Not sure where to build Petra

[Carmack]

Hey guys, I've never built the Petra before. I know, I know, but I generally avoid deserts like the plague (hangover from Civ4).

Spoiler :

Not one, but two excellent desert locations for Petra. Minus the obvious city title, the one to the north has 13-14 desert tiles (the tile next to the marble is desert/hills) and the one to the south has 11-12, but more hills and sea resources. It's just... wow, both spots are marvelous with plenty of desert tiles. I haven't seen a start this good in a while.

Also, do the tile benefits from Petra stop working when you research Archeology?

 

[sufficiency]

Donno what difficulty you are playing on, because often getting Petra depends on if AIs spawned on deserts or not.

Anyway, I think you should settle 5 tiles to SW (between two sheeps). You will get two +food sea lux, 2 fish, and 3 sheeps (and a wheat I guess... but desert wheat is pretty meh). Too bad it's not by a mountain, but I don't think you should be picky here.

 

[headcase]

I'd go with the southwestern one, but both of those are some fine Petra spots, if you don't have trouble from the AI grabbing it. And nope, the bonuses go all game.

 

[MarauderCH]

If you can get it in those hills, that would be best! You will be able to get more production and some food production out of the hills then and be able to get a lot of hammers,

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

I'd go with south because there's a lot more resources and thus a lot more of production and food.

 

[Browd]

Agree on south, although the only downside there is lack of fresh water (other than the desert wheat tile, which will be an OK tile with petra, granary and a farm). The sea resources will be your most reliable source of food, although once Petra is built, each improved sheep tile will be 3 food and 3 hammers (4 hammers with a stable). Settle on the coastal hill between the two sheep, which should put all of the sea resources in range. Hard to beat 9 Petra-able hills, 3 of which have sheep.

The northern site has more flat desert tiles (junk, even with better access to fresh water).

 

[Carmack]

So how hard does the AI prioritize Petra? Like, about what turn should I expect them to build it? I'm playing on Emperor.

 

[Browd]

Often well before turn 90. Since you are currently at turn 24, even though you are many turns (or much gold) away from generating your first settler, you should be OK sending your first settler to that location and trying to get that city big enough to bang out Petra on its own.

The reassuring thing about the city down south is that it is a pretty good city location even without Petra. That is a very useful hedge against the risk that you don't get Petra.

 

[Carmack]

Oh, I forgot to mention I'm playing marathon, large world. Before turn 90 on marathon seems a little absurd.

 

[Browd]

Yeah, I don't play marathon (and I always assume everyone plays standard ).

IIRC, standard-to-marathon adjustment is generally 3x for pretty much everything.

 

[Gort]

I often get Petra with a great engineer from finishing Liberty.

 

[sufficiency]

On Immortal and Diety, you can usually hand-build the Petra if no AIs spawn on deserts (usually, if you see an AI on desert OR see an AI taking Desert Folklore, you should just abort your plan). Otherwise, you probably can't get it even if you try the engineer /w Liberty finisher (because an AI will finish it before you even get Currency.

 

[Granty555]

Warning, once you build your first super Petra city, you'll be looking for it every game (at least I do!)

Hope this new expansion has one for tundra. Maybe this thing:-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard_Global_Seed_Vault

 

[Smokeybear]

Best Petra terrain = a desert river with some good floodplain tiles for food, surrounded by desert hills to get the huge bonuses on. Toss in some sheep tiles and mining resources like iron, coal, and aluminum for extra production bonuses, and you have a dream city. While a few empty non-hill and non-floodplain desert tiles may not produce much, they do make nice spots to plop down great people while still producing some decent base stats. And they often turn up to be oil wells... more bonus!

 

[Carmack]

Best Petra terrain = a desert river with some good floodplain tiles for food, surrounded by desert hills to get the huge bonuses on. Toss in some sheep tiles and mining resources like iron, coal, and aluminum for extra production bonuses, and you have a dream city. While a few empty non-hill and non-floodplain desert tiles may not produce much, they do make nice spots to plop down great people while still producing some decent base stats. And they often turn up to be oil wells... more bonus!

That's exactly what I was planning to do with the flat desert hills, great people tiles. I'm thinking of plopping down either science academies and great merchant posts. Depends on my victory goal, either science or domination.

 

[whyidie]

Often well before turn 90. Since you are currently at turn 24, even though you are many turns (or much gold) away from generating your first settler, you should be OK sending your first settler to that location and trying to get that city big enough to bang out Petra on its own.

The reassuring thing about the city down south is that it is a pretty good city location even without Petra. That is a very useful hedge against the risk that you don't get Petra.

Thats what I'd shoot for. With my playstyle on emperor, Petra is a big gamble. I'm completely dependent on who is on the map and what they're up against. As Browd stated, great thing about that spot is because of the pastures its not a total loss if you don't get Petra. With Petra you'll have a city thats on pace with your capitol.