mines or windmills?

[lordmacroer]

which do you prefer?

bonus question:
farms, cottages, or watermills?

 

[Queebada]

Mines on plains hill and windmills on grass hills generally

 

[Ghpstage]

Primarily farms and mines, but I build watermills frequently later in the game (especially with SP) and if I end up running Environmentalism windmills become very attractive. Otherwise windmmills don't look worth building until you reach at least RP for the , unless maybe you have very food poor cities.
What I do love to spam in most games are workshops. When I get to Chemistry (with Caste and Guilds) I usually start building them in huge numbers, soon after reaching SP they will easily outnumber any other improvement.

Without financial I seldom build cottages outside of the capital, and quite often don't even build them there....

 

[cseanny]

which do you prefer?

bonus question:
farms, cottages, or watermills?

HE/SE:

- farms: Everywhere!
- cottages: Early game......Never! The only time would be late game if I decide it's best to switch to a CE.
- watermills: Never! Caste workshops are better and Biology is never far away so food/unhealthiness is a non issue.
- mines or windmills: Before Biology if food is an issue, regardless what type of city it is, then a windmill. Specialist cities always get windmills and Production cities get mines.

CE:


- farms: Balance enough farms to grow + work as many cottages as possible. Typically 4F+
- cottages: Everywhere a farm isn't......so long as I have the food.
- watermills: Almost never, not even in production cities. Once Biology kicks , imo it's always better to get a farm and more food so you can build great improvements on sub par land tiles.
- mines or windmills: Before Biology if food is an issue, regardless what type of city it is, then a windmill. Cottage cities always get windmills and Production cities get mines.

 

[lordmacroer]

Primarily farms and mines, but I build watermills frequently later in the game (especially with SP) and if I end up running Environmentalism windmills become very attractive. Otherwise windmmills don't look worth building until you reach at least RP for the , unless maybe you have very food poor cities.
What I do love to spam in most games are workshops. When I get to Chemistry (with Caste and Guilds) I usually start building them in huge numbers, soon after reaching SP they will easily outnumber any other improvement.

Without financial I seldom build cottages outside of the capital, and quite often don't even build them there....

what is SP?

HE/SE:

- farms: Everywhere!
- cottages: Early game......Never! The only time would be late game if I decide it's best to switch to a CE.
- watermills: Never! Caste workshops are better and Biology is never far away so food/unhealthiness is a non issue.
- mines or windmills: Before Biology if food is an issue, regardless what type of city it is, then a windmill. Specialist cities always get windmills and Production cities get mines.

CE:

- farms: Balance enough farms to grow + work as many cottages as possible. Typically 4F+
- cottages: Everywhere a farm isn't......so long as I have the food.
- watermills: Almost never, not even in production cities. Once Biology kicks , imo it's always better to get a farm and more food so you can build great improvements on sub par land tiles.
- mines or windmills: Before Biology if food is an issue, regardless what type of city it is, then a windmill. Cottage cities always get windmills and Production cities get mines.

What is HE?
what is SE?
what is CE?


never build cottages in early game?? how the heck do you get money for expansion and unit costs?

 

[Tehmuffin19]

As I recall, SE is specialist eco, and CE is cottage eco. I don't exactly remember what HE is, but when I do, I'm gonna feel stupid.

Helpful link: http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/reference/acronyms.php

 

[lordmacroer]

As I recall, SE is specialist eco, and CE is cottage eco. I don't exactly remember what HE is, but when I do, I'm gonna feel stupid.

Helpful link: http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/reference/acronyms.php

oh ok, like your building your entire empire around cottages or specialists?

 

[D666]

SP=state property
CE=cottage economy
SE=specialist economy
HE=hybrid economy

There is a list of acronyms in the War Academy

 

[duckstab]

oh ok, like your building your entire empire around cottages or specialists?

Yeah, but there's something of an art to running a successful Specialist Economy, so it's not completely straightforward. I found this to be a good start: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=197818.

But to answer the OP. I usually mine most of my hills, even in my commerce cities, so they have enough hammers to build commerce/gold/research modifiers - or alternatively to build wealth. Over the course of the game a large number of those will be converted to windmills to keep the cities growing. By that time you hope to have other sources of hammers available, e.g., lumbermills and multiplier buildings like forges/factories.

 

[cseanny]

What is HE?
what is SE?
what is CE

Someone already mentioned everything above except in my reference HE = Hammer Economy, something which naturally synergizes with running specialist. Additionally FE = Farm Economy which some people identify separately than the two above but imo they all contribute together in some shape or form.

But to answer the OP. I usually mine most of my hills, even in my commerce cities, so they have enough hammers to build commerce/gold/research modifiers - or alternatively to build wealth. Over the course of the game a large number of those will be converted to windmills to keep the cities growing. By that time you hope to have other sources of hammers available, e.g., lumbermills and multiplier buildings like forges/factories.

If opting for a CE I typically only have granaries and libraries forever.......very often I don't get modifying buildings until US. At zero slider cottages provide plenty of gold so I use frequent burst of max/zero. Plus this allows you to work more cottages and work them more turns getting them to towns that much faster. Late game everything is simply rush buy. Usually some time in the 1500-1600 range your at 15-20 cities+, at 100% research + bringing in 200+ (minimum) gold per turn so....Rush buy some more! The only time I would even be concerned about hammers would be if I was planning on launching a ship then I'd specialize some hammer heavy cities with all the hammer modifiers.

never build cottages in early game?? how the heck do you get money for expansion and unit costs?

Typically The Pyramids, Representation, farms, specialist, some form of hammers, building research and building wealth and in a lot of cases settling all GP. You cycle through phases of growth, research, and whipping. A ZERO research slider is utilized during most early game phases allowing you to accumulate gold during expansions/war while REP scientist help get you to important techs. Short burst of max research should always be utilized to get the most benefits from your library/forge bonuses. Spiritual and Philosophical leaders with Stone shine and Industrious leaders are never a bad thing either (especially if opting for a more hammer heavy/Wonder spam approach).

I'll attach a brief example with some different save points of a prior SE/HE (not one single cottage was ever built) where I'm bringing in around 1000 shortly after 1000 AD.

Edit: Somethings wrong with the forums right now so I'll upload the saves when the site is up and running again. You can view the saves from this link: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=11224044#post11224044

 

[AJ11]

which do you prefer?

bonus question:
farms, cottages, or watermills?

Mines. The chance of minerals tips it for me When you have hundreds of the little things running around, they pop surprisingly often.

Farms and cottages, depending on the surrounding terrain.

 

[Bostock]

Mines unless the city is too food-poor to run them all (and cares about running them all) or the hill is riverside-financial. But since I often have a Golden Age or two in the period where my workers are in pre-Railroads pre-Riflestomp idle mode, I have been known to massively windmill everything for 10-15 turns (Epic) and then mine it back again.