What is your favorite special ?

[Tizzy]

Whale or silk, definitely!

[kcbob]

This is so interesting that there is such diversity among Civ2 players. I have only recently been made aware of a tactic that I don't think has been mentioned in this thread. I love wine on a hill. But the secret is to mine it! Then you get, the food, the money, the production, the whole enchilada. And if you can slip in a road/railroad, wow!

I also like desert oil that's been irrigated and roaded. Pretty potent and it holds its own for food.

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Frodo lives!

[drake]

quote: Re: Using 4 specials If you use 4 specials in one city for long, you show foolish gluttony. Two, at the most, should suffice. You're giving away potential cities if you use all specials for one city. IMO.

I agree with this if you're playing on a smaller map where resources are not as plentiful. On a larger map, there is quite a good chance that you won't need to share the resources between cities....just go out and find another cluster of specials.....

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I get up around seven
Get outta bed around nine
And I don't worry about nothin' no
Cause worryin's a waste of my...time

[Ming]

In MP Double Production, give me gold at the start, and I will build my capital on it every time unless the there is absolutely nothing else around it. That, way I can use the other specials in the pattern for my second city. I can usually get into monarchy by the 3050 break. Granted, the city will never grow fast, but that's what the other cities are for

Whales and Silk are also my favorites...

[Blaupanzer]

If you can find gold without too many additional mountains in a potential city radius, build on it. You get one food from it that way, along with other inputs. Same for iron. Problem is mountains come in bunches with hills around them. Makes it hard. Gold or iron near a river is perfect. Otherwise, my favorites are whales to exploit and bananas to build on.

[DaveV]

Actually, Blaupanzer, my favorite secondary square next to a gold/iron city is ocean. Then your enemies can't starve your city by occupying your food squares. As Ming implied, you don't need to grow this city; its purpose is to generate lots of shields or arrows.

Another great thing about building a city on top of a trade square is that it adds an automatic road, for +1 trade. Instead of spending several turns of settler effort (or having to wait for bridge building if it's a river square), you get the road right now. In the case of several of the specials, you also pick up an extra food and/or shield.

[kcbob]

quote: Originally posted by DaveV on 11-13-2000 10:38 AM Actually, Blaupanzer, my favorite secondary square next to a gold/iron city is ocean. Then your enemies can't starve your city by occupying your food squares.

This is a very important point!

quote: Another great thing about building a city on top of a trade square is that it adds an automatic road, for +1 trade. Instead of spending several turns of settler effort (or having to wait for bridge building if it's a river square), you get the road right now. In the case of several of the specials, you also pick up an extra food and/or shield.

Perhaps this has been discussed in great depth before I began perusing the halls of Apolyton, and perhaps it warrants its own thread. But I'm curious. Is it truly better to build on a special? I'm betting there're two camps of thought on this.

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Frodo lives!

[Mercantile]

Ming i was playing a game yesterday, actually all day a few games, and i built my first three cities on gold and wine. Ironically i got Monarchy by 3200BC but had to "wait" three turns before the revolution could take place. Thank evolution that the despot leader didn't find out my vile plans and have me shot for treason
IN x2 production, it foolish not to build on special resources like wine and gold, or spice. Sure you dont get the four special pattern, it just means you can build four smaller cities instead, and never lose you specials, unless the city is destroyed of course. Nothing worse than that four special spot and having some character park on your special when your out drinking with the military advisor

[Julius Brenzaida]

quote: Originally posted by kcbob on 11-13-2000 10:58 AM Perhaps this has been discussed in great depth before I began perusing the halls of Apolyton, and perhaps it warrants its own thread. But I'm curious. Is it truly better to build on a special? I'm betting there're two camps of thought on this.

Well, as always, I think it depends. On ICS, you would gladly build cities on ressources to use them at their max, but if you're perfectionnist, you will try to build them in the middle of the 4 ressources pattern. Depends on the size you intend to get your city to. 2,3 or 46.



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Oh Man, when will you understand that your greatness lies in your failure - Goethe

[Mercantile]

Julius i really think its all about production. In x2 you may as well build on the special especially in a small world where they players are cuthroat when it comes to specials. In normal produciton i build only on specials if i am bottlenecking, otherwise i too prefer the perfectionist style.

[East Street Trader]

Ideally I like a capital in a river delta which takes advantage of two or three specials. With the Gardens and/or the Collossus this is going to be a powerhouse throughout the game.

But otherwise I sometimes build on a special, sometimes not. Agree about gold but rarely get that lucky.

Like to build secondary cities on Buffalo - especialy ones that are miles from water. The automatic road/irrigation saves a lot of work.

The water point is well made. One thing I hate is when you found a city expecting to get the benefit of working a whale square only to find that there is an unsuspected AI city already using it. Pinching use of land specials off the AI is like taking candy off a baby but nothing can be done about a whale square short of taking the city - and even after that both cities can't (usually anyway) use it at once.

For some reason never tried founding on fruit. Have to give it a try. Although making good use of high food production is not my strong suit. I've got a current game going in which my capital is on a river with use of rivered pheasant and two wheat. I reckoned that I could use the capital as a settler factory but am not handling it well. (It's an interesting game though. I'm stuck in a corner of a water world and have met no-one for ever and a day. It's a specials rich map and by the pace at which the AI is building WoWs there are going to be some powerful civs out there when I finally get to meet them. I had to choose between Marco Polo's and Lighthouse as my only early wonder and went for Lighthouse. OK I'm getting behind in techs but I'm in charge of my research path and (SG you'll like this) - the SUPER IRONCLADS are gonna rule OK!)

Sadly thougfh, gotta go and play bridge now so it might be to-morrow night before I get to the next installment. Unless, of course, I play for a little when I get home around midnight - just one turn, of course.

[N35t0r]

I really like whale for early on, but later on i prefer iron and wine. The latter especially in a river with road and superhighways.

I am very fond of desert oil, though. You can build rail, mine and airbase it.

[Richard Bruns]

My favorite type of special is the river. It gives trade, defense, and movement. With a representative government, colossus, and superhighways, all improved river squares will produce six trade. I think a good river system can help you more than any other special. Rivered forests are especially nice. Since roads add trade to these squares, you can easily get three shields and three trade out of these. It's a real bonus when you can turn a rivered grassland into a rivered pheasant or silk.

[Blaupanzer]

HSFB, can you get wine in a river? On my maps, wine is on a hill and hills don't have rivers running through them. This is 2.42 version. Is it different in others?

[DaveV]

quote: Originally posted by Richard Bruns on 11-14-2000 01:42 PM My favorite type of special is the river. It gives trade, defense, and movement.

Amen. Some of my best games have been ones where my two settlers started on a river and I built my two cities in the first turn. The extra trade arrow from building on a river is a huge advantage in the early game, doubling the science rate. Now, a river square with access to whales, that is a good start...