Using +1 food/farm (Biology)?

[ston]

I'd like to get some tips on how to best prepare for / use the +1 food per farm bonus which comes with the biology tech ('vanilla' Civ IV).

I've thought of a few ways to manage it:

o Use the increase in food production to allow more specialists

o Re-work some of the tiles. It's probably too late in the game to build new cottages so building watermills or workshops over old farms might make more sense.

o Pre-plan for the +1 food bonus; leave the city a bit light on food and time the increase in farm production to match the increased food needs of the city (as the city grows)

Any thoughts on this welcome, ta

 

[gfm]

Use the increase in food production to allow more specialists

Good call, especially since the Representation civic kicks in around that time (if you don't already have the Pyramids, that is)

Re-work some of the tiles. It's probably too late in the game to build new cottages so building watermills or workshops over old farms might make more sense.

I disagree about not building Cottages after Biology : Thanks to the cottage-empowering civics coming with Democracy, late-game cottages will mature fast and bring you both and aplenty. In fact, it has good synergy with Biology (allowing you to work more cottages instead of farms for a similar + output).

 

[Refar]

Depends on the game situation. If it's a military game, it's probably nealy decided by this time anyway. And you probably want production more than commerce, for the final push.
In a space race there is plenty of time for your cottages to mature post Bio.

Leaving the city short on food pre Bio does not strike me as good idea... Unless you are at happy cap, working all good tiles instead of the farms to delay growth, its fine... But it would be Nr1 or 2...

 

[ston]

Good call, especially since the Representation civic kicks in around that time (if you don't already have the Pyramids, that is)


I disagree about not building Cottages after Biology : Thanks to the cottage-empowering civics coming with Democracy, late-game cottages will mature fast and bring you both and aplenty. In fact, it has good synergy with Biology (allowing you to work more cottages instead of farms for a similar + output).

Ooh yeah, there's a civic which gives +100% cottage growth (I'd forgotten about that).

Thx for your answers chaps

 

[henrebotha]

The three options you posted are listed in my order of preference. I strongly disagree with moves like the last one. Having your city work at sub-minimum capacity for a while and eventually (post-Bio) having it work at minimum capacity is a hell of a lot worse than having it work at standard capacity for a while and eventually having it work at maximum capacity. Dig? You're not actually gaining any advantage out of delaying it like that - you're just making it look like you gained an advantage when in fact you were trailing behind and have now only caught up.

 

[futurehermit]

What can growth do for you?

 

[ShannonCT]

The most important use of Biology: milking your score for Game of the Month and Hall of Fame games.

 

[z0wb13]

What can growth do for you?

right?

a great tech the ai usually undervalues. it just makes your cities better. you don't have to plan for it, just try to prioritize it.

 

[gfm]

right?

a great tech the ai usually undervalues. it just makes your cities better. you don't have to plan for it, just try to prioritize it.

Yup. Biology : more , then Medecine and Sushi for, er... more . I don't know who said it, but " = "

 

[gfm]

Ooh yeah, there's a civic which gives +100% cottage growth (I'd forgotten about that).

Thx for your answers chaps

The Emancipation civic will do that for you, though you will still have to wait 35 turns to turn a new cottage into a town

 

[mirthadir]

Build the Kremlin (that is in vanilla isn't it?) and start whipping. Very useful with lots of small cities overlapping (particularly when the AI has done the settling). Monty with bio/slavery/Kremlin can use bio farms (and later Sushi) to outproduce anything raw can give you.

 

[futurehermit]

right?

a great tech the ai usually undervalues. it just makes your cities better. you don't have to plan for it, just try to prioritize it.

I couldn't seem to find the strikethrough function to change "What can Brown do for you?" to "What can Growth do for you?"

It is a rhetorical question with the answers being, for example:

-increased population
-specialists
-whipping
-drafting
-being able to work previously-unworkable low-food tiles (e.g., plains hills) in low-food cities
-etc.