It is confirmed that those hamlets/towns are terrain improvements

[Paddy]

Struth, here I was thinking no one would notice

Villages sure would be good

[Addled Platypus]

any takers on modding the jesus worker ?

[yin26]

Sweet! My ICS plan is progressing nicely!

[Sir Og]

Originally posted by The_Aussie_Lurker
Sir Og, the big thing you are forgetting is that, unlike in Civ3, we probably won't see as many cities-on average-as we previously did (due to maintainance and civics costs).

What you also need to keep in mind is that-unlike roads-towns and villages need to be defended from enemy attack-so building them here there and everywhere will make life very difficult in times of war.

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

I don't make the same conclusions WRT number of cities from the screenshots that I have seen so far. The cities in screenshots that I have seen seem to cover most of the land tiles as in previous games.

Also how would the defending of vilages be different from the defending of any other tile improvemnt (irrigation, road etc.)

[Jaybe]

Also how would the defending of vilages be different from the defending of any other tile improvemnt (irrigation, road etc.)

More valuable (3+ gold). Hopefully, the AI will not hole up in their city squares, but will come out into the field to do battle.

[sabrewolf]

Originally posted by Jaybe

Also how would the defending of vilages be different from the defending of any other tile improvemnt (irrigation, road etc.)

More valuable (3+ gold). Hopefully, the AI will not hole up in their city squares, but will come out into the field to do battle.

and if they would, hopefully collateral damage exists. so even if the defender loses a fight, the improvement get's destroyed in a certain percentage of the attacks.

with the introduction of pillaging giving money (methinks ), this is not unlikely

[Nikolai]

Originally posted by yin26
Sweet! My ICS plan is progressing nicely!

Yeah! To a total collapse!

[lockstep]

http://www.jeuxvideo.com/screenshots/00014/00014183_038_news.htm

Obviously workers have a movement rate of (at least) 2. Which means they can improve "unroaded" tiles without losing one turn. Which means there is even less incentive to build roads.