Quick Question About Land Resources

[$Texas]

I apologize if this was covered in the 60+ page thread at the top, but I didn't have time to read every post. I did skim through and read the entire FAQ as well as do some outside searching, but I cannot seem to find an answer.

Two of my favorite games were Colonization and Civ2, and I was I saw that there was a combo pack on Steam for both, plus the expansions so I decided to give them a try as I heard Civ4 (at least) was excellent.

Anyway, I've only been playing Civ4 for a few days and I wondered if there was any benefit to working on land that's in your total territory, but not in city boundaries. I hope that makes sense. Basically something that my town can not take advantage of with workers, but is still in my cultural territory. I'm a pretty passive player so I'm just learning the ropes on expansion and things like that and I just wanted to know if I had been wasting my time working on land that wasn't directly near a city. I'm pretty close to a cultural win as my third city is almost legendary, so I have a ton of land all around that I'm working on hoping that it's helping. I know that once you get railroads you can connect an improved mine/winery/etc. with your town and get the benefits of it (assuming it's in your territory), but I didn't know about regular cottages, windmills, etc. If you do get something for them, who gets the bonuses?

 

[Rhaeghar]

If it's a resource that you're hooking up, yes.
If you're making a farm or something like that, which doesn't improve a resource, not really. There's always a tiny chance that mines can discover an ore resource so I suppose there could be a point to doing that if your workers have nothing else to do.

 

[Monsterzuma]

There's always a tiny chance that mines can discover an ore resource so I suppose there could be a point to doing that if your workers have nothing else to do.

This only happens when a city works the mine.

So, no, you don't get anything for laying down improvements in your cultural territory when no city can work the tile, unless the tile has a special resource on it that grants happiness or health.

 

[OmgItsSpam]

I apologize if this was covered in the 60+ page thread at the top, but I didn't have time to read every post. I did skim through and read the entire FAQ as well as do some outside searching, but I cannot seem to find an answer.

Two of my favorite games were Colonization and Civ2, and I was I saw that there was a combo pack on Steam for both, plus the expansions so I decided to give them a try as I heard Civ4 (at least) was excellent.

Anyway, I've only been playing Civ4 for a few days and I wondered if there was any benefit to working on land that's in your total territory, but not in city boundaries. I hope that makes sense. Basically something that my town can not take advantage of with workers, but is still in my cultural territory. I'm a pretty passive player so I'm just learning the ropes on expansion and things like that and I just wanted to know if I had been wasting my time working on land that wasn't directly near a city. I'm pretty close to a cultural win as my third city is almost legendary, so I have a ton of land all around that I'm working on hoping that it's helping. I know that once you get railroads you can connect an improved mine/winery/etc. with your town and get the benefits of it (assuming it's in your territory), but I didn't know about regular cottages, windmills, etc. If you do get something for them, who gets the bonuses?

all you need is the wheel you can do it with roads too

also, farms outside the city boundaries can spread irrigation...thats sometimes helpful

 

[huh?]

For tiles outside the BFC (big fat cross) of your cities, but still in your cultural borders, here are the reasons I can come up with for improving the land...

1. To connect that resource to your empire using tile improvement (mine, farm, pasture, plantation, camp, etc.) and a road/rail. Even if the resource is an extra, you can always trade it away.

2. By building a fort, you can base 4? airplanes out of it. Also forts can act as a harbor or even canals. Of course, the original intent of the fort is to provide an outpost for your troops.

3. You can build roads and rails to allow for better movement of your forces.

4. You can clear border forests/jungle to deprive invading forces of the defensive bonus.

 

[6K Man]

There are a few of other reasons to improve tiles outside all BFCs:

- chain irrigating after Civil Service
- pre-improving tiles when you don't have a Settler ready to settle near them (typically when backfilling tiles) so the new city will have something to work immediately
- if you improve border tiles, the AI may stop to pillage them if it invades, thus buying you a bit of time

 

[$Texas]

Thanks for all the replies, it certainly helped (especially the chain irrigation tip). If you break the "chain" of irrigation farms, I imagine they stop being irrigated? Or can you get something irrigated and them replace it with something else? I would be surprised if that were possible, but who knows.

Also, is there any way to encourage forest growth? Are they more likely to spawn if there are more tiles with trees around them?

 

[peppe1]

Never broken irrigation, but I would guess you keep the farms down the line, but lose the little irrigation tag. The irrigation shouldn't affect basic farms, but resources that benefit from irrigation will probably lose the extra food.

Forests regrow very slowly. The square that it might regrow in has to be pristine (no roads, or other improvements). The more forest surrounding a tile the higher the chance of regrowth. Someone did a detailed study of this, but all I remember was basically don't count on it There is a mod that allows workers to plant forests if you really like them.

 

[Monsterzuma]

Forrest preserves make forrests spread faster. Still not very fast with them, though.

 

[Scoottr]

You can chop forests that are outside your BFC and outside your cultural borders even and get cash for them. It reaps a smaller reward the farther from a city the chop takes place, but gets you something. Chop a forest that the AI will expand to and you get cash he/she might have taken for themselves.

 

[$Texas]

Interesting comment about the roads and forests. Thanks.

 

[Thorsday]

Never broken irrigation, but I would guess you keep the farms down the line, but lose the little irrigation tag. The irrigation shouldn't affect basic farms, but resources that benefit from irrigation will probably lose the extra food.

IIRC, breaking irrigation makes you lose the +1 food from basic farms. Pre-biology Farms can stick around if irrigation is lost, but they're basically useless unless you plan to hook them up again.

 

[peppe1]

Played around with farms in a save.

In the early game the +1 comes from irrigation, not the farm itself. With Biology the farm itself gets +1 and can be built without irrigation.
If the farm tile has both (irrigation and biology) it will give +2.

If you cut off irrigation you lose the 1 the irrigation provided. Pre biology that cut off non irrigated farm is useless. With Biology it provides +1.

 

[huh?]

- if you improve border tiles, the AI may stop to pillage them if it invades, thus buying you a bit of time

Does the AI get gold, like players, for pillaging tiles? Does the AI get a discount for rushing units; therefore, costing less gold? If the AI is in a position to be invading me, do I really want to provide it with more gold to buy more units?

 

[6K Man]

Does the AI get gold, like players, for pillaging tiles? Does the AI get a discount for rushing units; therefore, costing less gold? If the AI is in a position to be invading me, do I really want to provide it with more gold to buy more units?

Yes, if it can buy you a turn or 2 to whip/draft defenders.

 

[nbcman]

You can chop forests that are outside your BFC and outside your cultural borders even and get cash for them. It reaps a smaller reward the farther from a city the chop takes place, but gets you something. Chop a forest that the AI will expand to and you get cash he/she might have taken for themselves.

Chopping forests yields not . If the tile that I plan to start a new city on is forested, I always chop the forest 1st to give to my closest city.

 

[$Texas]

I just finished up a game with lots of water, and it struck me to ask another question: Obviously you can't connect roads/railroads to your towns, but does dropping down a work boat on fish, oil, etc. in your boundary help?

 

[Grey Fox]

Rivers and Coast count as roads for resources etc. The ocean too after Astronomy.
And you do need to plant a workboat on a resource to get it available for trading or for its health etc, yes.

 

[Bostock]

Rivers and coast only count as roads after you get Sailing, though.

 

[Grey Fox]

They always do within your culture.