Trade Along Rivers

[Pongui]

In war I've been frustrated trying to cut a rival's access to resources. The problem, in war, is that rivers facilitate resource trade. Rivers can't be blockaded and can't be pillaged.

When I viewed this as a problem I discovered rivers do the job far too well: Every tile adjacent to the river acts as road. This means that a city not even adjacent to the river, but merely adjacent to the adjacent tile, is connected. Connected say to a fort not on the opposite bank but adjacent to the tile adjacent to that riverbank. Or connected to another disconnected river, and so forth. Much of the map is connected regardless of roads.

So, war aside, I decided that's too easy. For my next game I moved river trade all the way up the tree to Screw Propeller (thinking Heart of Darkness).

The experiment played through without a hitch. I hardly noticed the difference. The AI connected its resources and cities, and only lost those connections when someone worked hard to break them. I hope others try this same experiment.

 

[IPEX-731BA5DD06]

If you CULTURALLY cut the river,it will stop trade.

Barbarian cities on rivers will also stop trade along the river.

Rivers are roads, but you can cut them with CULTURE.

 

[<Nexus>]

If you CULTURALLY cut the river,it will stop trade.

Barbarian cities on rivers will also stop trade along the river.

Rivers are roads, but you can cut them with CULTURE.

Building a Fort along it should work, right?

 

[IPEX-731BA5DD06]

As long as you keep the fort, and its associated culture, it will work.

River networks can be quite extensive, and the coast it also counted with sailing. "Trade along rivers and coast".

 

[Pongui]

River networks can be quite extensive, and the coast it also counted with sailing. "Trade along rivers and coast".

Yes. Every tile adjacent to a river acts as road, so much (or most) of the world is connected. Note a city not on a river-edge tile but merely adjacent to one, is connected. It's too easy.

My point is that moving "trade along rivers" far up the tech tree barely affected the game, and allowed disruption of trade networks to happen occasionally. I believe the original developers intended Civ4 to play like that, and I find it more interesting. Give it a try.