Islands

[SIV]

Is it "smart" to colonize small islands (1/2 cities) with no lux/resources just for territory/strongholds/bases for planes???

[Cidifer]

They do have some uses, for example to give you a base of operation over seas when there's no room left on the main land. For example I once got a couple of island cities on a world map off the coast of china while I was in N. America, from there I was able to station a small naval fleet and some troops, it's especially useful when you can air lift units frm once place to another, but be sure you have enough room to generate shields.

Generally I stay away from colonizing them myself (as usually they are near my own continent) but if I can get one in a peace agreement I'll take it or if I really need a staging area over seas. Another example is Hawaii I took this from dying Civ and I got 2 cities that I could produce ships and planes at and prepare my naval fleet for an attack I would launch on Austrailia (which was the French) so I didn't need to ship my infentry the entire way from the west coast. That way if something happened and I needed to air lift some troops some where else I was only a few turns away from Hawaii.

[WarpStorm]

They can always generate culture for you.

[zeh]

Originally posted by WarpStorm
They can always generate culture for you.

After some good money spend on rush build, but there's not another way. If you don't do that, the AI will do.

[WarpStorm]

Money? I usually use population, but I guess you could do it that way.

[zeh]

tsc, tsc...
Poor WarpStorm's people.

I almost never do pop rush to build something on cities. I think I'm too benevolent with my people.

[ChrisiusMaximus]

Pop rush seems to me to be too cruel,but maybe in a captured city it could help get rid of those pesky foreign nationals.
I've never tried this so I dont know.

[Inverse Icarus]

against AI's it's usually more cost effective to colonize the island yourself. the AI will find every island and colonize each and every one. even one square tundra no resource islands.

it's usually cheaper to build a city there and set it to wealth than to take it from them later. but thats always an option.

against humans, it'll be a toss up, especially with my gangs house rules, you can only build cities on grasslands, plains, and flood plains (hills being debated). this makes colonizing an island a bit more of a challenge.

and it also gives tinges of pain when you see the perfect city spot on a forest

[WarpStorm]

I probably wouldn't play by your house rules, UberKrux, but why not hills? Many, many ancient cities were founded on hills for the defensive purposes.

[Cidifer]

as well as modern cities like San Fransisco, and Hollywood.

[Anaximander]

Personally, I like colonizing small islands. As several others have mentioned, it gives you a jumping off point for invasions of other continents. Besides, in my games oil always seems to pop up on those little tundra islands. The biggest reason for me though is the feeling it gives me. I like looking at the map and seeing it dotted with my possesions .

[jshelr]

If you are going for a domination win, the islands count substantially given all the coastal squares. Not colonizing can delay your win or require attacking another continent.