Terrain improvements you should /should not do?

[Capt Dizle]

IIRC, +5 food and at least 8 shields will give you a settler farm producing every 4 turns (granary required), so irrigating the game is a no brainer if needed to reach that point.

I tend to mine all grassland early and then go back and irrigate later. Most plains get the water ditches early, but I often go back and mine some of that after Steam to get some extra shields. This gives a big boost when you have a factory and the Great Dam. Depends on how much pop you want in the city.

[Harovan]

You can get a settler in 4 turns with 5 food surplus, if you have minimum 6 shields, 1 additional shield on a +2 food tile (like irrigated plains or mined grass) for the new citizen, and a forest in the city radius and the governor is set to maximize production.

- First turn you make +5=5 food, +6=6 shields.
- Second turn +5=10 food --> new citizen, auto-placed on the forest, +8=14 shields. Place the new citizen on the extra 2 food 1 shield tile
- Third turn you make +5=5 food, +7=21 shields.
- Fourth turn you make +5=10 food --> new citizen, auto-placed on the forest, +9=30 shields. Voilà, settler ready. Rinse, repeat.

[Capt Dizle]

Hey Ralph, that's heavy duty man.

Thanks!

[Jon Shafer]

Deciding between chopping/not chopping a forest game tile is a decision I often make. A lot of the time, I don't chop them. Sometimes I do if I feel the need for a lot of food (I'll almost always chop them if I can irrigate them early). Insta 2 food 2 shields is a HUGE production boost early, and it's not often I'm anxious to chop those tiles.

In choosing tile improvements, the idea is to get exactly what you want out of a city. It's often a 50/50 decision between mining/irrigating cow/wheat tiles, depending upon the situation. I like shields, and if there's sufficient food (2 or more cattle/wheat) I'll just mine them because I'm a big fan of production.

Grasslands I almost always mine, unless I'm transporting irrigation to cities which need it.

Plains are the trickiest terrain. To mine or irrigate? It depends on the food in the area. Ideally you want to get cities up to size 12 where they don't grow (0 food bonus) and have as many shields as possible. For example, in my current game I had my capital at size 12 with no extra food and 23 SPT with a good number of mined plains.

Railroads go everywhere, usually on mined tiles for more production. But by then it's a given.

[Master Zen]

Originally posted by Trip
Deciding between chopping/not chopping a forest game tile is a decision I often make. A lot of the time, I don't chop them. Sometimes I do if I feel the need for a lot of food (I'll almost always chop them if I can irrigate them early). Insta 2 food 2 shields is a HUGE production boost early, and it's not often I'm anxious to chop those tiles.

I always chop a few of them to get a granary or a barrack up quick. Once I get either, I leave the forests for a while until I can better use them for another improvement. Usually I build only settlers and warriors or archers in the beginning, after my early wars, I switch to builder mode and I might chop the other forests for a temple or a marketplace.

[RGBVideo]

How about plains? Grasslands are pretty much a no-brainer during despotism but plains are a trickier lot, do you irrigate or mine?

I'll mine, and tend to leave the mines after gov. change, too.

[Theseus]

Chop all forest (unless a key defensive point).

Irrigate all plains.

Mine all grassland, and then later irrigate shielded grassland. Exceptions for bonus tiles.

Common exception: Cities in hills / mountains, or primarily sea / ocean.

Rare exception: An overabundance of food bonus tiles.

I agree with Catt, cracker's treatise at CFC is a must-read (hmmm...).