Favorite Specials

[rah]

You're in the same time zone as a few of our players.

You can alway post in the Setting Up IP games threads in the MP forum.

RAH
Check it out.

[duke o' york]

In recent months I have started gleefully foresting wheat squares in order to take advantage of the trade boost given by silk. I'm not too fond of the food specials to be honest, and would much rather have some trade or shields that I can use from the off and still maintain a steady population. A food special isn't really worth the square it's occupying if you have a few grassland squares around as they'll grow your city quite nicely by themselves. A mined and roaded oasis isn't too bad, but I've never understood why oases don't get a trade bonus instead of one of the food. They were trading centres after all.
I'd recommend foresting your wheat to everyone - at least try it and feel free to leave the wheat like that in future games if it doesn't go as well as you thought but give it a go. You'll reap the benefits long-term, with the major drawback being the time spent converting. This is best for an OCC as your second settler just stands around for many years once your improvements are done, but I say the sooner the better!

[Shogun Gunner]

I am a huge proponent of "The Four W's"

1. Wine
2. Wheat
3. Whales
4. Weed

You can't lose!!!

Come visit my Germans during Octoberfest!!!

[Elok]

What could a weed resource give you? Negative three food?

[Scouse Gits]

Originally posted by duke o' york
I'd recommend foresting your wheat to everyone

Silk is nice but the wheat is useful for quick city growth in a representative government. Food specials are the key to larger cities before it's possible to irrigate everywhere or construct harbours.

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SG(2)

[Old n Slow]

Hmmm, Wheat or Silk -- Wheat allows an extra specialist (or two) compared to the many extra arrows of silk. Might be a phase of the game thing -- early in the game a few arrows difference can be dramatic, whereas later on the food might be more valuable.

Even for OCC, the Wheat could mean two extra specialists after farms -- if the city can still use them, I might go with the wheat at that stage. Three extra base arrows look a lot smaller with size 20, 30 (I saw a post with size 45) trade routes.

I rarely convert one to the other -- (usually have more important things to forget.)

[Wharf Rat]

Greetings, this is my first post here at Apolyton!

It looks to me as if this thread has split into two separate questions: Favoite early game special, for growing your cities before improvements come into the equation and favorite late game special, when the engineers have improved the squares to max them out.

Early game is easy: Whale me! Only silk comes close to the all around utility of the great aquatic mammals and that one less food really hurts growth before you get some grassland irrigated.

Later in the game, the issue is a lot less clear. I think even without the airfield cheat, wine has to be the choice. Once mined, it produces one more shield than silk.

Several posters have discussed favorite special in terms of the specials which they like to create with engineers/settlers. The change of special I do most often is pheasant to buffalo. Pheasants are good little producers, but can only be improved by railroad. Bufs, by contrast, can benefit from irrigation, roads and railroads, giving them one less food (equal w/farm), One more trade (two more in representative gov, 3 w/ superhigways) and one more shield. Phaesants never produce trade and I really do not like non-trade producers!

[Elephant]

A Pheasant in a river tile, on the other hand...

A long time ago I read a mathematical comparison between Silk and Wheat. Does anyone remember where that link was? Silk will have 3 more trade arrows, but Wheat can generate 5 more food sheafs, which equates to 2.5 more specialists. In a full SSC (Colossus, Rep/Dem, size 20+, Copernicus, Newton, Library, University, Superhighways), how does that compare in terms of number of beakers? And should the additional shield production be factored in too?

[Shogun Gunner]

Originally posted by Elok
What could a weed resource give you? Negative three food?

Sure, but you get WLTHD (We Love the Hippie Day)

[La Fayette]

Elephant,

I don't remember having read that thread, but here is what should happen in a fully developped SSC:
Let us start with 10 beakers
Library = +0.5 (=15b)
University = +0.5 (=20b)
Research Lab = +0.5 (=25b)
Isaac (doubles the effect of improvements, contrary to what is written in the manual) = +1.5 (=40b)
Copernicus (doubles Science, contrary to what is written in the manual) = 80b
In other words the multiplier is 8.

1) Wheat
A specialist brings 3 beakers/turn, which means 3*8 = 24 beakers/turn in the SSC described above.
Therefore 2.5 specialists bring 2.5*24 = 60 beakers/turn.

2) Silk
With the slider at 100% research, 3 trade arrows = 3 beakers.
Therefore 3*8 = 24 beakers/turn

(I wish to mention that Super Highways have no direct effect on research: they provide one more trade on any land square already producing 2, some sort of Colossus #2, no effect on the above calculations)

[La Fayette]

Rereading my post, perhaps it would be better to state that 3 arrows from silk become 4 arrows with SH

[La Fayette]

I forgot to write about shields: of course they should be taken into account (otherwise DaveV will get very angry at us ).

[rjmatsleepers]

Originally posted by La Fayette

1) Wheat
A specialist brings 3 beakers/turn, which means 3*8 = 24 beakers/turn in the SSC described above.
Therefore 2.5 specialists bring 2.5*24 = 60 beakers/turn.

2) Silk
With the slider at 100% research, 3 trade arrows = 3 beakers.
Therefore 3*8 = 24 beakers/turn

You don't seem to be making any allowance for:

a) the extra arrows from larger trade routes with silk;

b) the extra beakers from larger delivery bonuses with silk.

Assuming these factors don't make a significant difference, La Fayette, 1st Marquis of Aployton's calculations suggest that you should convert the silk to wheat just before the city size reaches it's maximum. Presumably, the converse true - until the SSC reaches max, you should convert wheat to silk?

RJM at Sleepers

[Elephant]

Originally posted by La Fayette

(I wish to mention that Super Highways have no direct effect on research: they provide one more trade on any land square already producing 2, some sort of Colossus #2, no effect on the above calculations)

I think SH would have a major effect: it produces 50% more trade, not just one more, which Roads does. So Roaded Wheat, with Colossus and Rep/Dem, has 3 Trade, while Roaded Silk has 6. With SH, Wheat would have 4, while Silk would have 9.

I think DaveV expressed Shields in terms of Gold, but I dont know if he had a way to convert that to Beakers.

[GhengisFarbâ„¢]

Buffalo, Pheasant, Iron, Coal, basically shield generators. Buffalo was easily my favorite.