What is your favorite special ?

[Julius Brenzaida]

Playing OCC has made me more than before aware of the importance of the special squares.
My favorite is the whale. Food, production and trade in the same package (with more food and more production with harbor/platform).
It looks unbeatable to me, do you agree ?
(BTW, my second one would be silk)

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

[ColdWizard]

whale with gold in second

[DaveV]

I have to agree with whales. Second place is a little less clear-cut: I like spice, peat, buffalo, or silk on a river, but gold, iron, and wine are good too.

[East Street Trader]

Just for the moment, rivered silk has (temporarily I am sure) displaced my long term love of the whale.

As I posted elsewhere, you can found a capital on a rivered forest square with access to rivered silk and then build a settler (even two) while the capital is at size one - without falling behind on early research.

You are invulnerable to barb attack until you found the second city and, while you are building the settlers, your exploring units can get themselves a long way from your solitary city thereby maximising the chance of non units from huts and, later, maximising the chance to occupy good choke points in time to pen in the AI.

When you manage two quick settlers the timing just rocks! The capital goes to size two and thereafter, being shield rich but relatively slow growing, it is ideal for building the first wonder or two. You can pretty well guarrantee the Gardens and then the slow growth keeps the city celebrating with hardly an ounce on micromanagement required. Add the Collosus and you have one hell of a trade arrow powerhouse! Meanwhile the two settlers found just as the capital goes to size two and your exponential expansion starts at two with (if you're a perfectionist) the non settler still busy improving the land.

Try a game set on wet and 5 million years old and you've a fair chance of finding the necessary terrain near the equator.

All this having been said, on those occasions when I catch sight of a three whale site (only ever happened three or four times in my games as far as I can recall - not having tried the 4 whale OCC I've never seen seen a four whaler) then I can't rest til I've got a settler to the site and founded. My best cities of all time are all early river delta cities but "Three Whale Island" cities occupy a particular place in my affections whether it proves to be their fate to get to be mighty metropoli or not.

[DaveV]

EST - is this scheme for double production? Otherwise the numbers don't add up. Working two forest squares gives you two food at 1x, so you'd have to switch from the silk to a better food square to support your first settler. At that point, you'd be better with your capital on the silk square so you don't lose its trade. And I don't see how you can support a second settler until you have Monarchy...

[Ribannah]

My favourite special is Wheat. Early on, it helps the city to grow, and soon enough you can turn it into Silk

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If you have no feet, don't walk on fire

[drake]

I thirst for production at all times. Mountains rich with Iron and desert (or glacial) oil are always the specials that I covet.

Specials make all the difference in the world. I try not to found a city that has less than two specials, and would definetly not found a city that had none.

I am currently playing a game in which a city has four specials in it's zone.....is it possible to get more than this?

[East Street Trader]

DaveV

Single production. Yes, you are likely to switch to work a grassland square for the turn or two it takes the settler to go off and found - so as to keep the capital growing towards size two. But as soon as the settler founds, and assuming you want to continue the shield/trade rich, slow capital growth approach, then you switch back to working the rivered silk again.

I'm at work and can't remember if there is any essential subtlety of timing involved when you get to make a second settler. From recollection there isn't. I think I've simply rushed the second settler when the food box has been one wheatsheaf short of being full, and then switched to working a grassland square to keep the two settlers supported until they found.

Yes, you could perfectly well build on the silk. As far as I can remember, my thinking has been that I would expect to deafforest the capital's home square at some stage and I usually like to keep the trade benefits of silk. But you might be happy to convert the silk, or be happy to leave the home square untouched. I should have mentioned that what started me down this path was a discussion of whether the defensive bonus for river and for forest are cumulative. The conclusion was that they are and I can confirm that matches my experience. So this tactic has extra merit for those who like all their cities to have good defences.

I did have one minor accident. In a fit of over exuberance in one game where I tried this out I let my initial warrior continue exploring and sent no-one back to defend the capital saying to myself that even the first settler would be sufficient defence, if needed, while no other city had been built. Of course I was forgetting the need for martial law when the capital goes to size two. So I went into disorder. I don't think, even then, that I lost a settler. But it took a while to bring a unit back to establish martial law which cost a chunk of the flying start. Also I realised that this gives up the chances (quite good maybe as it's happened in two separate games played this way) of capturing a barb chief. If you have built a road in the square next to the capital, after the barbs immolate themselves against your humble but invulnerable warrior, when the chief retreats he may well hit a two movement square whereupon the warrior sallies out on the road and picks him off. Once, the barb chief [i]elected[i/] to try to move into the two movement square - so they are no brighter than other A1 creatures.

Once I get home I'll see if there is some trick of timing involved and post again if there is. But I'm afraid that will be after the week-end as I've changed modems and can't yet get the thing to work properly (keeps telling me the modem's already in use by another programme when it ain't).

[Mercantile]

i get confused about this issue. If i build a settler with the shields as my city goes from size one-two, i wont' disband the city? seems to me that my timing is off sometimes and there is nothing worse than mismanaging your civ, at least thats what my people tell me. However if i finish production and the city is full but not flowing over i disband right?

DRAKE show me a graph please

[DaveV]

Mercantile - yes, building a settler before your city has grown will disband the city, except when it is your first and only city. So EST is right, you can build a bunch of settlers and run a food deficit. If the food box empties, though, settlers will start to be disbanded...

[drake]

Love to if I followed Merc........I am as clueless to this strategy as you....thats why it would be great if people could visually describe such things.....Military based strategies would be great to see in a pic especially.....

No one answered my question: Is it possible, by rules of the game/map, to have more than 4 specials in a cities zone?

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[This message has been edited by drake (edited November 10, 2000).]

[Mercantile]

drake rumour has it that 5 specials have been reported on rare occasions. I have seen specials not in a traditional pattern and received four but i don't think i have seen the coveted 5 special. A couple of weeks ago, i believe this topic was brought up and one or two civers reported this bizarre incident.

Should i spend the time changing terrain looking for that fourth special? and its only on grasslands right?

[Lefty Scaevola]

. I have heard that is is posiible to have 5 specials at the Colunm 0 seam in the map becuase of an incomplete pattern.

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Gauis Mucius Scaevola Sinistra
older richer & wiser than you

[DaveV]

OK, here's a nice place for a picture. I don't think it's possible. What happens at the seam is that you can combine two special patterns that have been cut vertically. The problem is that you need at least four columns for three specials, and two columns for the other two. This leaves you a pattern too wide to be used by a city.

[Ribannah]

The cut is diagonal, not vertical.

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If you have no feet, don't walk on fire