Plains, what to do with them?

[Mack_Jagger]

I always have a big concern what to build on plains tiles. I more or less consider them useless.

If in a commerce city and by a river I chopp it for the extra gold coin. An unwooded inland plains tile usually gets cottaged in a commerce city. But a wooded inland plains tile usually stays wooded untill replaceable parts when I build a lumbermill. I can't see anything I can build that's better than the hammers I get from the forest?

And farm a plains tile? Well in som desperate cases it has it uses but that's rare, at least for me. So what's the forum members take on plains tiles? Is there anything clever one can do with them?

 

[mystyfly]

I tried to avoid any plains in science cities, as well as hills as good as I can, both when using CE and SE. there where you find many plains, you'll often find my production cities. They only get effective in the later game, so these spots are often backfilled later. I build them on a river if possible, both for levees/health(esp in production cities)/ability to build hydro plant and 3GD. They get effective with state property and eventually caste system. The most important tile improvements are watermills (everywhere possible) -> workshops -> farms (where needed to be able to work every tile.
so in a production city, plains are not that painful, the city only grows slower. but in a science city it really sucks. in a se, one plains is half a scientist fewer and in a ce it is half a town fewer, for only one weak hammer you don't really need in that city.

 

[Fistleaf]

I also have problems building improvements on plains. Building a farm or cottage is a waste if there are grassland tiles to work and building a workshop or watermill only comes in useful at a later era.

 

[Refar]

A cottage on plains gives you the same as a cottage anywhere else. So if you have food surplus - from flood plain or food ressource - you can cottage over plains for your science city.... Of course if you have to build a grassland farm to support it, it becomes less cool...

 

[Sjaramei]

Cottage, Farm or Workshop/Watermill. Depends what your city needs. With biology farms on plains aren't that bad, it all depends on your food supply and what you want in the city who works them. Lumbermills are good, but they come a bit too late for my taste. (i tend to chop forests quick need hammers!)

 

[Gliese 581]

Having access to different sort of terrain-tiles with the same improvements on them allows you to maximize output wo wasting anything when you're controlling growth. For example you might have a grassland cottage that you're working and a plains cottage that is unused and 1 food surplus with the tiles being worked, but you have reached your happy cap. Instead of telling the city governor to avoid growth you can switch to the plains cottage and net 1 hammer in output.

During a golden age, a plains will produce more than a grassland since you get extra hammers but not extra food.

 

[Game_Addy]

More likely than not, I'll build workshops on them(they aren't half-bad when under Caste/State Property). Aside from that though...never mind. I've only done that

 

[DaveMcW]

Ignore them until Biology.

 

[DigitalBoy]

I don't care what anyone says; river-adjacent plains flatlands are perfectly fine tiles. The only time they're ever really bad is when you're being super **** about your Oxford city.

As for plains tiles not next to rivers, either cottage them if you can find the surplus food or keep a couple of plains forests for the health bonus, then build lumbermills over them come Replaceable Parts. Plains tiles not next to rivers are prime candidates for + forests because you don't usually work them until later on in the game. You can also farm them with Civil Service; they may be pretty weak tiles, but it's better than nothing, and they become a lot stronger come Biology.

I also find that plains generally get more out of golden ages. They always get an extra hammer (which is huge in my opinion) and get another commerce if they're river-adjacent or are cottaged.

 

[PimpyMicPimp]

I'm also not a huge fan of plains. A cottaged plains gives you as much commerce as any other tile plus a hammer (two with the right civics), but they are usually the last cottages to be worked in my city, since I'll almost always take an extra over an extra . I'll sometimes work shop them, too, but I really don't find workshops all that usefull until you have guilds/whatever other tech gives them a boost (not SP, but I think there is another tech that gives them another hammer, can't think of a name right now, though..).

 

[Rusten]

Chemistry is the other tech IIRC. Caste system adds a hammer too, so they're pretty useful for production with a workshop. If plains trees I usually leave them be as they contribute to health.

 

[Defiant47]

Ignore them until Biology.

*gasp*

That's something I would expect to hear from an SE player, rather than an avid CE supporter...

 

[Verge]

I don't find plains all that troublesome, I usually just don't work them until all the other tiles have citizens on them.

 

[Refar]

How biology does help here ? A biology plains cottage is still the same as a per biology one - you still has to farm over something else in order to support it

 

[Diamondeye]

How biology does help here ? A biology plains cottage is still the same as a per biology one - you still has to farm over something else in order to support it

I think Dave refers to the fact that a plains can then provide a surplus of food.

And I often farm plains, if watermills aren't possible. But I try to avoid them as much as possible.

 

[TeraHammer]

As said above, river plains are good cottage land in combination with a food resource and/or floodplains.
My games usually dont get past the medieval age, except for one city challenges. When those, I usually do workshops.

 

[Daedal]

I don't find plains all that troublesome, I usually just don't work them until all the other tiles have citizens on them.

Yep, same here. The only real trouble would be if your entire fat cross is plains... and then the question becomes, why did you even bother settling that city? If a city is already working a few resources and one or more 'useful tiles,' it's no big deal to either assign a specialist with the surplus food or work some of these tiles with farms/watermills/workshops or if you must....cottages.

 

[DigitalBoy]

The only real trouble would be if your entire fat cross is plains... and then the question becomes, why did you even bother settling that city?

Rivers automatically make for good (or at least acceptable) city sites, plains or not. Working a bunch of river-adjacent plains farms is alright for me. Better than no city at all.

 

[gomms]

Hmm, plains are useless in most cases, EXCEPT if u have a all grassland/sea with no river city that is struggling to even produce enough production to build university/bank so forth.

2 plain tiles with workshops on it pumps out 3 hammers each, which can be very good temporarily as you get up a few buildings and a workshop.

 

[qwertz]

plains basicly trasfer 1 -> 1. The biggest problem with this is that if you need more you can usually get them (slavery, forest chops, mines, workshops,watermills...) much easier than additional , which you can only get by farms (which are quite ineffective pre-biology) and windmills (which can never get you a food surplus). So unless you have a lot of surplus food, avoid them untill late game where you get biology farms, food corporations and the other cool stuff