Building Roads

[jonta]

The AI seems to be building roads in every tile near their
main cityes as soon as they get the wheel.

Did I miss something ?, as far as i know, roads does not do anything exept to make connections and movement speed, so it would seem to me, that i only need one
road from city A to city B, and one road from improvement to nearest city.



Did I miss something

[JackRudd]

It's not that you need the extra roads - but each one makes navigating your empire slightly easier. And as the only costs of building roads are opportunity costs, there's no real reason not to build roads with otherwise idle workers.

[-SafaN-]

unlike in smac, roads can not be used by the enemy. There is no drawback of making them once u have idle workers

[gentle]

Originally posted by -SafaN-
There is no drawback of making them once u have idle workers

...except that it looks awful

[jonta]

OK got-it

you make them for strictly military reasons, if you have
workers dooing nothing else.

[Hermann the Lombard]

Yes, a tight net makes for direct routes to trouble spots, including those you cause. It can also give options for keeping units in defensive terrain when moving near the enemy.

[Addled Platypus]

once RR is connected throughout my Empire, then I have idle workers.

crack that whip until then...

[tijuanacowboy]

Also if you only have your cities connected by one road, the AI can't pillage and disconnect your trading network as easily as if you only had one road. It's annoying losing iron or horses in a bunch of your cities. But of course other enhancements are usually more important than that.

Speaking of roads, I was just playing a game, had open friends with the Asoka and he helpfully built a railroad directly through my territory to connect one city on the other side of my territory. That was pretty cool of him.

[gentle]

Originally posted by tijuanacowboy
Speaking of roads, I was just playing a game, had open friends with the Asoka and he helpfully built a railroad directly through my territory to connect one city on the other side of my territory. That was pretty cool of him.

ARG! I have declared war for less insulting reasons.

[couerdelion]

Originally posted by tijuanacowboy

Speaking of roads, I was just playing a game, had open friends with the Asoka and he helpfully built a railroad directly through my territory to connect one city on the other side of my territory. That was pretty cool of him.

As ex-pat workers they were probably also not eligible for any local social security benefits either.

[Hermann the Lombard]

They should have been Chinese, as they were for many American railroads.

[Jvstin]

Originally posted by Hermann the Lombard
Yes, a tight net makes for direct routes to trouble spots, including those you cause. It can also give options for keeping units in defensive terrain when moving near the enemy.

Exactly. If my workers have nothing else they could be doing (improving tiles or even building roads toward resources that I expect will soon come within my cultural borders), I always set the workers to building roads on every tile. (And then RR when I get to that).

[Spiderjeru]

I usually build a road net too, but I would say that leaving possible forest-growth squares without roads is advantageous. Even outside a city they'll still be worth a pretty good chunk of hammers, especially if you have a lot of workers waiting around for your next big terrain improvement cycle anyway.

[Jvstin]

Enh. The forest growth seems too quirky and random for me to count on. And, I am not a chopper, I am a strong believer in holding out until getting lumbermills, and spamming them all over the place. So unless I really need to clear the forest to get the city to grow (or build enough cottages to keep financially afloat), I leave as much forest as I can anyhow.

[Nacht]

Originally posted by tijuanacowboy
Speaking of roads, I was just playing a game, had open friends with the Asoka and he helpfully built a railroad directly through my territory to connect one city on the other side of my territory. That was pretty cool of him.

I always get an uneasy feeling when I see an AI slamming his pickaxe into one of my precious towns.