Need help with farms.

[Xethorsiph]

I was playing as an Ottoman republic, and my rep got trashed. To compensate the loss of gpt deals, I'm trying to build science farms. However, they aren't very effective. Can anyone give me a "How To" of making and maintaning science farms? These are my primary issues:

How far apart should they be? I've tried CxC but the cities are way too small, even with railed irrigation.

When do I know to start them (What age and what corruption level)?

 

[vmxa]

If they are not going to have aqua's or not on a river, then they only need 12 food. So it depends on the tiles you have to work with. If irrigate grass wit rails, then 3 tiles. If you have a food bonus, you may be able to get by with 2 tiles.

If they have aqua or on a river, you need 24 food. So 6 tiles,if they are 4 food each. Start them before you have rails, if you can feed enough pop. It should be done in in places that are too corrupt to be useful for production. That means shields, gold and beakers.

 

[Aabraxan]

How far apart should they be? I've tried CxC but the cities are way too small, even with railed irrigation.

As close as you can squeeze them in. A single science farm isn't very powerful. It's when you build scores of them that you can begin to see their utility. Each one will produce a few beakers or a handful of gold per turn individually, but collectively that becomes hundreds of beakers or gold per turn.

When do I know to start them (What age and what corruption level)?

As vmxa noted, start them before rails if you can. They'll need some time to grow. I produce settlers and workers out of mine, which slows down their growth, but provides the settlers and workers needed to continue putting more down and watering more terrain. I use pretty tight city spacing, so I start hitting serious corruption early. At the point where corruption makes cities useless for production, even with a courthouse, that's where I start building farms.

 

[DWetzel]

If they are not going to have aqua's or not on a river, then they only need 12 food. So it depends on the tiles you have to work with. If irrigate grass wit rails, then 3 tiles. If you have a food bonus, you may be able to get by with 2 tiles.

If they have aqua or on a river, you need 24 food. So 6 tiles,if they are 4 food each. Start them before you have rails, if you can feed enough pop. It should be done in in places that are too corrupt to be useful for production. That means shields, gold and beakers.

Don't forget that the city center produces 2 food also... so really you need only 22 food outside that. If you're in an area with some plains, that's a sensible number (railed plains = 3 food; 6 of those plus a grassland = 22) , but if you're in a grassland area it probably works as well to just take 5 tiles (20 food) and make 6 scientists at size 11.

 

[vmxa]

Why would I forget center tile? If could be 2 or 3 food, if Ag. It does not matter, you need 12 or 24 total and that includes the center.

That is why I said 2, if you have a food bonus. 5 and 5 and 2 or 3 get 12 or 13. No matter how large the food bonus, you need 2 tiles as a minimum to feed 6 pop. It is possible to get to less than 6 tiles for a 24 food city.

If it is straight grass, you still need 6 and the center tile is just extra. It is plain to see that you could have any number of scenarios where you may wish to not grow the place to max pop as it could be that you will gain no extra specialist. I am not about to detail all of that, they can figure it out for themselves or not.

 

[eldar]

Being Ag can make farms a real pain because in an all-grass area, all your cities end up with an odd amount of food (after rails).

When I set up farms typically I will have (assuming grassland, fully irrigated+rails):
- A bunch of 90%-corrupt size 5 cities building wealth with no improvements. 2 citizens+city centre gives 10 food, so that's 3 specialists.
- A few 90%-corrupt size 11 cities (those lucky enough to have fresh water, or perhaps captured cities with 'ducts - it's not worthwhile building 'ducts of your own) with no improvements. 5 citizens+city centre gives 22 food, with 6 specialists.

If you have a +2 food bonus, great, you can have an extra citizen in either type of farm.
With plains you need more citizens to get the food. No point growing above size 4 without a 'duct/fresh water. (centre+2 citizens = 8 food = 2 specialists)

Any other type of terrain, forget about it, you'll never be able to support more than one specialist unless there's food bonuses about (fish, tundra game, whales), so just make that 1 citizen a specialist right away, build wealth, and leave the town be.

When deciding whether or not to let a farm grow, use the following guidelines:
- Will my next citizen be able to work a tile that gets >2 food? If NO, make that citizen a specialist and stop.
- Will the amount of food gathered after adding the next citizen be more than my city needs for its maximum size (6 or 12)? If YES, make that citizen a specialist and stop.
- You've got this far? Great, put that citizen to work!