Which improvements do you cottage over?

[FlyinJohnnyL]

I was just reading a thread which got me thinking...assuming you have more than one, which resources would you cottage over (or workshop, I guess some people might do this in hammer cities?)

The one I'm most torn over is sugar, the extra food is nice with a plantation, but many times I can get a cottage going much sooner on it. Only when it's riverside can I farm it early.

 

[6K Man]

It depends on who I have to trade with. I mean, if you can trade Wine to a good friend for 3 per turn, that makes the Wine tile worth as much as a Town, practically speaking. Any cash yield better than that is gravy.

On the other hand, I try not to trade away any resources to enemies, unless the yield is really good - like 20 /turn good. In such cases I might cottage or farm over Stone, Wine, Marble and Sugar.

 

[Dan Quale]

I like to cottage over dyes when they are clustered and i have tons besides that plantations are usually better.

 

[Gliese 581]

Cottaging dye is no problem as you don't lose a ton of money by building a plantation later on. Sugar however can be more tricky. I have to say though that in the greater majority of my games there are some resource I can trade it for or someone that'll give me some gpt for it which in both cases generally is a good deal compared to keeping a village or even town.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

None, the trades tend to be more valuable.

 

[Volapyk]

Can't remember exactly how much gpt the ai will pay for the it, it depends on the number of cities they have, but I remember it as something as 2 gold per city or something. Though its rare the AI have a lot of gpt to trade away.

 

[vale]

Almost never. I would advise checking to see if settling on the resource was appropriate to begin with. I really like settling on sugar and riverside dye and assuming it fits into your dot map, you will always come out significantly ahead settling on them and cottaging bare tiles rather than vice versa.

 

[troytheface]

Superior play from great players such as myself will entail building cottages over any improvement made by a captured AI city's workers- usually mines- created on green hills.

 

[The Rook]

Unless I have a ludicrous amount of land and resources, the extra health or happiness that I could trade for would be far more valuable than a few commerce gained by cottaging over the resource. Sometimes I farm over banana/sugar pre-Calendar, or workshop over elephants post-Industrialism etc.

 

[nbcman]

I only cottage over bananas before calendar (3 tile)-especially if they are riverside. The other resources wait for plantations.

 

[Gliese 581]

I don't see why people would not cottage dyes assuming there are no other resources to work. Free extra commerce is great! I'm not saying I would keep the cottage. You should at least farm it and use it as an extra-income farm, use it somehow.

 

[sjkane85]

The trade I can get for the underlying resource far outweighs any $$$ a cottage (or its successors) will generate.

 

[6K Man]

Forgot about Dyes. And Silk is pretty easy to justify cottaging.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I don't see why people would not cottage dyes assuming there are no other resources to work. Free extra commerce is great! I'm not saying I would keep the cottage. You should at least farm it and use it as an extra-income farm, use it somehow.

Yes, I also advocate farming calendar resources. A 4F tile is going to be superior to most other options as your 4th tile to work or so. Same thing with the dye...might as well work that over a standard farm until calendar.

 

[Aardan]

I was just reading a thread which got me thinking...assuming you have more than one, which resources would you cottage over (or workshop, I guess some people might do this in hammer cities?)

The one I'm most torn over is sugar, the extra food is nice with a plantation, but many times I can get a cottage going much sooner on it. Only when it's riverside can I farm it early.

The problem with sugar is that when you get to Standard Ethanol, you are going to be needing a plantation on it.

 

[Windsor]

I don't see why people would not cottage dyes assuming there are no other resources to work. Free extra commerce is great! I'm not saying I would keep the cottage. You should at least farm it and use it as an extra-income farm, use it somehow.

I always assumed it would be better (in the long run) to work a grassland cottage so I get both the dye-plantation and a mature cottage(/hamlet/village/town) when calendar is discovered.

If I need food I have no problem farming calendar resources, but I have never tried cottages

 

[JBossch]

I'm for farming most calendar resources in most situations (pre-calendar). I usually need the extra food early on anyway and there is no guilt when I build the plantation later. Why invest in building up a cottage that is just going to get bulldozed?

 

[Gliese 581]

I always assumed it would be better (in the long run) to work a grassland cottage so I get both the dye-plantation and a mature cottage(/hamlet/village/town) when calendar is discovered.

If I need food I have no problem farming calendar resources, but I have never tried cottages

You don't always get banana and sugar by fresh water in which case you can't farm them. Then it's often better to put a cottage there in the meantime and work it like a better-than-normal grassland farm.

As for dyes and other cottages, first off I'll try to avoid working standard grassland cottages until emancipation unless I'm financial, so unless that's the case I want them to be riverside. Non-freshwater dyes can be cottaged though as they have an inherent +1c.

 

[FlyinJohnnyL]

I'm for farming most calendar resources in most situations (pre-calendar). I usually need the extra food early on anyway and there is no guilt when I build the plantation later. Why invest in building up a cottage that is just going to get bulldozed?

I guess I should have clarified this better-I'm not intending to bulldoze the cottage. I'm saying, you have like 4 sugars all clumped together. You work 1 for your own empire's happy boost. What to do with the other 3?

And for everyone saying "trade is worth more", what if this tile is in your oxford city? Then that mature town might be worth it right, going through all the multipliers?