Strategical Chopping of Trees

[troytheface]

Seldom is there always and never. One optimal tree cutting strategy is to only chop those trees that are on resources as you will have to build a plantation on that tile anyway.
Another good chop location is on brown tiles to build workshops and watermills upon.
This allows the option to economically save chopping for wonders while maintaining the bulk of your forests for emergency chopping or to remain until Environmentilism and forest preserves if you are teching towards Scientific Method over Replaceable Parts.
Chop near the enemy's borders that are about to expand early. A worker with a gaurd on a fog breaking scout mission at a distant location can also be used.
There is also the "Chopping a Swath" method which is chopping hill trees that have at least four tiles with a road but usually you want to keep tundra trees and hill trees for either lumbermills or forest preserves.

 

[Gumbolt]

Chop them down!! Chop them all down!!!! If you play to win why would you still be around come forest preserves and Environmentilism anyway?

Chop out units and go for the Ai throat.

 

[madscientist]

I always found chopping forrests a valuable tool for the following

1) Best way to plan for an early AXE-Rush (or chariot rush) of an AI.
2) To get a prized early or mid-game wonder (Oracle, Pyramids, Great Libray are popular).
3) To clear land for cottages or farms. A riverside cottage or farm will get you more return than holding the forrest for the health.
4) Chopping settlers real early for REXing. I find this MUCH more important on emperor than Monarch levels.
5) Chopping a monument with the new city at population 1.
6) Waiting until later does not really help as later in the game buildings/units cost so much more the additional forrest chop is rather insignificant, but it's a BIG edge early in the game!

Two reasons to hold off chopping

1) Potential forrest preserve/national Park city (sometimes even the captial!)
2) Waiting until you get Mathematics for that 50% bonus.

As always my advice is geared towards those Marathon speed players!

 

[Bleys]

What about the green tiles next to rivers? With the forest, you dont get the +1 commerce. Dont you want to chop those down as well?

 

[CreeDakota]

I often save a couple of non-riverside plains forests on flood plain cities for health bonus.

I also try and chop early and leave the tile alone with a forest next to it, you may be delighted with how many times a forest will grow back and let you chop again.

I rarely chop a forest on a calender resource, with they forest they often decent tiles to work early game, my workers are better served elseware.

 

[nbcman]

@troytheface

What about forest tiles adjacent to your border cities? You don't want to give the enemy a tile with +50% defense bonus to hide in when they attack your border cities?

Also, chop the tiles that are on a diagonal to a river. Those tiles will get a + 1 from the riverside when chopped but the lumbermill/forest preserve wont.

 

[JammerUno]

Besides the tiles I'm working, I usually just chop everything there is if I need some fast hammers. Riverside goes first, grassland tiles second, plains last. I never chop tundra, unless I feel secure the forest will regrow before I tech replacable parts.
Strategic chopping like the forests adjecent to my cities seems like anice idea, but if I'm attacking the stack, I'll do it before they reach a city. If I'm defending, I'm defending. It's rare for the AI to let an army sit next to your city for a long time without either retreating or attacking anyway. Besides, the bulk of my army will go down the CR path, and attacking forces in the open isn't a good idea with those.

 

[troytheface]

"1) Potential forrest preserve/national Park city (sometimes even the captial!)
2) Waiting until you get Mathematics for that 50% bonus."

"If I'm defending, I'm defending."

good points. roaded woods around your city one can traverse and even throw in a few troops in the woods to slow them down as the AI cannot resist taking a fort or errant unit. Chopping the other guy's woods with a stolen worker is the superior.

 

[Stewie0416]

I usually chop all the grassland tiles first, then mine hills, and i usually never chop plains tiles. They make great prod tiles when RP and lumbermills comes along

 

[Joshua368]

Chopping the other guy's woods with a stolen worker is the superior.

Made me think of a strategy I've used. If you have a worker to spare and see a forest just outside the first ring of non-creative civ's brand new city, chop it! Situational, but it can work, expecially in mostly unclaimed tundra regions once your workers don't really have much to do anymore. Might as well get some hammers before they eat 'em up.

 

[r_rolo1]

I really can't see the benefit of chopping the calendar resource woods, unless they are riverside. Calendar resource site normally give bad prod cities and working a forested calendar resource until calendar will give far more hammers than the chop of it

 

[troytheface]

Which is the beauty of setting at least two or more workers on automatic. They will start improving a tile that one might not, or building a fort when a pasture looks better- yet they end up panning out much better, and you can change them later if you want.
automated workers gave me the notion to build cottages on green hills , unless the city is in the tundra or someplace without water which should be windmilled.
Those that refuse to automate are doomed to their own restrictions blindly plunging forward in a mad melee of cowardly cottage building and tree chopping.

 

[feralminded]

I used to save everything for lumbermills (plains hill near a river ... yummy!). Unfortunately as I've wandered up the difficulty slider this became more of luxury and simply had to go. It sucks too because I think I like the expand and building game more than anything else but at the higher levels its all about abusive warmongering ... which is ok ... but still its a different beast. I'm currently playing on emperor and unless a city has painfully few hills I chop everything in sight.

 

[JammerUno]

Cottaging grassland hills is a great option if you have US and emancipation, towns will give +1 hammer, riverside will get another for levees. Most commerce/science cities are on rivers so they get decent production, the problem with towns on hills is it comes late in the game, and if you're not planning on playing until modern times, you're probably better of with mines and railroads and the extra units those can pump out for you.

This has no bearing on chopping forests; I stand by my earlier voiced opinion

 

[Airefuego]

also always try to chop a forest before your settler founds a city on top of it. wasted otherwise.

i reckon if you found a city on a forest the city should start its first build with some portion of those hammers as a one-off.

 

[troytheface]

Yes, that should be mentioned. Too there is

The Tree Cutting Stranglehold Gambit

"A theory which espouses a woodman promoted Warrior and guerilla promoted Archer, stealing a worker, sitting on a wooded hill and chopping all of the enemies nearby trees."