Why Durban over Winburg

[killerkebab]

I've noticed a lot of people who play England/Netherlands advocate settling Durban (on the gold) rather than Winburg (1NE, on the river).

Why?

As far as I can tell, you can get more out of Winburg - the gold mine, levees, etc

What am I missing?

 

[Wessel V1]

Gold gives early happiness, and it doesn't have to be mined when a city is built on it. However, I share your doubts when happiness is not an immediate problem. Given the fact that the city should be used for production and not population (Great People), the levee is an important building. So, if the city is used for colonization purposes, for example when playing Japan, I prefer Winburg over Durban.

 

[AnotherPacifist]

Founding on the gold happens to catch all the resources around.
Impi are terrible, being on a hill helps if you only have 1 crossbowman to defend.

 

[Leoreth]

I never understood Durban either, imo Winburg is clearly better.

 

[AnotherPacifist]

Well then you better bring more crossbowmen to sit around Winburg, i.e. you need 2 galleys.
Remember every resource pillaged means more instability.

 

[killerkebab]

Winburg has coal that Durban cannot reach.

Durban gets iron (on a desert/hills tile) that Winburg won't reach.

In the later patches (1.187, or RFC E/M), Winburg cannot reach the sugar (Rhye moved it West for some reason).

However Winburg has a river. I suppose Durban can get a slightly higher pop because it has some grassland tiles on it, but is it really better than Winburg in the late game?

 

[blizzrd]

It's the early access to Gold that is key, for the happiness it provides back in Europe with all those Forges in your home cities. Not needing to wait for ages for a worker to hook up the Gold is worth a lot for the extra worked tiles due to happiness in the homeland. Always on the Gold for me, unless I'm playing Ethiopia, when covering coast with maximum cultural expansion and minimal number of cities is more important than resources within BFCs.

 

[civ_king]

I normally send two galleys with one settler, two crossbowman and one worker to South Africa so I go with Winburg

 

[Jusos2108]

I always go with Durban, because my other galleys are busy ferrying soldiers to Egypt.

 

[Wessel V1]

So the gold really is the only difference that matters? That means that for non-European civs Winburg clearly is the better location, IMO. I think that should be stated more properly because I see people suggesting Durban over Winburg all the time without any argumentation, just because 'The Great Players' suggest that too (but only in a specific situation).

 

[AnotherPacifist]

The sugar helps a lot with happiness in Europe.
Quelimane overlaps too much with Durban too.
I like to sit some crossbows in the forest NW and SW of Durban, and another one on the hill NE. Durban just builds warriors to start with.
Workers should finish working at home before going abroad. I use southern Europe as a loading dock and the original galley goes back half way to pick some workers up in 1100-1200's.

 

[Tlönitte]

Durban is only good for Dykes

 

[sennomulo]

Quelimane overlaps too much with Durban too.

Quelimane doesn't overlap with Durban at all, and only overlaps one tile with Winburg.