expansion strategies

[Worthingtons]

um... Jungles are OK but I woudnt give them any more than that, yes, In a game I cleared a massive Jungle to give me three very fine cities but it took a whole army of workers to do it.

[Purple]

Originally posted by Windwalker


Mountains are not bad, they're just bad if that's all there is. I LOVE hills and mountains, when I have flood plains or grassland nearby. Irrigate the low altitude terrain, and mine the mountains and hills, and you have a powerhouse city. This (combined with river) is IMO the best possible city place (in between grass/floodplain and hills/mountains).

I agree with all of this. You need mountains for their resources, but you generally can't build one of those powerhouses next to a mountain range--not enough resources to grow. So build cities in such terrain closer than you ordinarily would, each to develop a share of the resources.

Originally posted by Rothy


um... Jungles are OK but I woudnt give them any more than that, yes, In a game I cleared a massive Jungle to give me three very fine cities but it took a whole army of workers to do it.

No question they are a pain to clear, but a builder can't shirk from that task. I usually end up with so many idle workers, waiting for rail, that I welcome a little machete-wielding to keep them out of trouble. It's either poor planning on my part (creating too many workers) or poor game balance.

Before the second patch I would use spare workers to grow the smaller cities, then pop rush improvements near the front, but now have to be more circumspect, since unhappiness is a bigger factor.