All Civ 4 BTS buildings ranked and explained - Henrik

[Henrik75]

Hello, I did a video ranking and explaining my reasoning behind it on all the buildings in Civ 4. I believe this will be of good value to learning players, especially those struggling to get past monarch/emperor to help prioritize your hammers on the correct stuff. Interested to see what learners have to say to it as well as more experienced players if they'll agree or disagree. If you don't want to listen to me blab for an hour I attached a simple picture below of the end result.
After some review you could make a case to put walls into C tier, as it can be good to buy time from surprise dows, but not a building to spam build randomly in your cities - stick to wealth/research instead. I wouldn't adjust anything else there.

Spoiler :

Unique buildings are also ranked in the second half.

Spoiler :

Video link:

(I also have tier lists for units, wonders and leaders if you found this helpful as well as some short and longer guides in my channel).

 

[sampsa]

Haven't bashed forges in a while, so here I am.

Just kidding. Surprised you put lighthouse to the highest tier and for example library not!? Yeah I think lighthouse makes every ice ball with seafood worth settling, but still. At least the way I play library is the more important building, because it is a reliable way to get . Didn't watch the video but I assume you make it clear that granary is on a different tier way above other buildings.

 

[Henrik75]

hmm yes library in the capital is very strong, stronger than a lighthouse sometimes, and in isolation it's ultra strong to build everywhere for earlier optics. in pangaeas or larger continent maps its unnecessary to build every city though, only in your capital and a couple of high research spots. Lighthouse meanwhile can't be built in every city, but it's one of the first things you want to build on any coastal city with seafood, before a library (usually) so that is why I ranked it above. But in general use the library is more consistent since you aren't always relying on coastal cities. a bit hard to rate since its a different circumstance. I still think food>beakers for example if you are construction rushing, you will want the food from lighthouse but probably not bother with the library. but again situational, you can probably make a case to put it above forge and barracks in hindsight though.
And yes. Granary easily most OP building in the game

 

[sampsa]

I still think food>beakers for example if you are construction rushing, you will want the food from lighthouse but probably not bother with the library. but again situational, you can probably make a case to put it above forge and barracks in hindsight though.

I think also that depends. I have an ongoing immortal fractal game (Joao) where I went for a 4-city wellie/construction rush and didn't build a lighthouse in any of my 3 coastal cities. 2 libraries. Low -cap (only ivory, non-CHA, no religion) makes the extra very hard to use and 60 is a lot. I rather saved forest to chop to units.

 

[awost1]

Even if you over grow your happy cap with lighthouse, isn’t that just whipping fuel?

 

[sampsa]

Yes. But it's possible that it's just excess fuel and you can do the same without paying 60 for it.

 

[sylvanllewelyn]

I cannot find a self-contained and comprehensive guide to city improvements in the Strategy Forum.

First, a dumb question. Why is an academy in the capital super-duper-duper-duper strong? Seems situational. If I am philosophical and I have a starting capital worthy of the oxford university, then sure.

Walls are for cities that I - - definitely - - know will be attacked hard and fast. Those cities usually do not have much culture. Sometimes you just get bad neighbours.

I don't like the military academy. I can find other uses for great generals.

If I have horse, then I usually want one stable. A convenient way to get units with sentry or medic 1.

I sometimes build one totem pole and a couple of archers. Much later, I attach them to spare great generals and promote them free of charge. City garrison 3 + drill 4 together can be useful for protecting injured units while they heal.

If I capture a city with many world wonders, then I build the forum using slavery. Or a salon. Or a baray. If I haven't built it already, that's also where the national epic goes.

The ziggurat is for an early great spy. I almost forget that's it's a courthouse.

 

[sampsa]

First, a dumb question. Why is an academy in the capital super-duper-duper-duper strong? Seems situational. If I am philosophical and I have a starting capital worthy of the oxford university, then sure.

Agree 100%. Academy is massively overrated and only for space games or PHI leaders for me.

Walls are for cities that I - - definitely - - know will be attacked hard and fast. Those cities usually do not have much culture. Sometimes you just get bad neighbours.

Yep. Frontline walled hilled city ftw. On gold, preferably.

I don't like the military academy. I can find other uses for great generals.

Agree. I nearly always attach for immediate benefits. Super medic is only for tough wars and wars are not meant to be tough, but cr3-siege makes a difference.

If I have horse, then I usually want one stable. A convenient way to get units with sentry or medic 1.

Here I don't agree, fully. For HA- or elephant-attacks I often rather go without a single stable. A convenient way to get sentry or medic is to win one fight. For cuirassiers there is much more time and surely want some stables.

I sometimes build one totem pole and a couple of archers. Much later, I attach them to spare great generals and promote them free of charge. City garrison 3 + drill 4 together can be useful for protecting injured units while they heal.

If I capture a city with many world wonders, then I build the forum using slavery. Or a salon. Or a baray. If I haven't built it already, that's also where the national epic goes.

The ziggurat is for an early great spy. I almost forget that's it's a courthouse.

No real experience with these. Early GSpy sounds cool.

 

[drewisfat]

Agree with Sampsa especially on lighthouses. If you're outgrowing whip anger decay, then additional food does nothing. If you're just working one seafood tile then 60 hammers for 1 food is meh. If two cities have overlap maybe only one needs a lighthouse.
That A tier looks wonky as heck to me. I don't even build hydro/drydock/airports/labs. I do build aqueducts, walls and castles sometimes.

Zigg would be so much better on a leader that could actually build TGW. Gilgamesh is just a poorly thought out leader akin to Hammurabi.

 

[Texas03]

Surely the Academy in the Capital thought comes from the (later) added Bureaucracy bonus, making it even better to stack commerce at all cost in this city? It's like a double whammy which is better to use on a single strong city rather than split it between two mid tier cities?

I haven't watched the entirety of the video yet. Have started though and questions have arisen: a Harbour in the same tier as a Library? Libraries are from the very early game until the end, and are often build for the sake of border pops regardless of their science boost. A Harbour is great in some cities if going for space or really late game warfare, I certainly wouldn't build it when finishing at Cannons or earlier in most cities. On top of that Libraries run specialists which has a variety of uses.

Might be I should watch the rest of the video before commenting.

 

[Fippy]

Academy is very good in iso (or semi-iso) thou.
But you prolly have to watch GS generation closely..for 2 more (Astro).

 

[sampsa]

Surely the Academy in the Capital thought comes from the (later) added Bureaucracy bonus, making it even better to stack commerce at all cost in this city? It's like a double whammy which is better to use on a single strong city rather than split it between two mid tier cities?

Of course. And the counterargument is that it is not strong enough to compete with bulbing or a trade mission. Let's be generous and say an academy makes 30 per turn. It's still +50T to break even, and earlier advantages tend to snowball...

This also explains why in a scenario where you are isolated an academy is much more attractive.

 

[drewisfat]

Three great people by Astro is tough, especially when the first one makes you tech even faster. But I think Fippy is sweet on grabbing CoL in isolation and I'm not. But regardless I think it depends on issues with a tier list in general. Like sure I'd take an academy in my city over anything, but it competes against bulbs. I would say Henrik more took the approach of "how quickly do you spam these once they're available." In that sense harbors/factories/coal plants belong in A tier, even if many games they're not missed. It's also more geared toward like Monarch players. It would be hard to play many games without monuments or walls at all, but it's important to not give the impression that you should spam these.

Lastly as someone who loves trade routes, I think it's important to mention just how misleadingly bad custom houses are. +100% is not close to double because cities are going to have +200-300% modifiers already, AND this is often going to result in stripping trade routes from other cities especially with Mercantalism being common then. People usually only talk about the high hammer cost, but the benefits are really where the deception is imo

 

[Fippy]

But I think Fippy is sweet on grabbing CoL in isolation and I'm not.

Not really
But it's not that difficult to put 3 cities on GS duty if happy is limited anyways.

 

[Henrik75]

Three great people by Astro is tough, especially when the first one makes you tech even faster. But I think Fippy is sweet on grabbing CoL in isolation and I'm not. But regardless I think it depends on issues with a tier list in general. Like sure I'd take an academy in my city over anything, but it competes against bulbs. I would say Henrik more took the approach of "how quickly do you spam these once they're available." In that sense harbors/factories/coal plants belong in A tier, even if many games they're not missed. It's also more geared toward like Monarch players. It would be hard to play many games without monuments or walls at all, but it's important to not give the impression that you should spam these.

Lastly as someone who loves trade routes, I think it's important to mention just how misleadingly bad custom houses are. +100% is not close to double because cities are going to have +200-300% modifiers already, AND this is often going to result in stripping trade routes from other cities especially with Mercantalism being common then. People usually only talk about the high hammer cost, but the benefits are really where the deception is imo

Nailed it thank you brother, that's a very good way to describe my thought process behind ranking them.
And yeah, custom houses are ass, compared to harbors - more than double cost, but harbor gives 2-3 health very consistently as well.
I think they're still better than some other builds such as bunkers/intelligence agencies so they are not bottom tier; in a great lighthouse coastal capital that ends up being size 16 later on, custom house usually gives a lot of extra commerce; and BUG/BUFFY mod tell you - sometimes its 8-10 extra commerce which is big.

 

[sampsa]

My list, from a totally different perspective. Difficulty level doesn't matter much, but let's say one the player cannot just win every time with horse archers. Your goal is to win reliably. By conquest if possible, not by AP or culture. I stopped at renaissance, because I feel like I'm not an expert in the later game at all and most games are already in a technical phase where buildings hardly matter. The order inside the tiers is not random, but a guesstimate of how often I think the building is worth building. I don't mean that for example all buildings I consider "very likely to be useful" should be built in every city! Apologies to everyone in advance.

I assumed single player, normal speed, standard size, fractal. I assumed no traits that give bonuses to any building. I assume a typical distribution of available resources. I do take into account the location of the building in the tech tree, because that is a big part of usefulness.

Excellent

• granary

Likely to be useful

• library
• barracks
• monastery
• lighthouse

Sometimes useful

• monument
• forge
• stable
• walls
• harbor
• AP temple
• theatre
• academy
• courthouse

Rarely useful

• aqueduct
• observatory
• university
• market
• grocer
• castle
• bank
• jail
• security bureau

Unlikely to be useful

• temple
• colosseum
• customs house
• cathedral

 

[Tecumseh1]

Monastery is interesting one. I almost never build it because I forget about it by the time I get Meditation. Hmm it is a cheap building which seems useful in capital and other high commerce spots.

Think I build too many stables. Might be better to just run vassalage when going for cuirs/cavalry wins?

Think I build too many forges and not enough courthouses. But courthouse still seems overrated in many cases. It's at least better than market/grocer because gold every turn is good and usually < 30% of turns in a game are used to build gold.

 

[antimony]

@sampsa I'm surprised theatre is not one tier down.

 

[sampsa]

Monastery is interesting one. I almost never build it because I forget about it by the time I get Meditation. Hmm it is a cheap building which seems useful in capital and other high commerce spots.

Monastery I put that high because it's very valuable to spread the religion you adopt. Not only for +1 but also for the overpowered pacifism. Also the bang for buck for +10% is not bad at all. I more often have 3 monasteries in my capital than an academy. Add AP bonus +2 to that.

Think I build too many stables. Might be better to just run vassalage when going for cuirs/cavalry wins?

I think most people overvalue xp anyway. Then again, 60 is not a huge price for cuirassier attacks. I think the main takeaway is to not build it everywhere. Vassalage/theo is one way indeed. Btw xp is way more valuable on siege, cr3 ftw.

Think I build too many forges and not enough courthouses. But courthouse still seems overrated in many cases. It's at least better than market/grocer because gold every turn is good and usually < 30% of turns in a game are used to build gold.

I don't really build courthouses, but they have some use. Market/grocer in general only in capital. Market is not a great building, but it's in a convenient location on the tech tree.

I'm surprised theatre is not one tier down.

I think drafting rifles is just so strong, like an instawin button in most games that aren't won by then i.e. the reason why I put theatre so high is Globe. Of course you can also draft without Globe...

 

[Henrik75]

i think grocer & bank definitely out perform market and i definitely build them more than walls. health is a big problem in factory era and grocers are the best way to deal with it since you get 3-4 health and money, and open up supermarket issue. markets are awful because 3/4 of its resources go obsolete in that era... super stupid.

but then again you have academy lower than a monastery, different perspective and different playstyle so i won't question it too much. I am more of a guy to stack up buildings early on such as academy, forges, etc and play the game out with the compounding payback of these buildings. If they haven't payed off my cuirassiers or whatever I can always attack later with rifle+cannon or tank, and keep building up more and more.

I'm with you on stables, definitely a tier lower than barracks