I love the real Versailles (see sig) but in the game I think it's underpowered and/or overpriced.

Often it's not worth it because you'd be better off just having the Forbidden City and that should be enough to reduce maintenance costs.

Also, I always need to use an engineer to rush it because it's so expensive and still I have to wait.

The Merchant GP bonus is nice and the culture is excellent but I think there should be another benefit. I don't know what but there should be. Maybe diplomacy related since it acts like a capital and also Treaty of Versailles, etc...??

What do you think is a good Versailles strategy and do you think it should be fixed?

yeah, im with you its just too expensive to make it worthwhileand ill usually build courthouses so forbidden palace is usually avaliable soon after i get COL. versailles has to wait till DR

I used to build Versailles myself until someone mentioned that that is one of the wonders that people usually let the AI build for them. I always thought it was a tad expensive myself, but I like the savings it gives you if your Empire gets too large. Since it's on a tech I ignore until later anyway, I have stopped trying to beat the AI to it and just count it as a bonus if it is in my conquest path.

It is amizingly useful on Terra, where you usualy want to save the forbidden palace for the new continent.

Sometimes I save a Great Engineer for it.

Some people will totally cringe at that, but if the game calls for it, a GE will rush build Versailles from scratch with no wasteage and only 3-4 turns left to build the thing. You can build it in a brand new city with 1 population quie easily. The city can be perfectly sited in a new-expansion area for your empire, with a ring of other cities around it (or city sites where you plan to build soon).

Over the span of the game this will save you a TON of money and in my mind is way more bang for the buck than any other use of a GE.

Wodan

Versailles is in most games useless.

My strats about it are (vanilla!) :
1) on a domination-like game (= going either for domination, space or diplo)
Chop rush it in a forest heavy captured city (you can start it while you're still under revolt, and chop like mad). This way, you get the real benefit of the object (reduced maintenance) in the newly captured area + good culture (really needed!). It's very doable if you have the ressource (marble). The AI is often shy on chopping, giving you a lot of material + you often capture a bunch of workers who can do the job for you. It often means to raze all nearby cities, since you want the woods' hammers to go to this city, and not another.
2) going for cultural
I prioritize versailles, and DR is high on my list anyway.
I build the wonder in my capital with buraucracy, then move the palace to the second building capable city among my 3 best ones. You can start on the palace while building Versailles! Just don't finish it before the wonder is done!

In a few games it is quite usefull. It comes at a time when I am frequently expanding at the point of as sword, and if that is over seas a quick enginner rushed 2nd FP can make the difference between a productive empire and one bogged down by mainanance costs.

As to other bonus that it should give- it should be happiness because King Louis the XIV [I think] built it to keep his nobility happy, distracted and out of trouble, [read revolt]. A pleasure palace for potential trouble makers away from their home territories.
Treaty of Versailles was a diplomatic disaster many years after Versailles was built.

What is the relationship between Versailles, FP, and Communism? Communism reduces maintenance costs due to distance. I thought that is what Versailles and the FP did as well? Are FP and Versailles worth building after Communism is your civic?

Is there a maintenace cost difference between building FP and building Versailles in a given city?

In my GOTM I am playing Monarch, Terra, Standard, Warlords. I arrive in the new world build a city and try to build FP, but can't because I "don't have six cities." But I do have six cities - they are just back in the old world [Twelve cities actually]. Do I need six cities in the new world to build FP there?

I never even research Divine Right. It's a gambit to do so, as the tech provides the ability of building 2 wonders if noone beats you to them and the ability to found Islam if you're the first to find the tech, which is usually useless since you'll have other religions about everywhere at the time or be behind in relihious techs. So Versailles, good as it may be, only makes a given city a better target. Even then, I only picked the city where Versailles had been built as a target specifically because of that once.
Overall, I think Divine Right needs a building or unit or ability or something to make it worth researching. If it is, then I'll try to build Versailles as it is now. But otherwise, even if they made this wonder do wonders, I'd still skip it because of the useless and expensive tech required.

In my GOTM I am playing Monarch, Terra, Standard, Warlords. I arrive in the new world build a city and try to build FP, but can't because I "don't have six cities." But I do have six cities - they are just back in the old world [Twelve cities actually]. Do I need six cities in the new world to build FP there?

you need 6 cities with courthouses!

I agree, as one who has seen Versailles I would say it is a spectacular place that deserves more in CIV. Perhaps +1:) in all cities would make it more important, particularly on higher difficulty levels where happiness can be a serious limitation.

I agree, as one who has seen Versailles I would say it is a spectacular place that deserves more in CIV. Perhaps +1:) in all cities would make it more important, particularly on higher difficulty levels where happiness can be a serious limitation.

Versailles giving a happiness bonus to your citizenry would be wonderfully ironic.

Wow, now that I look back on that it does seem rather stupid to give happiness.:hammer2:

Versailles is a big bullseye on whoever built it. It says "capture my land and pay no city maintenence!"

Versailles is a big bullseye on whoever built it. It says "capture my land and pay no city maintenence!"

i don't see AIs giving versailles any kind of priority, so i don't like to wait for it to be built elsewhere when i need it + it may be built by a "bad target" = too far away, too strong or your only friend

It is usefull to conquer in a domination victory:D

I've been wondering, does building Versailles/FP give a city (other than the one with the palace) the bureaucratic bonus?

I've never been able to build the Versailles. Wish I could. The AI always beats me to it becuase it's tied to one of those techs that I sort of ignore.

But I never really realized the power of FP until a couple games ago I had a truly MASSIVE empire. I had my sci slider down around 50% and was pulling in about 2 gpt. I was going through the motions until I looked up and saw my gpt had jumped to almost 200. WHOA! I tried figuring out what happened when the dialouge popped up telling me one of my cities had finished the FP.

DR is a great tec. A religion to spread late game when under the kosh for happiness - basically this is +1 happy in each city under free religion. Build versailles instead of FP and keep the FP for shoring up a new region, contenent taken in a late game war.

If you are playing a builder game with generally late game wars and trying to stay FreeR then it rocks. Trade it with the AI the turn before V completes and they will give you the moon on a stick. Almost impossible to get monarch or above if mansa's playing since he makes it a priority.

People dont rate it because you dont see the benefits for a millenia, but the benefits are huge if you are still around to use them - basically the difference between being able to stay freeR on not.