Production and other tiles in general

[The Islander]

I've been playing civ since I, but i can't quite get my head around the tiles in 6. My first question is:
Apart from the adjacency bonuses, is there any benefit/drawback to laying an IZ in a city without prod. Tiles?

Once you've laid the IZ are the prod. Tiles still worth working, or does the IZ eclipse them?

In general, is it a good idea to remove an improvement to lay a different kind (e.g. A farm for a neighbourhood, or a quarry for a seaside resort. I know this is somewhat situationally dependant).

Quick note: i've never posted on this site before, but it is brilliant, awesome knowledge and tactics abound.

 

[Victoria]

You have many questions hidden in those sentences.

An IZ in a non production city?
If the city is low production it should be highish population or hopefully you would not have settled it
You can get to Apprenticeship fairly early which will help your other cities anyway. The IZ is Possibly more important for the non prod city because it does need to make things. If its on plains a high population will be able to create some fair production at around +15 but if its all grassland there is literally no cogs around, you do need some cogs to be able to create the IZ and this would be helped by an internal trade route or 2.
So without any mines adjacent you may get +1 prod for having 2 districts adjacent but that's about it but worth getting if you can because you are high population doing nothing so you can use the slots in the IZ. Taking this into account below is roughly what you will get
So building the IZ will cost 1 gold maintenance and give you 1 cog back, not much for the effort
Building a workshop will cost 1 gold maint and give you 4 prod back including the slot which is pretty good. At apprenticeship you have +5 cogs for -2 gold and in a city without prod thats a good boost, add a trade route or 2 and you can build some key stuff OK
Once at industrialization a factory will cost you 2 maint and give you 5 cogs which is now 10 cogs
So +10 cogs for -4 gold with a couple of trade routes and a water mill with the odd extra lying around surely from a mine or camp should get you around 15-20 prod at a time when your good cities are producing 40 so to me yes, its worth doing but is it worth pumping 2 trade routes into is a good question. Just what is that high pop city for?
Well good science and some culture from the population but an overhead of amenities means the city sort of a little bit ahead of breaking even. If you can get it to produce stuff as well over time then its much more valuable. Sure it will never be blinding but its something.
Power plant for 3 gold maint and +6 cogs means you finish at +16 cogs and -7 gold while an adjacency from another city would be

Are tiles worth working?
Well yes EVERY bit of production needs to be squeezed and good food farms for the specialists. A city is nothing but a bit of science and culture without production.
The production will only be of use for other buildings but it is very important to point out that the AI grows huge food farm cities but builds few districts. your advantage is building districts so thats what you need to differentiate yourself from the AI.

Replacing tiles
Well a quarry for a mine is worth doing as you get to harvest the stone which is of great value and worth doing. Replacing with a seaside resort? absolutely IF you are going for a culture victory. Seaside resorts give a lot of tourism but replace them once most of your prod is done. Its only for the last push of 20 or so turns you need all the tourism you can.
A farm for a neighborhood? It depends on your strategy and how big you want to grow your city as bigger cities create more amenity drain for what benefit. That's what you have to consider.
So its not always worth doing so I can only respond to specific examples. I will always replace quarries with resorts if going for a CV but I very rarely bother with neighborhoods but it is something the AI does not do so is one way to make your cities larger. If you have fewer cities this may be worth it.

A lot of the answer does depend on the difficulty you play. At prince you have a lot of choice and is more a builders game. As you approach deity it becomes more a wargamers game and also you need to be more efficient. In these cases some people would not even bother building the factory in that city if the trade routes give better value elsewhere.

 

[The Islander]

I play on king or emperor, i like the balance between warring and building to be found there. I can see that a lot of the more seasoned players seem to switch around from Prince to deity, but i find prince so easy as to be dull.

Awesome answer Victoria, thanks, thats why i love this site!

 

[Victoria]

NP, it is just my view, I was just reading a wiki where the author said there was no point in building one but you do see the sense in +14 production as opposed to +2 production for the sacrifice of a couple of trade routes for a while.

I am also with you... I am giving up on deity as it is just about how well your start position is, those that say they always win on deity just restart until the get the right map. Without a restart button its just stupid. Prince is too easy yes.... I love Emperor, it gives some challenge and some flexibility.

And yes i love this site too... I always forget things and get things wrong but there is always someone there to correct me or teach me something new. I just try to pay back a bit is all.