Correct me where I'm wrong [Immortal difficulty, looking to move up to Deity)

[DrCron]

Commercial district -> Campus -> ???

Commercial Hubs and Harbors are the best districts because trade routes are the key to winning the game. The 3rd in line (or 2nd if you can't build a harbor) should be the IZ. It's more important than the campus because production is more expensive than tech in this game. If you are not going for science victory, 2-3 campuses in total (next to mountains) are enough.

Late game you'll need a couple of entertainment complexes, but don't rush them. If you are not going for cultural victory, you can get away with zero (yes, zero) theatre squares (get the civic that gives you 1 culture point per district in every city, and the one that gives you culture and tech per trade route, and that's it). On the contrary, if you are going for a cultural victory, build several as soon as possible, and leave the campus for later. Never build a holy site unless you're going for a religious victory. Never build an encampment, not even if you are going for domination, war is so easy in this game that they are not needed.

 

[ShinigamiKenji]

Commercial Hubs and Harbors are the best districts because trade routes are the key to winning the game. The 3rd in line (or 2nd if you can't build a harbor) should be the IZ. It's more important than the campus because production is more expensive than tech in this game. If you are not going for science victory, 2-3 campuses in total (next to mountains) are enough.

Late game you'll need a couple of entertainment complexes, but don't rush them. If you are not going for cultural victory, you can get away with zero (yes, zero) theatre squares (get the civic that gives you 1 culture point per district in every city, and the one that gives you culture and tech per trade route, and that's it). On the contrary, if you are going for a cultural victory, build several as soon as possible, and leave the campus for later. Never build a holy site unless you're going for a religious victory. Never build an encampment, not even if you are going for domination, war is so easy in this game that they are not needed.

I've been a defender of Encampments after the Factory nerf. Additional IZs beyond the necessary for Factory coverage do little to add to production. Encampments, however, give housing and production, which stacks with IZs.

I'd put the Harbours on 2nd or 3rd place, though. Another trade route, occupy an otherwise useless tile, and give a little bit of everything (food, gold, production and housing).

 

[greygamer]

I've been a defender of Encampments after the Factory nerf. Additional IZs beyond the necessary for Factory coverage do little to add to production. Encampments, however, give housing and production, which stacks with IZs.

I'd put the Harbours on 2nd or 3rd place, though. Another trade route, occupy an otherwise useless tile, and give a little bit of everything (food, gold, production and housing).

Well you do have to strike a balance, had a game where I went encampment first in every city and ended up with a cash flow problem. Had to sell a city to get myself out of that jam.
So I keep an eye on gpt and get CD as required, they work well with encampments anyway because of the extra cog from traders. I've seen +4 production trade routes at midgame.

 

[DrCron]

I've been a defender of Encampments after the Factory nerf. Additional IZs beyond the necessary for Factory coverage do little to add to production. Encampments, however, give housing and production, which stacks with IZs.

I pointed out in another forum that an IZ with at least 2 prod from adjacency (which should happen every time) plus a workshop gives you +4 prod. An encampment with 2 buildings (barracks or stable + the next one, I don't remember the name right now) gives only +3 prod. So IZ is more efficient to get extra prod than encampment. Since production is so important in this game, IZ is better than encampment.

*Housing is irrelevant. If you settle correctly you should never have much trouble to get all of your cities to 7 pop and most of them to 10 pop, hence getting all the districts you need to win the game. The only cities not settled on rivers should be the coastal ones, which will already get housing form the harbor + lighthouse.

 

[diamond geezer]

I pointed out in another forum that an IZ with at least 2 prod from adjacency (which should happen every time) plus a workshop gives you +4 prod. An encampment with 2 buildings (barracks or stable + the next one, I don't remember the name right now) gives only +3 prod. So IZ is more efficient to get extra prod than encampment. Since production is so important in this game, IZ is better than encampment.

*Housing is irrelevant. If you settle correctly you should never have much trouble to get all of your cities to 7 pop and most of them to 10 pop, hence getting all the districts you need to win the game. The only cities not settled on rivers should be the coastal ones, which will already get housing form the harbor + lighthouse.

Still, extra production is always useful. I find myself building extra encampments in the latter part of the game.

 

[greygamer]

By the time I've unlocked IZ it's pretty much game over for the AI. The extra culture helps with culture so mercenaries are a few turns sooner so medieval upgrades are not so painful (usually 400-500 gold in the bank). It may be more relevant if they fix things so medieval warmongering penalties have real consequences