Comprehensive UB Guide

[WilliamOfOrange]

**I have updated this article to include BtS concepts like synergy with quests and corporations and revised the reviews. Some lost material will be featured in my other article on manipulation of unit promotions gained from quests and events as it is more relevant there. Thanks to everyone for reading.

I did eventually run out of space even with the editing of the first four posts, so you can find the final civs Rome to the Zulus here at post 76 on page 4.


Here we go:


American Mall (Supermarket):

It is a good choice for an American UB, I feel. For the same price as a supermarket (which provides + 1 food and extra health from cow, deer, pig and sheep) you also get happiness from the three late "entertainment/culture wonders" or ECWs ; musicals from Broadway, singles from Rock n' Roll and movies from Hollywood, and now with the patch, plus 20% gold in the city to boot! For a future era start, maybe not needed right away, but if in a long game where your population is reaching health and happiness/WW limits, its a great building to have even if it does come late in the game. That alone is enough, but the +20% gold can be nice too.

Possible Synergies:

Building one or all of those happiness/culture wonders mentioned above would add 3 happiness points like that and the added health means larger cities as well. What is your pleasure, GP farming or warmongering? Either way, I think it helps out. Not sure about using it with Washington, who is charismatic and expansive, so the +2 health means the health bonus from the mall maybe isn't so big. Then again, you can afford to build pollution causing, production buildings with all that extra health. In BtS, the Industrial Park cause pollution depending on what resources you have. Also his +1 happiness in all cities and +2 with monuments or broadcast towers (which is great if you build the Eiffel Tower) works with, but seems to negate the happiness from the mall too. But, if you were to play as the industrious and organized Roosevelt, then you could get some of the benefits of Washington at the same time if you build malls.

It seems that the extra health and happiness could really give Lincoln a nice late game edge when large, polluting cities needs extra health and happiness. Given his philosophical trait, he is a great candidate for space race because of the Mall´s bonuses, maximizing the health and happiness caps.

Synergy with Corporations, Events or Quests?

The Rural Farmers Event will give +1 food to a city's Grocer. Meanwhile, the Horse Whispering Quest which can occur once you have Animal Husbandry and a Horse resource gives you a chance for all stables to produce +1 food. So, add this to the Grocer event in one city or combined with the food from the Mall, we again have enough to support a(nother) specialist. Philosophical Lincoln likes this idea and the extra food raises the population and resulting score for any leader in those Time Victory games. Finally, any settled Great Merchant will contribute another +1 food, but don't forget to found either Sid's Sushi or the Cereal Mills first and then collect resources to really get that population up! And I assume the you have already built a lighthouse in your coastal city. Sid's Sushi can really clean up on certain maps, and I have had maps with a +16 food from Cereal Mills so it will all depend on the resources that you can rack up. With the extra health and happiness you can afford to trade your extra or obsolete resources in order to stock up on the Corporation resources. So maybe warmongering should be done sparingly as you'll want to be on good terms with some so you can trade with them. Or, what I do: Bully them and force them to capitulate and then you can just demand all their resources, giving you even more to broker with the other civs! (that is, until you vassalize them, too ) Ah, the American Dream. With your extra happiness from the ECWs and health from buildings or environmentalism, you'll be fine unless you grow too big from the extra food, but the extra cash will help you in hitting the cap-raising Future Techs.

Possible Drawbacks?

Well, it does come late and requires a grocer to be built. Given that the grocer gives +1 health from wine & plantation resources, that might solve your health problems already. Grocers also give +25% wealth and can turn two citizens into Merchants. Maybe you don't need the health, but the money is always nice. With Grocer, Market, Bank and Mall that is 120% increase in income. Yay, Capitalism!

With a granary, a grocer and the supermarket/mall you get 11 possible health points. So that means the ability to build forges, factories and other polluting buildings. It would all depend on your civics (environmentalism), if you have FPs or trees and jungle in your fat cross and your goals (production, warmongering, space race, etc)

As for the happiness, with Charismatic trait, you get +1 per city, and ignoring any happiness from other buildings, look at what building one of the three ECWs gives you once you have a Mall and Broadcast Tower. For example you build Hollywood, +1 and with Mall and Broacast tower, another +2 for a total of +3 for the same resource!! If you build all three ECWs and a BT, you are looking at +9 happiness for three resources not to mention that you can trade your extra singles, movies and musicals to other civs for resources you may not have, as mentioned above. Oh, and those resources are unpillageable; you just need to keep your cities. I recommend the Eiffel Tower as it comes before BTs and gives all cities, especially newly captured ones, a happiness and culture producing BT. Add in the fact that you likely have other happiness producing buildings and the fact that the Broadcast Tower (along with Theatres and Colosseums) will give +1 happiness for every 10% culture. If you have all three in a city, then that means +3 happinesss for only raising the culture setting up by 10%. For warmongering this is huge!

Warmongering seems to fit America as a charismatic Washington or Lincoln gets +1 more happiness for that same BT and also get quicker promotions. The +20% gold will mean that you have more money coming in to support a large army and upgrade your troops; more so if you are Organized Roosevelt. The Mall is a CE UB, but Lincoln is a SE Leader, so there may be some mismatch here.

Summary:

Although some may feel that is comes too late, when the game is pretty much finished and you are either milking the score or just mopping up, it seems to me that given a large varied collection of resources, the Mall gives the American player the ability and flexibility to trade extra health/happiness resources away for other gains, or to exploit them and kick into high production/warmonger gear. All three leaders are bonafide space or diplo contenders but, Lincoln perhaps has an edge over Washington and Roosevelt. All can warmonger nicely as well, with the help of their UB as well as their UU.

So, all leaders can benefit from the Mall. Roosevelt (Industrious and Organized - cheap factories) is more likely to be able to build the ECWs and Eiffel Tower to truly benefit from them. The other two are Charismatic and get the extra happiness assuming they have a Broadcast Tower, which works to enhance the benefit of the UB. Extra health helps Lincoln pop GPs, while the Expansive Washington will either not need the extra health or can take full advantage of it to really raise the health cap and have larger cities. Since health and happiness caps depend on the level played, the true effectiveness of the UB will also depend on your chosen leader and the level played.



Arabian Madrassa (Library - double production for Creative leader):

With a whopping +4 culture per turn is lends itself to a culture victory. Given that Writing is an early tech and you would likely build a library anyway, it's a no-brainer to place Writing higher up in your tech queue. Libraries cost the same, but in addition to assigning to scientists, you can also assign two prophets. So you will be sure to get the mid to late religions founded no problem.

Possible Synergies:

The culture route is likely the biggest draw for this one, but you could also concentrate on farming GP and GS only if you like. Lightbulbing to get ahead in tech and maybe settling some of them as well so that you could build the UN quickly. The big culture ensures that you have the resources if you join/start the space race or just own all the land around you for domination victories. Farming GPs will help you progress nicely through the religious tech and that means more religions, holy cities, shrines and mo' money, mo' money, mo' money! And it can also help you control religion spreading for diplomatic manipulation. This is even more important when trying for the BtS Religious Victory. Building Angkor Wat to have your priest specialists giving an extra hammer in production is nice. I have seen the AI settle 4-5 GPs and rake in money in that shrine city and be a productive powerhouse.

Synergy with Corporations, Events or Quests?

Since the ability to work priests means a probable SE, we need food. See the America entry above for the details of the events and quests can give you extra food in your cities. Of course, the Grocer event would come too late to really have a huge effect. Presumably by then you have already settled the GPs produced. The great thing would be a very early Horse Whispering; it obsoletes in the Renaissance Era and the early use of the priest assignments is the whole point of the UB's ability. This quest is a God-send, that is, an Allah-send , if you should happen to have a city with low food potential or even if your pastures and farms have been pillaged or lost in some other event. However, one may prefer the other options for that event: free Horse Archers or their Camel Archers with Sentry. There are also several events or the Classic Literature Quest which will give an extra research boost and the trigger is to simply have a Library built. Finally, the Literacy event gives a free settled Great Scientist in the Renaissance Era if all cities have a Library. For all of these, the chances that you are likely to build a UB as early as possible, means the likelihood of them occurring is higher.

Possible Drawbacks?

Other then the danger of polluting your GP pool if you are not careful and don't want that for a cultural victory, I can't think of any problems.

Summary: All-round, early UB with simple bonuses, but powerful if used to their strengths.



Aztec Sacrificial Altar (Courthouse - double production for Organized leader):

These badboys are only 90 shields compared to the 120 needed for a courthouse! In addition to halving maintenance costs in the city it also halves the anger caused by whipping buildings in the city. Slobberinbear, for example has a brilliant strategy article for how to use the Aztecs, their UB and their UU most effectively, and there are plenty of discussion on whipping and the slavery civic out there. Finally, everything (units, building, etc) gets the discounted unhappiness from rushing Holy Quetzalcoatl!

BtS: Like the courthouse, it also gives +2 Espionage points and allows you to turn one citizen into a Spy.

Possible Synergies:

One could whip their hands bloody, but to what advantage? Fast culture, fast science/research or fast infrastructure like libraries, grocers, etc. Space race might benefit from this strategy, but projects can't be whipped. Once you whip production buildings, you can pump out units and dominate/conquer the world. Or just whip the units out and slay everything in your path. You could be pumping out missionaries and heading for a Religious Victory. People love the overflow from slavery, but what about having the Kremlin simultaneously? Reduced cost means fewer pop needed, which means being able to whip it sooner, beating the AI to wonders and getting your new unit out before theirs.

A large spanning empire via conquest relies on being able to build some culture and then courthouse and happiness buildings to develop captured cities into productive contributors more quickly. We want the altar first to whip out the other things, but more logically, the more units one has from whipping, the easier it is to overexpand. Actually, it might be a good idea to gift CoL to all your enemies before you start your campaign. If their courthouse survives the capture, then it becomes a Sacrificial Alter for you. Now that is dehumanization at it's best! On the other hand, I would never trade CoL to Monty.

In war times you could have the possibility of both drafting and then whipping units, because Monty is Spiritual. There is a trick to whipping a unit or building and then switching civics to enjoy the OR boost, for example. So, you can finish off a wonder earlier and perhaps beat the AI to a few depending on difficulty level. I have found whipping to be a necessity when I am above the happiness cap. Just be careful, not to whip too much, depending on game speed and other factors, you could whip yourself into a problem as the happiness penalties compound, so even though this UB lessens the anger, remember to whip responsibly. I believe the rule of thumb is to try and whip for 2 pop points each time, unless it's an emergency. Again, their are plenty of articles out there on the tricks/exploits of Slavery.

In terms of BtS, we have also only begun to explore the mechanics of espionage, but giving +2 espionage points and the ability to turn a citizen into this new type of GP is almost a throw in after the whipping unhappiness reduction. As a warmonger, this new feature of producing great spies has some definite synergy. The courthouse is likely not always the first items in a build queue, but I feel the Altar has a higher priority. In fact, the whole strategy of the Aztecs revolves around it and although I assume that one usually tries to build their UBs ASAP, this is probably the one case where it always happens. Starting with Mysticism will ensure a chance at a religion, which means a quicker path to CoL with a little help along the way with GPs from Stonehenge or the Oracle. Having the Altars built sooner will also mean the EPs will rack up faster as well. Play a game with a heavy slavery strategy and watch the graph as your EPs sore. In one Marathon game I put the slider at 20% for just a few turns and I had enough to see all the AIs research for the rest of the game and only once, before doing this, did I have a spy destroy a tile on me: nothing after that.

Synergy with Corporations, Events or Quests?

Since the ability to whip is what this UB is all about, we need food. See the America entry above for what the Grocer Event and Horse Whispering Quest can do for you. Any food added will be welcome. You may or may not be switching between slavery and a SE, but you need the food to be there. The great thing would be a very early Horse Whispering; whip the cheap stables and collect the reward of less time to get up to size. Slavery is only powerful if you have the fast regrowth. The Blessed Beast event or anything like villagers building a pasture for you are great. Things like dust storms and floods washing out your farms in not good, so a food producing stable is stable , unless a tornado comes a long. Anyway, it should be obvious that Cereal Mills and perhaps Sid's Sushi are your prime objectives to keep the whipping, war machine in motion down the road. Demand rice, wheat and corn from your vassals, especially corn: we love those tortillas! I have not played that far into the game with the Aztecs, but the possibilities are there. How about capturing an enemy with Cereal Mills and whipping their population away while you grow and heal your troops before moving on and conquering the rest? Sweet.

The Too Close to Call Event gives the player a choice of either +1 gold or +3 culture in all Courthouses. All you need to trigger it is to be into the Renaissance Era and running Universal Suffrage. Hmmm, Universal Suffrage. As we are talking about the Sacrificial Altar UB, I hope that the irony is not lost on anyone here. I assume the warmonger would prefer the gold, however popping borders in cities when their Courthouse survives capture might make one lean towards the culture. Either way, I still find it funny to be making money or gaining culture from the potential whipping of pop points.

Possible Drawbacks?

If you are on a large, food-rich map with many civs, this UB makes sense. Also, many talk about whipping barracks in new cities to help with the war effort. It works nicely, I must say. The Altars do come too late to help whip early barracks, but Monty builds quick barracks anyway. But, a quick victory is likely not going to be done with only CoL and the Altar; you need the tech for the units. However, continuing whipping will keep the population low in those cities. Larger cities taker longer to get back up to that high population and having low populated cities would mean that perhaps you are not utilizing all of the good tiles available to be worked in the fat cross. Having low population might result in slower teching, and unless you are whipping Altars for every city you capture, you maintenance costs might still hurt you. So, it depends on your goal, how long you stay in slavery. Eventually, the unhappiness can catch up however, but there are plenty of savvy players out there that have slavery fine tuned to both an art and science.

The real drawback is that in running slavery, there is the event with the slave revolt and this is a pain in the butt, no matter when it happens. If you don't have the money to sort it out and it keeps happening, it can be a lost cause when the enemy is approaching. This is one of the reasons I don't often use slavery, however with this Civ you need to use it. If that wasn't bad enough, one of Solver's events is specific to the Aztecs. The Toxcatl Event is triggered if a city with Sacrificial Altar has at least one unit in it. It can occur until you have discovered Education and the choices are +2 angry faces (like whipped), which can be brutal depending on happy cap and difficulty level or you pay gold and the unit is immobile for 3 turns. I haven't seen this one in game, so I can't say more. It's like the salve revolt, but worse. I prefer the money and culture for whipping people.

Summary:

An appropriately related UB for the Aztecs, and not the culture bomb like in Civ 3 but quite powerful in the right hands. An Oracle slingshot could give you it quicker and then it is worth more, but a slingshot solely to use this UB doesn't really merit the risk, especially on higher levels when trying to win the Oracle race. It can be effective for starting out and if it is the first thing build/whipped in a newly captured city (after a granary), then it will become a contributing city soon enough. With a little practice, it certainly is fun playing as the Aztecs. As Devo tells us: Whip It, Whip It Good!



Babylonian Garden (Colosseum - double production for Creative leader):

How cute, a UB named for their Hanging Gardens. The building gives extra +2 independent of what food resources you have or have been pillaged. It also has its happiness linked to the culture slider and costs 80 hammers, just like the Colosseum.

Possible Synergies:

Being aggressive and organized as well as the Babylonian UU might make Hammurabi a warmonger candidate. Assuming more cities earlier on, perhaps one could make use of the the extra health. Certainly high polluting cities for a late warmonger or space race could use it. Organized gets cheap lighthouses (more food), courthouses (faster expansion) and factories for more production. High production with extra health could mean some good warring possibilities with his Aggression or it could mean space race contention. The happiness from the building also helps with large cities or War Weariness.

Synergy with Corporations, Events or Quests?

There is an event where a gladiator can be cashed in on or you can arrange for easy opponents and raise the culture of the building. Then the UB would give happiness, health and culture. When going for a cultural victory, even better is the Sports League Quest. With enough Gardens built, you can either have them give +1 happiness or +4 culture. Available with Construction, this is one of my favourite quests and I never fail it.

Possible Drawbacks?

It comes with Construction and is 20 hammers less expensive than an Aqueduct. A Theatre is still a cheaper option for happiness if you don´t need the health, but this UB kills two birds with one stone and Construction gives two units and access to Engineering. Later in the game, when high production is needed but unhealthy, this UB will give a slight health advantage, but the beauty is that is comes so early that later you would not have to stop producing military units or spaceship components to build it.

Summary:
Creative or not, these are cheap buildings and given the possible events as an incentive to build you can't go wrong for the warmonger/expansionist Hammurabi.



Byzantine Hippodrome (Theatre - double production for Creative leader):

WELCOME TO THE HIPPODROME!! The Hippodrome is like a Theatre: You get +3 culture, but no Artists to assign and a +1 bonus for horses, not dyes. Unlike a Theatre, it also has a base happiness of +1, but if that wasn't enough, you also get +1 for every 5% culture on your slider, instead of the normal 10%. This essentially doubles that ability of the building to give happiness from culture and would stack nicely with Colosseums and Broadcast Towers.

Possible Synergies:

Where to begin? Well the extra happiness from the smaller culture slider means more money devoted to maintenance of cities for your expanding empire, more military units and upgrades, more research, you name it. Justinian I is Imperialistic and you will have more money available to take advantage of your fast settler production. Since the Cataphract UU is dependent on horses, it is a no brainer to try and connect the horses ASAP. Horses are usually more readily available than dyes on most maps. Being religious gives the civics flexibility of fast settlement and then gearing up for war or space exploration or anything else. He is a strong Religious Victory candidate with that starting tech and his traits.

Synergy with Corporations, Events or Quests?

There are a few events which result in more revenue or culture applied to the Theatre/Hippodrome. Just make sure that you have enough money sitting around to chose your option and more importantly to pay for a quick rebuilding if some inconsiderate smoker burns it down!

Possible Drawbacks?

Extra happiness is never a drawback, and as stated earlier, this leads to an economically advantage. Even without horses, there is still the +1 base happiness not to mention the slider giving +2 for every 10%. However, you will not be able to assign Artists to get a quick culture growth from new or newly acquired cities. The extra happiness from the culture slider means that in order get borders to grow quickly, you might need to put the slider higher even though you don't need the happiness. Kind of a waste, but you can use your starting knowledge of Mysticism to get Stonehenge or early religions as a way to compensate if that is even an issue.

Summary:

Very unique, even for a UB. It is no more or less resource dependent than other UBs and not being able to assign Artists in no more annoying that having the extra GA from the French Salon when you don't want to pollute the GPPs. It all depends on the map, difficulty level and victory conditions: Work around it and use the UB to it's strengths, with or without Horses.



Carthaginian Cothon (Harbour - double production for Expansive leader):

So, a Harbour which gives +1 trade routes to a coastal city to Hannibal, a financial leader who starts with fishing. What is the catch, you ask? I can't think of any. For 20 extra hammers you really can't complain.

Possible Synergies:

First off, Financial and Fishing is already great. Find some coastal tiles with food sources and settle down. In fact when I play as Carthage (or Portugal or Netherlands for that matter) it's nothing but coastal cities if I can help it. Your income will give a fast tech pace and you can plan for diplomatic or space victories, although I am not sure about others. I guess being ahead in tech will help keeping a more advanced army and he will promote his troops quickly, but you should try and keep some trading partners (or vassals!) out there to take advantage of the extra trade routes.

The base number of trade routes for a city is one, but if you have discovered Currency and build a castle or run the Free Market civic in addition to your Cothons, that means 3 trade routes. (You can't do both since Economics obsoletes the castle.) The Colossus adds +1 gold in all water tiles and the Great Lighthouse adds +2 trade routes in all coastal cities. If you have a map with many civs, and nice silver or gold or calendar enabling resources which gives you huge coin besides your financial bonus you will have some rich cities. Being Charismatic, cities will be happier and working more tiles and the health from the sea food helps growth as well. If you are around late enough and make an early move for flight and the UN, the Airport and the Common Currency Resolution give you another 2 trade routes!

Didn't talk about cottage spamming yet, so there. I said it. Cottage Spamming. Now, need I mention the Harbour's +50% trade route yield? That +50% on your 7 trade routes! Don't forget the additional 100% from the Temple of Artemis. Add markets, banks and Wall Street and you will be using C-notes for TP. BtS just makes it even more sick, with the Customs House giving another +50% on international trade.

Synergy with Corporations, Events or Quests?

There are plenty of great quests for the seafaring civ; they really can have a great game if the stars are aligned. For example, the Harbourmaster: You need Compass and a map that has at least 40% water tiles. It obsoletes near the Industrial era, but if you build a certain number of Harbours and Caravels you get your choice of all Harbours gaining +1 gold or your choice of Combat I or Navigation I promotions for all naval units. Something for the warmongers and something for the builders.

Warships happens early if you have the Trireme prerequisites and at least 55% water tiles. Obsoleting with the Renaissance era, you build enough Triremes and they gain the Combat 1 promotion or if you control the Great Lighthouse then all harbors gain +2 commerce. If you were so lucky as to get both of these, that could be either +3 commerce or Triremes with Combat and Navigation I, but wait, there's one more.

The Overwhelm Quest triggers with Flight, Industrialism and again, at least 55% water tiles. You have until Robotics to build an assortment of modern Air and Navy units. All those types of units can then receive Combat I promotions or all your Harbours will gain +5 commerce, essentially making your Carthaginian Cothon act like the Portuguese Feitoria. That would be a total +8 commerce, not even including the Customs House (BtS) and the 6-7 trades routes. Skip the Nuke Ban resolution it offers and use your wealth to buy your way into the UN and just pass it then.

In BtS, Sid's Sushi would be the Corporation that you absolutely must get and with building the Colossus and/or GL or being the first to Economics, getting the GM to found it should be entirely possible. With all coastal cities and sea food resources, that means larger populations and greater profits and culture, both which can lead to obtaining more resources.

Possible Drawbacks?

Compass can come pretty late, but a beeline or slingshot or a combo of both could land you your Cothons earlier than you might think. The tech or time lost getting your UB will be made up for when you have +1 trade routes in your lucrative coastal cities. The only drawback is you need to have those coastal cities. If you want to reign supreme with Hannibal, you need high sea levels and/or likely some sort of Archipelago map. Finally, while you might want to run Mercantilism unless you really need/want the free specialist and/or have vassalized enough civs to still have the foreign trade routes. You it might not want the UN to force you out of FM, but depending on how many coastal cities with Cothons you have you will still have an advantage.

Summary:

Other than being map dependent, this UB is quite possibly the best matched with the civs leader traits and starting techs. With more money you can support a larger army/empire or research faster. The larger the population, the more lucrative the trade routes; so windmills giving more food and commerce makes sense. Use your Charismatic Navy to patrol and protect your coastline resources and be wary of blockades and privateers. Hannibal is quite possibly the strongest and most versatile of the four sea-faring civs.

 

[WilliamOfOrange]

Celtic Dun (Walls - double production for Protective leader):

If these walls could talk... They can't, but these Walls produce units starting with a free Guerrilla I promotion for +20% defense on hills. Only Archery and Gunpowder units can get the promotion; Siege, Melee, Mounted and Armoured don't. This explains why the UU, the Gallic Swordsman also starts with GI. This UB opens the door to the Guerrilla promotion line.

Possible Synergies:

In looking at the UU, which would not normally receive a GI promotion, people forget that it is quite independent from the UB and they lose sight of what the UB actually does. We often give the GI promotion to our archers protecting our hill city. Imagine have that promotion for free and being able to give G2 with only a barracks. In the early settling days your garrison troops could use the hills to get there quicker without use of roads. In a way, this UB creates a pseudo-protective trait as it lets you go deeper into promotions right away, but at the same time you can definitely use this line for offense as well. The flexibility is there.

Later on, even with civics and GGs settled, you may holding off researching Rifling, the obsoleting tech, because any Musketmen or grenadiers that you build will have the Guerrilla I to start. Sure, once you have riflemen with a strength of 14, maybe grenadiers with 12 don't look so good, but upgrading your Muskets to Rifles is not the issue; it is getting G3 Grenadiers before you obsolete your Dun. Perhaps if your opponents have rifling you would hold off on getting it yourself as the bonus grenadiers have against rifles and their G3 bonus might prove worth keeping for a bit or at least until you have a good amount of them. Some shrewd manipulation of the promotion chart can be most rewarding, but to conserve space I have moved those details to another Strategy Article found here. In the end, who wouldn't want G3 Mech or SAM Infantry units with double movement on Hills, +30% Hills Defense, +25% Hill Attack and 30% chance of Withdrawal? Going in pillaging the AI resources for preventing space race or the building of nukes can be done with these expert pillagers. Most players sadly undervalue what this UB can do for you especially mid to late game.

Being Charismatic, both Brennus and Boudica give quicker promotions and if you wanted the Guerrilla I promotion anyway then you are free to choose something else. With Barracks and civics, units made will have 7/8 XP to start. G3 Gallics can cause enough damage for a stack to finish the city off. Imagine a G3 Crossbow or Musket! Finally, Boudica is aggressive so not only does this mean the Combat I promotion for free, but also cheaper Barracks. This means building barracks and a Dun just got more practical even or especially without stone and free Combat I is nothing to sneeze at if you are promoting up the Guerrilla line. Don't forget the extra +1 happiness per city and the +1 happiness from the Monument: early happiness for warring or ignoring temple for other more important buildings such as courthouses, forges, libraries, or more units! Warring on a hilly or highlands type map seems a good strategy.

One might build the Great Wall and "trick" the AI to try and fight you in your backyard. Your Guerrilla resistance troops will protect any hill resource and if you give them Woodsman I or higher or even more Guerrilla, you will give them a heck of a time trying to dislodge you. They would defend any Cats or Trebs or whatever you bring along if you fight on their turf too. Giving units both Guerrilla II and Woodsman II means a versatile unit capable of sneak attacks on weaker units or maybe even an invaluable resource pillager. I would suggest delaying Rifling until you have enough G3 Musketmen and Grenadiers, maybe a 50-50 mix. Discover Rifling, but then upgrade the Muskets into Riflemen and keep the Grenadiers. See my other article for more.

If you build Walls you might also make you more likely to build a Castle. After all, Walls and Castles each give +25% bombardment protection, but one might be more likely to build castles if they weren't before, especially in BtS, as they also give +25% espionage points. The extra trade route from the castle and +1 culture seem like throw-ins. With both a Dun and Castle one gets +100% defense and +50% bombardment defense from non-gunpowder units. Siege units take longer to whittle away the cultural defenses (maybe the +1 culture is not such a throw in) and now imagine your G3 CG Archery (and Gunpowder) Units on a hilled city with Castle getting +100% defense.

Synergy with Corporations, Events or Quests?

A Miracle performed near the wall gives it +1 gold. All you need to trigger that is A walled city a State Religion. Given the starting tech of Mysticism, I would imagine this happens for the Celts, much more often than not, especially with Religious Brennus.

Then, if you like to build a Castle as well, you are looking good for a quest that is well worth trying to trigger with the knowledge of Engineering, an already good warmonger tech. You have until Rifling, Railroad, or Economics (the Castle obsoleting tech) to build the default number Castles. Your reward is to choose from all Melee units gaining the City Garrison 1 promotion, a +3 Attitude gain with all AIs you have met or if you control the Great Wall gain +25 Espionage points. You might have tried the GW GG gambit and could use the EPs to catch up on your techs, but remember that CG Melees are not normally possible and now you have CG G3 Gallics to help hold new acquisitions. This is huge! You could have CG Pikeman on hilled, Castled city. For the AI attack, Mounted Units need not apply.

Possible Drawbacks?

It's a nice bonus with not any real drawbacks other than being obsolete with Rifling, but by then you will have all the G3 units you need. I know there are many who dislike this UB, the UU, and this civ for playing, but I suspect that the arrival of Boudica has converted a few. The key is leveraging the advantage on the battlefield into an advantage in the bedroom. What? Oh, Boudica you sultry, little banshee. What I meant to say was, turning it into an advantage elsewhere in your game.

Summary:

For warmongering or pillaging/protecting resources no matter what the goal this UB can provide you with units that will have an advantage on hills. How you use those units, promote or upgrade them will depend on your goals, immediate and future needs and terrain/resources. The strength in this UB is the versatility it provides. I predict that Boudica's traits will make the Celts a more attractive Civ to play as. She will be a warmonger's dream and possibly one of the most fierce of opponents. Outside of early warmongering to translate into a larger and more productive empire or simple quick conquests, there is not much this UB can do other than help one explore a hilly map more quickly.



Chinese Pavlion (Theatre - double production for Creative leader):

The undisputed culture building king of the cultural UBs. Cultural victory fans must have thought they hit the bigtime when they saw this beauty. Aside from the +3 culture the it gives +25% for culture in the city.

Possible Synergies:

What makes the pavilion the culture champion is the +25% bonus continues throughout the game and so the quicker the culture from other buildings can be added to the city, the better. Imagine a few early wonders, religions, libraries and the pavilion themselves with their culture doubling and then the added 25%. Sure, it's not game breaking, but one might not feel as obligated to crank the culture switch or convert to Free Speech as quickly with the bonus this UB gives.

The traits of the leaders don't really work that well with this building, but it does ensure no matter what that nearby resources our yours. This allows you to pursue the late game win conditions such as diplomatic, space race or a late conquest. Or more likely, early in the game you will have more resources than otherwise and you can dictate the trade terms and stifle the AI by denying them that one precious Iron, Uranium, Oil or Aluminum as the case may be.

Although not able to overly accelerate the cultural win time frame, this building I have found to be quite amazing for domination games. With a few founded religions and no state religion and a pavilion, you just keep pumping out settlers and units and let the borders expand like your waistline after college.

Synergy with Corporations, Events or Quests?

There are a few events which result in more revenue or culture applied to the Theatre. Now imagine the culture doubling event before it's been around long enough to double. So after a while, the +6 culture should conceivably double to +12, and then with the +25%, that is +15! Just make sure that you have enough money sitting around to pay for a quick rebuilding if some inconsiderate smoker burns it down!

Covering a larger land area means that you will be able to broker more resources, trading away the ones you don't need to ensure that your corporations get the resources they need to be more successful. This make you more of a Space Race candidate, especially given the Industrious and Expansive leaders.

Possible Drawbacks?

Other than pursuing a cultural/domination victory or claiming resources, there in not much extra outside of the normal Theatre uses/features. Even in a cultural game, it is not enough to be a real advantage because of China's leader traits or starting techs. You cannot take over a city and have its Theatre convert to a Pavillion for you because of the culture it generates. This is a drawback not faced by most other UBs which can be converted and remain in a conquered city.

Summary: What you see is what you get. Nothing to really want to you play China any more than you normally would, except maybe for a quicker domination win or being a resource hog and super businessman/diplomat.



Dutch Dike (Levee):

The Dutch UB, the Dike replaces the Levee which itself, is a new building introduced in Beyond the Sword. The Levee is available with Steam Power and gives +1 production on every river tile and costs 180 hammers. It brings up some interesting choices and debates regarding tiles improvements to say the least. Meanwhile, the Dike also gives the +1 production boost to all water tiles as well. Any coastal city will greatly benefit and the great thing is that it does not need to be a coastal city either. Therefore even cities one tile in from the coast or with small lakes will still have water tiles gaining the bonus.

Possible Synergies:

With Willem being Financial, the choice to build cottages on river tiles might appear to be a no-brainer, but later, players often will want increased production and build watermills, Windmills or Lumbermills in their place. As this is a BtS civ, let us not forget the tweak on State Property and changes made to the Economy civics that can give more food or production and the potential conflict between SP, Free Market, Environmentalism or even others like Universal Suffrage or Free Speech. There are many interesting choices and combination for players to debate, but early cottages still would seem the way to go at least until the options open up. The great thing about the Dike (or Levee for that matter) is that it gives a production bonus to the tiles regardless of improvement. Now, imagine a Dutch coastal city on a river with towns, a Dike, Universal Suffrage, Organized Religion and in a Golden Age. Imagine the Bureaucracy bonus on that too. Some late wonders and project races just got a little easier to win. Also, the Moai Statues are like a Production-Colossus in that city does not expire. Some great production synergy exists in that MS city and I would recommend that be your chief Naval Unit producer. You should been able to have a larger, more advanced navy than most.

Synergy with Corporations, Events or Quests?

Being creative will mean that holding on to Plantations, Mines or other high food/income/production tiles. This means you will have the monopoly on many resources and able to trade for your Corporation resources. Being financial likely means you will locate and develop resources sooner and that you will found corporations sooner. Sid's Sushi, Civilized Jewelers and Creative Constructions can supplement your cultural aspirations or Cereal Mills Mining Inc. can give the food/production boost for UN or Space Race victories.

The only event or quest which jumps out as working well with this UB might be the Overwhelm quest. Having high production coastal cities means that you should be able to secure the goal of producing all those modern Naval and Air Units and cash in with +5 gold in Harbours or Combat I promotions for all those units, making you an even greater naval power.

Possible Drawbacks?

Being financial, building on rivers would be your goal anyway, but any city without rivers or water tiles will have absolutely no use for this UB and therefore it will likely be quite map dependent in its effectiveness. Even if they have 2-4 river tiles that would benefit, you might want to weigh the 180 hammer cost before putting them everywhere. I usually build them when nothing else is pressing in those cities, but prioritize them elsewhere, helping to build factories. The UB does come quite late, but of course later in the game is when things start to cost more hammers too. Then again, the Financial trait should mean a quicker path to the required tech.

Summary:

The only thing better than extra happiness is extra production, so if your map allows for this opportunity, any goal whether it be pumping out military units, settlers and workers, wonders or spaceship parts. While only of use to cities with river tiles, to take full advantage of this UB, one would need to build more coastal cities or at least not be in the middle of the continent, and settling on a river could now take precedent over claiming a resource or choke point. While the Carthaginians are probably the best early game sea-faring civ, the Dutch are clearly the best Modern Era civ for naval domination. Their teching and production abilities make them a tough military or spaceship opponent. :smooke:



Egyptian Obelisk (Monument):

This Egyptian monument can turn two citizens into priests. It is pretty powerful for early in the game. Even if Egypt doesn't start with Mysticism, they have the ability to build the very first building with the ability to assign specialists. You could use the GPs produced to techbulb (TM ) yourself to whatever your little heart desires.

Possible Synergies:

One could argue that with Hatshepsut, the creative +2 culture bonus would negate the +1 culture from the obelisk, but you could also spin it to being equivalent to a Theatre culture-wise. Then again, with cheap Temples, Theatres, and Libraries you can't help but go for a Cultural victory.

The obelisk might better complement the industrious and spiritual Rameses II. He can build quick wonders like Oracle and Stonehenge and maybe a cultural victory could be sought since you could really crank out Great Prophets. One further thing could be to settle those prophets and once you have Angkor Wat and cheap Forges from Industrious Ramses, you have a great chance for the space race victory or just high production warmongering. Even if you don't go those routes, the extra production for other things can work well like buildings wonders for cultural (with either leader) or building the UN.

The great prophets that you can generate quickly from the priest specialists allow you to claim several of the mid to late religions, while you tech the earlier ones as they are prerequisites. This is one of the key features you tend to want to accomplish when going for a Cultural or Religious victory. By the way, starting with the Wheel means early roads to help spread religions via trade and help all those quick missionaries. Once you get 2-3 religions you don't to worry this building going obsolete as it has served it's purpose, but not necessarily. In BtS, it does not obsolete until Astronomy and some games don't even last that long! The strategy is similar to that of the Madrassa, but you can do this much earlier. In addition to cheating, how do you think the AI gets so rich? Check out some cities. I have seen 4-5 GPs settled. Your early running of priests from the Obelisk allows this. With Angkor Wat, priests are just as good as engineers, except they have a gold bonus too! Being Spiritual, getting those religions, and having multiple temples means you can have both production and commerce by assigning many priests without running Caste System. You are free to be a slave driver or run Emancipation for faster cottage growth, meaning more money in addition running Universal Suffrage to give the +1 hammer per cottage for more production. With all the temples, happiness is not an issue. Even without AW, one really starts to see why the AI can be extreme zealots, it works and even earlier and therefore more effectively with Egypt.

Finally, building Stonehenge puts an Obelisk in every city, so newly captured cities not only get the instant culture boost, but the Priest specialists can help build Courthouses, Granaries, Theatres, Temples, Forges, etc. more quickly to get them contributing to your empire faster.

Synergy with Corporations, Events or Quests?

There are too many events and quests involving religions and religious building to mention here, but certainly this UB will allow the opportunity for a more flavourful and varied gaming experience. There is, however, one event which only effects Egypt. Until Printing Press, a city producing at least 30 culture per turn without the State Religion or any Palace-like buildings (Capital, FP, Versailles) has the chance of producing a Dissident Priest. I have had this once, and luckily I had the money to avoid the angry faces and instead, I got +2 research and +2 culture in all my libraries. Hatty's quick Libraries will have more of an impact, but it's still pretty sweet.

Possible Drawbacks?

Great Prophets will only techbulb (TM ) you to the mostly religious techs and that might not always be the way to go. Although by neglecting certain techs, you can get Civil Service for example.

Most UBs don't get obsoleted. The earliest possible one to build can also the first one obsoleted. Although one can ignore Calendar, the obsoleting tech for the UB for some time, eventually you may want/need to develop those sugar, spices and incense tiles. In Beyond the Sword, it becomes obsoleted with Astronomy, so it is possible depending on one's strategies and goals to avoid that tech all together. If you have many religions and temples as a result of your early GPs then you can still obsolete the Obelisk and assign your GPs from your temples. An Obelisk can only assign two anyway; having five religions in the city, mean assigning five GPs. It's what you choose to do with those priests you assign, that really affects the game.

You cannot capture a city and have its Monument convert to an Obelisk because of the culture it generates. This is a drawback not faced by most other UBs which can remain in a conquered city. Obsoleting Stonehenge means the Obelisks not physically built a city will disappear, whereas hard building them means they will stay, their base culture will double in time and you have the two Priest slots. It is not a great deal for some victory conditions depending on your strategy, but it is something to consider. In non-BtS versions gifting Calender to Egypt could hurt them.

Summary:

Great Prophets early, can be a tech boost, but unless you are surrounded by food bonuses, you won't be able to assign those priests anyway. BtS gives a longer lasting UB and a Religious Victory in addition to strong strategies for other victory conditions. With practice, it could be used quite effectively.



Ethiopian Stele (Monument):

This Ethiopian monument can give +25% culture in addition to the +1.

Possible Synergies:

This UB probably screams cultural victory, but the 25% bonus won't really matter until much later in the game. Also, in BtS the obsoleting tech is Astronomy which can be avoided for some time so long as you don't plan on colonizing another continent. One can play a cultural victory without ever researching and discovering or trading for it, so this bonus would be added for the entire game. Being Organized, the ability to settle new cities more quickly would be helped by any additional cultural boundaries pushing further out. With key resources claimed, the cheap Factories will use the resources to build spaceship components or military units much more quickly.

Building Stonehenge will put this UB in every one of your cities. Now, this is truly a thing not to miss if you want to try for a domination or conquest victory. The early culture in newly captured cities means you can instead concentrate on his quickly built Courthouses, Libraries and Theatres to get them productive ASAP. Remember, Zara Yaqob is Creative so the 25% in the beginning is not that big of the deal, but with the +2 culture per city, cheap Libraries and Theatres in no time it will have an impact. When you consider that with his Organized trait and UU, warmongering is a very delicious option. Again, ignoring Astronomy might need to be done, but your domination victory might not even take that long. Even if you advance past that, the early work building up the culture was done and should be hard to flip. You have secured the resources you need for success and you could even settle into a nice, Space, Diplo or Time Victory.

Synergy with Corporations, Events or Quests?

Covering a larger land area means that you will be able to broker more resources, trading away the ones you don't need to ensure that your corporations get the resources they need to be more successful. Being creative will mean that holding on to Plantations, Mines or other high food/income/production tiles. This means you will have the monopoly on many resources and able to trade for your Corporation resources. This gives you the versatility to pursue the food/production boost for UN or Space Race victories, or use the culture producing corporations and the +25% bonus (with others buildings) to culturally pressure those around you, causing more resources and/or cities to come your way.

Possible Drawbacks?

Zara Yaqob does not start with Mysticism, the prerequisite tech. He might not found any religions, but can have a significant cultural bonus, long before any cathedrals can even be built. Most UBs don't get obsoleted and the earliest possible one to build could have it's lifespan shortened depending on your tech path. Obsoleting Stonehenge means the Stelae not physically built a city will disappear and you have now lost the +25% culture boost in those cities. Only if you hard build them will they stay, keep the +25% bonus and double their culture over time. It is not a great deal for some victory conditions depending on your strategy, but you should consider this. In cultural games, I hard build in my 3-4 cities no matter the civ.

You cannot capture a city and have its Monument convert to a Stele because of the culture it generates. This is a drawback not faced by most other UBs which can remain in a conquered city. Perhaps a better alternative would be to hard build as many as possible and then capture the Stonehenge city. This would allow for quick culture growth in newer frontier or conquered cities, but retain the base culture in your core cities you reach Astronomy. It will depend on your opponents, strategies and goals. In any victory condition, the quick land grab would be a huge boost. Of course, one requires religions or other cultural buildings to really benefit from the UB. Although one can ignore Astronomy, the obsoleting tech for the UB for some time, eventually you may want/need to expand to other continents or build observatories to boost your science level.

Summary:

The UB is useful as it gives you the resources you want early on in the face of cultural powerhouses, and might be enough to retain or even capture resources culturally. The true strength of this UB depends on what else is build in the city and then what you do with it.


English Stock Exchange (Bank):

The Stock Exchange gives the an extra 15% gold bonus to what a Bank normally does for a total of +65%. With two financial leaders to choose from this is a very versatile UB. You can go Philosophical with Liz or Imperialistic with Vicky.

Possible Synergies:

No matter what you chose for your victory path, commerce drives research. Add markets and grocers means a total 115% gold increase. Even warmonger Churchill will benefit, but Financial really exploits this UB. What is great about this UB compared to the Carthaginian Cothon is that you needn't only build on the coast and so you can use this on any map and whereas the Cothon only give +50% bonus to the trade routes; the 65% bonus from the SE is cumulative with other buildings. You likely want most if not all of your cities on the coast, as there is usually more lucrative tiles in the water (outside of FP cottages) especially if you build the Colossus and Great Lighthouse, but Gold, Gems or luxury resources are great too. FP beavers are nice. Up to Airports and the right civics and you can have 7 trade routes in a city and Wall Street. Cottage spam and run Emancipation, Universal Suffrage and Free Market and you will be laughing all the way to the bank! Er, make that all the way to the Stock Exchange.

You can adjust the slider to put this extra income into more research, culture or in BtS, more espionage or you can store up money for unit upgrades, rush buying or a rainy day fund.

Synergy with Corporations, Events or Quests?

There are simply dozens of event or quests that could add to city or civ income. Choosing more income every time could really add up with any civ, Financial leader or not, but this UB makes sure you have an extra 15% of any extra income and has a greater or more direct impact than any other financial UB as it is civic independent.

Possible Drawbacks?

Um, how about "no?" Money makes the world go 'round! Liz could be either a CE or SE leader, but the UB seems to call more for a CE. Hybrid economies could be the compromise that works best for her.

Summary:

England starts with fishing and mining, so look out. Coastal tiles and Mines in no time. Not sure what else can be said here. I think ABBA said it best: "Money, Money, Money" $$$$



French Salon (Observatory):

The Salon is an observatory which gives a free artist. It might not seem like much, but it can be quite nice, perhaps even outside of a cultural victory.

Possible Synergies:

Louis can build Libraries, Theatres, and Colosseums at half production cost, but let's see what a Salon can do for him. If you want a free Artist specialist, given the anarchy caused by switching to Mercantilism, perhaps going from Liberalism to Astronomy makes sense. Even with the wait, you can build your UB which gives a free Great Artist, rather than going through Anarchy to get it. Of course you have to build these Salons, but they are cheaper than Universities and with the Sistine Chapel the free Great Artist gives more culture for the same amount of science boost (+25%). But, maybe you do want to switch to Mercantilism so you can have another type of GP. If not, then you have got two free artists with the Salon and the Statue of Liberty is not that far away with Lous' cheap Forge from his Industrious trait. Either way you could have 2-3 free artists, not to mention the others you could assign from the Theatre. This means you can run something other than Caste System. And for a science boost, why not run Representation with those free artists? Use a Library, Salon and Uni to beeline for the ECWs and you are laughing. C'est formidable! C'est magnifique! D'accord?

The building may be useful for late game wars by ensuring that your borders keep strategic resources for you. As any leader, running representation with Salon's free artist makes sense for Space Race victories.

Synergy with Corporations, Events or Quests?

Although culture as mentioned above with other UBs in maintaining control of corporation resources, I don't think the Salon would make that much of an impact.

Possible Drawbacks?

Not sure what Napoleon or de Gaulle would do with the free artist other than maintain culture borders on resources on a crowded map, but then again you could build a cheap Theatre in the likely small city first. The Salon is like an observatory, so keeping up the tech pace to have more advanced troops might be desirable. You could however have your larger cities producing GAs and go and culture bomb you new acquisitions. If you want other GPs, then perhaps the Salon will pollute your GPPs, so beware.

Summary:

There are likely some other possibilities to be discussed as there seems to be lacking a certain "je ne sais quoi?", but this UB should not be taken lightly.

 

[WilliamOfOrange]

German Assembly Plant (Factory - double production for Organized leader):

The Assembly Plant is a factory which can change 4 citizens into engineers instead of just two. It also has +50% production speed with Coal, which by now you have already located and connected to your trade network. Die Frage ist: "Mit welchem Führer möchten Sie spielen?"

Possible Synergies:

Which leader? Well, take your pick. This UB complements both leaders very, very nicely and is the most synergistic combo of both leaders and
their UB of all the civs in the game (with apologies to the two Queens of England). This UB is all about output, production and power. Was sind die Stärken jedes Führers? What are each leader's strengths?

Otto von Bismarck: Expansive and Industrious. His +2 health per city will be needed to offset production buildings that cause pollution. Later in the game, health counts and is needed. Bismarck can be a warmonger with a huge empire and pumping out units like nobody's business or cranking out spaceship parts while eyeing Alpha Centauri. Bizzy gets Granary, Harbour and Forge at double production speed. Notice how the pollution from the Forge and Plant is offset by two cheap health providing buildings. In BtS, we have the more pollution from Factories and Industrial Park which brings in pollution stacked depending on your resources, but we also have Mass Transit and things to counter.

Frederick: Organized and Philosophical. With cheap Lighthouses, Courthouses, Universities and cheap Factories...or in this case these very Assembly Plants, Freddy is a powerhouse! With Coal, he can build his UB a +150% faster just on his own. There hasn't been a German industrial influence like this since Kraftwerk! I say span out, get the economy/research going and prepare for the space age! With the Assembly Plant costing 250 hammers and just considering these bonuses, it would be like building these babies for 166 hammers! The reason space age would be so synergistic is the 100% increase in GPs being produced. So you could be farming scientists and engineers on your GP farm and building your high production cities elsewhere to have those engineers settle. Ideally, if you had 2-4 food sources with some production bonuses, you would be in good shape. Ich denke dass ich lieber als Freddy spiele.

The percentages of production increase for buildings and civics will be the same for all civs. With some good food sources you will max out your eight engineers (assuming IW) and likely have some priests too. You can have 3 more free Engineers from building the SoL, an IP and running Mercantilism. BtS introduces Levees, production from Corporations, etc. but again, it's all equal for each civ. The point is that you will build your superior Factory sooner and be able to assign more engineers than anyone, getting the jump on everyone. Finally, let's imagine Philosophical Freddy in Pacifism and a National Epic in his Ironworks city, with all those Engineer slots filled during a Golden Age (increased GPP production). The only civ who could even comes close is the AI playing as the other German leader! Remember, specialists do not cause pollution!

Finally, when capturing an enemy city, if their Factory survives, it will become an Assembly Plant. This means that you can assign those Engineer specialists immediately to rebuild lost buildings.

Synergy with Corporations, Events or Quests

Besides benefiting from Corporations like everyone else, there are events that have synergy with this UB. Better Coal gives you the choice of +4 production from Coal Plants or +2 production AND +1 health from Drydocks. A +4 production boost would almost make the pollution worth it. You could disconnect your Coal, and still have the +4, but without Power and losing two of the unhealthiness. Or when you eventually build a Hydro Plant or the Three Gorges Dam, the +4 will stay, but the power will be clean (no pollution from power). Or if you want another building to have a greater impact, the Drydock now has its pollution negated and +2 production. Depending on your map, resources and plans you can chose what you like, but this would almost be overpowering for a German civ to receive. The Overwhelm event as described in the Carthage and Dutch UB sections is similarly easy for the German civ.

Possible Drawbacks?

Any other victory condition other than Space or Conquest don't seem to fully utilize this late game UB. Peace-mongering can leave it pretty much not even worth building. With a lack of health resources, having a Forge, this UB, the IP and Ironworks or other power plants might not be feasible.

Summary:

Given the right conditions and goals, this UB is quite useful and as stated before is a perfect match for not just one leader, but both of them. Freddy gets the slight edge thus far as it is possible to build it for two-thirds the cost. If you are playing games that end early, this UB doesn't matter, nor their UU. The plan with Germany is perhaps to maximize the leader traits to set up an über-strong infrastructure and then once the UUs and UBs can be built later in the game, go hog-wild and blitzkrieg them all! Wunderbar!



Greek Odeon (Colosseum - double production for Creative leader):

In addition to the +1 happiness per 20% culture and for the same price as a Colosseum, this UB gives +3 culture, an additional +1 happiness to the base +1 of a Colosseum, can turn 2 citizens into artists and gives +1 happiness for hit singles.

Possible Synergies:

Basically this means this is a more expensive Theatre even with the patch dropping the cost 80 hammers. In fact, that is exactly what it is, just replacing Dyes with Hit Singles and making it one happy face per 20% culture slider. The extra price for admission compared to Theatres is the hit single happiness, which in short games won't matter, but if you have the culture slider up to even 20%, the city already has +3 happiness which is as much as a Theatre with Dyes. Creative Pericles will build them both cheap, so there is no real choice. As with the Mall, I like the idea of killing two birds with one stone; the hit singles giving a Greek city with an Odeon and Broadcast Tower a total +3 happiness for the same resource. Because it is +1 happy face per 10% for Theatres/BT and 20% for the Colosseum/Odeon, that means if you raise the culture slider the happiness is increased by 5 for every 20%. If you have the three buildings, dyes and hit singles (either import or export) we are talking +9 happiness for a mere 20% culture (One more than another civ would get).

The extra 3 culture is the big deal. Greece now instantly becomes a Cultural victory contender with the price of the Colosseum/Odeon dropped, both leaders building cheap Universities and Pericles building faster Theatres and Odeons, perhaps early enough to get the culture doubled and make a nice impact once multipliers are added. Using either Pericles' or Alex's philosophical trait, you can farm your Great Artists (my best is 16), lending again to a cultural victory more easily. Remember, that with the Odeon you can assign two more GAs in addition to the 2 from the Theatre. This means you can run something other than Caste System and still run 4 GAs. Pericles is Creative and Philosophical, making him the only leader to have cheap Libraries and Universities. He is the biggest cultural contender of the BtS leaders introduced with traits and his four cheap culture buildings, including Greece's Odeon. He is a much better choice for the Greeks to win a Space or Diplomatic game, at least in a more peaceful way. His cheap Library and Uni make him a true philosopher (Philosophy, from Greek: lover of knowledge/wisdom) for a tech race. A tech lead can be useful for anything victory sought.

For the warmonger in all of us, Construction might be more attractive than Drama as it also gives Catapults, War Elephants and leads to Engineering. The hit singles don't kick in until later, but it's nice to have that as a back up. With big happiness possibilities early and late, you can run Representation or Universal Suffrage and not worry about War Weariness. The Odeon can give newly captured cities the same affect of culture and happiness from the Theatres without researching a tech which is not high on any warmonger to-do-lists. And if you capture a city in which a Colosseum and it survives, it automatically becomes your own culture producing Odeon! That newly acquired city's border with pop sooner and you can build other things rather than the obligatory Theatre.

Synergy with Corporations, Events or Quests?

There is an event where a gladiator can be cashed in on or you can arrange for easy opponents and raise the culture of the building. When going for a cultural victory, even better is the Sports League Quest. With enough Odeons built, you can either have them give +1 happiness or +4 culture. Available with Construction, this is one of my favourite quests and I never fail it.

Possible Drawbacks?

Well, why not just build a Theatre (50) for slight more than half the price (80)? Drama comes right after Alphabet, a useful tech, whereas you need Math and then Construction for the Odeon and they can be slightly most expensive to research. In BtS, Aesthetics replaces Alphabet and you have to choose between those two and Math after you have writing. You can't really beeline, Drama and Construction. Well, as stated above the warmonger might like the Construction route. However, you do need Drama in order to activate the culture slider, so again the base +3 happiness from the Odeon is nice for a while. Slingshotting for Construction just for the UB is a waste, unless you plan on used it to it's fullest. This means building Cats, Elephants, Bridges and as a step to Engineering's quicker road movement, Pikes and Trebs. Trade away any extra happiness resources to form alliances or get other resources you want like production or strategic ones. For a Cultural victory it might be wise to pursue that after getting your GA from Music if you want to beat the AI to it since you would already have Math, but I won't try it the other way around on higher levels if you want the free GA.

Summary:

Makes Greece go from non-contender culturally to a interesting choice for experimenting. Domination wins are looking good too, and Space and Conquest really are not affected on lower levels. The Odeon does little to complement Alexander's traits unless on high levels with more unhappiness and War Weariness to be offset from buildings. Remember the +9 swing with Theatre/Dyes, Odeon, BTs and hit singles. Makes Eiffel Tower's free BT in every city more appealing and extra happiness can be converted into flexibility in trades, more whipping and warring. One cannot argue with more happiness.



Holy Roman Empire Rathaus (Courthouse - double production for Organized leader):

This UB is a courthouse with a total of 75% reduction in maintenance costs. It also allows you to build the Forbidden Palace with only 4 cities on a standard map. It also gives +2 Espionage points and allows you to turn one citizen into a Spy.

Possible Synergies:

Charlemagne is Imperialistic, which means quicker settler production. Not much better synergy than a UB which allows for more cities sooner without hurting your economy, since he is not Organized. It also means greater chance of GG appearances. Couple that with the protective trait and he will be in position to either maintain a large empire and pursue more peaceful victories or, be a major warmonger. The protective trait gives cheaper walls and castles and just imagine those beefed up Pikemen, the Landskneckt, behind them. On a hill even!

We have also only begun to explore the mechanics of espionage, but giving +2 espionage points and the ability to turn a citizen into a spy like a Courthouse does is almost a throw in after the increased maintenance reduction. As a warmonger, this new feature of producing great spies has some definite synergy.

As I suggested with the Aztecs, I would gift CoL to everyone before I attacked them. If their Courthouse survives your capture, it becomes a Rathaus. You will be able to conquer faster as the maintenance costs are instantly reduced rather than having to build it. You can go right into Granaries or units. And don't forget that the Forbidden Palace is available with fewer cities. Use that to your advantage.

Synergy with Corporations, Events or Quests?

The lowered maintenance costs mean that you can make more of a profit with Corporations. Your particular Economy civics will have an effect as well. More details need to be researched.

The Too Close to Call Event gives the player a choice of either +1 gold or +3 culture in all Courthouses. All you need to trigger it is to be into the Renaissance Era and running Universal Suffrage. I assume the warmonger would prefer the gold, however popping borders in certain cities might make one lean towards the culture. Then when you capture a city and their Courthouse survives, you get an instant border pop in addition to the lowered maintenance.

Possible Drawbacks?

The ability for rapid expansion and a much sooner available Forbidden Palace does not conjure up any real disadvantages as Charlemagne's traits and the Empire's UU really complement each other.

Summary:

The ability to have a larger empire give the flexibility to settle near important resources and map locations and strive for any victory condition. Starting techs might allow for good Religious Victory games. The UB makes for a monster with Corporations and can mean faster teching, more income, more troops supported, just name it.



Incan Terrace (Granary - double production for Expansive leader):

A granary that gives culture. Quite a cool UB, nothing special on the surface but is even more of an impact than one might suspect. Why?

Possible Synergies:

Well, you likely would build a granary anyway especially if whipping. Secondly, it is available with pottery and for financial Huayna Capac, the cottage spamming and culture producing Terrace allowed by this tech is a great choice for the first thing to research. The Terrace will accumulate enough culture from building early enough in the game to give +4 culture per turn.

Building a culture producing granary, means you can concentrate totally on growing and expansion and not worry about other borders encroaching your resources, you will get them back or never even lose them. You will get the BFC much faster and not have to rush Monuments or Temples/Theatres until later, once you have larger cities from the Terreaces stored food. In fact, Stonehenge is now practically useless, except for the GPP it helps you get. In non-BtS versions there is no need to build SH and then avoid Calendar in order to keep the culture for brand new cities. You don't want to delay the chance to build Plantations or Wineries as those babies are what the Financial trait thrives on. However, in BtS Stonehenge and Monuments expire with Astronomy, so that may be moot now.

When you capture a city normally, what do you do? Build a Theatre for culture and the Granary takes a back seat. For small cities this means delaying growth, but they recover soon enough. The larger the cities you have conquered, the longer it takes them to recover from whipping buildings. If you have to whip a culture building, even a Monument and then a Granary, it will take a while to recover. So, building the Terrace gives you the culture and the growth increase at the same time. You are saving time and population compared to another civ doing the same thing. You want the choice of which tiles to place your citizens, because you are Financial and any Cottages/Towns, Plantations or Mines you can work ASAP are gold in your pocket. You use it to support/upgrade your forces or increase research/trade for resources. So having the extra pop from only rushing one building instead of two, pays huge dividends.

Need we mention that conquering a city that already has a Granary turns it into a Terrace? Due to some sort of oversight, that captured city's Granary's age contributes to the culture of your new Terrace and could even generate 4 per turn!

Synergy with Corporations, Events or Quests?

There is nothing directly related to a Granary or its replacement, however the culture produced will undoubtedly mean more resources to supply your Corporations.

Possible Drawbacks?
Not really any since as Huyana Capac you likely want to have pottery ASAP anyway.

Summary:

As outlined above, this UB offers some great opportunities for expansion and is flexible for what you want to do with it. It is a great UB for early claiming of land while growing and improving infrastructure by shortcutting build queues and allowing faster restoration of captured cities. Don't forget the Quechua will go out and conquer cities in the early game and instant growth and culture simultaneously is great.



Indian Mausoleum (Jail):

The Mausoleum UB comes with Constitution like its Jail counterpart and with -25% WW but in addition, it also gives +2 happiness. The manual states it gives +1 GPP and is more likely to produce a Great Prophet, but in playing Warlords, this is not true. In Beyond the Sword, both the Jail and the Mausoleum also give +4 espionage points and increase espionage point production by 50%, in addition allowing one to assign two Spy specialists.

Possible Synergies:

The Jail is high on a warmonger's wish list and the BtS version is sure to be even higher. I can see on higher levels how the happiness cap can be raised and WW reduced. If you have Police State this is a total of 75% reduction in WW, which is nothing to sneeze at if WW problems got you down. An Always War game would make great use of India's UB.

We have also only begun to explore the mechanics of espionage, but giving +4 espionage points and the ability to turn two citizens into this a Spy is almost a throw in after the reduced war weariness. Running Nationhood now has the added bonus of another +25% espionage point production for a total of 75% with the jail/mausoleum, in addition to barracks giving +2 happiness and being able to draft 3 units per turn. As a warmonger, this new feature of producing great spies has some definite synergy.

Both leaders are spiritual. Organized Asoka can build larger empires early on and Philosophical Gandhi can pop GPs and build cheaper Universities. At first glance, the non-military unit UU and being contrary to real life, one might not think to warmonger with India and instead pursue Religious, Cultural or Diplomatic Victories, especially given the starting tech of Mysticism. They definitely excel in those areas, but they have traits, a UB and UU suited to conquer. The fast worker can give them a boost in the early game, but they will connect resources and create infrastructure sooner and refurbish conquered lands to your liking much quicker. Religious civs benefit from being able to switch civics on a whim and walk the line of builder and battler.

Synergy with Corporations, Events or Quests?

India's stating techs can lead to collecting religions and shrines. There are plenty of events and quests to leverage a benefit from them. If you are building this UB with espionage in mind, there are several related events which can give you more EPs or will cash in on the ones that you have already saved up. There is however an event in which your city can be unhappy with the fear of a prison break.

Possible Drawbacks?

You might not read much about people playing as India to conquer the world and wage war, but the undisputed champion of a Future Era HOF gaunlet was Asoka. This UB is still like a normal Jail, except for the +2 happiness. I am not sure how many players will build them in Warlords, but those EEs will definitely use them in BtS. Even without warring, the extra happiness is something no other civ can have, and is an advantage when all else is equal.

Summary:

This UB got a serious boost in usefulness in BtS and has now clinched India as equally adept in any victory path.



Japanese Shale Plant (Coal Plant):

A Coal Plant gives power (electricity) to the city which adds to the factory's production bonus of 25% an additional 50% at a cost of +2 . You need a factory for the Coal Plant or the Japanese Shale Plant, however the Shale Plant itself gives its own +10% production as well. This means a 85% bonus with the two buildings for the same price as other civs who only get 75%. The real bonus however is that while Coal Plants requires coal to produce this power, the Shale Plant does not and so if you don't have that resource, you can still have power even with the +2 pollution. Both the Factory and Shale Plant can be built once you have discovered Assembly Line.

Possible Synergies:

Depending on your base production, things can get quite a productive boost, but if you were to whip or buy these buildings into a low production city it might make a huge difference as well. Conquering a city with a Coal Plant in it, may change it into your Shale Plant. The percentages with other buildings are the same for all civs, except for the extra 10%. The extra 10% production will obviously mean more for larger cities or a larger base production from whatever specialists or civics you are running.

Being Aggressive and Protective, Tokugawa's units start off well promoted and this makes warring an attractive choice. For late game wars, there likely isn't a unit that can't be pumped out in 1 or 2 turns. And space race can be just as great a goal. For a Diplomatic game you want to beeline for MM and would likely miss this UB.

Given that it is a late game UB, it is quite useful for the fact that coal is not required to get the +60% production, while other civs need coal to get their +50% from power. Three Gorge Dam will put a Hydroplant in each city, making Coal and Nuclear Plants useless. Than again, you likely want Coal so that you can railroad your Mines, Quarries and Lumbermills. Not much of a benefit if you look at it that way, but until you do get coal, you have +60% production boost, that other civs would not have.

Of course, in BtS you don't need Coal for Railroads. You can build them with Oil instead. As Japan, you could avoid mining Coal and build railroads and Shale Plants to get the production bonuses, but with less pollution. It's almost an exploit, but in BtS with the addition of the National Park, this was a necessary change. It means the the Shale Plant plays a more interesting role. A National Park cuts off access to Coal in that city. It cannot have the Aluminum Co. and if the Ironworks are there, it only gets the Iron bonus. You can't normally build a Coal Plant there either, but the Shale Plant does not need Coal to be built. So the National Park actually makes the Shale Plant a more valuable UB, since you will be able to build it anywhere and give power to the NP city without waiting for other power plants. The Ironworks city would be Japan's only city affected by the production and pollution increases from being connected to Coal.

Just to get a better understanding on the pollution for buildings: Factories have a base pollution of +1 with +2 each for Coal and Oil. Meanwhile, the Industrial Park has a base of +2 with Coal and Oil each giving +1 pollution. So, both buildings will give +3 Pollution with both resources connected. This is how big an impact leaving Coal unconnected can be for Japan. Without it, you could still get the production bonuses and power by building a Factory and Shale Plant and the free Engineer from the Industrial Park but with extra 10% with 3 less pollution compared to other civs.

Synergy with Corporations, Events or Quests?

Besides benefiting from Corporations like everyone else to boost resources to increase, food, culture or production, there is one events that has huge synergy with the Shale Plant. Better Coal gives you the choice of +4 production from Coal Plants or +2 production AND +1 health from Drydocks. A +4 production boost is huge given the lack of a health penalty with this building. If you built Shale Plants first, then build a Hydro Plant or the Three Gorges Dam, the +4 production from the SP would remain, but the pollution penalty from having it connected is ignored. The Drydock option is less appealing as the SP makes extra health not as pressing, but it may help with the Overwhelm Quest. (see Carthage/Dutch entries)

Possible Drawbacks?

Other than having little health resources, which doesn't seem too likely by the time you research Assembly Line, there is no compelling argument to not to build this if you want to be a powerhouse. That being said, the leader traits are not that complementary with it. Not only that, it is a late game UB and some games you would not get the chance to use or even build it.

Summary:

Although not as overall as synergistic as the German Assembly Plant when it comes to leader traits, this UB serves a similar purpose and makes it hard not to compare. This one is a little more map dependent (due to the +10% hammer as apposed to 2 extra engineers assigned). Again for a late wonder, Space or Conquest victories greatly benefit. The addition of the National Park make this UB more important and more of an advantage.



Khmer Baray (Aqueduct):

The Baray UB comes with Mathematics and is an Aqueduct which gives +1 extra food.

Possible Synergies:

Extra food helps any leader, however, Suryavarman is Expansive. Building this UB would cause a double-whammy. Not only will it increase health to reduce any wasted food, but it allows for more growth. The city will grow larger as it has a higher health cap. More food also means taking advantage of the faster worker production. Being creative means claiming food resources to get the whole this going. Talk about cyclic benefits. And it gives some versatility: you can work production tiles without hurting growth, or this bonus is half a specialist. With a Lighthouse or Supermarket, that is a whole Specialist supported that a another civ's city would not be able to support. Or, extra food means faster recovery from whipping. Finally, this makes Khmer cities slightly less affected by pillaging of food tiles and global warming; you may even be more willing to settle in a Desert or Tundra heavy region to claim a choke point or valuable resources.

Synergy with Corporations, Events or Quests?

The Rural Farmers Event will give +1 food to a city's Grocer. Meanwhile, the Horse Whispering Quest gives you a chance for all Stables to produce +1 food. So, add either of these to the Baray and you have a(nother) specialist supported if you desire. Imagine getting the Stable bonus or Grocer event and having a Lighthouse, a Baray and a Supermarket. That means two specialists! Of course you could chose the faster growth too. Of course, the Baray's food bonus allows one to chose giving Sentry to all monuted units such as the Khmer's Ballista Elephant for that Quest rather than more extra food. Let's not forget any settled Great Merchants will contribute another +1 food. You have plenty of opportunities to grow those cities for a high population to raise your final scored then, but don't forget to collect resources to really get that population up. Corporations can be map dependent, but the Khmer already have enough to have larger populations, not forgetting the ability to steal resources culturally and trade for the Corporation resources that you need/want.

Possible Drawbacks?

Extra food, a disadvantage? One could even use Corporations and trade away food resources not needed. It is possible to have cities grow too fast and not have enough things to build or resources to keep them happy.

Summary:

Extra food is nothing to complain about as long as you have the health and happiness. Slavery fans would do well to exploit this extra growth and convert it into production, and the extra GPPs available can be a great boost as well.

 

[WilliamOfOrange]

Korean Seowon (University - double production for Philosophical leader):

This building costs the same and gives the same culture as a university, but it gives an extra +10% research.

Possible Synergies:

Wang Kon is Financial and so you can maximize this UB's usage by making sure you do all the things you would have done with him anyway. That means, cottage spamming and getting other high income tiles. You have the income boosting buildings and wonders and the science ones as well so take the advantage and go for a Diplomatic or Space win or keep you army further ahead in tech to protect your empire or add to it. Time Victories depend on Future Techs, so this is a great UB for those.

Synergy with Corporations, Events or Quests?

The Civ Game Event is a tongue-in-cheek event available with computers. Your people develop the game of Civ and you can add +1 happy face in all your cities, get +3 research in all your Universities or receive some gold. Come on, how cool is that? There are quite a few other events or quests, especially involving the prerequisite Libraries which can result in added research, so those modifiers can be enhanced with the Seowon. Actually, even with being Financial, any event which puts more income in your cities will be multiplied.

Possible Drawbacks?

More science can't ever be bad can it? It comes early/mid-game, but it's tech is needed for the Liberalism bee-line so it can come quite quickly if you want.

Summary:

Great advantage assuming you can build a nice SSC or several ones. You would usually build a University anyway, maybe now just a little sooner to really add to the tech lead (or perhaps a little later in the queue, knowing that you have the extra boost once it is built).



Malinese Mint (Forge - double production for Industrious leader):

This is a forge with an added 10% wealth increase and yet another UB for a Financial civ that has some great synergy. I would say that a lot of the strategies used with England's Financial leaders would be used here, but perhaps with a slight change. It's the same percentage bonus as the Stock Exchange, but because it comes earlier it may take some time before that 10% has the impact as the English UB.

Possible Synergies:

This building can come pretty early and Mansa Musa has a reputation for being a tech-whore as an AI. What is great about the boost is that even though it is only 10%, it is still an increase and once you tech your way to new civics, as a spiritual leader, you can totally take advantage immediately and not have wait until you can switch 2 or 3 at a time. Capturing a city with a Forge, could lead to an instant Mint.

Because it is a production building as well, and you would naturally build it early regardless of the 10% bonus. The Mint is more appealing, plus it is needed for many wonders, not the least of which is the Colossus giving +1 gold in all cities' water tiles. If you have trade routes going, as many as possible, markets, grocers, banks and Wall Street a rich city is made richer than another civ would be with the same city. Not only because of the wealth bonus, but because the Forge means building all of the other wealth increasing buildings faster.

More money, means faster discoveries, and Religious, Diplomatic and Space wins are the popular targets, however the Skirmisher can be a pretty good UU and even later, the extra wealth can be parlayed into better unit support and more/quicker upgrades. Even on higher levels, if you are lagging in the tech race, you will have more money to buy them, or more money to bribe the AI to do your bidding.

With 7 trade routes (as outlined earlier with Carthage), all the wealth buildings, great base tiles and maybe even some merchants or Great Merchants, you have plenty of income and the extra 10% could really have an impact.

Synergy with Corporations, Events or Quests?

The Master Smith event will give another +1 production just like if you had a normal Forge, however you are likely to have this UB built earlier so there is a slightly better chance of it happening. This is not to be confused with the Master Blacksmith quest in which you would build a certain number of Mints. Do it before the Renaissance and you chose either, 1 Copper resource revealed, all Swordsman units get the Shock promotion or if you have a state religion gain you get 1 engineer specialist in the triggering city. I imagine most people try the quests, but might not go out of their way if they deviate from the planned strategy. The first time I got this one (not as Mali), it was real tough to trigger it. I had to found another fringe city in a sub-par location just to build the last one. Meanwhile, as I waited for it to be done, I had to hold off on the tech path and risk losing the Liberalism race. Timing is key and giving the appeal of the UB, building them early will likely pay dividends if you are teching quickly.

Possible Drawbacks?

This UB doesn't expire, so it will continue to be useful and becomes more powerful as the game progresses because cities will grow and more lucrative trade routes are determined for the AI. The only drawback would be that there is no AI Mansa Musa to trade with!

Summary:

A money boosting UB is a good one and can really help out early. You can afford to expand a little quicker if you bankroll allows it. You would need to have some big cash tiles or plenty of cottages, but then again, you would build those anyway. As we used to say in high school: Mint!



Mayan Ball Court (Colosseum - double production for Creative leader):

The Ball Court gives +3 (instead of the Colosseum´s +1) and +1 per 20% culture.

Possible Synergies:

The extra happiness could be used to full effectiveness as a warmonger by skipping Drama and going for Construction, much like Alexander might do in using his Odeon. Having happy people means more tiles being worked for the financial Pacal II. A Theatre will give 2 happiness at 20% culture without Dyes, while the Ball Court gives +4 ! The best happiness UB would be the Hippodrome giving 5 at that rate (6 with horses). The Odeon will give that as well, but only with Hit Singles well later on. Of the Colosseum-based UBs, the Ball Court doubles the happiness of a normal Colosseum or Garden at 20%. Cathedrals gives +2 happiness for its State Religion and the Mausoleum has a +2 base, but the Ball Court is the only building with a +3 base and it is available, early and cheap. More happiness means working your high income tiles as a Expansive and Financial civ. This UB gives you the higher happy-cap to balance the higher health cap. The traits and starting tech combined with the flexibility the UB offers, means that Pacal can go for any victory condition desired.

Synergy with Corporations, Events or Quests?

There is an event where a gladiator can be cashed in on or you can arrange for easy opponents and raise the culture of the building. Now the UB would give happiness and culture. When going for a cultural victory, even better is the Sports League Quest. With enough Ball Courts built, you can either have them give +1 happiness or +4 culture. Imagine that: +4 base happiness! This really helps with the War Weariness and civs will be ready to negotiate peace before you.

Possible Drawbacks?

Although I have not played the Mayans that much, this UB is one of the coolest in terms of the historical accuracy in that it allows the cities to grow and flourish the way the Mayans once did. Taking it over the non-militaristic Drama/Theatre route is silly, unless going for a cultural victory. Of course if you have limited resources, the city grows fast or you are at war, this UB will make people happy and let you do anything.

Summary:

Extra happiness is always good, because it lets you pursue any victory you desire. You can combat war weariness or have large producing cities. There is great synergy with the Expansive trait. Faster workers and more health both gives faster growing cities which you can now handle. I am not sure what others think, but I would have to rate this a top tier UB.



Mongolian Ger (Stable):

The stable introduced in Warlords gives +2 XP for Mounted units build in the city and the Mongolian Ger gives +4 points. This UB is very appropriate and the affects are cumulative with Barracks, the Pentagon and other XP bonuses.

Possible Synergies:

Well, both Mongolian leaders are Aggressive which means cheaper barracks. We are already looking at +7 XP for mounted units and then if you factor in Theocracy and Vassalage: that's +11 all together. That is enough for 3 promotions before seeing any combat and any GG you settle and the Pentagon or West Point are just a bonus. I once conquered an AI city with 3 or 4 GGs and was producing sick units once the Barracks and Ger came online. Upgrading all the way through up to Calvary would be the idea and with the right promotions you should be able to keep most of your troops up until Rocketry. You could plan for the future and give promotions that complement your gunships, or use the advantage to conquer early. For a more in depth look, see this thread. In BtS, the Stable is made obsolete with Advanced Flight, thereby lengthening the use of this UB. The fact that Genghis Khan is also imperialistic means more GGs as long as you are warmongering.

This UB complements the UU, the Keshik and the civ itself unlike any other UB for the other civs. To build a Keshik you need Archery, Horseback Riding - which you need to build the Ger anyway - and of course Horses revealed by Animal Husbandry. The Mongol starting techs are Hunting and the Wheel. Hunting is the prereq for both AH and Archery.

Synergy with Corporations, Events or Quests?

The Horse Whispering Quest which can occur once you have Animal Husbandry and a Horse resource. Not many people build Stables ASAP perhaps, but the Ger is a must for the true Mongol experience, therefore chances are that if you get this, you won't mind building the required number of Gers. Now, each of the possible rewards is very synergistic with the Mongols: This is their quest and you will learn to love it when you get it as Mongolia. You can take +1 food from the Ger, which has synergies with Supermarkets, settled GMs or other GPs and corporations down the road and therefore use your aggressive conquering of the wimpy civs with your super-promoted Keshiks as a lead in to larger cities. You can either settle down for a Space/Diplo/Time victory or use the larger cities to fuel the war machine. I don't believe new cities get the bonus from the Quest, but conquering a city with a Stable remaining would give a serious boost and allow you recover quickly from the whip if it keeps its +1 food Stable which becomes a Ger for Mongolia. You can of course choose the free Keshiks - that's right free UUs. The Mongols are one of the few civs that can get their UUs (umpromoted) for free from a Quest. Finally you could give the Sentry promotion to all Mounted Units. I have not done this before, but it makes sense in the right situation. Your sneaky Keshiks have no terrain restrictions, so the extra line of sight makes your path decisions better and you can more easily avoid danger. Not only that, but remember that your Ger works for all Mounted Units. There would be no need to go up to Flanking I or Combat III for the Sentry and you can spend the XPs as you like. Any way you slice it, this is the quest for the Mongols.

Possible Drawbacks?

Mounted units are a large part of a balanced army, and the UB lasts fairly long, even longer in BtS. If other civs couldn't build Stables this might be overpowering, which is likely why the Stable was added for all civs as well. This UB maybe isn't as synergistic with Kublai, but it still leads to faster GGPs accumulation as higher promoted units win more. Although the UB does become obsolete, once fighting against Tanks some superpromoted helicopter upgraded from your Mounted Units could really help out.

Summary:

Having the extra XPs out of the gate helps to earn GG points faster and build wonders like the Heroic Epic and West Point. For warmongering this is a great UB, for other victory conditions, it would help one war early to collect more land and resources and then settle down into a more peaceful victory, or at least keep a stronger army for protecting cities while pursuing a peaceful victory. (But that is not why one plays the Mongols ) War, what is it good for? Huh! Building Gers



Native American (Totem Pole):

Another UB which replaces the Monument. This one gives +3 XPs to Archer units.

Possible Synergies:

Sitting Bull does not start with Archery or Hunting, but that is often traded for or even found from goody huts. The big deal is that he is Protective, giving his archers Drill I and City Garrison I before adding the +3 XP bonus from the Totem Pole. Much like the Dun or Ger, this UB will offer some flexiblity and unique possibility in upgrading units. This UB makes the Native Americans particularly difficult to conquer. Like the Egyptians, building Stonehenge will put the UB, which is basically a Ger for Archery units, in every one of your cities. This means an effective early Archer rush or holding off aggressive enemies without wasting time to build the Barracks as Totem are much cheaper. With the Barracks, however, every Archery Unit built there will be very tough to kill on a hill behind those Walls and Castles that Protective Sitting Bull can cheaply build, never mind when they get upgraded to gunpowder units! There are some great pillaging possibilities here. His Philosophical trait might mean that a few GA culture bombs give him some more defense or he is free to use them for whatever he wishes seeing as no one is going to stop him.

Let´s not forget the Dog Soldier UU (Axeman) with its strengths against Melee Units and also not requiring copper or iron. This UB practically gives two UUs to the Native Americans. Whether warmongering or trying to hang on against the AI on higher difficulty levels, this UB would be a key part of any strategy. Holding off on discovering Astronomy might be a prudent strategy if you are running into trouble. Imagine pumping out Archers, Longbowmen and Crossbowmen early game with the bonuses and then upgrading them to stronger units. They will have a slight XP advantage with all other factors equal, meaning they will promote earlier. Let's imagine the +6 with Totem and Barracks and then running Feudalism and Theocracy for a 10 XPs off the bat. That is enough for 3 promotions to start, never mind fighting off barbs (although I think barb battles will only take you up to 10 XP anyway) or lone, weakened enemy units. Any Great General settled in a city takes you that much closer to a fourth promotion and your Heroic Epic.

Synergy with Corporations, Events or Quests?

There are no events or quests which directly relate to the Totem, but getting an event like Bowyer (All Archery units gain Combat 1) or Stronger Fittings (All Crossbowman units gain Combat 1) happening in addition to your +6 XPs would great as the CI opens up things like Siege and Medic I (Shock, Pinch and Cover are accessible with Drill I). Units already given that CI won't be affected, but future units could be stored up promoted to have an impact once they upgrade to Gunpowder Units. Again, more on that here.

Possible Drawbacks?

Sitting Bull does not start with Mysticism, the prerequisite tech, nor does he start with Hunting the prereq for Archery. Most UBs don't get obsoleted. The earliest possible one to build can also be one of the first ones obsoleted, maybe it is not that much of a big deal if you play your cards right. Although one can ignore Astronomy, the obsoleting tech for the UB for some time, eventually you may want/need to explore and colonize other continents. By then you would have to have built all the archery units you anticipate needing and then work on upgrading them. You cannot take over a city and have its Monument convert to a Totem for you because of the culture it generates. This is a drawback not faced by most other UBs which can be converted and remain in a conquered city.

Summary:

I think building cheap archery units with promotions not available to gunpowder or siege units (machine gun) can pay dividends given the right military and geo-political considerations (see link above). Like the Mongols, outside of warmongering or building a military to protect your empire, this UB does not hold many other uses, but when used to their strengths they can give huge results.



Ottoman Hammam (Aqueduct):

Does this UB have Expansion written all over it or what? One can really concentrate on building a large empire with large cities a lot sooner with the extra 2 happiness this building supplies in addition to the +2 health. No need to worry about religions if you miss them or Drama if you prefer other techs. It's a building which answers happiness and health cap issues simultaneously. We all hate seeing and above the city bar.

Possible Synergies:

I feel Mehmed has the potential to be the best Expansive leader as he is Organized which means quick Lighthouses, Courthouses and Factories too. This means more food, less upkeep and more production, respectively from those buildings. This resultant larger population and therefore greater production, which leads to quicker unhappiness and pollution is further complemented by his Expansive trait which, in addition to +2 health per city, gives cheaper Granaries and Harbours which help reduce pollution and improve growth and economy. Those of you upset that the expansive trait was nerfed to only +2 health should stop your whining because this guy has 5, count'em five buildings to build cheaper and they all mean larger and more productive cities. The happiness cap becomes much higher for the Ottomans, and this is where the Hammam really shines, because it helps keep these larger cities happy and therefore more productive. If that is not enough, the faster worker production means an earlier hook up of resources for more production, happiness and health bonuses. But also remember the less time building workers, means more time growing in population, which means more reason for a Hammam. This building does not expire either and is required from the Hanging Gardens, which gives +1 pop and +1 health to all your cities!

As for newcomer, Suleiman, who is Imperialistic and Philosophical, making cities healthy and happy at the same time is great for the GP farming you might do with him. He doesn't have all the cheap buildings that Mehmed II has and his two traits sort of conflict when it comes to warmongering; GP farming with SE versus CE for fielding an army for GGPs. But his faster setter production is also a great thing for Domination and other victories and that is what the Hammam can give. Having many cities sooner and popping out GPs means a larger empire with abilities to conquer space or the world. He will have more cities, and larger, happier, cleaner ones at that.

Synergy with Corporations, Events or Quests?

There are no events or quests directly related to the Hammam, however, please see other civs for ideas of what to do with your extra health and happiness. There are plenty of things out there which will complement or be enhanced by the Hammam.

Possible Drawbacks?

It might not seem as powerful as other UBs, but you eventually build one anyway, at least in your larger, more polluted cities. With other civs, it is likely only the Hanging Gardens city that gets it, but this package is too great to pass up. Building it early for the happiness and letting the health cap grow at the same time seems the way to use it, rather than waiting for green faces. This just makes them happy so you can concentrate on building more units or science/production buildings. Let's face it: it's a drag to have to stop building units or wonders because of the unhappiness or health. Kill two birds with one stone: the Hammam. Cultural games where happiness is not much of an issue are still advantaged especially at higher levels. In fact, this building really makes a difference in higher levels where happiness and health caps are lower or on maps where happiness resources are not readily available to you. Further to that, in Warlords, you could delay discovering Calendar as you might not need the happiness from resources immediately and that means culture from Monuments or Stonehenge will last you a little longer.

Summary:

A strong UB which helps with supporting large cities for whatever reasons you may have: military powerhouse, GP farm, etc. If this was Civ3 where the Aqueduct was need to grow past size 6, this would be huge, but even though it is not needed for that, I really can't think of any drawbacks with this UB. It is a great building to help vertical growth for both leaders. Quite an excellent UB.



Persian Apothecary (Grocer):

The Apothecary, besides being the most difficult UB to pronounce, is a grocer that gives an additional +2 to the city. That is on top of the health from plantation resources. With a Granary, Harbour, Apothecary and the Supermarket you get health from rice, corn, wheat, clam, crab, fish, bananas, wine, sugar, spice, deer, cow, pig and sheep. So, for those of you not counting at home, that's 16 points! So that means the ability to build production-boosting, pollution-causing buildings. Late in the game with high populations and those buildings or even on higher levels, this can be useful. However, you may not be looking to have a late finishing game or want to detour for the late tech Refrigeration, especially if the Apothecary gives an intrinsic +2 health even without resources and so Supermarkets are not a necessity. That is pretty nice, no matter what level one plays on. You are afforded the option to trade away health resources for more important ones, such as: uranium, oil, iron, aluminum, etc.

Possible Synergies:

Being Imperialistic, Cyrus has faster settler production and this means more cities quicker. As a result there is likely to be more health resources claimed more quickly. Happiness is not the problem with this charismatic leader either, so where can this health bonus be applied the best? Well, highly populated and production oriented cities will benefit so that means space race or conquest/domination victories and/or GP farming.

Like Churchill or Tokagawa, Cyrus might be one of the ultimate warmongers with his traits. They allow faster XP accumulation and faster GG appearance! Late game wars which require forges, factories, etc to really pump out the expensive units will have a higher health cap. This makes more of a difference the higher the difficulty, but on quicker or lower settings, perhaps not as much.

As for Darius I, with Vanilla Washington´s traits of Financial and Organized, the extra health from the UB will complement both the food from cheap Lighthouses and the production from cheap Factories. Financial seems handy in teching towards a Space or Diplomatic finish. Darius will make use of the extra health when producing Factories faster means early pollution problems. He is a great warmonger in any era, but in the late game he will be less hurt by health problems. This UB makes him a great vertical and horizontal REXer.

Synergy with Corporations, Events or Quests?

The Rural Farmers Event will give +1 food to a city's Grocer. So then the Apothecary is like the Khmer Baray. I have only seen this occur in one city per game, however. Unlike most UBs, this one might not be one that is beelined or skipped to the front of the build queue, but I know that I have had to build a Grocer on many occasions in a really large city, and this UB will give health regardless of pillaged resources unlike a normal Grocer. It would really depend on the map and level being played, but this event is pretty common once one is built. See previous civs before the detail of the synergy with other food producing events/quests, corporations, GMs, etc. The extra health means you can grow larger cities once you have corporations, so Time Victories can be nice with either leader after an early REX with their Immortals, or any future era victory type for that matter.

Possible Drawbacks?

The Apothecary needs both Currency and Guilds to build it, and Guilds can come quite late, but then again it gives Knights and a warmonger might like to upgrade his highly promoted Immortals. Some slingshotting could get you there faster and it may be needed in higher levels although I don't know exactly since the tech pace is likely quicker.

For Cyrus, faster GG emergence and quicker promotion ability means that the game is more likely won early with a conquest/domination goal and maybe the health bonuses is not so well-exploited because pollution might not be as high for one reason or another. For a fast teching Darius with an ability to maintain a large empire the extra health might benefit him more in the long run.

Summary:

This building seems more suited for higher levels, but can make an impact late game with high pollution problems. Environmentalism can be avoided/delayed and chopping could be done without fear of health-induced starvation or founding a city near many FPs. Again without health resources it becomes very useful and for that reason the ability to trade away extra health resources for more strategic ones could be very useful as well. This UB got a slight boost with the change to how pollution is accumulated per resource and with new buildings such the Industrial Park and so is likely much more useful than before in those late game situations.



Portuguese Feitoria (Customs House):

The Feitoria replaces another BtS building, the Customs House. You need Economics and a Harbour to build it and it grants a 50% boost to all foreign trade coming in from overseas. The Portuguese Feitoria gives one extra commerce in all water tiles, making coastal cities seem like you are a Financial leader.

Possible Synergies:

This is a very interesting UB to say the least. First off, it acts like a Colossus in each city that builds it, giving the extra commerce and a little like the Temple of Artemis without the Priest. If you were to have a large coastal city, some sea resources, a Harbour, a Lighthouse, and the Feitoria, that would really be a great city. Now imagine the Colossus and the Great Lighthouse in this city. Let´s go a little further with it being a capital running Bureaucracy. Oh, and the Moai Statues for even more synergy.

Given the new concept of colonies in the game, it is likely that the AI will use this UB to its full advantage. Expansive and Imperialistic João is be able to build settlers and workers more quickly. He is the only one, which is interesting enough. Starting with fishing will mean early access to food resources to even more quickly pump those guys out. He seems flexible in pursuing either Conquest/Domination or Space/Diplo/Cultural victories. It seems the AI, like human players, could try for colonial expansion early and often to make use of this UB and the colonizing power of the UU.

Synergy with Corporations, Events or Quests?

There are plenty of great quests for the seafaring civ. Harbourmaster, Warships and Overwhelm have been mentioned with other civs (Carthage/Dutch/Germany) and all give something to complement the Feitoria, either added income to Harbours or promotions for Naval Units.

Possible Drawbacks?

It is assumed that the UB and the Customs House can only be built on a coastal city given that it requires a Harbour. Furthermore, the Customs House would be useless if running Mercantilism, as it closes all foreign trade routes. It seems the Free Market, with the +1 trade route would really be the choice civic for this building. However, the Feitoria also gets +1 commerce in all water tiles remember, so even without vassals to trade, you could do Mercantilism. João II could run which ever civic he wants and still get the commerce bonus. I would still recommend Free Market for the larger benefit.

For a true benefit, you need larger cities to give greater trade bonuses and the health bonus from Expansive João helps in that. In fact, you might find yourself gifting techs to the AI so that they can grow larger cities too, and that could be a problem down the road, but nothing that you can't handle as long as your use your large income wisely in espionage or military efforts.

Summary:

It is definitely map dependent, but if you have a few coastal cities with enough coast tiles and are up to the 6-7 possible trades routes in them, then this UB in only a few cities would still be a noticeable impact and distinct advantage over other civs. It makes the beeline for the free Great Merchant from Economics even more worthwhile.
João says obrigdo!

 

[kniteowl]

Yes Gunpowder unit do get G1 promotion with the Dun... but the dun becomes obsolete with Rifling so onnly Musketmen and Grandiers get G1 promotion.

 

[aelf]

No credit to me for the format?

But, joking aside, I deliberately left out ratings in my UU guide because I don't want labels to stick to the different UUs. I think UBs are no different. Also, some people may give a UB an 'A', for example, when you only gave it a 'C' (the Aztec UB comes to mind ). I think your guide should be as objective as possible.

 

[cabert]

Aelf is right, ratings don't help.
It would give more oversight to check synergetic victory conditions for each UB IMHO (like mall for late domination, space or time victory).

 

[Illithid]

I also agree that rating the buildings shouldn't be done, such ratings are highly subjective. Some notes about what you have listed so far that needs to be adjusted.

Greek Odeon (Coliseum): This building also adds +2 happiness base. Best to look in game at the civopedia as the manual has several errors. Also of note, with the 2.08 patch, coliseums and the odeon are now only 80 hammers.

Carthaginian Cothon (Harbour): Each city starts out with the possibilty of 1 trade route(requires a road or river connection or coast connection once sailing is researched) before you start adding more with technologies/buildings. Great lighthouse only adds 2 routes to coastal cities, not all cities.

Egyptian Obelisk (Monument): I am personally a fairly big fan of this UB. The fact that it obsoletes fairly early is really not much of an issue for the purpose it serves. Both leaders can benefit from this. For the most part it really only takes one city with one, though using stonehenge to put it in multiple cities isn't bad at all. The great prophets that you can generate quickly from the priest specialists allow you to claim several of the mid to late religions. This is one of the key features you tend to want to accomplish when going for a culture victory. Once you get 2-3 religions you don't really care to much about making this building go obsolete and switching to temples to support any other priest specialists if you still need to grab the rest of the religions or if you want holy shrines.

 

[WilliamOfOrange]

Big props to aelf for the format.

Thanks for the input guys. I have removed the ratings, you are correct; they are subjective. I guess it's just the teacher in me that has this tendency to assign grades.

I am at work right now. My internet was disconnected at home so I will add your corrections and thoughts the next chance I get. At least I downloaded the patch already so this doesn't interrupt my playing.

This weekend I will try to play some civs for their UBs so I can have a better idea on some of them. Thanks for the input!

 

[Mr. Civtastic]

Hmm, I agree that the rankings are very subjective. I would have rated some of them differently. The ones that come later I would rate much lower. For instance, I would rate the American mall as one of the worst three because of how late it comes and most of my games that go that late I NEVER feel the need it, plus the fact that in the late game money is borderline worthless if you're doing space race. And if you're not, you probably have the game almost wrapped up.

Another thing, I saw you mention you play at lower levels. Playing at higher levels would change your opinion on some of the ubs worth. The odeon, for instance, is great at the higher levels. If you're Alexander, you're probably warring. The Odeon gives you the culture and happiness to deal with captured cities. Yes, theaters are nearby, but I usually skip drama because I have to focus on "war" techs. At easier levels, I can hold a tremendous tech advantage, while its just not that easy higher up if Im also building armies.

 

[bovinespy]

I would humbly suggest, re the Incan Terrace:

This is a GREAT UB for late-Ancient through ealy-Industrial era warmongering. It really speeds up your rate of assimilation of newly-conquered lands. The crucial point lies in the pop-rushing.

In your earliest wars, the populations of conquered cities will tend to be in the 3 to 5 range. If you pop-rush a monument and a granary (esp. if you're Expansive), the population of the city will recover fairly quickly (assuming decent food resources available/not-plundered). However, later in the game, usually about the time catapults show up, the AI has usually developed urban pop levels so that core cities you capture routinely have pops of 8 to 10.

This is where the Terrace really shines: it saves you from having to pop-rush a granary and a culture building (usually a Temple/Theatre at this point). The last point is particularly important if you're not playing a Creative leader. Mind you, it's a subtle difference between having a captured city with a pop of 8 or 9 instead of 6 or 7. However, a crucial point to remember is that the higher the pop level, the longer it takes to recover a pop point.

Say you conquer and absorb a well-developed empire of around 6 or 8 cities (a not-unlikely scenario on Standard maps). Now imagine an extra tile or two of production from each of those cities. If you had to rush both buildings, you would be dozens of turns behind, relatively speaking, in production compared to the Incan. This is huge! Properly played, the snowball-effect of swallowing a rival empire or two in the mid-game is significantly more noticeable when you play Huyana.

Oh, and I didn't even mention the synergy with all the extra you'll be getting from your conquests. (Huyana is financial - don't pillage those towns!) Plus, it's also cheaper for you to rush Forges as well (Huyana is industrious).

As a final bonus, you can more-effectively bee-line those military techs, because:

A. You don't have to waste time going after Drama for theatres. Admittedly, it's not that expensive a tech, and you'll want it eventually anyway. However, it can be really nice being the first to Engineering (and trebuchets ) by a few hundred years.

B. If you have been relying on rushing monuments up to this time, and have been avoiding Calendar as a consequence, you can grab Calendar with confidence. Usually, you will have some plantation resources and you will probably be bumping against your happiness cap (esp. with WW), so the timing couldn't be better.

Now, by the time you start getting factories up in your core cities, the economic importance of each new city you take tends to fall off sharply. So by this point, Incan performance would closely resemble that of another civ played in a similar fashion. Still, you get awesome synergy with traits/tech/mid-game conquest for a few millennia. Not too shabby.

Though I haven't tried out all of the UBs yet, I would have to say that this has to be somewhere in the top 5 of all UBs.

Viva Huyana Capac!

 

[aelf]

Big props to aelf for the format.

Thanks

Great job on the guide so far. Take your time to add new entries. Make sure they are as "comprehensive" as possible. This is certainly a great complement to my own guide

 

[flamingzaroc121]

dont forget that with Rameses you can build Stonehenge faster which gives you an obelisk in each city which is great so each city you build gets a border pop quickly

 

[aelf]

I think the idea for the Terrace is you don't need to make extra effort to get some culture. Granaries are important anyway, and it's great to be able to pop your borders or fight enemy culture after whipping one in a new city.

 

[johnny_rico]

The terrace is a great building. Obtained early, useful for the entire game.

 

[Jet]

Sacrificial Altar... whipped units don't get the benefit of reduced unhappiness.

They do, acutally.

but if you build a castle and run the Free Market civic

Unfortunately castles are obsoleted by Economics.

 

[WilliamOfOrange]

Thanks for the input everyone. Turns out the internet is back on! I am updating peoples comments and making corrections.

 

[WilliamOfOrange]

Completed! I welcome everyone's comments to finalize and ratify the writeup. Thanks.

 

[drkodos]

Completed! I welcome everyone's comments to finalize and ratify the writeup. Thanks.

I miss the ratings. Of course they were subjective but that is what made this thread so much fun and unique. I think the idea of being objective is most overrated when it comes to this type of thread.

Naturally, I disagreed with some of your grades, but that would have made for better posting and greater discussion.

And let's face it, there is no objective truth on which UB is better. Nor should there be. They all serve their purpose, have strong points and weak points and it was interesting reading to see someone stand behind their own rationale for what they think these factors were and how they could best be utilized.

 

[WilliamOfOrange]

Thanks, intersting thatyou say that, because you never mentioned it before . I think for different levels, game lengths and different victory conditions, it would be more appropriate to rank them. I have been playing mostly quick games lately and although I was around the Prince level for playing, when I started submitting for HOF it was at the Settler level with the plan to move up. I have been doing a lot of cultural attempts, and that may have biased my ranking, but after playing some test games to evaluate the UBs, I think I am a little more objective.

On a much more important note, Drkodos, what happned to your avatar? I miss Chuckie.