RB6 - Island Hopping
- Thread starter Sirian
- Start date
Sirian
Designer, Mohawk Games
Garath said:...interesting definition of 'tomorrow', Sirian...
Better be a good one, taking this long! You didn't get distracted playing Civ or something, did you?
Uh... Who me?
*whistles* *shuffles feet* *Hides his saved games from RBCiv Adventure 3*
"Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow.
You're always a day... a... way!"OK, OK. I'll see if I can get that report done today.
- Sirian
BeefontheBone
Windbag of the sea
- Joined
- Nov 7, 2005
- Messages
- 2,018
Lurker's solliloque: Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in thsi petty pace unto the last syllable of recorded time...
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2001
- Messages
- 20,078
Sirian said:*whistles* *shuffles feet* *Hides his saved games from RBCiv Adventure 3*
lurker's comment:
Please don't mention that game. I stayed up way to late last night suffering a several bout of one more turnitis ® ©
One more turnitis is a registed trademark of LK series gaming.
Sirian
Designer, Mohawk Games
Welcome to Uploads11 folder!
Barbarian infestation on Final Isle. I will effect repairs.
Two huts, two hostiles, all hostiles = WARRIORS? Free training.
Taj Mahal: NEGATORY!
We popped another Prophet. That's less than ideal.
We may need to trim back on the Priest madness.
The Way spreads to India:
Our scouts report getting drunk on the local liquor.
They say it is called "Rum".
We should try to obtain our own supplies!
Barbarian infestation on Final Isle. I will effect repairs.
Two huts, two hostiles, all hostiles = WARRIORS?
Free training.Taj Mahal: NEGATORY!
We popped another Prophet. That's less than ideal.
We may need to trim back on the Priest madness.
The Way spreads to India:
Our scouts report getting drunk on the local liquor.
They say it is called "Rum".
We should try to obtain our own supplies!
Sirian
Designer, Mohawk Games
POACHERS! 
We wanted to settle at the pink circle. One turn too slow! Arrgh.
They moved their settler inland a space and settled in range of the gold!
Mansa sure does a have a nose for gold.
Bling bling!
We are forced to move westward.
Theater should be whipped at the FIRST opportunity.
(If you can't beat em, get em to join you!)
Slavery is almost to its end. Democracy, Universal Suffrage, Emancipation, are due in a few turns!
Whip, rush, and otherwise speed along any cultural items.
MUST... GET... THAT... GOLD!
We wanted to settle at the pink circle. One turn too slow! Arrgh.
They moved their settler inland a space and settled in range of the gold!
Mansa sure does a have a nose for gold.
Bling bling!We are forced to move westward.
Theater should be whipped at the FIRST opportunity.
(If you can't beat em, get em to join you!)
Slavery is almost to its end. Democracy, Universal Suffrage, Emancipation, are due in a few turns!
Whip, rush, and otherwise speed along any cultural items.
MUST... GET... THAT... GOLD!
Sirian
Designer, Mohawk Games
We now dominate Final Isle.
There's room for two fishing villages up there still, though.
(I should have left one galleon up there.)
(Need to send one back, since we can rushbuy settlers in a couple of turns.)
Sugar city to be founded at Pink Dot(R).
Blue dot would get a fish, but lose a Sugar, Horse, Flood Plains and allow another civ to settle there.
Settler and Musket ready to load on next turn:
Then it's a short hop over to the site.
Take a worker along if you can! (Or send one shortly after?)
OK, we have more than 3x next civ's population.
If that holds up, we may reach our goal, not needing too many supporters!
I trained military on this round, made use of the whip in some spots, too.
Got China's last city and three Indian cities converted to The Way.
Spread The Way in a couple of our nonbelieving towns, too.
Arhiss is up next!
- Sirian
There's room for two fishing villages up there still, though.
(I should have left one galleon up there.)
(Need to send one back, since we can rushbuy settlers in a couple of turns.)
Sugar city to be founded at Pink Dot(R).
Blue dot would get a fish, but lose a Sugar, Horse, Flood Plains and allow another civ to settle there.
Settler and Musket ready to load on next turn:
Then it's a short hop over to the site.
Take a worker along if you can! (Or send one shortly after?)
OK, we have more than 3x next civ's population.
If that holds up, we may reach our goal, not needing too many supporters!
I trained military on this round, made use of the whip in some spots, too.
Got China's last city and three Indian cities converted to The Way.
Spread The Way in a couple of our nonbelieving towns, too.
Arhiss is up next!
- Sirian
Sirian
Designer, Mohawk Games
Dr. King forgives you. Clearly you were honoring his memory and too busy to play, which is how it should be. (I think the reverend would be pleased with our civ's goals for this game, yes?)
Hope circumstances permit you to enjoy some Civ today.
- Sirian
(I think the reverend would be pleased with our civ's goals for this game, yes?) Hope circumstances permit you to enjoy some Civ today.
- Sirian
Sirian
Designer, Mohawk Games
Missing sleep for civ? Now that's a fanatic!
(Who here remember's Charis's line about sleep?)
(I'm not a believer, though. I need my beauty rest!)
- Sirian
(Who here remember's Charis's line about sleep?)
(I'm not a believer, though. I need my beauty rest!)
- Sirian
Clovis
Charlemagne's Grandfather
Because your stated goal is a diplomatic victory, I guess war is not an option.
If I was you (which I'm not) I would expand into every niche of available space left, and then pump missionaries like crazy. If you can get everyone following your religion, then you'll get more votes.
Feel free to squash my opinion, I have only owned Civ2 for about a month, and don't really know what I'm talking about.
If I was you (which I'm not) I would expand into every niche of available space left, and then pump missionaries like crazy. If you can get everyone following your religion, then you'll get more votes.
Feel free to squash my opinion, I have only owned Civ2 for about a month, and don't really know what I'm talking about.
knupp715
King
Clovis said:Because your stated goal is a diplomatic victory, I guess war is not an option.
If I was you (which I'm not) I would expand into every niche of available space left, and then pump missionaries like crazy. If you can get everyone following your religion, then you'll get more votes.
Feel free to squash my opinion, I have only owned Civ2 for about a month, and don't really know what I'm talking about.
When are planning on getting Civ4?
BTW, Great story so far. I'm patiently waiting for the ending.
IT: ZZZZZZ
Taking stock I see that we are currently funding deficit research at a rate of approx -90 / Turn. Democracy is a short hop away! I don't see much comment on what direction we want to go after this so I'll have to take a good look at the tech tree when we do get it. Also should look at getting back in the black, so to speak, afterwards.
1730 AD (1)
Rosette Theatre -> Bank
Paris Settler -> Bank
Chartres Settler -> Observatory
Ris-volee Borders expand.
1735 (2)
Orleans Grenadier -> Grenadier
Avignon Jewish Monastery -> Harbor
Grenoble Library -> Worker
Huyna Capec adopts Free Market
Theatre in Toulouse --- you'll complete that theatre and love it! So what if a few of you die.... Shakespeare must be heard by all!
1740 (3)
Amiens Harbor -> Taoist Temple
Toulose Theatre -> Library (We must export books about the wonders of French theatre to the inhabitants of Final isle!)
A busy year! -
We get YET ANOTHER great prophet. One wonders what we're going to do with all these. Either hope we get something else soon, to spend them on Golden Ages, or we have to merge them with cities. I'm going to save this one back so that we can discuss between turns what to do with both of these guys.
Many Civics swaps on the part of our opponents:
Mansa completely swaps his civics around to go Free Market / Vassalage / Representation
Tokugawa has parted with "The way" and decided that he prefers No Way! (Way...) -- He now refuses to talk with us. I predict relations will continue to slide downwards now that we have lost our religious bonus with him.
1745 (4)
Spock regales us with tales of how the world can be made a better place, where we can now have political finance scandals, filibustering, and codified shouting matches amongst grown men.
Choices, choices, choices: Do we go for Scientific Method, and open up the door for all sorts of Goodies, like Biology and Communism for more efficient farms, and what seems the optimal economic civic for us, the ever-yummy State Property, or do we go the infrastrucure / navy route and get Steam power -> Railroad? Right now we're low on workers, and I think that in order to leverage improvements such as what we're getting from Democracy (can start popping towns all over, if we want) and be able to *construct* those towns, etc - I'm thinking I'm going to go the Steam power route; rather than putting the cart before the horse so to speak. I'd like to lay the groundwork to implement all those improvements afterwards. Plus if we want we can leverage that into the naval technologies later.
As for Civics conversion, I'm going to go whole-hog on the democracy bandwagon. I really looked at Representation, considering how many specialists we are already running, and you're welcome to switch at a later date, but going over previous turn logs (notably Sirian's) he was shooting for Democracy as a game plan, so I'm going to run with it. Universal Suffrage and Emancipation are the civics we got from Democracy -- I also toss in Free speech; as 1) it further leverages the towns I expect us to build and 2) our smaller sites that are trying to culturally take over their respective islands can really benefit from the 100% culture boost.
Also, more swaps:
1750 (5)
Asoka switches to Vassalage / Theocracy. No more spreading the way to him for the moment either. I also note we don't have any missionaries running. I will have to correct that in the latter half of my turn, if nothing other than to keep spreading the way in our own cities. Not much else happens this turn except that I've dropped off the Settler that is going to Settle at Pink Dot for the Sugar.
1755(6)
Huayna Capac comes to demand that we give up the way and convert to his religion. He's already annoyed with us, so I tell him to take a hike. Relations drop to Furious. I expect he may declare war soon.
Democracy comes into effect. We're currently losting 110 / Turn in coin. I decide that now that we can buy stuff, we need to be in the green, so Bump science down to 60% - we're now gaining 25 / turn.
First thing I do with the ability to buy stuff is buy the Library constructing at Toulouse. With the 100% bonus, plus the 2 culture buildings, we should be able to take over Final isle fairly quickly. I also purchase the Granary at Cherbourg -- that place needs a real boost to get going!
In addition, I found Sucre with the firm intentions that the Rum shall soon flow into French lands
-- Computer sez use blue circle, but I go with the established plan.
1760 (7)
Mansa offers world map for World map. At this point, it can only be beneficial to us, it doesn't hurt anytyhing, and gives us a relations boost. I accept.
Rouen Harbor -> Observatory
Toulose Library -> Lighthouse
Workers on West Isle are out of things to do until railroads. Not even new-deal-style roads are possible, unless I want to start reworking farms into towns. Not sure I want to do a wholesale review of our tile improvements yet. Maybe someone else can comment, as I think that is a weak portion of my game. Perhaps someone can expand on that? It would be appreciated.
1765 (8)
Roosevelt dials us up and demands we cancel our deals with the Chinese. China is friendly to us, and is of our religion. We shall decline. (It looks like relations are going to start to polarize in this game soon enough.)
Oxford University Constructs in Paris! -> Observatory -- I queue up Statue of Liberty right thereafter. I plan on buying the Observatory so that we can try to lock in the Statue of Liberty for ourselves! Extra free specialists all around. (Again, Representation may look like a better choice down the road...)
Grenoble Worker -> Taoist Missionary (we need to at least backfill our cities)
Ris-volee Theatre -> Taoist Temple
Tours expands, and Sucre gets Buddism... another Town we have to spread the way to manually...
1770 (9)
Rheims Bank -> Grenadier (keeping a little military buildup)
Many borders expand. The Incense near Chartres still isn't available to us =/ I was hoping the next border expansion would give it to us, but not this day.
Upgrade a useless caravel we had exploring in the south to a Frigate. We have the spare cash, plus it increases our apparent military strength to the AI's. A war prevented is better than a war won, for our declared victory conditions.
1775 (10)
Chartres Observatory -> Bank
Avignon Harbor -> Observatory
Grenoble -> Taoist missionary -> Taoist missionary
These should be used as indicated to either a) spread the way to some of our cities to take advantage of our state religion (and more money income) or -- if we can get away with it, try to get in bed religiously speaking with the other civs some more. Tokugawa has already strayed from the Way to Free Religion (because he's got too wide a variety of religions inside his borders, I should think). As a further annoyance, Hinduism spreads in Toulouse.
(feel free to veto / change any of the above build orders, as there has been nothing thrown into them yet).
Next up, turn summary and thoughts.
Taking stock I see that we are currently funding deficit research at a rate of approx -90 / Turn. Democracy is a short hop away! I don't see much comment on what direction we want to go after this so I'll have to take a good look at the tech tree when we do get it. Also should look at getting back in the black, so to speak, afterwards.
1730 AD (1)
Rosette Theatre -> Bank
Paris Settler -> Bank
Chartres Settler -> Observatory
Ris-volee Borders expand.
1735 (2)
Orleans Grenadier -> Grenadier
Avignon Jewish Monastery -> Harbor
Grenoble Library -> Worker
Huyna Capec adopts Free Market
Theatre in Toulouse --- you'll complete that theatre and love it! So what if a few of you die.... Shakespeare must be heard by all!1740 (3)
Amiens Harbor -> Taoist Temple
Toulose Theatre -> Library (We must export books about the wonders of French theatre to the inhabitants of Final isle!)
A busy year! -
We get YET ANOTHER great prophet. One wonders what we're going to do with all these. Either hope we get something else soon, to spend them on Golden Ages, or we have to merge them with cities. I'm going to save this one back so that we can discuss between turns what to do with both of these guys.
Many Civics swaps on the part of our opponents:
Mansa completely swaps his civics around to go Free Market / Vassalage / Representation
Tokugawa has parted with "The way" and decided that he prefers No Way! (Way...) -- He now refuses to talk with us. I predict relations will continue to slide downwards now that we have lost our religious bonus with him.
1745 (4)
Spock regales us with tales of how the world can be made a better place, where we can now have political finance scandals, filibustering, and codified shouting matches amongst grown men.
Choices, choices, choices: Do we go for Scientific Method, and open up the door for all sorts of Goodies, like Biology and Communism for more efficient farms, and what seems the optimal economic civic for us, the ever-yummy State Property, or do we go the infrastrucure / navy route and get Steam power -> Railroad? Right now we're low on workers, and I think that in order to leverage improvements such as what we're getting from Democracy (can start popping towns all over, if we want) and be able to *construct* those towns, etc - I'm thinking I'm going to go the Steam power route; rather than putting the cart before the horse so to speak. I'd like to lay the groundwork to implement all those improvements afterwards. Plus if we want we can leverage that into the naval technologies later.
As for Civics conversion, I'm going to go whole-hog on the democracy bandwagon. I really looked at Representation, considering how many specialists we are already running, and you're welcome to switch at a later date, but going over previous turn logs (notably Sirian's) he was shooting for Democracy as a game plan, so I'm going to run with it. Universal Suffrage and Emancipation are the civics we got from Democracy -- I also toss in Free speech; as 1) it further leverages the towns I expect us to build and 2) our smaller sites that are trying to culturally take over their respective islands can really benefit from the 100% culture boost.
Also, more swaps:
1750 (5)
Asoka switches to Vassalage / Theocracy. No more spreading the way to him for the moment either. I also note we don't have any missionaries running. I will have to correct that in the latter half of my turn, if nothing other than to keep spreading the way in our own cities. Not much else happens this turn except that I've dropped off the Settler that is going to Settle at Pink Dot for the Sugar.
1755(6)
Huayna Capac comes to demand that we give up the way and convert to his religion. He's already annoyed with us, so I tell him to take a hike. Relations drop to Furious. I expect he may declare war soon.
Democracy comes into effect. We're currently losting 110 / Turn in coin. I decide that now that we can buy stuff, we need to be in the green, so Bump science down to 60% - we're now gaining 25 / turn.
First thing I do with the ability to buy stuff is buy the Library constructing at Toulouse. With the 100% bonus, plus the 2 culture buildings, we should be able to take over Final isle fairly quickly. I also purchase the Granary at Cherbourg -- that place needs a real boost to get going!
In addition, I found Sucre with the firm intentions that the Rum shall soon flow into French lands
-- Computer sez use blue circle, but I go with the established plan.
1760 (7)
Mansa offers world map for World map. At this point, it can only be beneficial to us, it doesn't hurt anytyhing, and gives us a relations boost. I accept.
Rouen Harbor -> Observatory
Toulose Library -> Lighthouse
Workers on West Isle are out of things to do until railroads. Not even new-deal-style roads are possible, unless I want to start reworking farms into towns. Not sure I want to do a wholesale review of our tile improvements yet. Maybe someone else can comment, as I think that is a weak portion of my game. Perhaps someone can expand on that? It would be appreciated.
1765 (8)
Roosevelt dials us up and demands we cancel our deals with the Chinese. China is friendly to us, and is of our religion. We shall decline. (It looks like relations are going to start to polarize in this game soon enough.)
Oxford University Constructs in Paris! -> Observatory -- I queue up Statue of Liberty right thereafter. I plan on buying the Observatory so that we can try to lock in the Statue of Liberty for ourselves! Extra free specialists all around. (Again, Representation may look like a better choice down the road...)
Grenoble Worker -> Taoist Missionary (we need to at least backfill our cities)
Ris-volee Theatre -> Taoist Temple
Tours expands, and Sucre gets Buddism...
another Town we have to spread the way to manually...1770 (9)
Rheims Bank -> Grenadier (keeping a little military buildup)
Many borders expand. The Incense near Chartres still isn't available to us =/ I was hoping the next border expansion would give it to us, but not this day.
Upgrade a useless caravel we had exploring in the south to a Frigate. We have the spare cash, plus it increases our apparent military strength to the AI's. A war prevented is better than a war won, for our declared victory conditions.
1775 (10)
Chartres Observatory -> Bank
Avignon Harbor -> Observatory
Grenoble -> Taoist missionary -> Taoist missionary
These should be used as indicated to either a) spread the way to some of our cities to take advantage of our state religion (and more money income) or -- if we can get away with it, try to get in bed religiously speaking with the other civs some more. Tokugawa has already strayed from the Way to Free Religion (because he's got too wide a variety of religions inside his borders, I should think). As a further annoyance, Hinduism spreads in Toulouse.
(feel free to veto / change any of the above build orders, as there has been nothing thrown into them yet).
Next up, turn summary and thoughts.
First off, I give you a look at paris:
It's sitting happily at max city size, till we hit biology. However it Illustrates a question I had earlier -- about the best ways to convert territory over to take advantage of new civics (i.e. the switch to democracy making towns more attractive) and/or new techs such as watermills / windmills. We don't have those yet, but as you can see, Paris is surrounded literally by just about nothing but farms. Once we get biology, we can either a) let Paris grow more, and get specialists or b) attempt to leverage our other options as listed above. Under what circumstances would either path be warranted? Leaving as is would certainly save worker turns, but would adjusting tiles get us more net benefit than running a surplus of food and using specialists?
Ok enough of that. On to the overview!
Home isle and West Isle -- we have a ton of high population cities. Continent-affecting wonders would do well at either site, but home isle has a few more cities.
Next up, our new colonies / footholds. Toulose has had the early culture buildings rushed, and is benefiting from the 100% culture bonus from Free Speech. We should easily dominate the island culturally unless something goes horribly wrong. Cherbourg and Sucre on Toku's second island will have more trouble doing so as Toku's cities are further away, requiring us to really pump out the culture to reach that far. I'm not sure it's possible to make them flip. Also given that Toku is refusing to speak to us now, and has lost the "buddy" factor from sharing our religion, a war in the future may be inevitable. Looking for a second back at the previous image, Ris-volee will have a difficult time dominating it's island as well, culturally.
Onto the economic / leaderboard front:
Our golden era spike can be clearly seen. If we can accomplish another GE, we should see similar gains. The recent changes to civics may or may not pay off in terms of GDP. Hard to tell at this stage. Certainly we should start emphasizing towns somewhat if we're going to leverage Democracy. In the future I'd highly suggest we grab State Property if we can. In a Civ our size, we'll rapidly be rolling in dough. IMO State Property is one of the most powerful economic civics, if not THE most powerful, particularly when we enjoy such a large empire.
And onto the leaderboard:
We rank first in every category that counts. GNP isn't by a landslide, but it's a comfortable lead. In production we're absolutely KILLING the AI's. Ditto Food production. Our military has a comfortable lead, and I've tried to keep adding the odd military build when I did my turns. One thing I see we lack is more modern artillery in our builds (currently cannon). For the moment, I think we may be able to hold off till we can build something more modern than those. However I think unless something changes, military conflict may be inevitable for us.
It's sitting happily at max city size, till we hit biology. However it Illustrates a question I had earlier -- about the best ways to convert territory over to take advantage of new civics (i.e. the switch to democracy making towns more attractive) and/or new techs such as watermills / windmills. We don't have those yet, but as you can see, Paris is surrounded literally by just about nothing but farms. Once we get biology, we can either a) let Paris grow more, and get specialists or b) attempt to leverage our other options as listed above. Under what circumstances would either path be warranted? Leaving as is would certainly save worker turns, but would adjusting tiles get us more net benefit than running a surplus of food and using specialists?
Ok enough of that. On to the overview!
Home isle and West Isle -- we have a ton of high population cities. Continent-affecting wonders would do well at either site, but home isle has a few more cities.
Next up, our new colonies / footholds. Toulose has had the early culture buildings rushed, and is benefiting from the 100% culture bonus from Free Speech. We should easily dominate the island culturally unless something goes horribly wrong. Cherbourg and Sucre on Toku's second island will have more trouble doing so as Toku's cities are further away, requiring us to really pump out the culture to reach that far. I'm not sure it's possible to make them flip. Also given that Toku is refusing to speak to us now, and has lost the "buddy" factor from sharing our religion, a war in the future may be inevitable. Looking for a second back at the previous image, Ris-volee will have a difficult time dominating it's island as well, culturally.
Onto the economic / leaderboard front:
Our golden era spike can be clearly seen. If we can accomplish another GE, we should see similar gains. The recent changes to civics may or may not pay off in terms of GDP. Hard to tell at this stage. Certainly we should start emphasizing towns somewhat if we're going to leverage Democracy. In the future I'd highly suggest we grab State Property if we can. In a Civ our size, we'll rapidly be rolling in dough. IMO State Property is one of the most powerful economic civics, if not THE most powerful, particularly when we enjoy such a large empire.
And onto the leaderboard:
We rank first in every category that counts. GNP isn't by a landslide, but it's a comfortable lead. In production we're absolutely KILLING the AI's. Ditto Food production. Our military has a comfortable lead, and I've tried to keep adding the odd military build when I did my turns. One thing I see we lack is more modern artillery in our builds (currently cannon). For the moment, I think we may be able to hold off till we can build something more modern than those. However I think unless something changes, military conflict may be inevitable for us.
Sirian
Designer, Mohawk Games
Certainly it is possible to change things all around with tiles once late game upgrades come available. What's worth doing? Depends. (Isn't that always the answer in Civ4? "Depends"? Anyway...)
If you have been gathering your Great People through the early game and already have the price jacked up on getting more, then running high food to run a lot of specialists is a bad idea. If however you spent the early game on growing and have only popped one or two, you may get thousands upon thousands of payback out of running some cities with five or six specialists. If you've got enough river plots, the Watermills that give extra food can be really attractive. If you have too few friends or are so large that Open Borders with allies gives them double what it gives you, you might decide that Mercantilism and closed borders is the ticket. If you are small have lots of allies, Free Market may be your dream civic. Certainly Representation fits better with lots of specialists (especially if you get two per city, such as a Pangaea or Highlands map with Mercantilism and Statue). Or those productive farms may feed a lot of cottage dwellers.
There isn't one right answer. There are several ways to be productive.
There is even the Workshop approach. "Heck on tech, we want to churn more military!"
Weakciv, you're up.
- Sirian
Anyway...)If you have been gathering your Great People through the early game and already have the price jacked up on getting more, then running high food to run a lot of specialists is a bad idea. If however you spent the early game on growing and have only popped one or two, you may get thousands upon thousands of payback out of running some cities with five or six specialists. If you've got enough river plots, the Watermills that give extra food can be really attractive. If you have too few friends or are so large that Open Borders with allies gives them double what it gives you, you might decide that Mercantilism and closed borders is the ticket. If you are small have lots of allies, Free Market may be your dream civic. Certainly Representation fits better with lots of specialists (especially if you get two per city, such as a Pangaea or Highlands map with Mercantilism and Statue). Or those productive farms may feed a lot of cottage dwellers.
There isn't one right answer. There are several ways to be productive.
There is even the Workshop approach. "Heck on tech, we want to churn more military!"
Weakciv, you're up.
- Sirian
lurker comment:
With State Property watermills and a couple biology-charged farms, Paris will be ridiculous. With Electricity, it will even generate good commerce without worrying too much about towns. It is very much worth it to upgrade improvements, and even to prioritize techs which allow one to do so...
There are several effective approaches, but a good rule of thumb is to minimize farms (unlike CivIII, they preclude the tile from producing hammers or commerce).
With State Property watermills and a couple biology-charged farms, Paris will be ridiculous. With Electricity, it will even generate good commerce without worrying too much about towns. It is very much worth it to upgrade improvements, and even to prioritize techs which allow one to do so...
There are several effective approaches, but a good rule of thumb is to minimize farms (unlike CivIII, they preclude the tile from producing hammers or commerce).
