Best Unique Buildings?

[dankok8]

A few I can think off:
1) Altar - awesome whipping.
2) Rathaus - 75%!! are you kidding me? Enough said.
3) Dike - cities on water become powerhouses.
4) Obelisk - early priests means early shrine and early GP's that you can settle.
5) Assembly Plant - 4 free engineers is amazing. Great production boost. Does come late though.

Buildings that increase happiness or health are situational, but a few are great and deserve a menion(Hammam and Hippodrome come to mind). Sometimes you don't really benefit either cuz your realy cities do not grow quickly anyways or you have many resources. Ikhanda does not help very early where maintenance is a few gold - -20% is still rounded to the same value or slightly lower one, but it is a great building since it goes with Aggresive and complements Shaka very well, but not in my top 5.

 

[Gliese 581]

HC is industrous sure but he also has Quechuas. SH+ peaceful expansion/ quechua rush + terraces.

 

[Jet]

I think I personally get the most use and benefit from the UBs that give +Happy.

Some I'm just unskilled at using, like the +Priest ones or the Sacrificial Altar.

Some of the favorites in this thread are not top favorites of mine:

Terrace - very nice for early blocking and culture war, but I'm almost always going to do the Monument first. Cheaper and faster, and culture is something I want to get going as soon as possible.

Cothon - I play Carthage up the Yin Yang, but I often don't build a lot of these. In many games Compass is low priority for me, and/or I seem to get diminishing returns from the extra trade routes.

 

[Red Wegener]

I am a big fan of the Mint too. Mansa is my favorite leader to play. I like to play defensive usually until macemen so the skirmisher works well with my style also.

 

[DaveMcW]

In cottage cities, forges are a happiness building, not a production building.

 

[Stewie0416]

I also am a big fan of terrances, as if HC wasnt overpowered enough. Since i build Granaries a lot its almost like HC is now creative as well.

 

[Single Malt]

If you are running cottages, you will eventually run US, and with a mint every 5 towns will net 6, plus the 10% modifier, and you have quite a bonus. That's not even taking the happiness element of forges and mints into account. It can be quite beneficial to get MC early as it is good trading material, especially if the Colossus is not built yet. I find the mint one of the more useful UB's.

 

[vicawoo]

In my opinion, forges become more important in commerce cities once you hit the university/grocer/bank slew of techs. Before that, I'm pretty content to stay at library/marketplace.

 

[Single Malt]

In my opinion, forges become more important in commerce cities once you hit the university/grocer/bank slew of techs. Before that, I'm pretty content to stay at library/marketplace.

How do you figure? Unless you need the happy, or have at least 4 a forge will do nothing for a commerce city, unless its a mint.

 

[Diamondeye]

Well, you know my difficulty...Emperor and starting to get there gradually on immortal. Used to play epic exclusively but now I'm trying everything but marathon (can't...take...the...slow...games...)

I know how you feel. Marathon takes far too long for my taste.

Some of my "top tier" UBs:

Ikhanda - this is money for an early rush strategy. More expensive than a normal barracks but aggressive mitigates that. Shaka can recover might fast.

Indeed an awesome UB with lots of synergy with leader and civ!

Sac. Alter - I like it for the same reason you do. Whips can be applied liberally...even 1 pop whips sometimes!

If some of you reading this thread has managed to avoid my outbursts of dismay against slavery, I'll sum it up for you. I hate the civic. So I cannot agree here. Perhaps in order to learn to love the whip (sounds wrong...) I need to play with Monty some more.

Hammam - I'm a fan of early . UBs that grant the ability to do this while taking a different (and in many cases stronger) tech path are very welcome.

Indeed! This is an incredible UB, and I ususally leverage the early by going for Trebs/Knights/Janissaries faster instead of wasting time on happiness.

Terrace - Every city gets a granary. Every city is up to speed quicker, saving hammers on a monument. I mean, everyone knew HC was weak so they went and gave him a good UB at least..................

... I don't like the terrace. Sure, it's nice and stuff, but frankly, since I am not a whipper, I don't use granaries as much as some of you others, and I think it's stupid to build the terrace only for the culture when it is more expensive than the Monument. Plus I don't play Inca if I can avoid it. I'm not especially into their traits or uniques although I understand why many people like them.

Ziggurat - I am SHOCKED to not see this appear as of when I'm typing this in this thread. Its REX synergy is outrageous. Courthouses at PRIESTHOOD?!

And is cheaper. What more to say (actually an ORG/AGG leader of Sumeria would be a blast!)?

Honorable mentions:

Cothon - Yeah, the TR's can be pretty nice...

Agree, ofcourse

Dike - I don't put them top tier because they come too late IMO. Very helpful on some maps but remember a lot of cities don't want to be working water tiles as they have better options. Still a sound UB with lots of use potential though.

Agree completely here aswell.

Rathaus - Overrated IMO, but still good.

m-hm - agree.

Obelisk - Only recently have I learned how clutch early GPP are. This early enough? The obelisk gives the player some pretty unique options.

Best utilization I've done of a UB; Funding an early war based on food and hammers/gold from priests to chariotrush - incidentally my neighboor was Izzy so I had a use for the prophets .

Ball Court - If you want a catapult war, this thing is king.

And I am the type of player who almost always wants a catapult war. I don't fancy the rest of the Mayan package though so I don't get to use this as often as one might want.

Madrassa - Another building that grants specialists. GP farm powers up.

I only recently tried this out and it is awesome, so I agree with you here. Sal turns into quite the cultural/economic beast when founding religions and using the priests from this one plus shrines from the GPs.

Hard to say which are powerful, alot are game specific and some work better with certain leaders. However, here are a few I tend to prefer

1) Dike. Willem is financial, so post dike sea tile get 2 food, 1 hammer, 3 commerce. THAT is pretty big.

Why yes but I feel it often comes too late to decide a game. If I reach SP with the dutch the game is in the box. If one of my opponents does, I am probably going to lose anyway (especially since Willems AI is one of the better).

2) Ikahnda: Half price barracks because of aggressive yet works very well with a large empire with the expansive trait to cut down costs and grow cities larger faster because of half price graneries.

Agree, as stated before.

3) Forum: Only Agustus. Industrious leader with a UB that get +25% GP. Add the Parthenon and he has close to that IND/PHIL taboo trait combo. Makes him the best wonderspammer (yeah, better than Ramesses).

I disagree. I like Julius better, using merchants to fund the empire your praetorians get you.

4) ODeon: Mostly Perciles since they are half priced. Extra happiness, extra artist slots. A powerful UB for a cultural win. And it improves late game with the extra happiness from the late game wonders.

agree, extremely good UB aswell.

5) Assembly Plant: Fred mostly since they are built 4 times faster if you have coal. The extra engineers work very well with Fred's Philosophical trait.

Too late for my taste but I do catch the thing about them coming up so fast.

6) Salon: Yeah probably an odd one, but a free artist while adding a +25% beaker building is big if running representation which I usually do as the French.

Yeah. Because playing french means playing either for culture (Louis or De Gaulle) or total war (where happiness and science matters - Rep will be used).

7) Stock Exchange: With Liz and Vicky. Financial with a +65% gold building? That's big!

I like all the english leaders but apart from that, Agree.

8) Research Insitute: Mostly Peter and his Philosphical trait. Every city get's a Great Library! One of the very few UB's that really help in the space race.

If you reach that part of the game without achieving Domi/Conq as Russia (Cathy ), settle down for your fastest spacerace vic ever.

9) Madraasa: Sorry HC lovers, this tops it. Comes almost at the same time, adds +2 culture, and opens up 2 priests. A combo of the Incan Terrace and the Egyptian Obelisk rolled into one!

Already commented

10) GER: Not many UBs give military help (Sitting Bull, Celts, Ragnar) but this adds an extra 2 XP to mounted units! Great with Genghis and theocracy as you start with a 9 XP mounted unit which is 1 XP from getting another promotion and thus pumping up the chances of faster GGs!

I find that this 9xp-thing fits extremely well with the use of Keshiks - they are often used in a way where getting that healing from the third promo is worth it in itself. You rush with them, you don't stick around for five turns with a medic. A medic for one turn and the promo on and we go again.

How do you figure? Unless you need the happy, or have at least 4 a forge will do nothing for a commerce city, unless its a mint.

How do you intend to build Markets, Banks, Grocers, Libraries, Universities and Observatories without hammers? If you are not building these in your commerce city you could just as well pour half of the commerce away.

 

[KingMorgan]

Hamman with Sulieman, got to love the +2 Happiness, just at a perfect time as well.

 

[civvver]

I like the ubs that are easy to use, don't require a strategy to get the most out of them. Stock fits perfectly with the financial leaders, easy to get. Terrace is a big one because every city of mine gets a granary anyway. Also like the cothon because I usually go for GLH.

 

[Bleys]

How do you figure? Unless you need the happy, or have at least 4 a forge will do nothing for a commerce city, unless its a mint.

I disagree with this. Granted, turn by turn the bump of a Forge might not be a big deal in a cottage city with only 1 mine, but a forge also affects every whipped population and every chopped forest. A large portion of the hammers in my commerce cities come from whips and chops.

Its also a strong Happiness building as Dave suggested, since many players (me included) covet gold, silver and gems and push to grab those resources wherever possible.

 

[SnowlyWhite]

zig & sac. altar(trying to take into acct. the whole package - leader/uu/ub and assuming restricted leaders).

ikhanda would've been #1, but due to rounding, half of the cities don't benefit from it post early rush... but it's still a great boost at corps.

 

[Artichoker]

Holy Rome's Rathaus is the best one I've used so far...it doesn't appear as early as the Zulu Ikhanda, but the percentage is higher than a Courthouse+Ikhanda combined.

Which of the two is better overall? For an Aggressive leader (like Shaka), I'd say the Ikhanda for sure...but without Aggressive (assuming there was such a leader), the Rathaus effectively saves 60 hammers for the cities that normally don't need a Barracks.

 

[Joshua368]

... I don't like the terrace. Sure, it's nice and stuff, but frankly, since I am not a whipper, I don't use granaries as much as some of you others, and I think it's stupid to build the terrace only for the culture when it is more expensive than the Monument. Plus I don't play Inca if I can avoid it. I'm not especially into their traits or uniques although I understand why many people like them.

Even if you don't whip (which is a pretty silly handicap to put on yourself ) a granary is still one of the best and most useful buildings for every city to build as soon as it can. Only the most insane food cities with low early game happy caps don't need them... ones that will grow as much as they can in a few turns... but those are also the cities that need whipping the most, hence granaries there too.

 

[Iranon]

Forges are tricky.

Focus on production, build production modifiers first, then focus on general infrastructure, and only then (maybe ) switch to commercy stuff is theoretically the best order - from the basic to the less tangible ones that will benefit from everything you have done so far.

However... Forges are a bit unwieldy to fit in their natural spot as building number 2 after a Granary (culture allowing). Doing this means the city will pay high maintenance without advancing your economy for some time (and catching up can take ages when using cottages, as you're behind on their development).

I still try to fit it in ASAP, but sometimes I can't (when a war goes 'too' well, I can't stretch my economy any further thanks to the generaly 'basics first' approach... we're talking negative cash flow at 100% gold).

 

[Gliese 581]

I don't agree that madrassas beats terraces. The power of the terrace lies in getting the relevant effects of two buildings in one (monument+granary). This is the best you can accomplish with a non-creative civ as you almost always want a granary asap in a new city but often want a culture source first.

 

[Bleys]

Its not surprising the ones that basically give you an extra trait are the most popular, as well as the ones with a building discount associated with their traits.

Some Honorable Mentions of my own are the UBs for the key culture buildings, Monunent UBs and Theater UBs. All are solid in their own right. I especially enjoy the Theater ones. During the "Rifles to Grab Land" phase of the game, these can really help that new city in a hostile area of the map get a jump on the culture conversion process. Nothing game breaking, but nice to have.

Monty's does seem to be the front-runner for me, mostly because I think Slavery is one of the most powerful tools in the game. Amazingly strong when going for a Mace-Treb war, since you can whip more troops and still work the strongest food tiles, but even strong for early expansion to get infra up ASAP like Libraries and Granaries.

 

[TheWilltoAct]

Terrace - very nice for early blocking and culture war, but I'm almost always going to do the Monument first. Cheaper and faster, and culture is something I want to get going as soon as possible.

that is a point, one good idea could be to set up your cities so there are enough good tiles in the initial workable area to keep your city busy until the terrace can expand your borders (which it will do rapidly with its extra culture point over the monument).

... I don't like the terrace. Sure, it's nice and stuff, but frankly, since I am not a whipper, I don't use granaries as much as some of you others, and I think it's stupid to build the terrace only for the culture when it is more expensive than the Monument. Plus I don't play Inca if I can avoid it. I'm not especially into their traits or uniques although I understand why many people like them.

I'm afraid this is just crazy talk, and a severe weakness in your game if you really mean that you don't place significant value on granaries.

In general nothing is more important than city growth. The bigger the city the more tiles worked the greater its usefulness. End of story. Think of the extra culture as icing on the cake.

Also, don't know what's not to like about Inca... certainly everyone values the financial trait . Quechaes are the awesomest little dudes ever, your unique unit replaces THE WARRIOR!? Yes please!!