Do You Build Commercial Hubs & Harbors in the Same City?

[steveg700]

There was a time and place where harbors and commercial hubs could both grant a city a trade route. That time has come and gone, and now it's just about the buildings. That soured me on harbors a good bit, and I'm generally only attracted to them when I can get plenty of food out of them or at least a +3 adjacency bonus (i want a nice shipyard boost to production where I would otherwise have crap production).

I know some other players still see plenty of synergy and like to place commercial hubs next to harbors for the adjacency bonus the former receives. There are also policy cards that can maximize both. And then there's Reyna.

I'm not sure if yellow city-states grant their bonuses to both districts if they are both present in a city. Maybe someone can clear that up? If so, having yellow suzerainties would be a good use case.

Anyway, poll on.

 

[Turrdy]

Well if you have the policy card and Reyna you can get a +15 prod shipyard. Which is nice.

 

[bengalryan9]

If I can help it, yes. In the game I just started (as Australia) I built a +5 harbor and +5 commercial hub right next to each other. I put Reyna there which doubled that, then reached a medieval golden age and took free inquiry, meaning that not only was I getting +20 gold but +20 science as well.

 

[Deadly Dog]

Always make a nice home for Reyna eventually, but certainly not every chance I get. It's always an option when my harbor city is on a river. But I also like some harbor dependant wonders so I prioritize TS for those locations ahead of a redundant CS. It seems lately I'm spamming one or the other for civ-specific bonuses(Mali, Ottomans, England) and inevitably some of those cities had high adjacency for the second, redundant district to be built.

Your post made me realize that redundancy is not useless if one district gets pillaged, you don't (shouldn't) lose the trade route capacity. Big if you're playing coastal at disaster intensity 4 I suppose (shudder!)

 

[Archon_Wing]

Yes but never because of 4 extra gold.

Harbor is for growth since water tiles suck and hub is for merchant points and gold projects.

Most of the time I would rather put a Holy Site or IZ in its place.

 

[enKage]

I dont waste Reyna's promotion on it (I prefer unimproved jungle boost), but later in the game when possible I add harbor just for additional production rather than adj bonus, city 10+/13+ usualy has a slot for district anyway, so why not use it and harbors dont use more precious land

 

[Troy Bruckner]

Playing Phoenicia I will because I want Great Merchants.

 

[Icicle]

Make crazy synergy and turn it into science with the golden age boost? Absolutely yes i do.

 

[Ziad]

Well I definitely do as Phoenicia. There's a lot of inherent synergy such that the conflicting trade route mechanic isn't really an issue at all.

I'm not even concerned about missing out on early merchants. I end up rush buying the critical ones early on (usually the additional trade routes) and later on just buy them on a whim.

Frankly I don't think there's a bigger production spike than a high adjacency Shipyard for an early city (for the average civ)

 

[Tech Osen]

Like others said: Reyna. But even without her if there is room, sure, why not. I don't play for efficiency anyway.

 

[Victoria]

Well if you have the policy card and Reyna you can get a +15 prod shipyard. Which is nice

+15 in no way requires a commercial hub.
I have been through my city Mercian hub triangles and out the other side, the loss of 2 district spaces is too much for me and I far prefer a campus or even an aqueduct or dam.
As England +27 I have had before.
It is only worth Naval infrastructure if you have a lot of harbors like in an island game, then you can seriously ramp up production with shipyards.