Roads/Railroads/Generic Settler/Eng. Advice

[tmppman]

Hello!

Roads increase trade by 1 pnt on the square and railroads increase production by 50%. If the terrain is rail-roaded, is it automatically roaded also (benefits of road + railroad)? Would a settler/eng. have to build a road then a railroad in order to obtain both benefits?

Also, when is the best point to go auto-settler and which government type is best for auto-settler (Monarchy?).

Thanks in Advance,
Przemek

[mpolon7]

The roads give the trade benefit only on certain terrains -- for instance, in the arctic, they will do nothing.

You can't lay railroad without laying road first (if you "connect" with railroad, the settler just lays a road, then a railroad, over and over as needed.)

In the early game, a couple of trade points from roads can be extremely useful, but shouldn't distract you from building lots of cities. Once you've spread out, you can go back and add the roads and irrigation and such. I usually make sure that I have a good railroad net at the appropriate moment so as to be able to get rescuing troops to besieged cities. (The disadvantage is that the enemy can use them, too.)