Iron Works vs. Heroic Epic

[johnmcd]

I rarely fight wars, and when I do, I tend to look at the fifty turns or whatever to build something like the red cross (not counting all the precursor hospitals) and decide I'd rather have an extra X of Y units now than units down the line with a first aid promotion.

On West Point, sure, it's nice, but the same equation holds for me, it's race to the finish by that stage, the handful of extra XP is meaningless against the extra troops in the field.

[couerdelion]

Originally posted by wodan11
Yeah having to have the resource in the radius is old school civ.

Wodan

You mean that special building in Civ 3 that I never managed to build

[couerdelion]

I think I tend to follow must people by trying to look for a suitable HE city quite early on. It will typically be my highest production city that is not the capital or holy city. Longer term it will get at least one military specialist and West Point.

Iron Works can wait for me to get into the mid-game expansion phase. Since this will involve capturing prime enemy cities, there’s almost certain to be suitable target for Iron Works. This then is a primary location for Space Parts, Late game wonders and a secondary unit producer. I may then choose to put Red Cross in the same city because I like to have Iron Works combine with another national wonder.

That said, I don’t play a lot of games well into the Industrial or Modern eras so I tend not to see much from those wonders. I can see a reason why people want Red Cross in a coastal city but personally find it just as easy to post a military specialist in one coastal city and every now and then it will build a medic naval unit. I suspect that having every naval unit as medic is a little overkill because they tend to move around in packs anyway.

[Nohbody8]

Originally posted by couerdelion You mean that special building in Civ 3 that I never managed to build

No kidding! I think I managed to build Iron Works once, MAYBE twice, in all my years of playing Civ3.

[Arrian]

I try to build the HE in a landlocked/non-river high-hammer city. That way there will be zero temptation for me to build things like libraries, markets, etc (unless the market is needed for happy). It doesn't always work out that way, but I love it when it does.

Granary, Forge, Barracks, HE, units. Temple when needed. Aqueduct when needed. West Point when possible. And so on and so forth. Result = the majority of my empire's armed forces.

-Arrian