What am I missing with building canals?

[PendragonWRB]

I finally got GS and have had canal envy for quite some time now. Now that I have it, I don't understand the rules for canals. In all my cities save one, I cannot built a canal district. The rules sound really simple, flat land next to a city or a body of water right? What am I missing?

Most of my cities have lots of districts and land improvements, but on open land I should still be able to build a canal right? I am hoping that the Panama Canal wonder is NOT a requirement to build canals.

 

[criZp]

idk man, I can build them fine

 

[PendragonWRB]

My capitol which is on the same coast as the second city can build a canal but the other city cannot. The third image shows two cities also on the coast, neither of which can build a canal.

 

[DWilson]

You can only have two canal tiles per city, barring the wonder, and they have to form some sort of connection (between water and water or water and city).

 

[UWHabs]

Each canal tile needs to be on flat land connecting 2 water and/or city centre tiles, which can't be next to each other.

So in the posted pictures, Tyre could build the canal either SE or NE of the city (although you already have a district NE so can't build there). In the second image, there's no flat land tile that connects Byblos to a water tile that's not already adjacent to it. Same with the 3rd image. In that 3rd one, though, you could have built a canal on the niter tile were the resource not there. In Cardiff, both tiles NW and SW of the city would be Canal-able, although they're obviously useless to build a canal on since the city itself basically counts as a canal.

 

[PendragonWRB]

I have seen pictures of canals running across a continent, how is that possible with only two canals per city?

Here is an example posted to reddit: https://i.redd.it/7rrz1d51oii21.png

 

[UWHabs]

I have seen pictures of canals running across a continent, how is that possible with only two canals per city?

Panama Canal can be up to 3 tiles. So in theory you can go: ocean-canal-city-canal-panama-canal-city-canal (where the middle canal-panama-canal section all comes as part of the Panama Canal wonder). Alternately, if you have lakes in the middle, you can chain them together.

 

[NukeAJS]

I have seen pictures of canals running across a continent, how is that possible with only two canals per city?

Here is an example posted to reddit: https://i.redd.it/7rrz1d51oii21.png

You can have three canals per city. They just can't be adjacent to both another canal and your city. In the screen you posted, there's a city between three lakes that had three canals -- each one connecting to a lake tile.

Also in the SS you posted, there are actually four canal systems, with the before mentioned city being used as a junction for the two long canals. The longest one starts at the top and goes to the bottom-left. It's basically: Ocean, canal, city, canal, lake, lake, canal, junction city, canal, lake, lake, lake, canal, panama, panama, panama, lake, city, canal, ocean.

The second longest goes from the top the the bottom-right: Ocean, canal, city, canal, lake, lake, canal, junction city, canal, lake, lake, canal, city, canal, lake, lake, canal, ocean.

The third goes from the top to the left. It's: ocean, canal, city, canal, lake, lake, lake, lake, canal, ocean

The last system is very small and it's in the bottom-right corner. It's: city, canal, ocean (which is pointless because he/she already has a harbor in the ocean, but I suppose you could argue that the ocean connects the two systems but then again that would make an infinite loop in most cases).

This player make very good use of placing a city one tile away from two different lakes or between a lake and an ocean. This enables them to do several: lake/ocean, canal, city, canal, lake/ocean connections. They even do with using the panama canal (lake, canal, city, panama x3, lake); however, this is obviously canal overkill in most instances.

Anyways, pre-planning for canals is very important when settling cities as soon as you pop your first settler. Canals are obviously very situational, but they can pay off tremendously if planned correctly. I'd definitely recommend making full use of the canal map tacks so that you don't accidentally place a district where you will later want a canal.

 

[TomKQT]

flat land next to a city or a body of water

flat land next to a city or a body of water -> flat land next to a city AND a body of water (or flat land between two water tiles)

 

[Josephias]

One thing I experienced, an I’m not sure it is documented, or if I have analyzed it correctly: do reefs block canal placement?
(This is: awater tile with reef does not count as a water tile for canal placement)

 

[Tech Osen]

One thing I experienced, an I’m not sure it is documented, or if I have analyzed it correctly: do reefs block canal placement?
(This is: awater tile with reef does not count as a water tile for canal placement)

Reefs don't block ships so I don't see why it would impede canal placement.

 

[Turrdy]

The rules are easy: a canal district must connect two tiles where a ship is able to move to, i.e. water or city.
Panama canal is like a 3-tile-canal, so both ends of this 3-tile canal must connect to tiles where ships can go.
Inland cities don't count as places where ships can go unless it is connected to a water tile with a canal (you can identify such cities easily if the city centre has a built-in canal).
so to build a 7-tile waterway ((water-)canal-city-panama-panama-panama-city-canal(-water)) you need to first connect the cities to the water with the canals before you can build the panama canal between them.

 

[Starwars]

Even though I like the idea of canals I must say that this is one area of the expansion which has largely passed me by. I think I've built like 3 or 4 since GS was released and that was for the novelty factor, hehe.

 

[Turrdy]

You can have three canals per city.

of course you can build more than 3 canals, just not adjacent to the city centre. Like this for example:

Spoiler Picture :

Gray: City centre
Green: Land tiles
Blue: Water tiles
Red: Canal tiles

 

[MacCoise]

What do they do? apart from allow ships move

 

[kaspergm]

I have seen pictures of canals running across a continent, how is that possible with only two canals per city?

Here is an example posted to reddit: https://i.redd.it/7rrz1d51oii21.png

Gotta say, though, that canal layout is pretty epic.

 

[criZp]

Gotta say, though, that canal layout is pretty epic.

Also pretty useless

 

[PonderThis]

Also pretty useless

In this case, epic > usefulness.

 

[PendragonWRB]

So for canal planning you might end up having to place a city without water access for maximum canal length which is sub-optimal.

Can Panama Canal be placed inland on an inland city? So canal, wonder, canal, city. Does that City have to be on a lake? Could I canal a city to a lake and then but canal, wonder, canal on the other side?

Do rivers conflict with canals in anyway?

 

[SammyKhalifa]

I have to admit that I haven't built a canal yet