Tweet
As it currently stands food routes in Civ2 serve a simple purpose: They move food from City A to City B. This is a simple process where food can be moved from a city with food to one where food is needed. Problem is that food routes have their limits, most notably the fact that food routes are static.
Known Limits:
1) A food route will remain between two cities until the Provider City goes into famine or is destroyed.
2) Only 3 units of food may be moved from a Provider City to another city.
3) Additional food caravans from a Provider City that already has the 3 food route limit will, upon dispersion into an End Route City, add food to the city food stores. No new route is created.
So, what does this mean?
1) Food routes will remain between two cities even if one of the cities is captured by another civ.
2) Cities with a surplus of over 3 food units cannot give away any excess food past the 3 food units that are taken away by an outgoing route.
How does this impact realism in a scenario?
1) Provider Cities will still feed captured cities.
2) Fewer food units and food route options are open to the Provider City owner.
So, how can this problem be avoided?
In a non-empire building scenario where the game board has been laid out beforehand it is entirely possible to create food routes that:
1) Can be cut.
2) Impact the strategic situation of the game.
How's it work?
In a normal food route City A gives food to City B.
A-> 3 food-> B
In a Strategic Food Route City A gives food to City B which then gives food to City C.
A-> 3 food-> B-> 3 food-> C
Thus a food chain is formed. City A will lose 3 food and City C will gain 3 food. City B will gain no food as the act of adding 3 food units and subtracting 3 food units yields a net effect of 0.
To break the food chain City B will have to go into famine or be destroyed. Since destroying a city is accomplished with less effort than starving a city we'll opt to destroy City B. To do so the event engine will have to be used. The CHANGETERRAIN event changes ALL the terrain within its area, destroying units, improvements, and cities when the event is triggered. By using the CHANGETERRAIN event and selecting the area that the city rests on as the area to be changed by the event City B will be destroyed.
When City B is destroyed City A will have no destination for its food. City C will have no departure point for food to come in from. The Civ2 engine will eliminate any trace of the food route upon City B being destroyed.
So how is this strategic?
Using the same Strategic Food Route example let's say that City C had no surplus food production with the food route in place. Even with the 3 extra food units City C could not make enough food to save anything for the next turn. It ate as much as what went in.
Now, pay attention, when the food route is severed City C no longer has 3 extra food units. It now eats more than what goes in. City C's food storage will drop each turn to the point that the city starves or the player brings more food in.
To make the effect of food routes even more exaggerated a desinger can have less End Route Cities than Producer cities. So instead of just 3 food units coming into a large manufacturing city you can have an unlimited amount. You see, a producer city may be limited as to how many food routes it has going out, but an End Route city is not limited in how many food routes come in.
The Full Effect
Food routes now play a crucial part for a human player as a loss of a Producer City will cut off food to other cities in his/her empire. This means that Producer Cities are now strategically important in a game, expecially if they supply food to cities that have a large manufacturing capacity. If the manufacturing cities starve they produce less as population goes down. Growth is halted.
Notes
The neat thing about the Strategic Food Routes is that City B does not have to be set apart from the rest of the empire. It does not have to be set apart from the rest of the map by impassable terrain. The only requirement is that City B has to, at one point, be destroyed. Setting the city apart from the rest of the map is warranted as most cities in a non-empire building scenario do not just raze themselves.
I have not tried this with Civ 2: Test of Time Multimaps. The only testing I have done has involved single Civ2 MGE and Civ2 ToT maps.
Tools used were:
CivCity (To edit the MGE cities)
CivConverter (To convert the MGE scenario to ToT format)
Known Limits:
1) A food route will remain between two cities until the Provider City goes into famine or is destroyed.
2) Only 3 units of food may be moved from a Provider City to another city.
3) Additional food caravans from a Provider City that already has the 3 food route limit will, upon dispersion into an End Route City, add food to the city food stores. No new route is created.
So, what does this mean?
1) Food routes will remain between two cities even if one of the cities is captured by another civ.
2) Cities with a surplus of over 3 food units cannot give away any excess food past the 3 food units that are taken away by an outgoing route.
How does this impact realism in a scenario?
1) Provider Cities will still feed captured cities.
2) Fewer food units and food route options are open to the Provider City owner.
So, how can this problem be avoided?
In a non-empire building scenario where the game board has been laid out beforehand it is entirely possible to create food routes that:
1) Can be cut.
2) Impact the strategic situation of the game.
How's it work?
In a normal food route City A gives food to City B.
A-> 3 food-> B
In a Strategic Food Route City A gives food to City B which then gives food to City C.
A-> 3 food-> B-> 3 food-> C
Thus a food chain is formed. City A will lose 3 food and City C will gain 3 food. City B will gain no food as the act of adding 3 food units and subtracting 3 food units yields a net effect of 0.
To break the food chain City B will have to go into famine or be destroyed. Since destroying a city is accomplished with less effort than starving a city we'll opt to destroy City B. To do so the event engine will have to be used. The CHANGETERRAIN event changes ALL the terrain within its area, destroying units, improvements, and cities when the event is triggered. By using the CHANGETERRAIN event and selecting the area that the city rests on as the area to be changed by the event City B will be destroyed.
When City B is destroyed City A will have no destination for its food. City C will have no departure point for food to come in from. The Civ2 engine will eliminate any trace of the food route upon City B being destroyed.
So how is this strategic?
Using the same Strategic Food Route example let's say that City C had no surplus food production with the food route in place. Even with the 3 extra food units City C could not make enough food to save anything for the next turn. It ate as much as what went in.
Now, pay attention, when the food route is severed City C no longer has 3 extra food units. It now eats more than what goes in. City C's food storage will drop each turn to the point that the city starves or the player brings more food in.
To make the effect of food routes even more exaggerated a desinger can have less End Route Cities than Producer cities. So instead of just 3 food units coming into a large manufacturing city you can have an unlimited amount. You see, a producer city may be limited as to how many food routes it has going out, but an End Route city is not limited in how many food routes come in.
The Full Effect
Food routes now play a crucial part for a human player as a loss of a Producer City will cut off food to other cities in his/her empire. This means that Producer Cities are now strategically important in a game, expecially if they supply food to cities that have a large manufacturing capacity. If the manufacturing cities starve they produce less as population goes down. Growth is halted.
Notes
The neat thing about the Strategic Food Routes is that City B does not have to be set apart from the rest of the empire. It does not have to be set apart from the rest of the map by impassable terrain. The only requirement is that City B has to, at one point, be destroyed. Setting the city apart from the rest of the map is warranted as most cities in a non-empire building scenario do not just raze themselves.
I have not tried this with Civ 2: Test of Time Multimaps. The only testing I have done has involved single Civ2 MGE and Civ2 ToT maps.
Tools used were:
CivCity (To edit the MGE cities)
CivConverter (To convert the MGE scenario to ToT format)
Comment