Which do you do and why?

[aimeeandbeatles]

Do you either:

1. Build a road right through difficult terrain, to make it faster for units traveling along it

2. Build a road around difficult terrain, to make it faster for workers

3.. Do a combination of both?

And why.

I do a combination. It's a compromise.

P.S. Difficult terrain is mainly jungles and mountains.

 

[Hasdrubal Barca]

Depends, depends and oh yes..depends...on how many workers i have....what do i want...the distance..and so on...i kinda go trough harsh terrain if i have over 30 workers and around it if i have less...but as i said it depends...

 

[The Loser]

A combination

I count the turn it would cost to go around, or to go through.

 

[Sweetchuck]

If that tile can be worked effectively, then I suck it up and build it. If it's through a mountain that won't be worked until I irrigate some other tiles, I might try to work-around, but if it means working around to other tiles that may never be worked, I'll run the road through the mountain.

Tomorrow's workable tiles beats today's never-worked tiles in my books.

 

[Pyrrhos]

If it's within/going to be within my territory, eventually there will be a road through it. If it's possible to build a road from town C through F and G to E roading immediately workable tiles, so be it. Later on, the direct road C-E will be built but it's not an immediate concern.

 

[TheOverseer714]

It also depends on what the difficult terrain is, and other factors already mentioned. If its a mountain and theres no better route, suck it up. If it's a swamp, I might road first, then clear the swamp. If its a hill, I might build a town as a "pass".

 

[Simak]

A mountain range with cities on both side, I'd go right through it. A single mountain in between two cities, go around.

 

[Flak509]

If the road is urgent then ill go around to lessen the worker time
If its of no special importance i always prefer the shortest way

and ofcourse eventurly all squares will have road and railroad

 

[silver 2039]

I automate my workers so yeh...I'm not sure.

 

[Turkish Delight]

I automate workers as well unless i want a certain thing done, saves me a lot of trouble.

 

[Theov]

Around it, because I don't need the mountain or swamps to be roaded, because I first use the plains and grasslands.
I place my cities very close so there is no need to 'connect' them. But most of the time, I 'automate' the connect roads (ctr-shift-r).

 

[Pyrrhos]

Addition:

Jungles and swamps. Off-road movement is one anyway so what decides is "Do I have use of the tile now"? If I've got three or four bad tiles between towns and can road usable tiles around, it'll have to be a road much longer than 12-15 tiles before I road the jungle/marsh ones. If I plant a town down, I will need the tiles anyway so I clear, then road and the town has done the job on one of those squares in one turn.

 

[Whythat]

In the beginning when I'm trying to just get my cities connected I generally just build the roads between my cities in the shortest time possible. So I go around anything I can to build the roads faster.

Later when I have a lot of workers I generally build roads everywhere regardless of terrain. But I often make sure to build roads through difficult terrain quickly if the road has a strategic defensive position. (I have to make sure my horsemen have a couple of routes to reach any city and especially coasts within six spaces).

 

[timerover51]

I use a combination depending on how many workers I have, what the other terrain is like, how badly do I need the road, and am I going to use the terrain eventually. Jungle is the one terrain that I try to avoid at all costs, unless I need the rubber or the nearest coal deposit is in it. I figure mountains may have something useful down the line, like coal or uranium, plus do generate shields when mined within the city limits. Same with hills. If I have plenty of workers, I will try to go through as quickly as possible by throwing a lot of workers at the road building effort.

 

[D0NIMATRIX]

It really depends on whether or not the tile can be easily worked around (i,e a random mountain in the middle of a plain) or has other barriers (mountain range) usually I build on the path that takes my units the least amount of time to get from point A to point B, but if it's easily avoided and I'm somewhat pressed for time I will just road around it.

 

[AznWarlord]

If I'm using an Industrious Civ, then I'd go through it. If I were not, I'd declare war, capture some slave workers, and make them go straight through it.

 

[Aramazd]

Depends, I go through unless I need to get the city connected fast.

 

[BTB]

I automate my workers so yeh...I'm not sure.

That would fall under the "Radioactive Monkeys" option.

 

[darski]

I generally consider which will take longer. It can be faster to go over one mountain than to deal with a bunch of forest tiles and such to go around.

I do use the Cont + r to get a road built from one point to another as I know that the workers will pick the fastest route to do this and I don't have to deal with workers one tile at a time.

 

[anaxagoras]

My consideration is usually about movement. Is this route likely to be a major throughway across my empire? If so, I'll road it even if it is a loan mountain in the middle of the open prairie, just to save the hundreds of movement points going around will consume. If it is on the periphery, though, I'll take the cheapest route in terms of worker turns, and only fill in the road network later.