Initial City Square Help!!!

[Admiral John]

OK... Does a special in a square apply to the new city if it is built right on top of it? What I mean is, is there some bonus to doing this like the city gets the normal amount for a buffalo square, plus food or trade? Or is it just normal. I guess I'm playing AC too much, which gives bonuses over the normal bonuses, and I was wondering if Civ2 was the same way?

[DaveV]

If you build a city on a special, it will automatically get roads and at least one shield. So if you build on a spice special, that square will yield 3 food, 1 shield, and 5 trade. This saves you the time it would have cost to build the road, and you pick up a "free" shield. If you build on wine, the square yields 2 food, 1 shield, 5 trade. Here you save the time to build irrigation and roads, and again pick up a free shield.

On the other hand, building on a pheasant square will yield 3 food, 2 shields - the same as if you worked the square without building on it. So the best squares to build on are the ones that benefit from roads and irrigation, and the ones that don't normally generate a shield.

[Admiral John]

Thanx for the Info.



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"Admiral! There IS No Intelligent Life Here!"

[Flavor Dave]

Personally, I don't think I would ever build a city on wine--you can mine the hill, the build the road, and that is one awesome square. You can't mine a city.

[Sergeant Sheets]

Agreed. I like to build on Corn or Pheasant first, and then if necessary, bananas and spice.

Never build on Gold, Iron, Coal, Peat, Grapes, Buffalo [sometimes].

[Smash]

actually you can mine a city.Takes 2 settlers.First one mines,second one builds city on that square.When mine is finished you have a mined city square.Depends on the special.Some "change" when mined.

A small city built on a iron square can support 5-10 units in Democracy without unhappys.or coal or peat or oil.
[This message has been edited by Smash (edited November 20, 1999).]

Oh, I have to disagree with some of the previous beliefs. Building on specialties like peat bad? I don't think so.
And any square, even bare plains or mountain gets a road if a city is built there.

I think whales are the best for a quick start though.

[cavebear]

Slowwhand - How do you build on a whale?

Seriously, though, if I build on a resource square, I seldom can get more than one other in my city radius. If I build among them, on the other hand, I can often get 3 resources and sometimes 4 in my city. Since you get a road and a shield on any old grassland square (along with the food) when you build a city on it, how much do you really gain by planting your flag on the resource square?

[jpk]

While I try to build cities among special squares so that a city has several, sometimes that's not possible. I will build cites on almost any special that will allow my city to grow some. If the square is a high food special, then I use that city to produce settlers; if the square is a high shield city like a buffalo, I use that city to produce veteran defenders. Rather than build on a pheasant, I would irrigate it into a buffalo and then build the city.

[War4ever]

Cavebear.... like you i build with the resources in my city..... there has been a huge debate as to whether or not you should take a 4 resources area and turn it into two cities of two special resources. Early on i think it is a good idea as the land will be used a lot quicker but long term.... well that again is open to debate.... have you ever noticed thet the nicest city sites seem to have forest or hills as their city location... much to my annoyance

[Matthew]

After a few MP games I would think that you would like to have a forest or a hill as the city location, except before Monarchy I guess. You can't just build a wall and assume that it will last forever in MP.