What is the worst Unique Building?

[Fei Kelei]

Let's settle this question once and for all (yeah right) with a poll of polls. What in your opinion is the least useful unique building in the game?

There are 34 civs but a maximum of 25 poll options, so I had to eliminate these nine UBs for being too awesome:

Ikhanda (Zulu), Rathaus (Holy Roman Empire), Sacrificial Altar (Aztec), Dike (Dutch), Hammam (Ottomans), Ball Court (Maya), Ziggurat (Sumeria), Terrace (Inca), Stock Exchange (England)

True, there are plenty of other unique buildings that are pretty great and certainly don't deserve to be in a poll of worst UBs, but instead of trying to pare down my list further and further until I risk exempting a UB that probably does deserve to be there, I'm just going to list all of them and let the community decide.

So have at it and let the UB bashing begin.

[ParadigmShifter]

Dun is pretty bad. Hippodrome tragic if you don't have horses.

Salon can be annoying if you don't want an artist

Shale plant isn't great but at least you can windmill over your coal.

Apothecary, Citadel, Cothon, Trading Post and Garden are great. Research Institute is late but come on, a Great Library in the city?

[NovaKart]

I thought terraces only gave you some culture aside from the usual benefit of a granary. Is that true or is there some other benefit? I'm not an expert on CIV by any means. I suppose getting some culture from a granary would save you from having to build a monument or a library right off to expand the cultural borders of your city and act as a kind of 2 in one granary/monument. But other than that I don't see the benefit.

[ParadigmShifter]

Aggressive promo for free warriors with a big bonus against archers? And a must build building that gives you the creative trait? Plus if you conquer a city with a granary it turns into a terrace? Are you tripping on acid?

[Jarlaxe Baenre]

Obelisk/Stele are definitely 2 of the worst, unless you're going for a cultural victory on a pangea map (In which case you can hold off Astronomy)

[NovaKart]

Originally Posted by ParadigmShifter

Aggressive promo for free warriors with a big bonus against archers? And a must build building that gives you the creative trait? Plus if you conquer a city with a granary it turns into a terrace? Are you tripping on acid?

Some might call it tripping on acid. A more logical explanation would be just that I'm not so familiar with the game yet, which I mentioned. I asked if the cultural benefit was the only benefit which would imply I'm unaware of the others. Are you eating lots of wild mushrooms? I looked this up in the civilopedia while I was playing the game and it didn't mention any of that. Granted I live in a 3rd world country and I'm using a bootleg copy so that might be the reason.

Maybe you could answer some other questions. What is a must build building and does it give you the creative trait even if your leader doesn't already have it.

[ParadigmShifter]

Creative is +2 culture per turn in all cities. A terrace has this effect.

Every city needs a granary to get double speed growth, so it is a must build building. Granary is the best building in the game.

Tut tut about the bootleg

Mushrooms are better than acid, yes.

[Fei Kelei]

My vote was for the Stele. It was between the Stele and Dun, but at least with the Dun I've had some fun with Guerrilla III units before, so I had to go with the Monument UB for the civ with a single leader who's already Creative.

[Silu]

The Stele is hands down the worst. It will never be (shouldn't, anyway) built early because ZY is Creative. After, it's only marginally useful for even the optimal circumstances - going culture without needing to go Astro. +25% for culture wins? When cities typically have +300-400% or so? 5-6% bonus!

[NihilZero]

Shoving borders early in the game can make a difference. Stele beats Dun by a hair, making the Dun the worst of all UBs. Walls are generally dire in any case.

The Celts are interesting, they have the worst uniques in the game but seriously cool leaders.

[Higher Game]

The mall is the worst, I'd say. It comes too late in the game; the lame monument replacements can at least help out in the crucial early period.

The dun is at least an improvement over a building that you plausibly build anyway, so I wouldn't rank it lower than the monument replacements, which are unnecessary for the most part.

[CHEESE!]

This poll is already Dun.

[Silu]

Not sure why Dun gets all the biggest hate... At least for me the vast majority of losses come from unavoidable BC DoWs. The Dun is arguably the best UB to counter this - since hopefully you could set the border up to have a 'Bloody Hill' city, building Dun Archers is almost better than being PRO for hill cities. G1=CG1 in that case, and G2 even beats CG2, both in defense bonus and utility (being able to finish off a last enemy unit on a hill and retreat). Even some synergy with CHA leaders for this. I'd put at least the Pavilion, Research Institute and Mall (+ probably Forum) behind it in addition to Stele.

[Iranon]

If nothing else, I think the Dun compares quite well to the Totem Pole - a full promotion (and one I find quite useful) instead of a mere 2xp, and it can also boost Musketmen and possibly Grenadiers.

Personally, I find the Stele to be the weakest. The Obelisk is more likely to be 100% useless, but it has a use in cheese wins if you want that sort of thing.

[Buddhafish]

I would personally go with the Dun, just because I'm usually to busy doing something else to build walls. And when I do build walls, I wait until they only take a few turns to build to build them.

[vicawoo]

Dun longbows are a pain to take out on hills. I'm not so hot it with archers, since to defend against an early declaration, your other cities have to contribute archers, and that G1 promotion could be two archers.
Also, with regular archers, you have more diminishing returns from their +50% city bonus. With a wall on a hill, you're already at +150% before promotions, and I don't think the promotion will hit another breakpoint. Longbows against siege only have +75%.

[r_rolo1]

IMHO the definite worst is the portuguese UB ( I refuse to use the name that Firaxis gave to it because it is a complete nonsense ... it is worse than having VOC as the Dutch UB or the EIC as the British one ), and that is only because of one reason: it is a improvement of a very bad building , but not enough of a improvement to make it more than decent ( and yes, Customs houses are a bad building, even in archipelago, because they only give +100% to a thing that in regular instances is already multiplied by + 200 - 350% ... that is too little for the rough hammer equivalent of 1,5 rifles ) ... and having a one city Collosus by a hammer price that actually can be bigger than the Collosus one ...

P.S On the Dun: people really, really hate walls and castles Dun, properly used, is a extremely useful UB ( in that sense is equivalent, as other poster said, to the NA UB ). The guerrilla promo line is a very useful one ( especially Guerilla III ) , btw ... definitely better that the effect of a bunch of other UB. And about the old talk that it doesn't give Guerrilla I to melee units: if you expected that of the Dun, you surely expect that the Viking UB gives navigation I to catapults, right?

[Willem]

Originally Posted by Fei Kelei

Ikhanda (Zulu), Rathaus (Holy Roman Empire), Sacrificial Altar (Aztec), Dike (Dutch), Hammam (Ottomans), Ball Court (Maya), Ziggurat (Sumeria), Terrace (Inca), Stock Exchange (England)

Actually, I might have picked the Sacrificial Altar if had been in the list. I only whip when a city has passed it's unhappy cap, which doesn't usually happen all that much, so it 's not very useful to me. In fact, I changed it in my game to produce 10% more Hammers instead. As it is though, I went with Dun. Having all the units be given the Guerilla promotion isn't all that great. I've been meaning to edit that one too, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

[Willem]

Originally Posted by Jarlaxe Baenre

Obelisk/Stele are definitely 2 of the worst, unless you're going for a cultural victory on a pangea map (In which case you can hold off Astronomy)

I think Stele's are quite useful myself. They make a big difference when built in your border cities in order to secure you borders, especially combined with Ethiopia's Creative trait.

[RD-BH]

Stele - the worst!

Hmm, I see many votes for Dun.
I like Dun, powerful unit for very few hammers.
Maybe you should be able to promote it to a dike?