roads

[dragonfly522]

Hi,
In order for my cities to share resources, is it only necessary to link the center of the cities together? I don't need to create roads in between each farm, building, etc., right? I am not clear on this after going through the tutorial.

In order for me to build with better technology, I have to destroy some of my obsolete buildings, correct? Or can I just use the technology that my capital city has and create more technologically advanced buildings in another city of mine?

Is there a way to know for sure where the farms are without making a worker walk over the tile first?

If you could answer one of these questions or as many as you wish I would really appreciate it.

Ryan

 

[Mozzington]

Hi Ryan,

I think the best thing for you to do is post a save game up on the strategy forum and work through it with peoples advice. There are some really helpful people on here (it's one of the better forums) who will take the time to advise you step by step of what to do and why.

This is how I learned to play properly.

Roads just need to link cities, you are correct. Please remember though that cities could already be connected if a river runs through them which joins them.

I don't really understand your second question but no, you do not have to destroy old buildings.

Farms are where your workers build them. Only so many can be worked though...

 

[babar]

Some techs will obsolete buildings empire wide. Also new power plants replace old ones when you build them. Obsoleted buildings will remain with diminished effects, and you can't build them anymore.

I'm guessing you're wondering when workers can build farms. Farms need access to fresh water unless they are improving rice, wheat or corn. If you want to build a farm where there is jungle or forest you need the appropriate tech to fell the trees. After Civil Service farms can be chained as far as you want, as long as one of them is next to fresh water. There are other bits and pieces to consider but hopefully that answers your question.

 

[vincentz]

you dont have to build roads everywhere. Only between cities and connecting resources. If there is a river close to the resource and the river is connected to one of your cities it works too. Also there is a tech that allows trade on coast and on ocean, so your colonies can be connected with your capital.

 

[GT_OKEZ]

^^ Astronomy and Harbors allow overseas trade routes.

And to the poster. You need to only have the resource connected to one of your cities then any city with a trade network to the connected city has access to the resource as well. You don't have to spam roads either. Remember , making a road to a river might be good enough to hook it up on the trade network. But keep in mind , an extra road or two might not be a bad idea for unit mobility.

And about the farms , its exactly as the other guy said. Farms can initially only be built by Fresh water but when you get Civil Service you can chain them out from the Fresh water farm as far as you want. So with farms , It requires a little planning ahead. If you're running a standard Cottage Economy (CE) or at least an economy where most of your and comes from cottages then a few farms by the Fresh water should be enough. Advanced farm placement becomes more of an issue if you want to make a farm city or run a Specialist focused economy.

 

[Lalabunny]

Hi,
In order for my cities to share resources, is it only necessary to link the center of the cities together? I don't need to create roads in between each farm, building, etc., right? I am not clear on this after going through the tutorial.

In order for me to build with better technology, I have to destroy some of my obsolete buildings, correct? Or can I just use the technology that my capital city has and create more technologically advanced buildings in another city of mine?

Is there a way to know for sure where the farms are without making a worker walk over the tile first?

If you could answer one of these questions or as many as you wish I would really appreciate it.

Ryan

Most of your questions are extremely basic. The best way to answer your question is to go play a couple of games on Settlers difficulity. Play to explore and learn, don't worry about winning yet. On forums, words can only explain so much.

 

[dragonfly522]

But keep in mind , an extra road or two might not be a bad idea for unit mobility.

Are you saying that I can make a unit move an extra tile in a turn by doing this?

 

[s.bernbaum]

Are you saying that I can make a unit move an extra tile in a turn by doing this?

Yes. Units move faster on roads than on unroaded tiles.... and even faster on railroads.

 

[Shoes]

People are gonna tell me L2P because of this, but I actually spam roads/railroads in my border cities and I do not see it as a bad thing. I do this because I absolutely adore the extra movement which makes my defensive force much more mobile in case of an assault.

 

[yturk39]

What's "L2P"?!

 

[xenex]

L2P Learn To Play.

And your right Shoes, you should L2P, if you are taking away your workers from building something more useful like farms,pastures,cottages or anything that isnt a road really, then you are hurting your game.

If you are working any unimproved tiles at all and you are building roads instead of improving tiles to work, you are hurting your game.

If however your workers have nothing other that they can be doing, then building roads is useful.
It's when you take your workers away from doing something else just to build roads that people say its a waste.

Building too many roads may have its disadvantage too, in that you focus more on building roads that you do not really need and by doing so you neglect future improvements that your cities might need, sure the city might not be working any unimproved tiles right at that moment, but if you simply wait till once it grows to improve tiles, you are wasting F/H/C building improvement before a city needs them is very helpful, it helps you to move faster and think ahead.

 

[Nick Carpathia]

Since when does having a strong road network preclude putting up tile improvements? If anything, a good road network lets you shuffle your workers around to whatever locations need the attention. After all, you should be grouping your workers together so that you can plonk down the your improvements in as few turns as possible. Spare worker turns should be spent on filling in your road networks and connecting every single city together.

The only cost of putting up roads in Civ4 is the opportunity cost, but it's always better to have a surplus of worker labour than barely enough enough to scrape by on.

 

[xenex]

Spare worker turns should be spent on filling in your road networks and connecting every single city together.

And that is the key word, Spare worker turns, if you have worker turns where they cant be doing something else more productive, like improving land around your cities or hooking up strategic resources outside bfc then fine build roads, nobody will really care about that or say its a waste.

If you have nothing else and I really mean nothing else besides forts to build, then by all means build roads if you want.

And a note to add, you dont need roads on every single tile to be able to get to places faster if your units can get from point A to point B in the same amount of moves using a not so straigh road, then there is not really a point to build a straighter road there.

Also, there are very few games where you actually have enough worker turns to build roads everywhere, not until around mid to late game at least.

 

[yturk39]

I'd also note that it pays to plan your roads a bit, too. Where and how you build them near rivers, for example, influences where those bridges appear once Construction comes along. If you build without really planning where you want your river crossings, you may not got them at the points you want later in the game.

 

[xenex]

Does that really matter though?
I mean if you build 4 roads crossing a river dont you just get 4 bridges?
I dont build excesive roads so I may not have noticed this.

 

[Nick Carpathia]

Unlike in Civ5, crossing a river doesn't use up every single movement point. Therefore, if anything, you want to avoid crossing rivers with roads until you have construction.

 

[Shoes]

Well ofc I won't build them before I finish upgrading my bfc, but after that my workers are NEVER asleep.

 

[xenex]

In that case there is nothing for you to L2P in this respect, so just have fun.