Productivity

[Caveman1953]

What are some tips for building highly productive cities early in the game?

 

[Caveman1953]

I have been building cities in forest areas. That seems to help, but that's all I know. I place them by water, and that seems to make food more available. Is there any other ways to increase productivity? The two wonders that I shoot for the most are the great library and Leonardo's workshop. Is there another wonder that I should be working toward or a city improvement? I try to build lots of cities. Is that a mistake?

 

[Ali Ardavan]

Welcome to Civ fanatics Caveman. There is no single way to play, nor is there a single way to win. People play with different goals and different strategies. That is part of the appeal of the game.

There is no one answer to what wonders to build, how to expand, whether to make a lot of small cities or fewer and bigger cities. It all depends on 3 factors:
1. Your wining strategy (conquest or space ship)
2. The map
3. How long you want to play (quick game or long and drawn out)

 

[Caveman1953]

My strategy would be conquest. I tried the space ship and played for weeks and nothing happened. I totally don't get the spaceship. It just got boring. What I want to do is build a strong army quickly. What are the best ways to do that?

 

[Peaster]

Ali, we have here a caveman of superior taste!

I'd suggest reading DaveV's guide to ICS (fast growth) and then perhaps my Early Conquest Guide. You can find links to both in Jesdisciple's "Early Conquest" thread in this forum (also in the Great Library at the Apolyton site).

 

[chieflookout]

The best productivity Wonder to shoot for is King Richard's Crusade, which becomes available after Engineering. It only affects one city, but it boosts productivity there alot. It basically gives you an extra shield in all worked squares of that city. Factories also help with production (city improvement) but you said build armies quickly, and that is a little later in the game.

 

[Caveman1953]

The only link to DaveV's guide to ICS that I've found was a dead link. Could you post a good link here please?

 

[chieflookout]

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2209

 

[Caveman1953]

Thanks.

At size one, put your worker on the high-food square: your goal is to grow to size 2 as quickly as possible. Once the city reaches size two, arrange your workers to maximize the shields produced by the city.

What does that mean? What are the workers, and how do we arrange them?

 

[Caveman1953]

switch four cities to building caravans. Use them to build Hanging Gardens.

How can I use caravans to build the hanging gardens?

 

[ummmm........]

Oooh! Questions I can answer! That never happens

When you go to the city screen, the upper left portion is a map of which tiles your workers are working. By clicking on a worked tile, you remove the worker from that tile (and create an entertainer). You can then click an empty tile to place the worker there instead. You can rearrange all your workers according to what the AI thinks is best by clicking the city tile in the center. The AI's priorities are food > shields > trade, but I think it tries to keep any one from becoming too out of balance.

If you move a caravan to a city that is producing a wonder, you get a "Help build wonder" option in addition to the usual "Establish trade route" and "Keep moving" options. A caravan used in this way adds fifty shields (the full production cost of a caravan) to the wonder project. It's cheaper to rush build caravans than wonders, so you can cheat a bit by rushing caravans and having them build the wonder rather than trying to rush the wonder itself.

 

[Caveman1953]

That is so cool. I have been playing this game for 10 years and didn't know that. I guess that's what I get for being a caveman.

 

[ummmm........]

Don't feel bad. I've been playing for just as long (though I started on the Playstation version) and I've still never won on Deity . . .

 

[Caveman1953]

OK, so I am in the 1600s ad. I have long since been the #1 world power, but now my cities are starting to go into disorder. I tend to stay away from Republic because that seems to cause disorder. What I'm thinking is that I should have communism by now, but I don't.

This also is a world of islands which normally I would start over as soon as I discovered it. I don't like to focus on navy. Maybe if I had started over I would have communism by the 1600s.

Is there something else I could have done to keep my cities in order?

 

[Sharwood]

Luxuries, entertainers, military police if you're in Monarchy, Despotism, or Communism, being a Fundamentalist government, improvements such as temples and cathedrals, Wonders like the Hanging Gardens, there's a tonne of of different ways to keep your citizens content. And unless your sole goal is warmongering, both Republic and Democracy are better governments than Communism.

 

[Caveman1953]

I like fundamentalism for my goal in government. I'm an fundamentalist anyway. I had the gardens, and built some temples when cities started going into disorder, but I was trying to not build too many improvements. I'll try entertainers and see what happens.

 

[Sharwood]

Entertainers should be a last resort, since taking a unit off a tile reduces your productivity, but if you can't do anything else, use them. The trick is to plan ahead, so you don't have to use them.

 

[Peaster]

Probably you already know this .... but the fastest route to Fundamentalism is to build the Statue of Liberty as soon as you get Democracy. It's a bit expensive, but worth it, especially if you have a really big civ and don't like Democracy. And then, if you have happiness WoWs like Mike's and Bach's you'll get super-rich from the tithes.