Observatory tipping point

[HiroProtagonist]

Starting a new OCC game as Korea. My initial starting location has a mountian range two tiles to the west. If I build my capital here I loose 2 tiles to mountians and will not be able to build an observatory. If I move to the hill to my west Ill be ajacent to a mountian meaning I can build the observatory, but this puts me deeper in the mountian range meaning I'd loose 5 tiles to the mountians. My understanding is that the observatory plays well into the Korean UA but at what point does the loss of productive tiles make moving next to a mountian not worth it.

 

[Glassmage]

Huh can you put a screen-shot with tile yield and bonus/strategic resource icons turned on?

 

[Monthar]

Losing 5 tiles to mountains is not a big deal, especially as Korea, because you're better off having those 5 citizens working as specialists to take full advantage of the UA. Also, even in a OCC, you're not likely to have enough citizens to work all the tiles until very late in the game anyway.

The Observatory gives a 50% boost to raw beakers and Korea's UA means building it gives a tech boost equal to completing a research agreement. If you have the Porcelain Tower and Rationalism opener, that makes building any science building give at least 1 free tech. If you also work the tech tree to have a very high median, that can be good for 2 free techs. So having the ability to build one more science building as Korea is a huge bonus.

 

[Brigg]

The loss of productive tiles only matters if you need them. You won't really need them until late game when your population gets big enough.

What can hurt you is the loss of "good" tiles. Giving up some grass/cows and gaining deserts is a bad trade.

 

[vexing]

sounds like 5 vs 2 so only a difference of 3 tiles? cities have 35 tiles to work, so that's probably a trivial difference.

of more importance is do you need to move out of range of luxuries? since each luxury provides enough gold to maintain 1 RA, if you're losing a couple it could be a net loss in research.

 

[HiroProtagonist]

sounds like 5 vs 2 so only a difference of 3 tiles? cities have 35 tiles to work, so that's probably a trivial difference.

of more importance is do you need to move out of range of luxuries? since each luxury provides enough gold to maintain 1 RA, if you're losing a couple it could be a net loss in research.

I took a second look at the map and the number of tiles lost will be closser to 8 or 9 vs 3 or 4. My take away from whats been posted is that the benefit from the observatory will outweigh the loss of tiles in this situation. Thanks for the help.

 

[Brigg]

You could also move away from the mountain and use the location for city #2...

 

[Monthar]

You could also move away from the mountain and use the location for city #2...

No, because, it's an OCC game.

Also, the Korean UA only gives the tech boost for science buildings built in the capital. So if it wasn't an OCC game, it'd still be better to have the 2nd city grab any resources lost when the capital is founded next to the mountain.

 

[triheptyl]

You could also move away from the mountain and use the location for city #2...

Not in an OCC, and the observatory wouldn't give the RA-like tech boost then, as it must be built in the capital.

EDIT: Blah, too late.