What resource do you build cities on?

[Sodak]

The inland city can, of course, not be attacked by naval units. However, a city attacked from a sea square does not lose a population point if the defender loses - city walls or not. Another problem is that diplomats can disembark and enter your city - there is no way to defend this except to sink anybody who comes near.

I like coastal cities, too, but have no qualms about inland city building. A fish or whale special is good all game long, and nobody can take it from your city by occupying the square, unlike land specials.

My best ever city was on a river delta (~17 of the squares) with 2 whales, a rivered spice, and a rivered silk. The beakers and gold rolled in by the 1000s!

 

[jomey]

The inland city can, of course, not be attacked by naval units. However, a city attacked from a sea square does not lose a population point if the defender loses - city walls or not. Another problem is that diplomats can disembark and enter your city - there is no way to defend this except to sink anybody who comes near.

Thanks Sodak, I agree with the point regarding the population decrease. I generally find that naval ships have a high attack value and in a close game I may not have enough time/resource to fully protect all my cities with coastal fortresses. For diplomats... not sure but doesn't the AI land on an unoccupied square first and then steal techs/bribe cities etc . If this is the case then it doesn't matter how close you are to the shoreline.

IMO there is no difference between beeing attacked by navy or ground forces. Is that what you mean? Or why do you think there is an - extra - target?

Just simply that roaming ships will not have a potshot at my cities. The less there are then the less casualties. There is nothing more annoying when you are balancing unhappiness with maximum outputs when suddenly the ironclad from hell appears and obliterates all your defenders in one go:rocket:

One question I do have for people is how do you control the type of special resource when changing the terrain(When mining on grassland , what says it will be cotton or pheasents)???

 

[Nishdog]

Someone metioned a trick with mining a hill square?
When I build on a hill and try to mine, it tells me i'm not allowed to do that. And when I mine first, then build a city, the mine disappears.
Am I missing something here?

My favorite starting location would have to be on a grassland (w/o a shield) near a river or whale.
My capital city (ALWAYS my science city, as well) needs lots of grasslands (w/ rivers preferred) as well as costal squares. Surrounding cities should have decent production (hills, forests) to crank out caravans to complete science wonders in the capital.
Just as a habit I formed, a majority of my cities tend to be coastal, and a few cities will fill in the interior.
Later in the game, once I have engineers, I wll convet most of the squares in one of my cities into hills, leaving the rest as grasslands to support a 20 population. I will mine all the hills to get a killer prouction city (w/Factory, Manuacturig Pant). I will build Shakespeare's theatre there, and then crank out a killer military from there. This city will be coastal if I want lots of boats, inland if I want lots of land units.

I will then run over my opponents with unrelenting force with my tanks, battleships, and stealth fighters.

 

[Nishdog]

Originally posted by jomey


One question I do have for people is how do you control the type of special resource when changing the terrain(When mining on grassland , what says it will be cotton or pheasents)???

This is controlled by the resource seeds and the effects can be clearly illustrated when you run the Civ2 map editor program. Say you have a Plain w/ buffalo and you want to mine this to get a forest. That buffalo will ALWAYS convert to a pheasant. If the plains had wheat, then the mining will produce a forest with silk.
There is one way to tell what a grassland square will turn into when converted. If you have explored a sufficient amount of the map, you may be able to determine a pattern with which resource possibility appears.
Here's the corresponding resources for all terrain types-there are 2 possibilities for each terrain:

Resource possibility #1
Wheat (plains)=oil(desert)=silk(forest)=wine(hill)=iron(mountain)=fur(tundra)=oil(glaicer)=spices(swamp)=bananas(jungle)=whale(ocean)

Resource possibility #2
Buffalo(plains)=oaisis(desert)=pheasant(forest)=coal(hill)=gold(mountain)=musk ox(tundra)=ivory(glacier)=peat(swamp)=gems(jungle)=fish(ocean)

You cannot control the seeds once a game starts, but if you're using the map editor, you can set the resource seed on a map and then play on the map you made. Just make sure the resource seed does not equal 1 (this sets the seed at random)

 

[jomey]

Thanks for the clarification Nishdoggoodjob: )

I'll return the favour..

Someone metioned a trick with mining a hill square?
When I build on a hill and try to mine, it tells me i'm not allowed to do that. And when I mine first, then build a city, the mine disappears.
Am I missing something here?

If you start mining the hill first with one settler and then build a city using another (not sure whether a delay of a couple of turns is necessary) the city home resource will eventually be 2foods & 3 shields, as soon as the first settler finishes mining. I guess that it would work the same with deserts/glaciers/mountains but I have never tried it myself.(You don't want to build on TTTHHHAT!!!! UK humour):crazyeyes :crazyeyes

 

[Sodak]

Regarding the changing of specials, open the file terrain1.gif. The specials are in two columns. No matter what terrain change you make, the specials will always be in the same column.

The mined hill city trick is done by building a city on a square after the mining has started and before it is complete. The mine will be completed at normal speed, boosting production in the city. This gives a big boost on coal or oil. I like to do it on wine or oasis - you still get trade/food for the square, as well as the shield boost.

Nishdog, making your capitol a super science city is not the most efficient approach. Once a tech is discovered, the remaining beakers from the city that finished it are lost. Cities that follow in the beaker count begin counting toward the next tech. Having the capitol as the SSC means that no beakers will count until the next turn if the SSC discovers the tech being researched. If your 6th city is the SSC, it can discover the tech, and then the first 5 cities add beakers to the next tech. Having it in the first city can cost you turns of research once the SSC is pumping.

 

[Magnus]

The hill trick is great, especially on a river. Building on a river is always good - you get a bridge before you know engineering. Also building cities to create canals for your units only are wonderful.

 

[Nishdog]

Originally posted by Sodak


Nishdog, making your capitol a super science city is not the most efficient approach. Once a tech is discovered, the remaining beakers from the city that finished it are lost. Cities that follow in the beaker count begin counting toward the next tech. Having the capitol as the SSC means that no beakers will count until the next turn if the SSC discovers the tech being researched. If your 6th city is the SSC, it can discover the tech, and then the first 5 cities add beakers to the next tech. Having it in the first city can cost you turns of research once the SSC is pumping.

The reason i did this i because of corruption early in the game; i wanted all the science i could get w/ minimum corruption (which was achieved in the capital). If i make my 6th city my SSC, would you suggest i build a palace there as well. Or should i not bother, and just wait for Democracy (no corruption anywhere)?

 

[Sodak]

Using the 6th city was an arbitrary choice - sometimes the best is the 3rd, 5th, or 8th, depending on the terrain you find. That said, if you start on a 2whale/2gold spot, by all means build the SSC in the capitol!

If corruption is an issue early in the game, moving the palace is an option. Depending on how far from the capitol you are, sometimes a courthouse is enough. Consider both the corruption per turn and how many turns you are from becoming a democracy.

If democracy is still dozens of turns away, then you need an improvement to minimize loss until then. For instance, if the SSC produces 24 arrows, and only 4 go to corruption, build the courthouse. If you are far away and would suffer 14 corruption, build the palace. Go ahead and rushbuy after a few shields have accumulated. A courthouse will also make one citizen in your democratic SSC happy, so its benefit doesn't end with corruption being eliminated. Your capitol can still be a good secondary city with library and university in either case

Sorry to sound so vague, just evaluate your situation. Good luck!

 

[Nishdog]

i've been doing that trick with building a city on a hill while a mine is in progress; this produces one of the best city sites, in my opinion. This has changed the way I look at the map for choosing city locations!!!
Thanks for the tip.

 

[HIEROPHANT]

I wonder who told everyone the hill trick it seems somelse figured it out too. It would of been much better if it stay where i was the only one that knew the trick.

 

[Smash]

that is one of the oldest techniques in civ2 there is.

I only build on resources in mp.If you don't someone else will.

The best special is whales.A bit of everything.I wish you could build on them.

 

[ghostdn]

I prefer to build my cities on mountains as they give me a 200% extra defense bonus..
This means that almost nothing can kill my cities..

 

[jomey]

Problem is that your growth is extremely limited as chances are that there will be other mountains nearby within the city boundaries. I assume that a mountains & river will give you 300% defence bonus

 

[ghostdn]

Im not sure if you get 300% bonus if there is a river too,
but its of course stupid to build a city on a mountain if there are nothing but mountains around the city.
But most times there are some plains or grassland which means that the city can grow a bit.

 

[Rowan]

A mountain with a sea and river aspect is all right in my humble opinion. A shield or fish in the area is a bonus!

[dance] [dance]

 

[Sodak]

Originally posted by jomey
Problem is that your growth is extremely limited as chances are that there will be other mountains nearby within the city boundaries. I assume that a mountains & river will give you 300% defence bonus

Defense value x3 with mountain, x3.5 if there is also a river.

 

[duke o' york]

I assume that this is of academic interest only, because how often do you see a river on a mountain? I never have, and wonder if they exist. If anyone has a screenshot of a river mountain (obviously not on a map they generated themself) then please post it. The best combination defense I've ever seen would be a river on a hill, but this is still not as good as a mountain. Forests on rivers are very common and they can be quite good for defensive purposes. And trade.....mmmm....trade!


If you want to post a picture of a mountain river then please don't make it too big. I'm not that bothered about seeing the entire map to be honest.

 

[jomey]

And trade.....mmmm....trade!

Just think mountain with gold..... permanant trade

 

[ghostdn]

Yepp. Mountains with gold are my biggest favourite. Especially if you find a mountain with gold in the beginning. A capital placed on gold means that you will have MUCH science