Burial Tomb in top 5 UB?

[Talamare]

The Hanse is in my opinion the most powerful UB in the game. You can get up to 12 trade routes I believe (assuming Petra and the Colossus). If that's correct, you can get up to a 60% production bonus IN ALL CITIES once you have those trade routes going. This is a bonus no other civ can replicate; Germany is capable of almost twice the production of other civs.

It also has great synergy with the Freedom policy that makes you gain influence with CSs you have a trade route with.

Lets start with you get 8 Trade Routes, 10 with wonders. Reaching that value is completely unrealistic, At most you will usually see about 6 before the game ends or is a few turns from ending. When you get Hanse, unless you hunt down the top line, you will likely be at 4, maybe 5. You will probably remain at that value for a good while after getting Hanse too, unless you rush Biology...

As for the effect, it is completely relative to how much hammers the city is producing. An average sized 10 hammer city gaining a 20-40% bonus would only leave it at 12-14 hammers, a nice boost but nothing insane. A small developing city with for example 4 hammers would barely notice an improvement. So the only time you actually feel the power of the Hanse is during the late game. When your cities have 20-40 or more hammers. When you have plenty of Trade Routes.

Don't get me wrong, I think the Hanse is great and gave Germany the boost they needed. However, due to the fact it is only really effective during the late game, in my mind at least, brings it down a few notches.

 

[Asklepios]

I absolutely agree. The best UBs are the ones you were planning to build anyway, and in the early game.

So Stele and Paper Maker, for sure, as who doesn't need monuments and libraries? The first gives you an in road into faith without needing to dedicate any resources to doing so. The second gives you extra gold, which is useful in any circumstance. Neither requires you to play anything less than optimally on a traditional tradition opening. Both scale well when you start expanding.

Any Temple upgrade to me, is less valuable, for the sole reason that building Temples isn't something you'd normally do early anyway, at least on any level above Emperor.

 

[Babri]

The Hanse is in my opinion the most powerful UB in the game. You can get up to 12 trade routes I believe (assuming Petra and the Colossus). If that's correct, you can get up to a 60% production bonus IN ALL CITIES once you have those trade routes going. This is a bonus no other civ can replicate; Germany is capable of almost twice the production of other civs.

It also has great synergy with the Freedom policy that makes you gain influence with CSs you have a trade route with.

Theoretically, yes. Practically you won't get that huge of a bonus until very late in the game. Early game which matters most, and you sacrifice gold to get that bonus.

 

[Vitruvius]

I absolutely agree. The best UBs are the ones you were planning to build anyway, and in the early game.

So Stele and Paper Maker, for sure, as who doesn't need monuments and libraries? The first gives you an in road into faith without needing to dedicate any resources to doing so. The second gives you extra gold, which is useful in any circumstance. Neither requires you to play anything less than optimally on a traditional tradition opening. Both scale well when you start expanding.

Any Temple upgrade to me, is less valuable, for the sole reason that building Temples isn't something you'd normally do early anyway, at least on any level above Emperor.

The difference is when you have a temple that actually provides bonus of a colosseum and is maintenance free. You are basically building it as a colosseum, which is something you would build anyway at some point.

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

The biggest problem for Burial Tomb is maybe the shrine.

In my opinion the stock shrine is a underpowered building for it's cost.

You have to spend 40 hammers for 1 faith per turn while it cost 1 gold per turn.
Temple is even worse.

However they probably did wan't to make them underpowered to encourage people to pick piety or faith partheon's.

 

[jlim201]

The Hanse is quite good. Just two city state trade routes will give you basically a gold making workshop. Two out of 6 Trade routes at Banking is not much at all. 2 10 GPT +4 20 GPT is 100 gpt, not bad, is it?

 

[LoneRebel]

The Hanse is in my opinion the most powerful UB in the game. You can get up to 12 trade routes I believe (assuming Petra and the Colossus). If that's correct, you can get up to a 60% production bonus IN ALL CITIES once you have those trade routes going. This is a bonus no other civ can replicate; Germany is capable of almost twice the production of other civs.

It also has great synergy with the Freedom policy that makes you gain influence with CSs you have a trade route with.

I wouldn't say strongest, as it has tradeoffs, but it's pretty nifty. Here's something to add. Yes, it synergizes well with the Treaty Organization tenet in Freedom, but since you're Germany, you can also go Autocracy and take Gunboat Diplomacy, and then use your large army, which you will have from clearing barb encampments to intimidate city-states while simultaneously sending trade routes to those city-states. Thank God Germany gets reduced land unit maintenance too.

Another thing to add: Germany is one civ for whom the Merchant Confederacy policy in Patronage is actually useful.

 

[Matthew.]

Burial Tomb is great. I actually like it more than Pyramid.

Hanse needs to be that powerful to make up for it being so late. Consider a good start for Russia can give quite a few extra hammers in the early game, that snowballs into huge gains. Or Rome, which with some careful micromanagement, gets 25% to buildings also right from the start.

Hanse is good, but it needs to be to even be competitive with the other production Civs.

The difference is when you have a temple that actually provides bonus of a colosseum and is maintenance free. You are basically building it as a colosseum, which is something you would build anyway at some point.

Exactly. With Theocracy it is a pseudo-bank as well. There is some time before Rationalism, especially with Oracle, where you can go down the Piety tree a bit. Half cost temples which essentially replace the colosseum and bank, which unlocks on one of the most bee-lined techs in the game, Philosophy. It is a decent set-up even if you don't get a religion; the faith will be used eventually for GP.

 

[peterw1987]

The difference is when you have a temple that actually provides bonus of a colosseum and is maintenance free. You are basically building it as a colosseum, which is something you would build anyway at some point.

I have played several games without building any colosseum. Colosseum is not a must-built. (especially if you can build circus/stone work)

 

[reddishrecue]

The burial tomb is free and does give that extra fpt... i guess what I'm trying to say iis that if you are able to keep Egypt and thebes safe and uncaptured then you wouldn't need to worry about paying the conqueror. The burial tomb is one of those nerdy buildings that people like to go for though... just a thought

 

[GoStu]

My favorite UB hands-down is the Floating Gardens. So much extra food... It's 15% more food, not growth, so it's actually hilariously powerful. For example:

Five 4-food tiles gives you 20 Food. The city itself has 2 base food, the Gardens themselves provide 2, and for the hell of it we'll add a Granary to the math for another 2. This city now has 26 base food - with the 15% extra the Aztecs have very near to 30. A city like this might be reasonably size 10. Citizens consume 20 of the total, leaving 6 surplus for all civs except the Aztecs, who have a hair under 10. Even rounding down to 9, that's still 50% more Growth in the city.

This is disregarding any Lakes you happen to be near (rare, but handy). Those become 4-food tiles right out of the Ancient Era before ANYONE else could have a 4-food tile (disregarding Lake Victoria), and don't require any improvement time from a Worker, allowing your Workers to prioritize luxuries or other tiles.

For the above reasons, I have to take the Floating Gardens as my #1 favorite overall.

EDIT: I did omit the base food of the Gardens, City, and a potential Granary. I have revised the math above.

 

[Navelgazer]

The best UBs are the ones you were planning to build anyway, and in the early game.

This is why I'd expect the Royal Library to get more love than it does. You're going to build a library anyway, it solves the problem of having no place to put Great Writings, and does so in a way which boosts your units. What's not to love?

 

[TheGrumpyBuddha]

my top 5 will be
... Egypt does not really need that extra happiness, and burial tomb benefits your opponent when they plunder your city.

Everyone needs happiness, and if you're worried about burial tomb benefiting your opponent when they capture your city, you're playing Civ wrong.

 

[Resipsa]

Stele, Pyramid, Paper Maker, Floating Gardens, and as a Dark Horse the Wat.