Improving Terrain: Some Thoughts From You Experts?

[Aramis]

As a relative novice to PTW I would appreciate any thoughts you have on these subjects:

Grasslands: if there are 2 green dots I irrigate; if 2 green dots and a blue dot, I mine. However, it seems to me that a new settlement needs irrigation quickly to expand its population, so at times I find it necessary to irrigate the blue dots. Always irrigate wheat/cattle/game--good idea?

Plains: always irrigate?

Gold in them thar hills: is it best to mine it early? Does it increase my treasury? Or is a road to it good enough early on with the idea of mining it later when my workers have less pressing jobs to do?

Deserts: irrigating doesn't seem to help cities much. Better to mine?

Forest management: I keep some workers busy cutting down and then reseeding forests for the shield bonus. Am I wasting their time? Sometimes the shield bonus is worth it; sometimes it seems pointless.

Tundra: mine some, and manage forests in others? One AI civ, I noticed, seeded forests and left them alone. I don't know if it was worth if for them as I was compelled to raze the city that would have benefitted (during a war brought on purely throuh their arrogance).

O, Wise Ones, let me know your thoughts.

[Inverse Icarus]

it really varies city by city.

in the early game irrigation does nothing unless theres a special resource / floodpain tile, so my early game is all mines usually.

when i switch into monarchy / republic, the irrigation starts.

to make a gross generalization:
i irrigate all non-shielded grasslands
i mine all shielded grasslands
i divide up the plains as needed
i mine the deserts
i irrigate the floodplains (lol)

cows are my favorite resource. if you have 2 early on, mine one irrigate the other. sitting pretty

[Panag]

hi ,

grassland that has no "bonus" gets forest on it very quickly , ...... if it has a "bonus" it gets irrigation , ....

plains get forests

floodplains and cattle , horses , etc get water

desert gets a mine

tundra gets also forest

well thats about it

have a nice day

[Stuie]

Grasslands: Mine and road.
Plains: Irrigate and road.

Forest: Chop 'em down and treat as above. If there are no hills near the city, I'll leave a couple clumps of forest for the extra shields.

"Gold in them thar hills": You only get the bonus if that tile is being worked. Doesn't matter if there's a road or a mine. I usually make them the priority to mine/road once I start mining hills, but that's usually only done after I've exhausted development of grasslands/plains.

Desert and Tundra I don't touch, but that's because my mod has made them almost useless to develop (one shield if mined, otherwise nothing - no food, no shields... NOTHING).

[alva]

Grasslands: if there are 2 green dots I irrigate; if 2 green dots and a blue dot, I mine.

If you are going to irrigate grass, do it the other way around.
In case you GA(golden age) begins, all tiles producing at least one shield, will get an extra shield.

But as a rule of thumb, mine all grass, irrigate all plains.
There are exeptions, but not that many

[CerberusIV]

Mine grasslands and irrigate plains but make sure your city workers are on the shield grassland tiles for the extra shield.

Mine cows, wheat and grapes.

Mine hills before mountains. Mine hills with grapes early (one extra shield with despotism, two later).

Irrigate floodplain. Irrigate just enough grassland to feed the desired city population after you get out of despotism.

Only bother with desert and tundra when your workers have nothing else to do. Then irrigate desert in anticipation of railroads so they will then produce enough food to support a worker when RR'd.

Forest tundra if your city can use the tile and the shields straight away. It is more efficient to mine and railroad that forest and railroad (fewer worker turns in total) and gets the same end result but planting forests comes sooner than RRs.

In the end you will have to work out what suits your style of play but don't waste worker time irrigating for food your city can't use.

[Aramis]

Thank you all for your insightful thoughts. It's like getting a jump start when the battery dies on a cold winter day. I'll try your suggestions and experiment a lot. Find out what works best for me. Again, many thanks.

May the new year bring your civs prosperity, techs, and lots of reasons to conquer your neighbors. --rmds