What do you do with forest tiles?

[Galumphus]

I seem to be at a loss as to what to do with forest tiles. Can someone walk me through what your forest lands turn into over the course of the game. (BTW, I always clear jungle, is that the right move?)

Usually I just leave forests for a long time, unless there's some resource I need on the square.

 

[vmxa]

Looks like forset can be either use to get a boost to a town or left to provide some health boost (I think 3 forest equal +1).

So I would say it is dependant as so many things are in civ.

 

[Fabius]

I personally like forests. Unless I have a city that is completely surrounded by forests, I enjoy them for the hammer they yield. Tearing them down just gives me more food when what I want are probably more hammers. I leave them up until I can construct some sort of improvement like a windmill, watermill, or workshop or something that can generate more hammers as well.

Get rid of all your forests and you'll find your city growing and growing but not making much to offset the growth.

As for jungles, they more or less suck. At least they don't cause disease any more, but yes, when you can cut them down, cut them down. There's usually better uses of the land than to be an overgrown jungle.

 

[Stuporstar]

Forests are great. The AI wants to chop them all down and put up cottages. I still won't automate my workers in CivIV in the early game, especially before you can build lumbermills. My first game, I took that AI's advice just because I was still learning the very basics of the game, and I ended up with a bunch of overpopulated and unhealthy cities with low production rates. Then lumbermills came around and I had almost no forests left. I was a little annoyed.

Jungles don't cause disease the way they did in previous games, but they still cost you in health points and they're pretty much useless.

Oh, and on other terrain features, when you build a mine it says small chance of discovering ore. Has anyone had this happen to them? I build a mine first on every hill before deciding to convert it to something else later if need be, just in case.

 

[Pragmatic]

Late game, when Environmentalism civic is discovered and adopted, forests provide +1 happy (so do jungles; also, Enviro provides +5 health to all cities).

And forests provide +0.4 health on their own. (Compare that to Jungle's -0.25 health--and -1 to food--or Floodplains' -0.4 health.)

 

[eataTREE]

I'm a total deforestation man -- chop it all down! If I want production, I'll mine the hills (or just chop down more forests! Bwahaha!). If I want more happy in the late game, I'll spend more cash on culture. Those 30 hammers up front per chopped-down forest are just too tempting.

 

[kbmusiclover]

Personally, I love forests and jungles both, jungles mainly right outside my city borders. The reason why? I make all my melee units into Guerrilla troops as quickly as I can and then they move twice as fast in my own territory (and, depending on the location, some other peoples' countries too). I generally cut down jungles if I ever see them INSIDE the city borders though because they're useless... but I do like to have them around outside merely for movement purposes. Then I eventually expand and chop 'em down.

Guerrilla warriors make excellent scouts.

 

[KCCrusader]

stuporstar: I had gems pop up from a mine once. So yes, it does happen.

 

[Bezhukov]

It takes three forests to provide one health, but only 5 for two (they generate .4 each, rounded down.) You don't have to be working them, they just have to be in in the fat cross.

Lumbermills get +1 hammer from rails (like mines, but unlike mills and unimproved terrain), so eventually the square produces the same with forest or mine, just takes longer with the former - in exchange, you get the health benefit.

That said, my favorite long term strategies so far involve maximizing towns and windmills for the commerce and specialist benefits...

 

[Vael]

Chopping forests is good for production boosts if you're trying to finish a wonder for example. As mentioned, they also provide health and can be greatly improved later with Lumbermills and railroads.

In the end it comes down to your strategy and the city in particular. Someone going for lots of Great People won't care about the production so much and will want more farmed plots to provide food for extra specialists. There's really no perfect solution.

 

[CitizenCain]

Come on, this is an easy question. Ask yourself what kind of city you want to have, and that will give you the answer to your forest question. If you want lots of production, leave them up for the most part (especially in the early game), if you'd rather have pop, or rush build improvements, chop them down. They're kind of like hill/mines for cities that aren't on hilly ground. The only exceptions to this are forests on hills and forests on grassland (at least for my play style).

When they're on hills, in the early game, a mine will provide you with one extra shield and give you that production rush for chopping it down. So to me that seems like an easy choice. When they're on grasslands, I tend to leave them , because that's a tile with 2 food, one shield, and the problem I normally run into is that I have too much population and not enough productivity (still trying to break my old civ habits) - so I'll leave that forest there rather than have a tenth tile that gives me 3 food, 0 shields. Plus, as I progress in the game and get lumbermills and railraods, that tile that might have given me no hammers, now provides enough food to sustain the city pop using it, and 3 shields as a bonus.

 

[Azragaul]

I have had a couple mines have a resource pop up. Its not just a possibility of it poping up when you first mine it. There is a possibility every turn for a mine to produce a resource. It dosent happen often and you only get a little note that goes by quick so you migt have missed it in the past.

 

[fightcancer]

Oh, and on other terrain features, when you build a mine it says small chance of discovering ore. Has anyone had this happen to them? I build a mine first on every hill before deciding to convert it to something else later if need be, just in case.

I do the same thing. I've NEVER seen it happen yet.