Wanna know the first building you construct in a new/taken city. And... why?? I want to compare our strategies and take the best...:mischief:

For my part, I usually go for a granary because that means growth X 2. More people = more ressources.

Then, forge for a production specialized city or library for a commerce specialized city.

What's for you??

Depends on the era, really. And what my current build goals are. I almost always build a culture builder first, unless I desperately need military units, then I go for barracks. I actually have a bad habit of skipping granaries until I'm drowning in a sea of unhealthyness.

Early on in the game I normally go for the granary for the extra growth. occassionally i may go for an early wonder.

For later cities it is always culture buildings, particularly if I am next to an AI border.

If the city has low culture, and it's a border city, I always build culture buildings, aka theatre, first. Granaries second, or first if it's early in the game and culture ratings are low everywhere and the population is low. I almost never start building military out of newly captured cities unless it has insane pop/production and can crank out units fast.

Courthouse. Always.

Forge (industrious leader), then depends on location. In a landlocked city I build a library next for both the cultural and research boost (it's only moderatly more expensive than a theater), then a courthouse. In a coastal city I'll sometimes build a lighthouse after the forge, to get the population going, then a courthouse. In fishing villages where there's not much reason to get the borders going, and very little production, I usually just let religion spread to the city to provide culture.

Theatre (Library if you haven't got the tech yet), Courthouse, Forge. In that order, unless I don't need culture (I'm fond of the Artist Culture-Bomb tactic in newly captured cities), or the upkeep costs are low, when I skip one or both of the first two buildings.

Reasons:
1.You need some early culture to boost your borders quickly.
2. The biggest bugbear of expansion is increased cost.
3. Newly captured cities often have very poor production, so improving that as quickly as possible is also important.

In early game, I prefer monasteries. They are cheaper then tempels, they give science, later You need them (when You switched to other religious civ as Organized Religion) to make missionaries.
It is good to have some monasteries outside your top cities, because your top cities have better things to do than spamming missionaries.

In later game I also build libraries, theaters or temples first.

my first city improvement is barracks. Have to have a veteran army for when the enemy comes knocking.

A theatre or library if I need some quick culture, otherwise a forge or granary to help get the city going properly.