Quick farm question

[Hellfiredoom]

What's the common wisdom on growing farms? Say you settle a size 1 corrupt town surrounded by grass. The perfect farm situation. As the town grows, do you leave all citizens working the irrigated grass to promote the quickest growth to size 12 and then switch the workers to specialists? Or do you set specialists as the town grows, leaving just enough working the grass to give excess food each turn? It seems to me either method is sound, but I'm curious what the most common method is.

Edit to add another question: do you bother with aqueducts to get to size 12, or let the farms max at size 6?

Thanks!

 

[vmxa]

Many variables on that one. I have no rule on it. Some towns I let grow and other not. If slow growth, I often flip a citizen right away. Thinking I would rather have the 3x10 or 3x20 beakers than wait.

In better growth towns, it is a function of will the extra beakers make a difference? If I see 2bpt is enough to shave a turn, I take it.

Aqua's is another that changes all the time for me. Prior to RP, I will, if I have enought time to make it pay. After that I can use CE's to speed it and maybe a short rush. Still I have to know that I will get enough back to matter.

 

[Aabraxan]

That's a hard question. I don't really have a hard and fast rule. If I'm building workers out of the town, put everyone on food, because I'll have to regain the population anyway. Am I getting close to a key tech? If so, start flipping to scientists to try to shave turns off some turns.

Aques -- I don't usually to build them prior to RP. It just takes too long & I'd usually rather have the arty or workers that I can build in the time that it would take to build one. Once I get RP & can build them in a reasonable time, though, I do like having the extra unit support that you get from crossing the town-metro hurdle.

 

[CommandoBob]

Let's assume the city is next to a river, which bypasses the need for an aqueduct, and everything is railed, straight grass and irrigated.

I tend to let the city grow as fast as it can, until it gets unhappy, and then hire a geek or two as needed. Once it gets to size 12, then I hire geeks.

I have not really looked at the numbers to know which way gives the most beakers.

 

[Aabraxan]

Looking at CB's plan (hire specialists as needed to maintain happiness until full, then swap as many as possible to specialists), I have to say that I do a lot of that, too.

 

[vmxa]

I did not factor in any happy issues as you have to deal with that how ever you must. By the time I am making big farms out in the sticks, that is not a problem

That is not 100% as I just finished a huge Sid game where I had only 1 lux till late Industrial Age. Farms had to get geeks very early in the towns. Too many variable to make a rule.

 

[Bartleby]

I would mostly run them at max food that can maintain happiness, for the most part farms that are not on a river will not get an aqueduct unless it's a milking game. Also, generally I'll have an idea of how many bpt I'm running and how many I need, so if I can save a turn by running less than max food I will do that.
Every time it gets to one turn before a tech, I'll go to F1 and turn as many scientists into taxmen as I can.

 

[Snarkhunter]

As far as aquas go, it's very rare that I can get as many specialists from a size 12 city as I can from 2 size 6 towns, so I virtually never build an aqua in a town. I'd only consider it if I was trying to milk every unit support point I could out of the empire.

kk

 

[Hellfiredoom]

Thanks for the responses, lots of good info.

 

[ThinkTank]

If you are in republic and you do want maximal resource support from your farms, then probably size 7 is optimal, as it gets 3 instead of 1 unit support, and leaves the most room for more size 7 farms. Also, size 7 is reached faster than size 12 (and has less of a happiness issue).

 

[GamezRule]

I must agree with ThinkTank.

 

[Fiddlin Nero]

Too much micromanaging for me. If a town moves to city size with corruption it's a Science Farm, my Settler Farms are always towns. Of course I play PTW so I only have Scientist/Entertainers/Taxmen to play with.

 

[GamezRule]

Isn't that all there really is that is useful. Cop's would be if they came sooner, and more often then not, Civil Engineers don't do anything for me. Literally.

 

[Aabraxan]

Cops are good for the occasional fine-tuning in semi-core towns, but I can't recall ever having used one in a farm. I'll use CEs to build a few aqueducts in farms, but I don't use them for much else.

 

[GamezRule]

How exactly do CE's work? Sometimes, they will give me shields, and sometimes they do nothing?

 

[Aabraxan]

CEs add 2 shields per turn, but only to buildings, including Wonders (I think). I guess they're also good for the very occasional courthouse. No shields are supposed to go to units, but I think there's a bug where you can start a building and switch to a unit, and keep the shields already contributed by CEs.

Edited to add: And like all specialist output, shields from CEs are not subject to corruption or waste.

 

[GamezRule]

Wow, never knew that. This is helpful.

 

[CKS]

In a 20K game with plenty of food but not as many shields as you would like in the late game, civil engineers can be really nice. 98 shields plus 2 civil engineers gives 102, leaving a little cushion for pollution problems and turning 7/9/11 turns for a wonder into 6/8/10. In a big city, sometimes police will give you as many shields as engineers, so you have to fiddle with it a bit. Police will also give you more beakers or coins, so they are preferred if you can get the shields you need with them.

I also like them for building libraries or temples in corrupt areas where I want some culture. They don't work for getting shields out of starving cities, as shields get added after the population is lost (unlike cash or beakers), but a couple of engineers make relatively short work of a half-price temple or library.