Settling on resources

[drlake]

The basic question is when do you consider settling directly on a resource, and why?

This is inspired by conflicting advice regarding settling on a plains hill tile with Marble, but I've seen a mix of comments on the issue in the past and figure its time to start to understand the logic of this decision a bit better.

EDIT: To me, the fundamental question seems to be one of sacrificing some of the potential tile production in favor of an early boost to the city production itself and immediate access to the resource. I generally try to avoid settling directly on resources, because of the long term cost of doing that, but that is obviously not the way some of the more experienced players operate.

 

[Iranon]

First, the mechanics: Settling removes terrain features (flood plains, forest, jungle), and the home tile then gives you its normal unimproved yield, but at least 2 food, at least 1 hammer and at least 1 commerce.

Settling on a plains hill with marble gives you 2 additional hammers. A marble quarry gives you 2 commerce over a mine. Hammers are worth more than commerce, so settling on the marble makes better use of the tile.

If you have another plains hill available to settle on (meaning you only gain 1 hammer), I would probably still settle on the marble if it's my starting settler. Masonry needs to be researched first, quarries take up many worker turns (another scarce resource in the beginning) and 1 hammer is close in value to 2 commerce.
If it's not my first settler and I have another plains hill available and both city locations are equally attractive, I'm indifferent.

*

Plains hills with stone or marble, grassland with non-irrigated rice and most hunting/calendar resources are worth settling on if they benefit you - grassland bananas, riverside dye, plains elephants and so on.

 

[Sian]

Marble, Plain Elephants and Sugar is practially allways good to settle on since the stuff you lose either is miniscure or nonexistent ... unirrigated Rice aren't that bad to settle on since its a somewhat meh tile till you're able to get it irrigated (which might not be worth it)

 

[Izmir Stinger]

Marble, Plain Elephants and Sugar is practially allways good to settle on since the stuff you lose either is miniscure or nonexistent ... unirrigated Rice aren't that bad to settle on since its a somewhat meh tile till you're able to get it irrigated (which might not be worth it)

I often do riverside plains wine, in addition to the ones you list.

 

[drlake]

Do you get extra commerce if you settle on high commerce resources like Dye, or is it just a happy cap benefit?

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

Do you get extra commerce if you settle on high commerce resources like Dye, or is it just a happy cap benefit?

Dye by itself, no. The natural yield of that tile is 1 .

But a riverside Dye gives you 1 for the resource plus 1 for riverside. So a city dropped on riverside Dyes is usually 2 / 1 / 2

 

[iggymnrr]

Also depends on surplus. Some maps it's virtually impossible not to settle on stuff.

 

[drlake]

OK, so let me see if I understand this:

Food resources (banana, corn, cows, deer, pigs, rice, sheep, and wheat) all increase a city tile by +1 food if present. Of those, it seems like dry rice and bananas are probably the best to settle, since you capture the entire bonus by doing so? Cows, deer, pigs, sheep, corn, wheat, and wet rice are all worth more if not settled on?

Commerce resources requiring calendar (dye, incense, silk, spices, sugar) or lower value ones (fur, wine) are worth settling on if next to a river, but otherwise not so much.

Hammer resources are worth settling if the benefits of mining them are not significantly higher than the gain from settling them (Ivory, Marble, Stone).

This all mostly applies to early cities, since later in the game the cost in worker turns and the benefits of full exploitation favor not settling on them, correct?

 

[Izmir Stinger]

OK, so let me see if I understand this...

You don't. Your example of settling on wheat giving you +1 is false. Wheat (which is always on plains for generated maps) is a 2 tile, so the city will produce 2 . There are other falsehoods resulting from your misunderstanding.

Its really simple:

A city tile produces whatever the underlying tile produces unimproved, but the minimum value for each yield is 2 , 1 and 1 .

Which resources are strategically valuable to settle on are debatable, but that is how you calculate the city tile yield.

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

You don't

I concur - in particular, I think drlake just betrayed that he's never ready the Terrain Guide

The information you are looking for is in "The Basics of City Placement" and "Resource Bonuses for Cities", which is almost at the bottom of the page.

Warning - stuporstar erred by using a financial leader when he did his analysis, and so he describes the commerce bonus incorrectly.

 

[NihilZero]

This all mostly applies to early cities

Exactly. There is an important difference between choosing to place your first city on a resource and doing it with a later city, since your earliest turns are the most critical ones. It's a lot more useful to make a later sacrifice of tile yield for a short term boost of the city tile itself when you ony have one city and only two worked tiles in your empire.

As an example, take a look at the SE3 Hatshepsut game that CT posted recently. Settling on the marble plains hill tile speeds your first worker from 15 turns to 10. You can get a warrior and a worker out in the time it normally takes to get just a worker, and you start growing sooner too. It's like having a capital on steroids.

 

[bhavv]

Settling on plains hill marble or stone right at the start of the game means 3 per turn from the city tile which can be very powerful - faster workers and settlers, plus immediate access to the resource with masonry for a shot at building wonders without requiring the wheel.

Settling on Grassland sugar gives a 3 base tile, and since normal sugar tiles only give 4 when improved, settling on them is fine as opposed to setting on a plain grassland tile. Normal grasslands eventually yield +4 , so settling on a sugar is like and extra free food unit per turn after biology over grasslands.

Plains Ivory gives an extra too, and these tiles are usually no better than a standard 4 food + hammer tile.

A good way to look at it is that if the resource would normally only give you a combined total of 4 + , settling on it to net +1 of either is fine. And if you can settle on a tile that gives the city square 2 or 3 , that is usually very useful too, particularly at the start of the game as the city will build stuff faster.

 

[lymond]

Settling on plains marble or stone right at the start of the game means 3 per turn from the city tile which can be very powerful - faster workers and settlers, plus immediate access to the resource with masonry for a shot at building wonders without requiring the wheel.

This is not correct. It is 3H, if those resources are on a plains hill. Flat plains are 2H.

It's really simple though. As someone noted above, you get the innate unimproved tile bonus, so if you see 2H you get 2H. Financial trait can be nice for settling on certain resources like riverside wine.

As for when to settle on these, it basically boils down to general city placement rules. I look for opportunities to settle in such places - like plains hills - but not at the expense of an overall good city. You still want to capture decent resources and tiles within the BFC. A nice option for this arises with instances in which multiple bonus resources appear to gather like often happens with ivory, wine and sugar.

 

[drlake]

You don't. Your example of settling on wheat giving you +1 is false. Wheat (which is always on plains for generated maps) is a 2 tile, so the city will produce 2 . There are other falsehoods resulting from your misunderstanding.

Its really simple:

A city tile produces whatever the underlying tile produces unimproved, but the minimum value for each yield is 2 , 1 and 1 .

Which resources are strategically valuable to settle on are debatable, but that is how you calculate the city tile yield.

First, an error is not a falsehood. If I understood this, I wouldn't be asking questions about it, but it is only a falsehood if I knew I was posting incorrect information. I'd appreciate it if you would not call me a liar when I am trying to learn something.

Second, based on what is in this thread, how am I to know that the food bonuses only apply to grassland tiles? There is no need for you to be a prick about it when I am telling you I don't understand how this works, since it is not self-evident.


Thanks VoU, for providing the link to the guide. That gives me the game mechanics, such that the city placement commentary is now starting to make more sense.

 

[lymond]

First, an error is not a falsehood. If I understood this, I wouldn't be asking questions about it, but it is only a falsehood if I knew I was posting incorrect information. I'd appreciate it if you would not call me a liar when I am trying to learn something.

Second, based on what is in this thread, how am I to know that the food bonuses only apply to grassland tiles? There is no need for you to be a prick about it when I am telling you I don't understand how this works, since it is not self-evident.


Thanks VoU, for providing the link to the guide. That gives me the game mechanics, such that the city placement commentary is now starting to make more sense.

you big liar pants...nyuk nyuk

 

[Izmir Stinger]

First, an error is not a falsehood. If I understood this, I wouldn't be asking questions about it, but it is only a falsehood if I knew I was posting incorrect information. I'd appreciate it if you would not call me a liar when I am trying to learn something.

Second, based on what is in this thread, how am I to know that the food bonuses only apply to grassland tiles? There is no need for you to be a prick about it when I am telling you I don't understand how this works, since it is not self-evident.


Thanks VoU, for providing the link to the guide. That gives me the game mechanics, such that the city placement commentary is now starting to make more sense.

I called you a liar, huh? I must have missed where I did that. I did see the part where I tried to help you by simplifying the mechanic that you were confused about and you got all snippy because you only know one meaning of the word falsehood. QQ

 

[obsolete]

...but that is obviously not the way some of the more experienced players operate.

Yes, and I'd say most experience players also know better than to go Scout --> Settler --> Settler --> StoneHenge as their first builds in the capital also.

As mentioned many times before, take a look at what level someone is playing at before listening to their advice, because it will probably keep you STUCK at playing at their level.

Amazing how many people on this forum don't understand this simple concept.

Anyhow, I'll sacrifice a lot, and even burn off precious turns to move on top of resources in the early game.

 

[dec0y]

Just to be clear on this, if I settle on a resource, I don't actually get access to that resource until I research the tech required to use it, right? So, basically the main bonus of settling on a resource is the time saved not having to improve that resource in order to gain access to it?

 

[Higher Game]

Settle on bronze to start cranking out axemen ASAP.

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

Just to be clear on this, if I settle on a resource, I don't actually get access to that resource until I research the tech required to use it, right?

That's exactly right. To pull up a specific example, if you settle on riverside dyes on Turn 0, you immediately benefit from extra in the capital, but you don't actually get the dye resource until you discover calendar.

So, basically the main bonus of settling on a resource is the time saved not having to improve that resource in order to gain access to it?

Excusing some very special cases, no - I don't think so. Which is a way of saying that I don't think the long term payoff for connecting a few turns earlier is all that great. It can, of course, make a huge difference when you have urgent short term needs.