How should I use my plains tiles before biology?
option 1: cottage
This is the best option IMO, but I need lots of food specials in order to make up the food deficiency.
option 2:farm
This seems almost pointless before biology. A farmed plains is 2F 1H. All you get beyond feeding your worker is 1H. That seems like a bad use of a population point and worker time. If you're adjacent to a river, add one commerce which can make the investment worthwhile, although I'd rather mine hills and cottage grassland first.
option 3: workshop
This seems like a good idea once you're in the Renaissance, but before then, workshops aren't that productive unless you're running caste system.
option 4: ignore them until you've worked all other tiles
This seems like the best idea. Although sometimes you get unlucky and much of your land is plains.
~~~
Usually I'll do a combination of 1 and 4. I'll cottage all grasslands first and then go back and cottage plains(I'll cottage plains rivers before regular grasslands however), feeding them with food specials. But sometimes you'll get large tracks of plains(sometimes with rivers) and no food specials in sight. What do you do with this situation?
option 1: cottage
This is the best option IMO, but I need lots of food specials in order to make up the food deficiency.
option 2:farm
This seems almost pointless before biology. A farmed plains is 2F 1H. All you get beyond feeding your worker is 1H. That seems like a bad use of a population point and worker time. If you're adjacent to a river, add one commerce which can make the investment worthwhile, although I'd rather mine hills and cottage grassland first.
option 3: workshop
This seems like a good idea once you're in the Renaissance, but before then, workshops aren't that productive unless you're running caste system.
option 4: ignore them until you've worked all other tiles
This seems like the best idea. Although sometimes you get unlucky and much of your land is plains.
~~~
Usually I'll do a combination of 1 and 4. I'll cottage all grasslands first and then go back and cottage plains(I'll cottage plains rivers before regular grasslands however), feeding them with food specials. But sometimes you'll get large tracks of plains(sometimes with rivers) and no food specials in sight. What do you do with this situation?