Biology

[tetley]

I'm confused about Biology. The Civilopedia clearly says, "+1 food from farms, no longer have to irrigate". So I get Bio, and my farms in the southern hemisphere get +1 food--but my farms in the northern hemisphere don't. I've got squares that clearly say, "Plains. Farm. 2 food, 1 hammer". Huh? Plus, I would kind of like to farm my tundra squares now, but unless they're bordering on a fresh water source the game won't let me. It won't even let me irrigate to it. I don't get it! Is there a readme I missed?

[Arrian]

Bio lets you build farms w/o a connection to fresh water. But a connection to fresh water is still worth +1.

So a plains tile that you farm w/o a fresh water connection will produce 2 food. If you chain some irrigation over to it, it will produce 3.

So farms that you had pre-Bio will all get +1, because clearly they all had freshwater access.

Tundra cannot be farmed unless it's directly adjacent to fresh water. Tundra pretty much sucks.

-Arrian

[trev]

Tundra squares ae unusable except when next to water all game unless forested, so tundra squares not next to a river never get cleared of forest in my games unlike all other forest, the total unusability of most tundra, desert, mountains etc is one annoying aspect of the game, I have not studied individual squares in detail to know whether biology benefits all squares which are farmed, but have assumed it did, maybe only squares with fresh water access directly or indirectly get the 3rd food on plains, the biology benefit there allows the benefit of the 2nd food only, I do know that pre-biology if squares are farmed via the spreading of water from the farm next door and the connection of irrigation is interrupted by a conversion of the connecting farm to a cottage or whatever, the benefits of farming is lost.