Building Cities on Hills

[rah]

And I'll do the same to cities built on gold.

RAH

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

Originally posted by Campo
STYOM, I occasionally use the mine/build city technique but I've never tried it that early. You're referring to the very beginning, right? I'd have thought that it was more important to have both settlers found cities ASAP to crank out more settlers. It really makes sense to spend the time mining that soon?

I rarely do it. Having read DaveV's post on worker placement, I now think I'd use that technique only if I had a fruit or wheat special within the city radius - so as to compensate for the loss of food production on the hill. The plus is, muchos shields... the games I remember playing, I did suffer a bit from tying up a settler for those turns, but then again, the first city was in an excellent location that really called for the mined hill, and it was producing as much trade/shields as 2 'normal' cities (of equal size)would. With a mine on it, the city square is almost like a shield 'special', and then you effectively have 4 or 5 specials that the city can work, as opposed to 3 or 4.

And of course, if there are only 2, or 1 special(s) available from that hilltop, then you should build that first city on plains/grass/river that accesses both, if there is such a square.

STYOM

[Hydey]

Originally posted by Scouse Gits
If I understand you correctly Cyber - playing 1x 1x once the mine goes in you lose the second food ...

SG[1]

I just checked a few saves and I find that cities I have built and mined still get 2 food while getting 3 shields in 1x1x games.

[Marquis de Sodaq]

Hydey is right - a mined wine city produces 2 food, 3 shields, and 4 arrows. Not a bad spot, methinks! Coal gives you 2 food and 5 shields.

[TCO]

I think it's kind of a cheat. Since you can only mine before, not afterwards. I think the designers intenet would be to make the mine go away, but the code just doesn't include it.

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

Originally posted by GP
I think it's kind of a cheat

Probably, and the feature may be unintended - but the facts that there is some debate over whether it's worthwhile doing, and that I have to give something up (use of the 2nd settler while the mine is being built) assuage my guilt

STYOM

[rah]

I'll agree with that on your first city, but later in the game, when you're running out of good territory and have lots of settlers hanging around, I don't think it's giving up anything.

But having said that, I don't consider it a cheat. I'm not sure what the programmers intent was, so I'm willing to convince myself that they just didn't think this one through so they didn't make a judgement. (see how easy it is to rationalize thise one)

RAH

[TCO]

Originally posted by Six Thousand Year Old Man


Probably, and the feature may be unintended - but the facts that there is some debate over whether it's worthwhile doing, and that I have to give something up (use of the 2nd settler while the mine is being built) assuage my guilt

STYOM

weenie, you probably airbase on hills too.

[TCO]

Originally posted by rah
I'll agree with that on your first city, but later in the game, when you're running out of good territory and have lots of settlers hanging around, I don't think it's giving up anything.

But having said that, I don't consider it a cheat. I'm not sure what the programmers intent was, so I'm willing to convince myself that they just didn't think this one through so they didn't make a judgement. (see how easy it is to rationalize thise one)

RAH

Same to you, ferret-master!

[rah]

Screw you sub boy

I can honestly say I've never used it in an MP game because I would never do it on my first city, and most of the games don't last long enough for you to have settlers just sitting around and a lot of territory to still claim

RAH
I still don't think it's a cheat.
And I don't abuse airbases either. (in fact in "RAH" rules, they're not allowed inside the city radius)

On second thought using the wink smile after sub boy might give some people the wrong impression.

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

I'm too lazy to cheat effectively. I don't build airbases on hills because I'm too lazy to remember not to move planes onto them by accident. I don't ship chain because it's easier to click 'goto' on my ships , I don't incrementally rush because it's easier to just click 'buy', and my Civ versions don't let me click 'h' to rehome caravans ... get my drift?

Oh, and the number of times I see a hill that would be perfect to pre-mine, and then forget to do it, don't even ask...

I do black click though, now. But only after Apollo is built.

STYOM

[Gatekeeper]

Hydey, Marquis de Sodaq:

That's great news.

Since I don't do any of that other fancy stuff — ship chaining, airbases-on-hills and whatnot — that the programmers didn't foresee players doing, I don't feel guilty. Especially since SP is the only way for me to go.

Gatekeeper