buildings in your cities

[PureE]

Are there any buildings you have in (almost) all your cities? Are there any buildings that you usually leave out?

For me, I don't build any happiness/health buildings until I need them. This means I almost never have colosseums in my cities =)
I always have a barracks, granary, and most science buildings (Library, uni) and market and grocer. I try to get industrial parks wherever I can, too.

I shy away from drydocks, unless I really want that city to build naval units. Usually that city is doing nothing else than building naval units then.

I also find laboratories unuseful, since they come so late. I never bother with the Internet, either =)

 

[thadian]

in all my cities i try to have a library. from then on it is very situational. i mean, prod cities usually get forges and if i see myself building wealth i might pump in a market.

later on in the game, if i establish a tech or military lead, i might build a university/market in all my cities.

in the modern era, i always build grocer/supermarket in all my cities. i also usually have a barracks in all my cities toward the end of the classical era.

normally i don't like to step outside of "box specialization" unless my game circumstance dictates that i have the freedom to do so. if i have the freedom to stop unit-builds, i usually put in granary-aquaduct to avert the water poisoning espionage.

i also usually put out Sec Bea's/Int Agencies and courthouses ASAP to start counter-espionage.

 

[Turquoiside]

I usually build all three science buildings in my games, but that is not something most people would recommend.

 

[PibbZ]

I try to get a castle in all my cities, but also strive for a granary + the commerce buildings.

Castles because i prefer to roleplay a little, and what would england be without castles

 

[thadian]

castles require walls, imho only citidal justifies that. most of the time your cities won't be attacked unless in MP. if your in MP, there is a good chance that they will be obselete fast.

however castles are useful for the short life period they do have, and in commerce cities that are resource heavy it's pretty hard to say no to building if you already had to build a wall earlier.

 

[dennisg]

Granary because I whip like crazy

Library for the (slight) culture and the research boost

otherwise, it depends on what the city is specializing in

 

[Joshua368]

In the early game every city of mine gets a granary, a courthouse, and a forge. Well, sometimes the capital skips out on the courthouse, but other than that. I don't bother putting barracks in cities that'll never build units, or libraries in my production cities. (until I want universities for oxford at least) Sometimes I specialize cities even further, like my military cities near the front lines won't bother building a stable because they'll never build mounted units, which I churn out from cities in the back.

Late game, every city gets a factory, coal plant, and then all health buildings nessecary to counteract them. (aqueduct, grocer, supermarket, hospital, public transportation) If I'm going for space race, all my cities get a Laboratory asap as well.

 

[PureE]

Late game, every city gets a factory, coal plant, and then all health buildings nessecary to counteract them. (aqueduct, grocer, supermarket, hospital, public transportation) If I'm going for space race, all my cities get a Laboratory asap as well.

Oh yes, Laboratories do that too =) I never play with Space Race.

Why a coal plant? Is it an alternative to wait for hydro power?

No one mentions monuments. Just a bad building?

 

[mike p]

Every city should have a granary and a courthouse. Everything else is situational.

Barracks only in unit pumps, or large cities if running Nationhood for the happiness bonus.

Libraries, Uni's etc, will build in commerce cities, and/or build enough to qualify for Oxford.

Markets, Grocers, Banks are about the same as the science buildings but if the slider is relatively high on science, I might skip markets or grocers in some cities unless I need the happy or healthy bonuses.

Forge gets built or whipped in almost every city too, unless it's purely a 5 or 6 tile filler city that's only going to work cottages.

Monuments aren't a bad building at all, but they aren't always needed. After Music you can just build culture to get the first border pop.

In short, don't assume that just because a new building has become available to build, that it's the best place to invest your hammers.

 

[Joshua368]

Why a coal plant? Is it an alternative to wait for hydro power?

No one mentions monuments. Just a bad building?

Waiting for Hydro Power is a bad idea. For one, Plastics comes waaay after Assembly Line (Industrialism, Railroad, Combustion, Plastics) and that's delaying a huge 50% production boost for much longer than you need to, expecially when you could be killing things with quickly built Infantry. And on top of that, many cities won't be able to build Hydro Plants anyway.

Coal plants come faster and once you learn to use them everywhere asap you'll never look back. The production boost is so worth a silly little +2 , and you can always build Hydro Plants later to remove that.

Also monuments aren't a bad building, just pretty forgettable. But if I'm not creative and don't bother with stonehenge, then yes they go into every city right away pre-music unless I'm running caste system. (free artist) They're pretty easy to chop out with a single forest.

 

[thadian]

obelisk and totem pole are pretty cool monuments, otherwise...

 

[Xellos-_^]

Are there any buildings you have in (almost) all your cities? Are there any buildings that you usually leave out?

For me, I don't build any happiness/health buildings until I need them. This means I almost never have colosseums in my cities =)
I always have a barracks, granary, and most science buildings (Library, uni) and market and grocer. I try to get industrial parks wherever I can, too.

I shy away from drydocks, unless I really want that city to build naval units. Usually that city is doing nothing else than building naval units then.

I also find laboratories unuseful, since they come so late. I never bother with the Internet, either =)

personally i always go for the internet if i can.

1. free techs
2. stop the other civies form getting free techs.

these are huge advantage for the cost of the internet.

only downside is it ties up one of your bigger cities in building it.

i usually end building all the building in the cities but depending where it is located i would built them in different order. Althought i usually ending up building Forge, Barrack and Grainary first, anything after depends on what i need.

 

[thadian]

it's not that i built the net, i hate-build it. if i am one of the tech leaders, i don't want one of the other AI's to just become king out of nowhere. im sure above monarch it is more important to have. i did a few emperor games today.

i lasted until the 1600's, but was in the middle of the scoreboard, more than 1500 points behind. i felt proud that my early REX was able to keep up with the pace, so now i need to learn how to rightsize it.

on Emperor, i was persia and the apothacary was built in every city.

my early buildings were mostly barracks/stables (whichever i needed the city to produce) and i only got a library and market in every city. i didn't get them nearly at the same time either.

 

[UWHabs]

Granary and Courthouse are a must in every city.

After that, coastal cities will almost always get a harbor. I'll usually end up with a library everywhere, since it's fairly cheap.

Barracks go in any city that will be building military units. I guess if I played as the Zulus then every city would get Ikhandas as well.

Markets I will build in any city that gets lots of trade, or if they need the happiness. But since they're so expensive, I definitely don't rush to put them everywhere.

Forges I find are useful in every city, since every city needs to build stuff. Especially in those crappy cities that only get like 4 hammers, being able to run an engineer is very useful. Everything takes forever to build, so may as well have some production for the courthouse/library I'll later build there.

Otherwise, late game, I'll stick a levy or dike in every city. My last game as Willem, I was in a golden age and I'm pretty sure every single one of my cities was building a forge at that point (since I think every city was coastal or on a river). The power of it is really amazing.

 

[duckstab]

Granaries and courthouses. These are almost always the first things that go up unless I'm trying to quickly build culture in a captured city.

 

[PibbZ]

castles require walls, imho only citidal justifies that. most of the time your cities won't be attacked unless in MP. if your in MP, there is a good chance that they will be obselete fast.

Fully aware of it, but its one of the few buildings that adds flavour to the game. Not to mention that i play my own mod, where i altered the castle to be obsolete with rifling, like walls. They also grant +1 commerce pr turn.

Still, not the most useful, but when you roleplay a bit you dont care about min/maxing performance all the time. I can still build castles while staying ahead of my competiton on emperor, and thats what counts for me

 

[Nials]

Granary nearly always first. Courthouses usually come second and most cities get a Forge afterwards unless its production is going to be hideous and I'm not running Slavery.

 

[PureE]

I hear a lot of courthouse coming in second after granary. When I look at my cities, I usually have maintance costs varying from 3 to 8 or 9. A courthouse means a net result (for a big city) of 4 for me. This is about the same as my harbor nets me from my medium seaside cities.
Why do you need those courthouses so early? I have to admit that, playing on monarch and still not winning the game more than half of the time I'm not the best player round, but I did the math and it never adds up to "we really need a courthouse".
Also, I'm not really used to the spies part yet (I've played warlords for what now, 2 years or so, and have been playing BtS for only 2 months), so the espionage boost might be really important, but I wouldn't know that.
Any light on this would be appreciated

 

[PibbZ]

Courthouses are important, but not that early in my opinion. The further away your cities are from your capital (like conquered cities or colonies), the more important it gets, because maintanance costs from cities like these might cripple you.

 

[Joshua368]

Courthouses become important at the point when your slider drops below 20%, because they're how it rises back up.