Terrain strategy?

[Pragmatic]

I've seen it often:

Plains > Grasslands (etc.)

Can someone take the time to explain all the preferred terrains to me? I think it has to do with Golden Ages (i.e., a tile that has hammers and gold is better than a tile that has only one of them, and a tile that has only one of them is better than a tile that has neither).

Thanks!

 

[BobbleBobble]

I really find terrain matters much less in this game than in Civ4, mostly because grassland/plains/hill/forest are all unique values and don't stack. You can farm anywhere and build TPs anywhere. Most tile sets can produce pretty much whatever you want at any time (with the possible exception of production). That said, Rivers > No Rivers. Forests are nice too, they'll end up being better than hills.

 

[Ahriman]

Hammers are more scarce than food, particularly with Maritime city states being as strong as they are.

So 1 food 1 hammer is better than 2 food.

Golden ages compound the problem, by heavily favoring making sure you have at least one hammer and one gold on tiles.

So, farming plains-river and trading posting non-river plains makes for good yields and income.