try not to deforest the few useful non-special tiles those cities have), but how often do you get more than 1 or 2 regrows post RP/RR?

 

[Qactus]

Ah, that awesome 2006 optimism about how clever Civ4 AI were programmed, where has it gone?

...One act of "self-pillaging" that I occassionally engage in is turning towns into farms if I know the territory is going over to an enemy. I have also seen the AI use that strategy in reverse...

 

[6K Man]

One act of "self-pillaging" that I occassionally engage in is turning towns into farms if I know the territory is going over to an enemy.

I'm struggling to imagine a situation where one of my cities was in imminent peril of capture... and I respond by putting some workers into the war zone to turn towns into farms.

I do remember seeing a forum game where Monty or another jerk AI demanded the player's only Stone resource, so the player acquiesced and immediately farmed over the Quarry. I genuinely LOLed.

 

[sampsa]

At least in BtS the AI can only demand your excess resources.

 

[Fippy]

Ah, that awesome 2006 optimism about how clever Civ4 AI were programmed, where has it gone?

Brilliant AI compared to many other games Sometimes they catch me very off-guard on deity.

I do remember seeing a forum game where Monty or another jerk AI demanded the player's only Stone resource, so the player acquiesced and immediately farmed over the Quarry. I genuinely LOLed.

Either myth or patched? Never have seen them demanding single resis.

 

[6K Man]

https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/the-legendary-montezuma.264521/#post-6525341

Close enough?

 

[LincolnOfRome]

By the time you get Replaceable Parts and Railroad, the odds of forest growth on a per turn basis are really low. I see your point (if I settle late game polar cities I try not to deforest the few useful non-special tiles those cities have), but how often do you get more than 1 or 2 regrows post RP/RR?

It is more reliable than you'd think. I often spread forest where ever I want it to grow. In one game I beelined an early scientific method, I had a tundra city with two tiles of forest turn into 14.

 

[Izuul]

Gonna necro this thread again!

I've read a half dozen of these threads on the same subject and one question continually gets posed. "Why would you want to pillage your own roads?"

I find it kind of fascinating that not one single person ever points out the most relevant reason for wanting to do this.

 

[floydmcw]

Gonna necro this thread again!

I've read a half dozen of these threads on the same subject and one question continually gets posed. "Why would you want to pillage your own roads?"

I find it kind of fascinating that not one single person ever points out the most relevant reason for wanting to do this.

To slow down spies?
To stop Commando units from using your roads?

 

[sampsa]

No, no. You don't always want to connect your resources, but want to have the tile yield (which you lose when you pillage).

 

[Izuul]

To disconnect metal so you can build warriors for military police. There are situations where you need copper early for barb defense, but want to disconnect your copper later to build warriors.

 

[soundjata]

In the current NC, there is a situation where Toku is walking a stack through my land to grab a barb city. I want to slow him down by cutting the road he is using but I can't