Mine green and irrigate brown

[NickyH]

I find the "rule" to mine green and irrigate brown inefficient. I usually irrigate at least one, and often two grass tiles around each city to make them grow faster. (This is after I've left despotism of course.)

I think there are many advantages with this. The first thing is that there are often hills and mountains around the cities, and you can get some extra shields from them as soon as they are mined. All tiles around a city becomes workable this way. And if you irrigate a few grass tiles you can easily squeeze out the extra workers needed to mine those hills and mountains. I also find it important to grow my cities beyond size 6 as soon as possible, and this happens much faster when you mine some grassland. And beyond size 6, you need twice as much surplus food to continue growing in a decent tempo.

This of course also gives you more cities that can give you an extra settler every now and then.

Once most of your cities have grown close to size 12, you have all the workers you need to change irrigated land to mines where this gives you more shields. After that, you will always find cities where you can join surplus workers, although at that stage, I'm usually close to the start on my railroad network, so there's still use for lots of workers.

What's your thoughts on this? Do you really mine all your grassland?

 

[Sweetchuck]

If there's no food source and/or there's an abundance of hills and mountains, I irrigate what I can - plains taking precident.

Otherwise, if there's both available grassland and plains (and food), I usually mine the food and irrigate a tile or two of plains. This helps keep the pop moving while keeping the production steady.

 

[MAS]

Its called a rule of thumb for a reason.

You might as well complain that CxxC placement is inefficient, because it is often better to mix it with CxC and CxxxC here and there. Especially if you would otherwise end up with cities 1 tile from the coast.

Or you could say its inefficient to have 2 workers per city. Because at the very early game early game you'll need less workers than cities because cities aren't growing past size 4 anyway, and during the RR face you probably build way more. (unless you get enough slaves)

 

[TheOverseer714]

I think also that the rule of thumb applies to despotism much more than later governments, anyway. And there's always exceptions to any rule, such as cow and wheat tiles, which should be irrigated regardless of the color they are on. Later on, once you stop building settlers and are in a better government, you might mine the cow for more shields. Judgement is how human players beat the AI, by having the ability to know when to follow a rule of thumb and when to not apply said rule.

 

[Aabraxan]

I find the "rule" to mine green and irrigate brown inefficient. I usually irrigate at least one, and often two grass tiles around each city to make them grow faster. (This is after I've left despotism of course.)

Once you've left despotism, you do whatever you need for the city to have. It's while you're in despotism that irrigating grasslands doesn't do you any good.

 

[Pyrrhos]

Despo - town + mined G + mined mtn = 0 surplus food & 4 shields
Despo - town + irrigated G + mined mtn = 0 surplus food & 3 shields

Despo: Rule of Thumb rules
But if you play "properly", all you do during despo should be in preparation for republic, so forget the rot

Rep - town + mined G + mined mtn = 0 surplus food & 5 shields
Rep - town + irrigated G + mined mtn = 1 surplus food & 4 shields

Rep: game, set, match - NickyH

 

[ecuwins]

In despotism it only makes sense to "mine green, irrigate brown" unless a resource is involved -- deal with resources accordingly.

Once in a non-despot govt' if I have not have my Golden Age yet, which usually happens by choice, I prefer to irrigate BG's and mine plain grass -- this way you get max benefit when the GA comes.

After GA, I do whatever any city needs on a "as needed" basis i.e. micromanagement

Please keep in mind this is all subjective. Of course you irrigate every flat tile for mountain/hill cities(post-despot). Or mine every land tile for a x2fish/whale city; unless it is a coastal mountain town. No wonder people have employed the use of spreadsheets in order to play this game.

Short answer = It depends.

 

[Nergal]

My preference is road anything thats going to be used. As a first option, I think its more efficient in terms of worker turns. Then irrigate any cattle or wheat I can, if its being used, and then mine any bonus grassland. Normally I'd expect to have a few workers going by then so a team of workers can mine hills more quickly.

 

[darski]

Yah know... I just don't see any value in indigent towns full of fat, lazy people.

I still mine green, no matter what unless I have a very compelling reason to do differently. all the people in the world will not get you any money and it is money that makes Civ go 'round.

Yes, I am a wussy Warlord player so maybe that is why I need those shields.

 

[TheOverseer714]

It's a rule of thumb for a reason: it works. If you choose to improve things for a future government, you are pretty much writing off the entire first quarter of the game. Imagine playing football that way! You would be in a huge hole and be playing catch up the rest of the game! What you do in the first 80 turns goes a long way towards winning or losing. I prefer winning.

 

[Yui108]

Much agreed

 

[Simak]

Two things.....One, does it prove to be better to road and then mine and irrigate. I noticed that moving a worker takes a turn. Whereas, telling him to mine or irrigate right after roading means he gets to work right away, thereby saving a turn.

Two, towns aren't full of fat lazy people. If the tiles are roaded, every worked tile is money. Each of those lazies, as you call them, could be making cash for maintainance or science. Can't research techs fast with a few towns of 3 people as quickly as the same number of towns with 7 people in them.

 

[Richie0]

i irrigate plains, mine bonus grass land and mine normal grassland

irrigate cattle and wheat, regardless of what they are on

with deer, it's different. depends on the type of square its on. forest/mine for tundra, forest for plains, irrigate for grassland

then when railroads come, you irrigate everything if you can be bothered. game is usually won by that point anyway

really, all you need is exactly 12 food or 24 food, depending on whether than city is going to size 12 or not. having a scientist or two, or changing one irrigation to a mine or vice versa, is how you get the best out of your cities

 

[vorlon_mi]

One of the key considerations for me is the availability of fresh water, and the need to build irrigation chains to reach other cities. I love to put cities on rivers (no surprise), and may need to irrigate some grasslands to get water to other parts of the empire. I can mine them later.
Yes, there is a tech which occurs later (Electricity) that lets one irrigate any tile, regardless of its access to a river or lake. But I can't wait that long to get the cities growing; the towns need to be connected via roads and sources of water much sooner than Industrial Ages.