The Complete Guide To Food Resources

[TheMapDownloade]

The Complete Guide To Food Resources

This guide details all of the various resources & terrain combinations that provide surplus food.

Icon Guide
means Surplus Food. In other words, a tile that produces 5 food will give + surplus, since 2 are eaten by the citizen working that tile.
means Production.
means Commerce.

Note: this guide only looks at the resource+terrain combinations intended by the game. Due to the way the game generates starting positions, you may sometimes see other resource combinations (such as Deer on Grassland Forest even though they're only supposed to be on Tundra). If you see such a resource, that means your starting position was so inferior the game added "handicap resources."

 

[TheMapDownloade]

SUPER FOOD

"Wet" Corn appears only on flat Grassland next to Rivers. A Farm will provide +.
"Wet" Corn is probably the best all-round food and provides an easy 4 food-surplus as your very first improvement. You either start with Agriculture or can research it before your first Worker. There's not much else to say; if you have "Wet" Corn, you struck gold.

"Wet" Wheat appears on Plains next to Rivers and can be Farmed to produce +.
As with Corn, the ubiquity of Agriculture is a major advantage, allowing you to get this 3-surplus tile online quickly and cheaply.

Pigs appear on flat and hilly Grassland. On flatland a Pasture will yield + while on a Hill it's +. Either way, a Pasture by a River gains an extra +.
Pigs give you a 3 or 4 food-surplus at the cost of researching Animal Husbandry early (very achievable if you start with Agriculture or Hunting). Even the 3 surplus version of Pigs is great because of the extra production.

Fish appear only on the Coast. A Fishing Boat will provide + (+ with a Lighthouse if you research Sailing).
Fish are possibly the most situational and variable food. Their potential is high, but they don't always reach it. Let's start with the positives: Fish provide a solid 3 food-surplus as well as considerable commerce to speed your research. After building a Lighthouse, Fish become a powerhouse 4-surplus tile in the early midgame. However, you'll need to build a Work Boat to get the benefit - which means researching Fishing, a very skippable technology in the early game. You'll have an easier time focusing on seafood if you start with Fishing; you are Financial to reap extra commerce; you have additional Fish or Crabs/Clams in your start; or you can provide the production for Work Boats via forests, mines or slaves. Without any of these advantages, a lone Fish becomes a lower tier or even initially-ignorable food resource compared to alternatives.

 

[TheMapDownloade]

GOOD FOOD

"Wet" Rice appears on Grassland next to Rivers and can be farmed to produce +.

"Dry" Corn appears on Grassland without a River nearby and can be Farmed to produce +.
The ease of early Agriculture makes these 3-surplus resources upper tier.

Grassland Cows can be Pastured to provide + (+ if by a River).

Fertile Sheep are those that appear on Grassland (+) as well as those that appear on Grassland Hills or flat Plains (+). Either way, a Pasture by a River gains an extra +.
Fertile Sheep & Cows are decent enough food sources. You'll need to research Animal Husbandry, which makes these tiles less attractive if you don't start with Hunting or Agriculture. In particular, Grassland Cows provide a decent all-around mixture of production and surplus food - you won't be growing like a weed, but on the other hand you'll be able to build early city improvements and military units at a good pace. An Imperialistic leader makes especially good use of Cows as the hammers are multiplied when building Settlers. The unique feature of Sheep is that they provide guaranteed commerce; this makes them especially valuable if you have a drier start.

 

[TheMapDownloade]

OKAY FOOD

Clams and

Crabs appear only on the Coast. A Fishing Boat will provide + (+ with a Lighthouse if you research Sailing).
Clams and Crabs aren't that great; they have all the problems of Fish listed above, but one less food. Overall, each of these resources is better when it appears with lots of the others; that makes the decision to focus on early seafood easier. A Clam or Crab by itself? Hopefully it's not your best workable tile.

"Dry" Wheat appears on Plains without Rivers nearby. A Farm will produce +.
"Dry" Wheat is a lower tier resource. The zero commerce hits especially hard. This tile is arguably not much better than an early Floodplains Farm which produces +.

Deer spawn on Tundra. A hunting Camp normally delivers just +(+ if by a River). A Forest gives an extra but no while a Hill adds and subtracts .
Deer are often a bright spot in a bad spawn. Nevertheless, using your Worker to produce a measly 2 food-surplus improvement (often without additional commerce or production) is pretty bad if the AIs are creating 3-4 surplus improvements on Corn or Sheep. Deer just don't have the sheer power of the other food resources.

 

[TheMapDownloade]

NOT-SO-GREAT FOOD

"Dry" Rice appears on Grassland without Rivers. A Rice Farm will produce +.
"Dry" Rice is truly weak. The guaranteed zero commerce and zero hammers just adds insult to injury; farm your Floodplains instead.

Barren Sheep appear on Plains Hills; they can be Pastured for + (+ if by a River).

Plains Cows can be Pastured for + (+ if by a River).
No matter what the game code says, these just don't qualify as bonus food; they're really production-oriented tiles that happen to have a 1 food surplus. If the game has given these to you as your initial "food" resources, you're in for a slower start. The need to research Animal Husbandry to even unlock the food surplus in these tiles is certainly hard to swallow. Leaders with the Imperialistic trait can make much better use of these tiles since the hammers are multiplied when building Settlers. These tiles probably become mid tier in the hands of such a leader.

Bananas appear in Jungle and sometimes Grassland without Jungle. A Plantation will require the Calendar technology, and will yield + (+ if on a River).
The Calendar requirement makes Bananas the last and latest workable food resource. If you're lucky enough to get Bananas on a River without Jungle, you can create an early Farm for a decent 2-surplus tile. Otherwise, Bananas will have no impact in the opening game. It's often not a bad idea to settle ON Bananas rather than wait to Plantation them.

 

[TheMapDownloade]

SURPLUS SUMMARY

 

[Gwynnja]

Wet grains don't necessarily have to be next to rivers. Lakes provide irrigation as well.

 

[TheMapDownloade]

Oh true. Thanks for the correction!

 

[Dubioza]

Fishes can be in ocean as well, not only coastal. And I'm sure I saw pigs on plains hill too.

BTW, Comprehensive Guide to Terrain, Improvements, Resources, and City Placement

 

[RagingHordes]

Most resources give a bonus unimproved. Green Pigs for instance, give +1 food unimproved and an additional +3 food with a Pasture.
This doesn't mean the pasture provides 4 food, it only provides 3 food. Which is huge anyway.
So, I would consider adding this distinction between improved and unimproved bonuses.

Edit: Also, careful about where the resources spawn. On different map scripts resources can appear differently. For instance a Desert Corn can appear on Great Plains map script.
You'd better specify you mean Fractal and Pangaea.

 

[TheMapDownloade]

Most resources give a bonus unimproved. Green Pigs for instance, give +1 food unimproved and an additional +3 food with a Pasture.
This doesn't mean the pasture provides 4 food, it only provides 3 food. Which is huge anyway.
So, I would consider adding this distinction between improved and unimproved bonuses.

All food resources give a +1 food bonus when they're unimproved. That makes grassland a +1 food surplus tile, grassland hills or plains become +0, and plains hills become just -1 (whereas before they would be 0, -1, -2 respectively).

Everyone always says "avoid working unimproved tiles." Meaning that it's better to whip that citizen than to work them for the 10 turns on an unimproved tile - even an unimproved food bonus tile.

One of the major goals of this guide is to help people figure out which tiles they should improve first.

 

[RagingHordes]

I see. Nice work!

 

[MarigoldRan]

Every time you see a dry rice, consider settling on it. So they're not that bad.