Customs House - worth settling?

[Wuddel]

Title says it all. Up to which turn on normal you would settle instead trade mission.

 

[fromar]

Title says it all. Up to which turn on normal you would settle instead trade mission.

I think it's safe to assume settling the merchant will pay for itself over time compared to using it on the city state. This is especially true with the stacked bonuses of marketplaces, banks, stock exchanges, technologies and policies. So I can't say "on this turn" because the production values go up all the time.

I tend to settle vs. do a trade mission depending on my play situation at the time. If I need some cash now for something in particular or I need to get a keep or gain a key ally, I do a trade mission. If I don't have a specific need, I settle the merchant and enjoy the increased cash-flow for the rest of the game.

 

[bcaiko]

Certain technologies also improve the output of the Customs House, right?

If you aren't having happiness issues and don't desperately need to be a CS's friend, I'd say the Customs House is a viable early game build for a long-term money production city.

 

[TallNSturdy]

I've been settling GE and GS in G&K but still doing trade missions with my merchants. I either save it as a free way to get a CS back to being my ally or drop it on the CS I am competing for.

 

[Bad Wolf]

Depends how far you are into the game. As long as you still anticipate that at least about 200 turns remain in your game (I play on Epic btw), it's probably better to settle them.

It's just always so tempting to go for that quick injection of gold, especially early on when it's so scarce.

 

[Wuddel]

Depends how far you are into the game. As long as you still anticipate that at least about 200 turns remain in your game (I play on Epic btw), it's probably better to settle them.

It's just always so tempting to go for that quick injection of gold, especially early on when it's so scarce.

And the 30 influence are worth mor gold now.

 

[lolzipepz]

Settling them is never worth it, seeing as the other potential tile improvements (production, food) are just worth more.

 

[fromar]

Settling them is never worth it, seeing as the other potential tile improvements (production, food) are just worth more.

Respectfully, this is not correct. The cash-flow potential for a the life of a well-placed customs house is well into the thousands. There are situations where a lot of money is worth more than a single production or food increase.

Winning at Civ is all about balancing resource allocation to maximize potential.

 

[Vatras]

As pointed out above: if I am in need of cash, I go trade, otherwise I settle. To settle is usually better, with bonuses to city cashflow from buildings, but sometimes you have to have the money to buy/upgrade one or two units right now.

 

[Wolfbeckett]

I almost always use them for trade missions. In this game gold now is better than gold spread out over hundreds of turns and the extra CS influence is just gravy on top of it. Yes, settling them will provide more gold over the long term but Civ 5 is a game of getting early advantages and then snowballing those into larger late game advantages, so IMO the lump sum of gold is almost always better than the lifetime payments plan.

 

[seasnake]

Depends. Sometimes the infusion of cash will get you an important item like a courthouse, settler, etc. that really will shape long term gameplay. Or you can use it to purchase basic buildings to jump start a recently-settled city, like a granary, library, walls (with tradition's free monument and aqueduct you have a pretty good city right away).

Other times the bonus faith/culture from a city state will meet a goal that much sooner, completing for example the liberty tree to get anotehr Great Prophet and enhance your religon.

But given the bonuses and augmentations you can get to a Customs House, especially after Freedom, it really can be highly beneficial to do it that way. It's just too situational in my opinion.

 

[mabalogna]

Completely situational i think - But if you complete the Commerce tree then every merchant should be used for missions for the double gold.

 

[bryanw1995]

I finished the commerce tree the other day and dumped a GM on a CS during the information age (epic game speed) and earned 30 influence + 3000 gold. I don't know if they scale or not from earlier ages, but if not then 30 influence + 1500 gold would usually be significantly better than building a CH. As always, however, the earlier in the game the more likely it is to be of greater benefit to settle any GP.

 

[Lyoncet]

People generally seem to forget they're making 2 huge sacrifices when they settle. First, they're passing up a lump sum, which negates the opportunity cost of waiting hundreds (?) of turns before getting the same benefit from settling. This is why bulking techs in Vanilla was almost always superior to settling, because early advantage compounds itself in a way long-term advantage does not. On top of that, it take a citizen to work that tile you settled that now isn't giving you the hammers/food it could be. Honestly, I can see giving up a couple food for the extra commerce, but when I'm also paying such a high opportunity cost, it just becomes too unattractive an alternative.

 

[Adjuvant]

Before modern era, probably, I can tell you if you plan at all to go any patronage policy tree, philanthropy makes planting the custom house the obvious choice, and as I say in other threads relating to cultural victory, completing freedom track doubles the plot bonus, so another no-brainer.

 

[fromar]

I finished the commerce tree the other day and dumped a GM on a CS during the information age (epic game speed) and earned 30 influence + 3000 gold.

That's a tremendous amount of money. I had no idea it could go that high.

 

[Adjuvant]

That's a tremendous amount of money. I had no idea it could go that high.

It's 10-15 turns of income (outside golden age) unless you're purposely not building income buildings.

edit: er, 3000 gold is net income from 10-15 turns in information age. I didn't mean to imply trade mission had that formula. I don't know what the formula is.

 

[mabalogna]

Settling has its uses and is completely situational. First of all, there might not be a reason to get a lump sum of gold. You might not be rush buying units/buildings, and maybe CS aren't apart of your meta-game, so using them for the lump sum gold and the +30 CS influence is moot.

If you are specialising your cities to provide you with optimal gold with the Treasury NW, Bank, Market, Exchange for a 188% gold bonus, then putting down custom houses in one city spot could be all that you'll ever need for gold production; thus freeing up other cities to focus specialists/production.

It's also good to remember that more GPT means you can support more units, and more buildings. Just something to consider.

 

[apocalypse105]

Definitly settle it early game so you can maintaine more larger army and pay for the huge building upkeep in late game us(renaissance)e ability

 

[Peacemongerer]

Depends not just on where you are in the game, but how valuable the influence w/ a CS will be as well as if you have the Commerce Finisher. With the Commerce Finisher, you'll be getting 2x the normal amount of Gold... City States later in the game also tend to give you a significant boost. If a trade mission would give me 1200 gold and +26 culture per turn for even 5-10 turns, I'd gladly pass-up a Customs House. If it's early and it would only give me +6 culture per turn from an alliance and 550 gold while I still have 400 turns in the game, then Customs House for sure.