Working Desert Tiles

Kindbud · September 12, 2002, 00:55

I'm sure this has been covered plenty of times before but when the search results turned up over 1800 matches for "desert" I decided to just ask. Thanks in advance...

Knowing that every situation is a little different, I am looking for some quick thoughts on desert tiles. Irrigate for +1 food, mine for +1 shield, road for +1 gold. Sure sure it DOES depend on the city that will use it but can someone make a general case whether to mine or irrigate? Thanks

vmxa1 · September 12, 2002, 01:09

I do not have an answer, but I tend to have no use for desert tiles until later in the game and by then I need the food for that city and have enough shields. The city is likely to be a late city and yield only a +1 anyway, so why do much with it.

Jethro83 · September 12, 2002, 01:39

I only ever build in desert if there is incense, oil or saltpeter there. Or if there is a nearby floodplain.

In the case of a floodplain, I'll obviously irrigate the floodplain, and then mine the desert. It doesn't exactly make the city a production powerhouse (unless there's plenty of oil there, or a hill/mountain with iron or coal nearby), but such a city is still somewhat useful (I usually use these for cranking out cheaper units).

As for the other cases, I only build a city there if I need to hold territory (since the AI insist on blanketing every single square of open land with their cities). If I am stuck with desert, I prefer to try and set up my cities so that there is at least two or three squares of grassland (or three or four squares of plains) to irrigate.

At least there is plenty of use for desert, unlike tundra, which can only be forested or mined (both cases yielding the same amount of shields when railroaded.

Ethelred · September 12, 2002, 04:36

If you have enough food then mine them. If you don't irrigate. Deserts aren't much use till railroads though. Then you can actualy have a pure desert city. It won't be a good city but it will increase your total population which increases your score.

Blue Moose · September 12, 2002, 04:45

In my experience you are usually going to be irrigating though. Even if you can manage to have all your 'desert' cities to be half desert and half grassland or plains. You're just going to need the extra food, even before rail, since changing a square to produce one food instead of 0 can allow extra population in the city. It could be the difference between a size 6-10 city and a size 12 (before rail). Every little bit helps.

Moonsinger · September 12, 2002, 08:48

Quote:

Originally posted by Kindbud
Sure sure it DOES depend on the city that will use it but can someone make a general case whether to mine or irrigate?

I have always irrigated all the desert tiles in all my games.

Thrawn05 · September 12, 2002, 08:52

Quote:

Originally posted by LordAzreal
I only ever build in desert if there is incense, oil or saltpeter there. Or if there is a nearby floodplain.

I'm the other way around, open lands means I plant a city there, because if I don't the AI will.

zeh · September 12, 2002, 10:28

Generally, I irrigate in 2/3 of the city radius and the remaining portion I leave to bild mines, but only in the case of the city not to have a terminal corruption. In these cases, irrigate all tiles is the most indicated.