Irrigation or Mining

[palacefr]

Hi,,

play on king level but need to get it answered. +I use to go for following:
grassland => irrigation
yellow grass (don't no name for it) => forest
mountain => mine

just wonder wether grassland shall be with mine or irrigation at the start of the game to get the best of it.

I tend to seek for a mix of irrigation and forest if a city is surrounded by grassland but could some mining be the solution ?

//Josse

 

[Tomoyo]

Always, always, mine non-food-bonud grassland in Despotism. Plains in the beginning should be irrigated unless there are way too many flood plains around. Forests are only good in cities that, without them, working the highest shield tiles, would still have surplus food.

General rule: irrigate brown, mine green. (and mine mountains)

 

[sabo]

yeah, like Tomoyo said it depends on what government you have, if your Despo I wouldn't irrigate anything but plains (yellow grass) and mine grassland that has the little white triangle in them (bonus).. but let me add that mining hills (and mountains) are good too....

 

[Steve2000]

I have told this story before, but I will repeat.

Back in my early days of Civ III, I was playing on an archipelego where I was on an island that had absolutely ZERO freshwater sources. I was forced to only mine until I got electricity. What did I learn? I learned that it is very possible to have large productive cities without irrigation, especially if you place your cities near bonus food sources, such as cows, when available. I had an island with about 10-15 cities each at full size of 12 by the time I learned medicine. Once I built hospitals and the cities really started growing big, I had to go back and add some irrigation - but at that point I had rails and changing mines to irrigation could be done in a single turn.

What is the moral of the story? I am not sure, but in my experience mining is often more useful in the early game - save for a few important settler/worker factories. If you need the extra food later, you can get it later. With proper management of the luxury slider, cities will always grow as long as you can acquire 2 food per tile worked.

 

[cleverhandle]

I learned that it is very possible to have large productive cities without irrigation, especially if you place your cities near bonus food sources, such as cows, when available.

Certainly it is. But the point of irrigation IMO is getting those large cities *faster*. Once I get out of Despotism, I try to irrigate enough to get every city at +3fpt - that makes a big difference over +2fpt without taking too much away from production. Population is power, and there's a very noticeable difference in the Middle Ages when most cities are at +3fpt compared to games where they're stuck at +2fpt until rails and electricity.

 

[mastertyguy]

Personnally, I do like tomoyo said: mine green, irrigate brown, and in industrial era, I get to 20 pop and reduce food to 40-41.

 

[Roland Johansen]

In the beginning of the game, I try to get a good growth rate in my cities. But in despotism, this is not possible in every city as irrigation will not increase the food output of normal grasland tiles when in despotism. So in despotism the only option is to mine grasland (without food bonusses) for extra production. So my cities can reach something like fase 6 before republic/aqueducts (with an exceptions for the cities next to fresh water that have bonus food tiles in their city radius, these will grow larger).

After the expansion fase of the game and when I'm in republic and aqueducts are available, I try to get my cities big as fast as possible. I want to have enough workers around to have every tile improved when I start using it. First I grow quickly with +5 or +7 food per turn (where possible) from size 6 to size 12 (with help of granaries). This means that those cities grow every 3 or 4 turns and grow from size 6 to 12 in under 25 turns. When at size 12, I mine all those irrigated tiles again to have optimal productivity in my cities. Because I can get my cities to optimal size 12 much quicker than the AI because I use workers more intensively, I can gain an advantage at this stage of the game.

 

[muyendis]

i was leaving worker jobs to computer by automating them until i played as emperor. And in emperor i realized that AI is irrigating as much as it can; and simply; it is not the best idea; as you need to have a good productivty in early aspects of the game. so as tomoyo said; irrigate the yellow; mine the green that is the basic rule; and this is my first post

 

[mastertyguy]

Welcome to CFC, myendis

 

[Breunor]

I have told this story before, but I will repeat.

Back in my early days of Civ III, I was playing on an archipelego where I was on an island that had absolutely ZERO freshwater sources. I was forced to only mine until I got electricity. What did I learn? I learned that it is very possible to have large productive cities without irrigation, especially if you place your cities near bonus food sources, such as cows, when available. I had an island with about 10-15 cities each at full size of 12 by the time I learned medicine. Once I built hospitals and the cities really started growing big, I had to go back and add some irrigation - but at that point I had rails and changing mines to irrigation could be done in a single turn.

What is the moral of the story? I am not sure, but in my experience mining is often more useful in the early game - save for a few important settler/worker factories. If you need the extra food later, you can get it later. With proper management of the luxury slider, cities will always grow as long as you can acquire 2 food per tile worked.

Steve,

One issue here is that if you are on island by yourself, the mining is probably relatively more valuable than irrigation. If you are on a land mass with opponents, fast expansion is critical, and you often need food for rapid expansion. Conversely, if you are on an island by yourself, your expansion size is pretty much set (ignoring colonization) so the urgency to grow fast is reduced. In these cases, building your military and infrastructure probably means more and mining can be better.

Breunor

 

[muyendis]

thanks bro; i stayed as a reader dor a long time but now i think it is time share my experiences

 

[sabo]

i was leaving worker jobs to computer by automating them until i played as emperor. And in emperor i realized that AI is irrigating as much as it can; and simply; it is not the best idea; as you need to have a good productivty in early aspects of the game. so as tomoyo said; irrigate the yellow; mine the green that is the basic rule; and this is my first post

And don't forget when you get a decent government and you have RR's and can build hospitals and aquaducts you might want to irrigate over some grass that was mined for growth