Settling On Top Of Luxuries - Worth It?

[kamex]

I've been hearing this strategy being mentioned more and more recently, but haven't seen a topic exclusively about it.

I'd imagine a big advantage of settling your capital on a luxury (such as cotton or salt etc) means you can sell it to an AI before getting a worker, and then using that gold to pay for 240/310 of buying that first worker.

 

[kamex]

I'd like to add, is settling on top worth losing the potential of the improved tile yield...?

 

[nefloyd]

Not just your capitol. Settling other cities on unique luxuries means you can counteract the happiness loss right away, too. If you want to land grab quickly.

 

[Glassmage]

I say no. Improving > settle.

 

[smallfish]

Depends on location.

But generally, do this in the early game when trying to go for 3-4 cities fast and selling luxes to the AI fast.

 

[Dogmouth]

I almost always settle on top of plantation resources, marble, gold, silver, ivory, foxes, and truffles. The only exceptions I can think of are salt and citrus, because settling on top of them ruins food yield, which is very important in the early game. Resources on a hill are a no-brainer as far as I'm concerned, because settling on them increases food yield as well as providing quick cash and a steady stream of GPT (i.e., hillside marble, gold, silver, gems, and copper). Settling on marble also gives you an immediate bonus to wonder production that doesn't require masony. That's helpful if you're going for the Great Library, SH, or Hanging Gardens.

 

[jango76]

As with everything, it depends.

Mainly it depends on what other tiles are around the city, how big you're going to grow it and how many good tiles overlap with the workable area of your other cities. Ask yourself what tiles you'll be working when you're 1 pop, 5 pop, 10 pop, 30 pop, and when specialist slots are available too. Then you can see what you're trading off in gained or lost hammers/whatever by settling on the resource.

 

[kamex]

Recently I started right next to a marble I would have settled on to rush wonders faster, but that tile took me a way from the river, preventing, water mill / hydro / garden later on, so I stayed on the river.

 

[gunnergoz]

But a city on a hill with a resource on it never gains the full production benefits of the resource, correct? Only gives credit and happiness for the luxury/strategic resource, or am I wrong?

 

[Tachii]

I think luxuries do provide the +1 gold/production if it's settled on it. A hill mine will probably give it +2 production to the city off the bat, need to confirm though. I remember strategic resources always give +1 production to the city and if you get say, a staple, then the city will also gain another +1 production. In the end, if you settle on horses, you probably only lose +1 production and +1 food (from fertilizer), but that would be assuming you will be working that tile all the time.

 

[Dogmouth]

But a city on a hill with a resource on it never gains the full production benefits of the resource, correct? Only gives credit and happiness for the luxury/strategic resource, or am I wrong?

You don't get the full benefits, but you get the unimproved resource benefits plus the happiness luxury/strategic resource. It's also true that settling on a random hill cuts you off from the full mine production benefits.

The bottom line is that you will probably lose a small amount of production or gold in the long term by settling on a resource. I consider the tradeoff worth it. Games are won and lost in the short term.

 

[Callonia]

It's all dependent on location honestly, there is no real concrete answer here.

In fact, last night, I have god of the sea pantheon.. because capital have 3 seafood hex in its radius.

And there was just this one small island off the island of four hexs long. And it have salt resource.. and four seafood hexes, i surveyed the island to best of my ability, all four seafood hexes can be indeed worked if I settle on the salt luxury hex. That kinda felt like a no brainer to me, settled on salt right away and in fact, it was my 2nd city, very rare to have 2nd island not connected to capital by land. 12 hammers if i right there because of god of the sea / harbor and seaport kinda far outweights a single salt mine production.

If oil happens to be discovered just off the coast of salt mine island, strong island just got stronger.

 

[Lord Kid]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you have to have the prerequisite tech in order to gain the benefits? I settled on a truffle the other night, but it told me I required trapping, and only after teching it did I get the benefit from it...

 

[Koiranputki]

This seems to be a difficult topic to fully understand...does anyone know the algorithm for settling on a mine/quarry site hex vs., say, settling beside it and working it later?

I noticed in one recent game when oil became available, my capital was on top of a 7-oil and I immediately got the 7-oil strategic resource....but I didn't check to see what the hammer benefit was....

If I understand this correctly, there would be no change in the hammer output, but had 7-oil resource been right next to the city and I put a drilling platform on it, I would get an extra hammer...Right? Or, am I still not understanding something here?

 

[Peacemongerer]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you have to have the prerequisite tech in order to gain the benefits? I settled on a truffle the other night, but it told me I required trapping, and only after teching it did I get the benefit from it...

In vanilla this didn't seem to matter in my games, so I guess that's a new G&K fix.

 

[Hercules90]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you have to have the prerequisite tech in order to gain the benefits? I settled on a truffle the other night, but it told me I required trapping, and only after teching it did I get the benefit from it...

That was my understanding as well. You need the prerequiste tech.

 

[HelloGoodbye123]

yes, always settle on it, you dont lose momentum in growing your cities, settle if you can on your capital spawn as well, so you arent restrained to building a worker as fast to keep up with your growth..

 

[Wolvenheart]

I often do, at least in the early game. You just have to weigh long- and short-term benefits. Sometimes a city spot just has too much potential to ignore if you move it over slightly.

 

[Loucypher]

That was my understanding as well. You need the prerequiste tech.

Confirming this, though you DO get a nice amount of production/food/gold out of them even before researching the tech.
You just won't get the luxury itself just yet, so the idea of settling on Marble to get that benefit without Masonry is, sadly, bust.

 

[FeiLing]

You do get the marble wonder build bonus without masonry (vanilla, didn't test in g&ks). You do need the techs though to actually get the lux.