Understanding How To Utilize Water Tiles

[JohnYoga]

Hello Folks,

Excuse my ignorance, but, I don't understand how to utilize water tiles which have gold, hammers, and/or food beyond the obvious work boats on water tiles that have a food resource, such as fish, crab, whale... icon. In other words, how do you harvest the "base" or "plain ocean water" tiles?

And, is there a way that shows that you ARE harvesting these tile resources in your city view?

I have not found a thread in the search that clarifies these questions for me.

Thank you for any help.

Regards,

Marc
Using Civ V + G&K

 

[Browd]

Should all be visible in city view. At the top right, there is a plus sign next to Citizen Management. Open that tab to see what tiles (including water tiles) are being worked. Just because you have a fishing boat improvement on a fish tile doesn't mean the city is actually working that tile. You can manually override the tile assignments (the tile circles get filled with a tiny green padlock).

 

[Hammer Rabbi]

yes, when in City View click on the Citizen Management tab to your top right (above the buildings, wonders and specialist info). It opens your tiles to re-appoint your citizens or choose a focus strategy like placing all new citizens to focus on food or production, etc. You can lock tiles down so that citizens dont default to other tiles and you can assign them manually to specialist slots.

 

[JohnYoga]

Thank you, Browd, for the lightning fast responsiveness.

That answers my second question; do you know the answer to my first question? Or, do others, please? I am hot-seating a game with my daughter, and it would be nice if Dad could actually give her a better answer than that "deer in the headlights" look. LOL.

Regards,

Marc

 

[Browd]

Apart from sending a workboat to a water tile that has a sea-based resource, and assigning a citizen to work that tile, there is no "harvesting" to be done. No need to embark a worker, or anything like that.

Now, sea tiles come in five flavors:

1. fish (a non-tradable bonus resource that is only usable if the tile is located in the first three rings of tiles around the city, and you have assigned a citizen to work that tile (fishing boat improvement will enhance the yield, but still must be in the first 3 tiles),

2. sea-based luxury (whales, crabs, pearls--can be harvested (wiht a fishing boat improvement) as a luxury for happiness/trading in rings 4 and 5, but must be in first 3 rings to be actively worked by a citizen),

3. oil (after Refrigeration, workboat can create an oil well -- behaves just like a luxury based on what ring it is in - workable in first 3 rings, but acessible for use (e.g., in ironclads and planes) or tradeable if located in rings 4 and 5),

4. natural wonder (e.g., Great Barrier Reef) - behaves like non-tradable fish tiles, but no need for a workboat (in fact you can't even enter those tiles) -- must be in first 3 rings and only valuable if a citizen is assigned to work that tile,

and finally

5. POW (plain ol' water) -- base yield of 1 food and 1 gold (2 fish after lighthouse, 2 gold if Great Lighthouse (if I recall correctly) and I think (??) 1 hammer with a harborand another with a seaport. Candidly, I just don't work POW tiles, so I'm hazy on the harbor and seaport impacts.

Others please chime in if I've overlooked anything, or can clarify harbors/seaports.

 

[Glassmage]

you forgot Atoll tiles which are crucial for production in coastal cities.

 

[Browd]

Indeed I did - work them the same way as the Great Barrier Reef - no fishing boats required.

 

[Hoplite]

5. POW (plain ol' water) -- base yield of 1 food and 1 gold (2 fish after lighthouse, 2 gold if Great Lighthouse (if I recall correctly) and I think (??) 1 hammer with a harborand another with a seaport. Candidly, I just don't work POW tiles, so I'm hazy on the harbor and seaport impacts.

Others please chime in if I've overlooked anything, or can clarify harbors/seaports.

Colossus gives +1 gold not GL i think

 

[Alpedar]

And harbor and seaport does not give hammers to empty water tiles, only to resources.

 

[Tachii]

"Base" ocean water tiles suck dung. This is why I generally avoid coastal cities unless I'm Carthage. Sometimes I outright ignore a coastal city in a cultural victory since I don't need ships for navigation (a knight could pull the job off fine after Astronomy).

Even with Colossus + Lighthouse that base tile is only +2 food/+2 gold. A very good coastal city should have more than 3 water resources/atoll/great reefs. Or else you pretty much have wasted 5-8 potential tiles with mediocre +2 food/+1 gold boring old ocean tiles. I suppose it's better than tundra/desert though.

That said, last game I managed to find an insanely good location (5/6 sea resources) so that even though it was based around desert (had like 5 desert tiles in its vicinity), with lighthouse/colossus/seaport/harbour it was generating enough food and production as an average river-based city.

 

[Gamewizard]

The bare water tiles are boring indeed. I feel like the seaport should give ALL water tiles +1 gold and only sea resources should get the +1 hammer. Seaport is an expensive building and comes late enough that I don't think this would be too OP.

 

[Hammer Rabbi]

The bare water tiles are boring indeed. I feel like the seaport should give ALL water tiles +1 gold and only sea resources should get the +1 hammer. Seaport is an expensive building and comes late enough that I don't think this would be too OP.

i anything, i think seaports should give +1 beakers to ocean tiles (not coastal) if the city has uni's or maybe research labs. that or a pantheon/belief that does that. there is so much science to be learned from the oceans and seas.

 

[JohnYoga]

Thank you, folks...

I don't recall the citizen assignment in Civ IV, at least not the way it's now presented in Civ 5 with these black circle fill-ins. But, it's been so long since I've played it, who knows, maybe this method was in that game, too.

I am looking at my Citizen Management screen + map now. I have nine citizens and probably double that in extra black circles. Now, with all of those farms, trading posts, mines, etc., that I have, if there is NO citizen currently assigned to those hexes, does that mean that I am not garnering the food/hammers from those tiles? I hope this is not the case; otherwise, I am having my workers going around making all of these improvements for no reason (at present).

Please inform.

Thank you,

Marc

 

[Tachii]

Yes. If there is no citizen assigned to the hex, it means you are not getting the food/hammer/gold from that tile.

 

[JohnYoga]

Thank you for the fast response, Tachii, and thank you to everyone else who has written in...

Regards,

Marc

 

[Atlas627]

A tile's yield is what you would acquire if you assigned a citizen to the tile. Each city has citizens equal to the big number left of its name. If you are in the City View screen, any tile that shows its yield is currently being worked. If you open up the tab "Citizen Management" on the top right, you will be given circles to manually assign citizens. Empty circles are unworked (didn't show yield before you opened the tab), and circles with people faces in them are worked. If you click a worked tile, it will remove the citizen and put it on the right panel as an untrained specialist. This means it produces 1 hammer. Click an unworked tile to begin "locking" (assigning citizens so the AI governor won't undo what you want) tiles you want to work. Citizens will be taken from the pool of untrained specialists first, and then will start being taken from unlocked but worked tiles (people faces).

Ok so that's the tutorial on the UI. As for the strategy, here is my take.

Land tiles need to be improved one by one using a worker. When your city is still relatively low in population, you will be able to improve roughly one tile by the time you get a new citizen. And you still have the worker for later. So here you get to improve the very good tiles (ones with resources or a river) and work only those. And you can do this quickly (one worker is fast enough)

Sea tiles are not improved one at a time, but all at once with the Lighthouse. But the lighthouse takes much longer to build. So if you found a coastal city, you don't have to waste worker time on it, but instead have to wait for the lighthouse to be constructed. As soon as you do though, you have many tiles you can work that are at least passable, and theoretically you should only build on the coast if you have at least 2 resources there, so you should have some good tiles too.

 

[JohnYoga]

Great explanation, GamerKG.

There are some comments that you had written that I don't understand 100%:

So if you found a coastal city, you don't have to waste worker time on it, but instead have to wait for the lighthouse to be constructed.

Correct me if I am wrong, but, you can't use a worker anyway on a water tile. I always assumed that workers only work on land tiles. And, you are able to garner resources from a water tile long before the lighthouse comes, if you have fish, whale, clams, etc., on tiles within your city's borders and you have a work boat on that tile.

As soon as you do though, you have many tiles you can work that are at least passable, and theoretically you should only build on the coast if you have at least 2 resources there, so you should have some good tiles too.

All water tiles have at least some base resource on it. When you say "at least 2 resources" are you saying that it is best to have at least two tiles that have fish, crabs, whales, etc., within your city limits, or potentially will be within your city limits once your city expands past that area?

Thank you, in advance, for your clarification...

Marc

 

[Browd]

For sea tiles, you can work them (i.e., assign a citizen to work that tile) before they are improved, but you are correct that sea tiles are improved with work boats, not workers. Some buildings also enhance the yields from sea tiles (lighthouse, harbor, seaport), even if the sea tiles are not yet improved.

Yes, to your second question. Raw water tiles, with no luxuries, strat resources or bonus resources, are not a reason to found a coastal city.

 

[JohnYoga]

For sea tiles, you can work them (i.e., assign a citizen to work that tile) before they are improved, but you are correct that sea tiles are improved with work boats, not workers. Some buildings also enhance the yields from sea tiles (lighthouse, harbor, seaport), even if the sea tiles are not yet improved.

Yes, to your second question. Raw water tiles, with no luxuries, strat resources or bonus resources, are not a reason to found a coastal city.

Thank you, Browd.

Marc

 

[moors]

Natural wonder tiles do not increase yield with lighthouse or collosus, right ?