Building Boats in Civ V

September 29, 2010 11:22 AM

Question about Civilization V; If one of my cities can build work boats and triremes, how come my other cities (that are near water) can not build/purchase them? They don't even show up in the build/buy list.

Sorry for the n00b question, this is the first Civ game I've played.

posted by banshee to sports, hobbies, & recreation (9 answers total)

Don't you have to build a harbor there first?
posted by inturnaround at 11:27 AM on September 29, 2010

I think it has to be adjacent to water, not just "near."
posted by juv3nal at 11:50 AM on September 29, 2010

Yeah your city must be on the shore line. However for the most basic boats (work boats, trireme) you don't need a harbor or lighthouse or anything.
posted by msbutah at 11:56 AM on September 29, 2010

inturnaround: Nope, you don't.

juv3nal has it right: You have to be on the coast, not near it. If there's water in the hex right next to your city, you're good to go. If there's even one hex in the way ... no dice.

i may or may not occasionally reload the game if my settler doesn't spawn on the coast
posted by Heretical at 11:57 AM on September 29, 2010

You can also build boats in cities on the shore of inland lakes.

At least, you used to be able to. I haven't played Civ V. In Civ 2, the AI would actually build vast fleets in single-tile inland lakes, to no purpose whatsoever.
posted by AugieAugustus at 12:18 PM on September 29, 2010

Thanks all!
posted by banshee at 1:01 PM on September 29, 2010

You can also build boats in cities on the shore of inland lakes.

At least, you used to be able to.

Still possible. I had a city on a lake filled with pearls in one game and built the boats and lighthouse but skipped the harbor (since I didn't need to build any other naval units on the lake).
posted by briank at 1:27 PM on September 29, 2010

And joy of joy, you don't need boats if you just want to move units over water - they boat themselves. The first time I saw a flock of workers paddling over to my new city on a nearby island, I almost cried.
posted by L'Estrange Fruit at 1:57 PM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

It might be interesting to see if you could build a ship on a lake just to prevent land units from embarking into and traveling over said lake.

In a recent game, this might have been useful for me.
posted by edguardo at 10:03 AM on September 30, 2010