City placement and resources?

[deadhamlet44]

This is a question I can't seem to find an answer for: If I place a city on a resource, can that resource later be improved? So I don't think I can build a pasture in my city located ON a horse resource.. Likewise, I assume that building a city on a already built pasture would not work either. Perhaps the city automatically improves the square?

You help is GREATLY appreciated.

cheers

casey

[clarkcd]

You automatically gain access to the resource by building a city on it provided you could build the upgrade to access the resource normally.

[Jaybe]

Access to the resource, yes.
Do you get the extra hammers/food/commerce as if you had built the improvement: NO.

[Dis]

generally it's better not to settle on the resource. But there may be some exceptions.

You could settle on the resource (such as horses) if you are concerned about the enemy pillaging it (though if you are concerned about that, I'd just build more horse archers to prepare for that ). It would also allow that city to gain access to that resource immediately (provided you have animal husbandry- which is needed to see horses anyways, but I digress), no worker would be needed to build a pasture. This would save time. But as mentioned above, you won't get the extra food, hammer, and commerce bonuses that you would get if you put a pasture on the horses and had the city worker work it.

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

I believe the improvement (e.g. pasture) disappears if you build a city on it.

And building a city on an unimproved resource gives you access to the resource, but not the extra food/hammers/commerce the improvement would provide, as has been noted.

Has anyone tried the old Civ2 "pre-mined" hill trick? I doubt it would work in Civ4, but it was a pretty fun exploit.

(The premined hill trick: start building the improvement. This takes a few turns, of course. Before the improvement is completed, build a city on that tile. Don't interrupt the unit building the improvement - it can't be restarted. In Civ2, this allowed you to get a mine - and only a mine - on your city square.)

[Ming]

Hmmm... will have to try the old Civ2 "pre-mined" trick and see if it works...

[rah]

I did settle my cap on a stone hills plain the other day. Quite the jump start on hammers early. 2-3-1
It also gave me a head start on the GW since I didn't have to wait for the quarry to be built and connected.

Wine for the extra gold is also another one.

Those extra hammers or gold early in the game can make quite a difference.

[zeace]

I like building cities on spices/wine/slik/dyes/etc...

You get extra commerce immediately in you city, which is always nice.

These resources are all relatively late on the tech tree so you wouldn't get the full bonus of the square for hundreds of turns anyway.

When you research calendar/monarch you get the resource immediately.

They tend to show up in bunches, and realistically it will take a while before you need a, for example, 4th platationed silk square to work.

[Quillan]

Building on sugar is almost always worth it. Improved sugar just isn't that valuable, overall.

[eluciv]

I feel otherwise. When I see sugar, I often find 3-4 of them grouped within a city-sized radius. Settling there (and not ON any of them) gives me my GP factory - especially if I haven't got a floodplain-heavy city (which I prefer to emph commercial anyway).

[Quillan]

In that regard, it's a decent idea. However, a plantationed sugar only gives what, +1 food and +1 commerce? It's a lot less than the + commerce you get from spices and the like. Building on it will give you a bonus immediately without having to wait for Calendar.

[couerdelion]

Besides, a GP city with 3 sugar tiles is not going to be generating many GPs

You can get that food surplus with 3 farmed floodplains, 6 farmed grassland tiles or a coastal city with 2 clams

[eluciv]

Certainly. But in "my world", I find "sugarland" much more often than 2 clams. Something like that only appears in a "capital" location IME. I do have a hard time justifying all that farming of grassland when I have a hard enough time keeping my commerce level relevant as it is (Prince and higher). Maybe I should rethink this, though.

I do know that I started a game last night as Mansa (Prince) on my own little isolated island. I had prime cottage land (mucho FPs, grass) and cottage spammed the bejesus out of the land. I still found myself with the 6th (of 8) GNP ranking at about 1400. That's with a financial civ, too. Of course all the other civs were on their own continent and I was the only one isolated. I'm sure this was a factor, but it's like I can't even compete with that... I purposely kept my military minimal and expanded very cautiously to keep my research at least 80 or 90. Then Caeser showed up in 1600 with a dozen riflemen, so I went to bed.

It's just that sugar is about the only food bonus (albeit slight) I see in multiples within a city radius. Maybe other than my capital location (may have pigs and a grain), but I tend to resist making my capital a GP factory, as I assume is normal.

[couerdelion]

Rival capitals make good GP farms

[eluciv]

Good point.