Value of Roads

[weyland]

In previous versions of Civ, any tile w/ a road improvement generated more income. This doesnt seem to be the case in Civ IV; other than connecting cities and resources, do roads add any value to the tile? I.e., is it worth the trouble to build roads in every tile in a city radius?

 

[Tholomeo]

Roads do not increase commerce. I mentioned that rails do add one shield to mines and workshops

 

[southafrica]

I find it essential for defense to have has many roads/railroads as possible. No reason not to. I don't see many commando promotions anyway...

 

[CharlieM]

Yes, I keep building roads for military purposes.

 

[Corlindale]

You do not need roads other than to connect cities and resources...however, sometimes it is a good idea to build several roads to the same place, to make it harder for the enemy to isolate your cities. If you only have one road to a city on the outskirts of your empire, it is easy for your enemy to cut that city off from your resource benefits, leaving it unhealthy, unhappy and unable to produce advanced military units.
Towards the late game, your workers won't have much else to do anyway, so might as well make some roads.

 

[Glinka]

Roads link your cities for income, create quick access for your troops when attacked, and allow your workers to move easily to distant tiles without wasting time. I tend to generate a lot of workers by midgame, and put down a lot of roads. In the early game, I'm more strategic in my placement, because those two turns spent making roads might be put to better immediate use (slash/chopping).

 

[Pragmatic]

Just put two or three workers on "Build Trade Network." Those workers will put roads on every tile within your cultural borders. They'll also link up any resources you find, as an added bonus.

You can also put two or three on automate, with the "do not remove existing improvements" and "do not remove forest tiles" (1.52). Maybe one per city on "improve nearest city."

At least, that's what I'd suggest...

 

[BCLG100]

i build roads simply for military use and when i have nothing left for my workers to do.

 

[Amourek]

Roads do not increase commerce. I mentioned that rails do add one shield to mines and workshops

Railroads give an extra hammer to mines and lumbermills, not workshops.

When my workers have nothing to do, I have them build roads over forests first, then mines so I that once I get the tech required, I can rush to those tiles and build lumbermills and railroads without delay.

 

[LordTerror]

I find it essential for defense to have has many roads/railroads as possible. No reason not to.

The reason not to is that you can use the workers to build something else. Early/mid game your workers generally have enough things to do.

I.e., is it worth the trouble to build roads in every tile in a city radius?

No, but if your workers have nothing else to do, it's much better than sleeping.

 

[naterator]

i think roads should give some kind of bonus towards cottage > town development. seems realistic that a proper road to the city would improve its growth.

 

[goraemon]

In the early game, you should be selective about roads. Only build it to connect essential resources, connect cities together, and to create a quick military travel path.

 

[Thalassicus]

Early in the game, I only build roads for two purposes:

- Hooking up trade routes. I try to spend as few turns as possible on this, by utilizing rivers and other features for routes. Hint: a resource adjacent to a river is connected once improved, without needing a road.

- Movement in or out of a city to engage barbarians. You always want to fight barbarians out of your city on defensible terrain, so I'll often build a few roads right next to my cities to allow me to move out to a forest and/or hill in one turn, then back in one turn. I maximize production of other things in cities early on, using this out-and-back method to defend against barbarians with as few units as possible.


Midgame, I also build roads for these purposes:

- Hook up cities directly to facilitate troop movement
- Pave border cities with roads for the same purpose during wartime
- If all the tiles worked by all cities have improvements, I start adding roads after building improvements

 

[Zekrazey1]

I would say the point at which I turn up my road building is when I get catapults. Until then, they don't give your units a direct combat advantage so much as allow them to get to strategic locations quickly (i.e. get your units to city under attack, post them in/on forests/hills, prevent harassment, etc). Units that do collateral damage benifit most from being able to choose their battles. Having said that, I've often find that there are so many strategic points just begging to be connected by roads that by the time I get cats (which are a reasonably high priority unit) every square either has or is next to a road anyway . These include resources, hills, forests, choke points, military travel routes etc. However, if I'm not near anyone else, I'll build far less.

 

[ZippyRiver]

Another thing that is new, is that combat does NOT take 1 full movement point to execute. This means if the enemy is sitting on a road you can strike it, and move back into a city for repair and protection. I think they removed the commerce from roads to eliminate the spider-web maps, but that idea gets defeated with the fractional movement combat. So yes, building roads on every tile is still a good thing. imo