Town *on* a resource?

[Hermann the Lombard]

I have always avoided plopping a town right on top of a resource, and I've always put towns adjacent to the research. That's because as a noob I was worried that I would lose some of the value of the resource. So for example there's a grassland with a tobacco resource, showing 3 food and 5 tobacco. I can add a farm and an expert tobacco planner to jack that up considerably, but what would I get if I built on top of it?

[Edited to fix aphasia.]

[Dale]

You get the farmed amount. It's actually preferable to found on top of resources, as you get that tile for free meaning you can be making manufactured goods from the start.

[Mark123jansen]

But wouldnt it be more profitable in the long run to put the town next to it so you can use a specialist colonist to farm the resource?

[Dale]

Not if you get the same for free from the centre tile. You're not wasting a colonist farming the tile but still getting the production.

[Unimatrix11]

But obviously, you dont get to have a specialized planter working on that tile. But say you plant your city on, say, a tabacco special: You ´only´ get the amount of tabacco you´d get if you farmed the tile and worked it with a free colonist (that´s how i understand Dale), but you can put (roughly) two colonists to work as cigar-makers right away. Now You make this much more money this many turns earlier. Early money >> late money. Thus it probably pays to settle on the ressource itself (esp. if there are no villages training tabacco planters nearby, in which case, there is hardly any point for not settling on it).

Never did it myself before, so i am thankful for the advice, Dale, and will try it next time around...

[Hermann the Lombard]

Hmm...that makes for a nice decision about tradeoffs. In a case like this where you not only get the tobacco "for free" you also get some food for free so you really can go right into producing cigars.

Naturally the food resource won't be next to the tobacco resource, thus continuing the theme of tradeoffs!

[Krill]

Except if you want a farming town that works nothing but 8 farmed times using 8 expert farmers, I think. With 2 corn and a river, not something you expect every game but hapens often enough it seems, you can get an awful lot of population very quickly to turn into soldiers after you declare independance.

[Mark123jansen]

Hmm, I had a town like that once, on a peninsula, so only 1 square of land besides the town, and 4 fish resources. I stuffed that town full of fishermen and watched the population pop every couple of turns

[armyjournalist]

Specialists get a fixed production bonus, I believe, not a percentage bonus (please correct me if I'm wrong). So if you settled on a tobacco resource and had an expert tobacco planter growing tobacco on, say, a regular grassland, you'd get the same amount of tobacco as if you'd settled on the regular grassland square and had the tobacco planter working on the tobacco resource.

Unless you plan on farming tobacco the first turn you settle a colony, settling directly on a tobacco resource would give you a small net increase in the total crop harvested from that colony over the course of the game -- and if you did plan on farming the resource immediately it would come out even.

[Hermann the Lombard]

a.j. -- I think you're right, but for some reason right now I'm having trouble wrapping my head around the logic. YOU were clear, it's my brain that's fuzzy.

[Unimatrix11]

Dont specialists produce 2x ? Converts get a fixed +1.

[armyjournalist]

Growers produce +3. Manufacturers produce 2x.

[TimHobbit]

Since reading this topic a few days ago, I have been giving it a try. It seems to work, great!
One very interesting town was built on top of an iron resource hill. It was one of the best tool and gun producing town ever.

[TimmyKGB]

Good Resource Spots

I especially like building on tiles that have good multi-way value (e.x. good food and good resource). Generally the best tiles for your settlement are tiles with large equal numbers of food and resources.

For example suppose you have two potential spots, one with a 5/3 split and one with a 4/4. If you build on the 5/3 and work the 4/4 you get 8+4 =12 total resources, if you build the 4/4 and work the 5/3 you get 8+5=13 total resources.

Some of the resources are good for balancing, and others aren't.

[PrinceMyshkin]

Seldom two "resources" are adjustant. Hence, if you build a town "on a resourse" your town will most probably have only one "resource".

I prefer two...

early + late money > less money

Thanks