Question about how to improve land with food bonuses

[80k]

Hello,

I am still uncertain as to the best way to improve land. I tend to mine as much as possible, and i build roads everywhere.

I read somewhere that mining helps bring out the resources. Does this include stuff like fruit and tobacco?

How about game, cattle, and wheat? Is it best to leave those squares alone (other than roads). Or irrigate it or mine it?

I haven't been able to find any strategy articles on how to manage workers, unfortunately. So any help would be great appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Sukenis]

It is best to mine grasslands and irigate plains. Never leave a square alose because it has a resource on it.

 

[sealman]

i tend to mine-mine-and mine again. at least until I get hospitals.

I do vary this depending on city location in an attempt to get a city to pop 12 (again before hospitals)

Once I get hospitals in my city, everything goes out the window.

 

[Padma]

Whether to mine or irrigate depends very much on the circumstances of the particular city and what phase the game is in - way too many variables for a quick answer.

I would recommend checking out cracker's Improving Your Opening Play to get a good idea on what to do with your workers, when.

 

[Ribannah]

Remember that if your city grows faster, due to irrigation, you may produce just as much shields as a smaller city with mines.
And you'll generate more gold, too, if your Workers can keep up.

However, when you hit a city size limit (6 or 12), and you're not building Settlers or Workers, extra food is pretty much wasted.

Also, when you make extra food, you want one high-production tile because that will be worked for free each time the city grows in size.

There are more factors involved (are you building a Granary, is the city sharing tiles with another city, is this particular city much larger than others forcing you to use the luxury slider, corruption etc.), and for a good part it's a matter of timing.

 

[tao]

I often irrigate to grow fast and once I hit pop 12 (before hospitals) I change irrigation to mines to maximize production.

After hospitals, I change mines to irrigation again.

I also aim to adjust my production e.g. to 40 shields if I want to build 80 shields rifles in a city.

Thus the workers task is rarely done.

Edit/add: In the early game it is most important to get a good settler factory running and mine or irrigate accordingly.

 

[Goober]

I press the "a" button, and the guys with the shovel do their thing. I find that the automated workers actually do a fairly decent job, better then I ever could . . .

 

[Yeti]

"mining helps bring out the resources" ?

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Let me give some general mining vs irrigation tips and if you have more questions afterwards, ask away!

- Resources provide a fixed bonus to a square. Mining or irrigation won't alter how much extra you're getting from the resource. Mining a hill is +2 shields (3 total). Mining a hill with coal is +2 shields (5 total (coal gives 2 shields)).

- Mining and irrigation give a fixed bonus dependant only upon the terrain type, regardless of the presense or absense of resources.

- At the beginning of a game you're in despotism, which "eats" the third food or shield produced in any square. Grassland is 2 food, no shields (ignore bonus grassland for now). Irrigation (+1 food) would make it 3 food, but under despotism you'll only get 2 because the third is lost, so it makes no sense to irrigate at that point, so mine it to make it 2 food and 1 shield.

- Adding a cow (+2 food, +1 shield) to the grassland makes it theoretically 4 food, 1 shield, but under despotism you're only going to get 3 food and 1 shield. NOW - that "third" food has already been lost, so now you have the choise of irrigating to make it 4/1, or mining it to make it 3/2.

- Just leaving your bonus resources alone is definitely the wrong way to go. Since those are the tiles your city will be using first, those are the tiles you want to improve with your workers first.

 

[80k]

hey thanks for all of the details. that's really helpful, and i'm starting to understand how everything works now

Yeti, thanks for clarifying that for me. for some reason, i was under the impression that more of a resource becomes available due to mining. Perhaps it's roads/railroads that make a difference? i seem to always have a problem with my supply of coal, so i'm always wondering how to maximize my supply of it, when i acquire it!

i've come to understand the basic concept of the game, but i still haven't figured out the little details yet, and i think it'll take some time before i will comfortably move up from chieftain level! the more i play this game, the more i respect the civ'ers that are able to tackle the harder levels!

 

[Wakboth]

Originally posted by 80k
Yeti, thanks for clarifying that for me. for some reason, i was under the impression that more of a resource becomes available due to mining. Perhaps it's roads/railroads that make a difference? i seem to always have a problem with my supply of coal, so i'm always wondering how to maximize my supply of it, when i acquire it.

Ok. Some quick clarifications. There are several different types of resources:

Bonus resources: These are "local" resources. They *only* add extra goodies to a worked square in the city the square is in. These are things like wheat, cattle, and game. A square with a bonus resource will *cough* have bonuses to the normal stuff you'd get. This could be adds to either food, shields, or commerce (or a combination of the three). They have no effect on any other city.

Luxury resources: These are things that make people happy. Gems, Dye, and furs are examples of luxury resources. These resources also count as bonus resources for the city they are in, but they have another effect. If you connect the resource via a road or rail to your capital, you now gain the benefit of the luxury for your entire civilization (not just the city that owns the square). Any city that's also connected to your capital via a road or rail (later, harbors and airports) gains extra happy faces. A single luxury is sufficient to generate a quantity of happy faces, but you only gain the benefit of a single type (so even if you have 3 gems, you only get the happy effects of one). The extra's can be traded to other civs though.


Strategic resources: These are things that allow you to build specific units/improvments. Iron, coal, saltpeter... All are strategic resources. These also count as bonus resources for the city they are in just like Luxury resources do. All cities that are connected to the one with the strategic resource via a road or rail (later harbors and airports) can make use of the resource. If that resource is connected to your capital, then you can trade it to other civs just like the luxury resources. These work very much like the luxury resources. You only need one of them. The rest can be traded.


So. The idea of "maximizing" your supply of coal is flawed. You either have it, or you don't. A single resource is sufficient for an entire civilization. If you have cities that can't make use of the coal, it's not because you don't have enough. It's because that city isn't connected to the resource. Check your roads. If you're on a different continent, you must have a harbor in a city connected via a road to the resource and a harbor in a city connected via a road to the city you are looking at.

A good rule of thumb when building a civ is to always connect all of your cities on a single continent by roads. That way, any resource available to one city on that contienent is available to all cities. Always build at least one harbor on each continent that you have cities. That way every continent you have is connected to every other continent you have. As long as you do both of these, then all of your cities will always be connected to all your other cities. That's a very good thing...

 

[Yeti]

Originally posted by 80k
Perhaps it's roads/railroads that make a difference? i seem to always have a problem with my supply of coal, so i'm always wondering how to maximize my supply of it, when i acquire it!

Roads:
- Allow faster travel (1/3 of a movement point consumed)
- Add 1 trade (gold) to a square if it is worked by a citizen of one of your cities.
- Connect cities to resources, making strategic resources (like coal) and luxury resource (like silk, spice, and gems) available in them. I'm guessing this is your "supply of coal" problem. You want all of your cities connected to each other with a network of roads or resources will only be available to some of your cities. A single source of coal can supply your entire empire, but only if all of your cities are connected (harbors and airports can do this as well, but that's a more advanced topic!).
- Connect cities to your capital - If a city has a road connection to the capital, it will have slightly reduced corruption.

Railroads:
- Allow faster travel (0 movement points consumed)
- Increase the output of mines by 1, and irrigation by 1. NOTHING else matters here. Terrain type and resource are not considered. It is simply: If a square has a mine and you build a railroad on it, it will produce 1 more shield. If the square is irrigated and you build a railroad, it will produce 1 more food.

 

[kb2tvl]

Working tiles is a bit of an art and can really boost your level of play. Now, during the ancient age/despotism/expansion phase, you want 5 or 10 food per turn in your settler factory. So to max your food collection, you need to irigate food bonus up to 5 or 10 food per turn. Keep in mind that irigating grassland will give zero benefit, in despotism, unles it has a food bonus on it.

Once you enter a higher form of govt and stop expanding, you have probably entered the midevil age. During this time you want 5 or 10 food per turn and that amout of food needs to reflect how happy your people are which relates to luxaries, happiness improvements/wonders, trade that is translated in to luxaries and level of play. In other words, there is no point in having people as entertainers and have little or no shield production.

 

[Lumin]

Originally posted by RealGoober
I press the "a" button, and the guys with the shovel do their thing. I find that the automated workers actually do a fairly decent job, better then I ever could . . .

Goober, Goober, Goober. When will you learn that that may be what you do on cheiftan, you cannot do that on the higher levels man.

 

[Mano3]

Originally posted by RealGoober
I press the "a" button, and the guys with the shovel do their thing. I find that the automated workers actually do a fairly decent job, better then I ever could . . .

I'm with you! I'll only control the workers at the beginning of the game, and then later when I can build railroads. Other than that, I let them run rampant. I know experienced CIV players do not recommend this, but I guess I'm too lazy or too perplexed.