mine/irrigation

[web25]

what strategy have you guys found to work the best for production?

i like cities with a few hills for the production and to irrigate a wheat/cattle tile to keep the pop high.

how do you guys develop your land with hill? and with cities with no hills/mountains?

 

[Fiddlin Nero]

Producing what? Settlers/workers, you want a balance so your town builds population and units at the same rate. For anything else you only want enough irrigation to support your desired population 6/12/20. Otherwise it is timing with your workers, don't waste them early in the game with hills, mountains or irrigating grassland. Come back after you get out of Despotism to work those. Maybe earlier if you have expanded all you can.

 

[creamcheese]

Generally I like flatter land in the early game and rougher land in the later game. Early on you have minimal worker turns and you need to get your cities productive quickly, and you need to road everything quickly. Flat land is faster to improve and can be helpful for this. Later on, when you have more workers, and are out of despotism, hills/mountains provide some much needed shields.

 

[tR1cKy]

it pretty much depends on the situation
until out of despotism, it's basically mine green, irrigate yellow
after, bonus grasslands are usually irrigated
and population always growing - once the limit is reached, it's still better to produce a worker and then let the city grow again.

but most importantly, it depends on the individual city
let's just say you're producing units. you hardly want the city to produce 9 shields per turn.
so you tune it up to 10 or, if you can't, down to 8
by using everything you need: hills, forest, mountains...

 

[Fiddlin Nero]

So Web, does any of this make sense?

Tr1cky and I agree on the 'mine green, irrigate yellow' from the start of the game.

Tr1cky, something I've been noticing in the last year or two, it doesn't seem to matter what tile you irrigate, the city gets a 1 or 2 food increase depending on railroad. I'm still Looking for confirmation on this one?

The timing of grassland irrigation should definitly be put off until your first government change, whether you need to or not is up for discussion.

This could be an interesting thread, I've never gotten a good feel for peoples use of workers.

 

[Ataxerxes]

So Web, does any of this make sense?

Tr1cky and I agree on the 'mine green, irrigate yellow' from the start of the game.

Tr1cky, something I've been noticing in the last year or two, it doesn't seem to matter what tile you irrigate, the city gets a 1 or 2 food increase depending on railroad. I'm still Looking for confirmation on this one?

The timing of grassland irrigation should definitly be put off until your first government change, whether you need to or not is up for discussion.

This could be an interesting thread, I've never gotten a good feel for peoples use of workers.

Yes to the +1 for irrigation for food increase before railroad and +2 if the tile is irrigated and railed. Definitely put off irrigating grasslands until you're out of despotism. The irrigation bonus is from CivIV.

I actually prefer flat land for most of the game with the "irrigate brown and mine green". Those tiles can be improved and even railed faster. After rails I will often mine some more tiles in my core or semi-core cities for maximum production while using all tiles. This, of course, is after I have a sufficient army of workers.

 

[tR1cKy]

@Nero - rails give +1 food to all the irrigated tiles and +1 base production to all the mined tiles.

About irrigating the BGs, it is a rule of thumb and not a dogma. I tend to irrigate the bonus grassland tiles once in Republic to boost population and improve income quickly, without the risk of losing the +1 shield from the golden age that usually comes in shortly after. But it really depends on the situation you're in.

 

[Takhisis]

Generally I like flatter land in the early game and rougher land in the later game. Early on you have minimal worker turns and you need to get your cities productive quickly, and you need to road everything quickly. Flat land is faster to improve and can be helpful for this. Later on, when you have more workers, and are out of despotism, hills/mountains provide some much needed shields.

Forests are best for shields at some points. Settling -or colonising- a hill gives you Iron (or Horses) ad saves you the trouble of building a road there.

ALWAYS build on an isthmus.

 

[Fiddlin Nero]

Sounds like its agreed - road, irrigate plains, mine grassland initially. Question - do you have enough workers to stay ahead of population growth for your core cities? In this starting phase I only do 6 tiles per town.

What then? I split up my workers to start roading to non-core cites, and finish roading/irrigating/mining my core cities for populations of 12.

 

[web25]

i have been having for success building roads everywhere 1st, the commerce helps a lot.

i used to irrigate everything, but i really like a lot of pruduction over anything else, so i starting mining a lot more.

my new strategy is getting cities with a few hills for the extra shields, than i irrigate green tiles to the population i want.

 

[Fiddlin Nero]

i have been having for success building roads everywhere 1st, the commerce helps a lot.

What do you mean by everywhere? What's the point beyond what your population can work?