...But Ive noticed something about the Terrace that makes it much stronger than I originally thought...
25% culture is pathetic, absolutely pathetic. I see no strategic use for it whatsoever.
Someone who loves cultural victories is probably going to jump to the defense of the pagoda
pagoda is the taoist cathedral, nothing to do with a UB
The chinese UB is the pavillion, and half a cathedral for free is really huge for cultural wins.
Even if you're going for a cultural victory, with the way it works in CIV it only matters for your three metropolises.
Why am I defending the pavilion for heavens sake? I don't really know, I think its just a quick to say a UB has no value, etc. I'm just trying to point out things somebody may have missed.
Agreed on Mall being bad I wouldn't care if it gave +100 hapiness and health at 1 shield cost. Game is over by that time. I vote for salon in the worst list. Please i want that observatory without that great Artist . But it might be handy in cultural victories.
Hammam is good and even Obselik if you capture a Holy city which you need to build a shrine. You just need to avoid calender till that Prophet pops up. And if you end up isoltaed with Ramesses you can use the obselik to generate Prophets with wich you can found christiany, Islam and run your way to cultural victory.
Because there's not much synergy with anything else. It doesn't get you more research (once you're past a city's fat cross, anyway), it doesn't really help militarily, and it doesn't help your economy (again, past the fat cross). Even if you're going for a cultural victory, with the way it works in CIV it only matters for your three metropolises.
The only thing culture does beyond the initial 10 for each city is expand your borders and slightly increase your score. But it's almost always going to grab you much more land by just building a new settler or going to war with whoever's on the other side of your borders.
There are some exceptions (as with anything, of course) -- if you're hellbent on avoiding war with a particular civ and there's a relatively new city near your borders, or if you're fighting culturally over an important resource.
I know, but your post was easier to quoteYeah, um, why did I type that? I know better, maybe I was just following sylvanllewelyn's lead