Trap Buildings to Avoid in Civ IV: Don't Build These Barring Culture Attempts

Vote which you avoid the most.

I usually try to build the AP temple and monastery in almost every city. Other than that I usually don't build any of those.

It's all very situational, but the only time I ever build markets is if I'm going to be rush buying up the yazoo.

Monastery shines out here, useful building in commerce cities or for culture.
As Pete wrote, AP eventually also.

Markets are ok in high food cities, to whip in some happy.
I'll have to vote Aqueduct, sometimes not even late if Grocer or Harbors give more health.

Colisseums - Building them rarely crosses my mind except for the UBs

Monasteries are pretty darn good for the extra beaker boosts and culture. Easy two pop whip that I will often use in captured cities.

Aqueducts are situational, but I find that certain cities usually always need one.


Temples can be an easy source of happiness for Spiritual leaders, regardless of going culture or not.

I'm actually not a big Market builder except in the most obvious of cities, but it's not a bad building in general.

Seldom useful to downright terrible buildings not on the list (under normal single player, in no particular order, IMO):
Customs House
Industrial Park
Bunker
Bomb Shelters
Walls
Castle
Coal Plant
Nuclear Plant

Markets, monasteries good in bureaucracy capitals. Monasteries are 60 for 10, better multiplier than universities.
Markets get better (especially compared to libraries) on really broad empires.

Walls are a great thing to whip to support an army. If I'm next to Montezuma/shaka, definitely worth getting within a 1 pop whip on that bait border city on a hill.

Temple isn't a bad spiritual building, since you can 2 pop whip, get the happiness back, and overflow 20 hammers.

Coliseum is like a poor man's theatre during a catapult war. Kind of annoying that you need drama anyway to use the slider.

Aqueducts, only in cities big enough to be unhealthy. It's that building you hope you don't have to build, and it takes awhile for ideally 2 extra food to make up 100 hammers.

I thought late game players liked coal plants.

I voted Markets, too darn expensive in most cases.
Coliseums are a close second for lousy value, but at least they support the culture slider.

colosseum and aqueduct it is.

I will build markets eventually, but not at the time their available. I am usually waiting until they provide good benefit (2-3 happy cap) and have enough hammers to make it in max 4 turns.

Grocers tend to be much better for me then aqueduct

I build AP religious buildings, but not more.

There is another ton of buildings I usually don't build, actually it would be easier to name buildings I use to build

Temples and monasteries are highly situational. Like many have said, the AP makes a difference, but so do Sistine Chapel, SM and UoS, and even Angkor wat to an extent. I rarely build the last 2, but if they are captured then those temples and monasteries do become much juicier.

It's all situational, and none of these are as big a favorite as the granary or the barracks, but still, all of these are pretty ok buildings.

Travlake has a much more reasonable list of potentially useless buildings (though I don't necessarily agree walls and coal plants are useless).

Marketplace: A good build, definitely when slightly overexpanded. If the science slider is below 37.5% it gives more bonus than a library per hammer. It beats universities if the science slider is below 57.1%. These are percentages I can run quite a long time in the early game. Besides it gives happiness, which is often the limiting factor for growth in cities (especially early on).

Aqueduct: You certainly want one in order to built the Hanging Gardens (awesome value for hammer if you have stone and not as useful when captured). And, while happiness is often the limiting factor, if you have lots of floodplains in a city (or few health resources) health can certainly be a problem. An aqueduct is one of the earliest health boosts and the only early one which does not depend on resources (of course if you have the resources a granary, harbor and or grocer is usually preferable).

Colosseum: Happy boosts are important, and while a temple is strictly better, you need this happy more if you don't have a religion.

Others have shown Temples and Monasteries certainly have good uses.
Temples are the best cheap resourceless happy buildings around (and remember you can whip happy buildings and not suffer the consequences of whip anger).
Monasteries are cheap culture (I rather whip a monastery than a monument in recently captured cities to get culture up: They give twice the culture for twice the hammers, but are also 2/5 of a library thrown in. They are as cheap a science multiplier as an observatory (though they get obsolete, so that limits their use). Finally, have you ever tried to spread religions while in free religion (for the bonus happy or because you have a shrine)?

Compare these buildings to for example a nuclear plant with its broken odds of screwing you over big time. I often rather have a city without this building than one with. Indeed the only reason to build a nuclear plant is if you have health problems and want to avoid a coal plant. Note that an aqueduct + coal plant is as expensive as a nuclear plant, available earlier, and has the same health effects as a nuclear plant. It's just that an aqueduct+coal plant can't explode in your face. (Note to self: never built a nuclear plant if you do not have, or plan on having, an aqueduct in the same city.)

An industrial park raises your unhealthy so much that you basically lose a citizen, and only provides you with: a free citizen (fixed as an engineer specialist no less). (It also provides slots for extra engineers, so it has use in a GP farm if you're aiming for a great engineer, but that's it.)

Spiritual temples are real good, as for monasteries I only build them before around 300AD and only if they are in the AP religion. They go obsolete in a little while and even if they turn a profit before that, there are usually better options available.

Don't forget temples and colisseums have the same cost. (although temples are halved by spiritual, and colisseums by creative)

Bureau monestaries are very good. I build most of these in every single game. Not in any one city though. Aquaducts can basically give you +2 food if health is your cap, early non-freshwater sites come to mind. Markets are one of the games' best building is you manage to get the 3 early resources (ivory, fur, silk) which is certainly doable. It's good with two as well, at only 75 per happy.

travlake said:

Seldom useful to downright terrible buildings not on the list (under normal single player, in no particular order, IMO):
Customs House
Industrial Park
Bunker
Bomb Shelters
Walls
Castle
Coal Plant
Nuclear Plant

Click to expand...

Customs House- I guess this is situational because it can only be built in coastal cities, but it's one of the best buildings imo. It can easily take a 5c trade route to 8-9 (I think the bonus is additive, not cululative, like you get base x (bonus 1 + bonus 2) not base x bonus 1 x bonus 2) and if you have 3-4 trade routes, which you will with currency and corporation, that's an easy 15c to funnel through multiplier buildings. I don't see how anyone considers this a bad building.

Industrial park- This one I feel your pain because you need to have a high food, usually high pop city to utilize it, but high pop cities can't handle the pollution. So while it's a nice building, the health hurts too much imo.

Bunker/Bomb shelters- Agreed.

Walls/Castle- Too situational to call them worthless. If you're neighboring Shaka a castle at a choke point city is invaluable.

Coal Plant- These rock. The unhealthiness isn't that bad and having power is essential for late game army or spaceship production.

Nuclear Plant- Agreed, better power options.

From the list I selected Colosseum. An expensive building for just one happy with no culture slider bump. If it was half the price I might build it but a temple is a better option.

I almost never build colosseums unless I have no religion, very few luxes and need the happiness. Temples are far better IMO. Aqueducts are generally a later build.

Markets are a MUST, IMO. I can't conceive of playing without them.

cain3456 said:

Markets are a MUST, IMO. I can't conceive of playing without them.

Click to expand...

For a market to be beneficial you must either be running a low research slider, or have 2 or more luxury resources.

In my games the happiness doesn't normally come into play in the early game, and by the time I consider placing Markets I am able to sustain 60% or 70% research.

I would prefer to build wealth and run my commerce through libraries, typically.

Customs House- I guess this is situational because it can only be built in coastal cities, but it's one of the best buildings imo. It can easily take a 5c trade route to 8-9 (I think the bonus is additive, not cululative, like you get base x (bonus 1 + bonus 2) not base x bonus 1 x bonus 2) and if you have 3-4 trade routes, which you will with currency and corporation, that's an easy 15c to funnel through multiplier buildings. I don't see how anyone considers this a bad building.

Click to expand...

The reason its considered awful is that trade bonuses only apply to the base value, and the base value seldom goes far above 2.0. It is entirley reliant on the pop of the city you are trading with being equal to 1/10th of the pop.

For the customs house to increase a single trade route value by a full 3 the rivals city would need to be size 30!

civvver said:

Customs House- I guess this is situational because it can only be built in coastal cities, but it's one of the best buildings imo. It can easily take a 5c trade route to 8-9 (I think the bonus is additive, not cululative, like you get base x (bonus 1 + bonus 2) not base x bonus 1 x bonus 2) and if you have 3-4 trade routes, which you will with currency and corporation, that's an easy 15c to funnel through multiplier buildings. I don't see how anyone considers this a bad building.

Click to expand...

TR are usually worth less than 2 cpt, they just look fancy because of the high bonus you usually have on them. 150% sustained peace, 100% overseas, 100% foreign trade, +50 harbour, +25% connected to capital.

With 4 TR (currency, corp, FM) a CH will net you 8 cpt. Not terrible, but at 180 that's not too impressive. Keep in mind that it's overseas TR only, so on you'll need a map with at least two continents, OB, and for the AI to not be in mercantilism. And more than likely you won't be in FM for long. Both SP and enviro have more long term viability and economic strength, so that reduces the usefulness even more. Did I mention it's 180 already, that's a very steep price for something that adds a whopping 6cpt.

It can be good in a bureau cap, but then what isn't good in a bureau cap?

edit: worst building in the game, it's the hospital. That's a truly terrible building you almost never need.

Colosseums. Often it just isn't worth it. Not as bad as Customs House but very rarely worth it.

I trade resources aggressively, so markets are often good for me. They go nice in a shrine city too.

I'm big on spreading the AP religion, so AP temples and monasteries are often somewhat of a priority build for me.

Aqueducts sometimes. Very situtational.