Hello, all.
Well, if there's one thing the AI CAN'T do in Civ3 (besides conduct a good war) it's improve terrain. Face it: the AI model for worker actions is a bit too "socialistic"; it will send all your workers off by galley to the farthest island in your realm to irrigate a "vital" Plain next to your most corrupt city before mining a goldhill next your capital city producing the Pyramids. At least that's my experience.
So if you want a fat early lead, and who doesn't, learning how to manipulate those workers comes in handy. If you're not an Industrious civ, you have no worker-turns to waste.
First, a grasp of the basics is necessary.
Your REAL workers come in the form of citizens. These need 2 food per citizen per turn to sustain themselves. In addition to any food produced, your city itself will usually produce two food. As your citizens produce food, which is useless unless used to feed citizens, they also produce VITAL shields and commerce.
Food, despite appearances, is far and away the most important aspect of the Civ3 game. Your population is a function of your food production, and your shield and commerce production is a function of your population. Therefore, it's important to get lots of food and not waste any.
Once this becomes clear, the primary goal of your workers is to organize your citizens into self sustaining groups that produce just enough food to support themselves, and as much of everything else as possible. Hence, Patches and Complexes.
A "PATCH" is a one-tile farm. It produces exactly two food, and supports the citizen, or cit, working it.
A "COMPLEX" is a multi-tile farm. It produces exactly enough food to sustain the whole farm. For example, a 4-food tile and two 1-food tiles are a typical complex, that produces the necessary 6 food for the 3 working cits.
While in the beginning of the game, you'll want as much surplus food as possible, BUT when you hit a population cap you will want as many Patches and Complexes ready as possible. Surplus food is wasted food. You could be making shields or coins instead.
Learn to recognize Patches and Complexes and use them to calculate the best place to put a city. To that end, here are some of the more common Complexes (i stands for irrigated, m for mined, all squares should be roaded, and numbers after stand for shields):
Note: coasts and sea/ocean are not included. Coasts become Patches with Harbor, and Sea/Ocean are pretty much useless. Also, resources are left out. Just remember that a Cow-Grass is really a better Flood waiting to happen, etc.
Also, remember that because of unhappiness, some citizens will have to be supported without producing food for themselves.
2 TILE COMPLEXES
Flood, mHill 3
iGrass, mHill 3
iFlood, mMount 3
iFlood, mDesert 2
Flood, Forest 2
iGrass, Forest 2
Flood, mPlain 2
iGrass, mPlain 2
Flood, mTundra 1
iGrass, mTundra 1
Flood, Jungle 0
iGrass, Jungle 0
3 TILE COMPLEXES
iFlood, 2mHill 6
iFlood, 2Forest 4
iFlood, 2mPlain 4
iGrass, iPlain, mHill 4
iGrass, iPlain, Forest 3
iFlood, Grass, mMount 3
2iGrass, mMount 3
iGrass, iPlain, iDesert 2
iFlood, Grass, mDesert 2
2iGrass, mDesert 2
iFlood, 2m Tundra 2
iFlood, 2Jungle 0
Additions?
Well, if there's one thing the AI CAN'T do in Civ3 (besides conduct a good war) it's improve terrain. Face it: the AI model for worker actions is a bit too "socialistic"; it will send all your workers off by galley to the farthest island in your realm to irrigate a "vital" Plain next to your most corrupt city before mining a goldhill next your capital city producing the Pyramids. At least that's my experience.
So if you want a fat early lead, and who doesn't, learning how to manipulate those workers comes in handy. If you're not an Industrious civ, you have no worker-turns to waste.
First, a grasp of the basics is necessary.
Your REAL workers come in the form of citizens. These need 2 food per citizen per turn to sustain themselves. In addition to any food produced, your city itself will usually produce two food. As your citizens produce food, which is useless unless used to feed citizens, they also produce VITAL shields and commerce.
Food, despite appearances, is far and away the most important aspect of the Civ3 game. Your population is a function of your food production, and your shield and commerce production is a function of your population. Therefore, it's important to get lots of food and not waste any.
Once this becomes clear, the primary goal of your workers is to organize your citizens into self sustaining groups that produce just enough food to support themselves, and as much of everything else as possible. Hence, Patches and Complexes.
A "PATCH" is a one-tile farm. It produces exactly two food, and supports the citizen, or cit, working it.
A "COMPLEX" is a multi-tile farm. It produces exactly enough food to sustain the whole farm. For example, a 4-food tile and two 1-food tiles are a typical complex, that produces the necessary 6 food for the 3 working cits.
While in the beginning of the game, you'll want as much surplus food as possible, BUT when you hit a population cap you will want as many Patches and Complexes ready as possible. Surplus food is wasted food. You could be making shields or coins instead.
Learn to recognize Patches and Complexes and use them to calculate the best place to put a city. To that end, here are some of the more common Complexes (i stands for irrigated, m for mined, all squares should be roaded, and numbers after stand for shields):
Note: coasts and sea/ocean are not included. Coasts become Patches with Harbor, and Sea/Ocean are pretty much useless. Also, resources are left out. Just remember that a Cow-Grass is really a better Flood waiting to happen, etc.
Also, remember that because of unhappiness, some citizens will have to be supported without producing food for themselves.
2 TILE COMPLEXES
Flood, mHill 3
iGrass, mHill 3
iFlood, mMount 3
iFlood, mDesert 2
Flood, Forest 2
iGrass, Forest 2
Flood, mPlain 2
iGrass, mPlain 2
Flood, mTundra 1
iGrass, mTundra 1
Flood, Jungle 0
iGrass, Jungle 0
3 TILE COMPLEXES
iFlood, 2mHill 6
iFlood, 2Forest 4
iFlood, 2mPlain 4
iGrass, iPlain, mHill 4
iGrass, iPlain, Forest 3
iFlood, Grass, mMount 3
2iGrass, mMount 3
iGrass, iPlain, iDesert 2
iFlood, Grass, mDesert 2
2iGrass, mDesert 2
iFlood, 2m Tundra 2
iFlood, 2Jungle 0
Additions?
