Do you use build science, wealth, culture?

[Antilogic]

Oh yes, I forgot to mention that. Good point. Just be sure to work the highest hammer tiles available in the starting city's BFC.

Alternatively you can run an artist for 3 turns in caste system on normal speed. Depends on whichever is fastest.

Yeah, that first pop is the one that matters, especially if there are good resources just outside the first ring.

I probably should run Caste System more often, but I end up using Slavery for a long while (and rarely Serfdom) for short periods before I switch to Emancipation for the late game.

 

[binhthuy71]

Just curious, but why the wall street city specifically? Wealth is converted via production modifiers IIRC so the Ironworks city might be best for building wealth, but more often than not I build wonders with it.

I usually build West Point in my Ironworks city then use it mostly to pump promoted units to maintain a decent place on the Power graph in peacetime (Other than using it to build wonders - as you mentioned). That leaves the Commerce city to build cash. I send any unneeded Great Prophets and Great Merchants there as specialists and with the multipliers from Market-Grocer-Bank-Wall Street it's usually generating a respectable amount of gold. I'm pretty careful about improving cities to take advantage of their best characteristics so, mid-to-late game, cash is only a problem if I've been warmongering and have to switch to Representation afterward to buy cultural improvements in the conquered cities in order to force border pops.

 

[Fasulas]

I build Heroic Epic and Military Academy in my military city. No need for Ironworks, that would be useful in a late game wonders city (you can time it right and use Ironworks for building the 3 gorges dam or so).
As for building wealth, i use it when $$ go bad and i want to keep the science slider a bit higher than i can afford. But, if its science that i want, its still better to keep the science slider high and build gold with the cities, than to build science with cities. For my empires, that is (usually terra, 18 civs, noble difficulty).

 

[samthedagger]

I often use culture on new cities for a couple turns to get their BFC out to CL1. I have also used it to hurry up some culture wins. As others have mentioned, Wealth is useful for maintaining large armies. Research is a great way to help get key techs like Liberalism, Physics, Fascism, Economics, Music, and Fusion depending on how I am playing. I get healthy use from all three.

 

[Silu]

EDIT: nvm

 

[Hsinchu]

If going for a cultural victory:

Make sure wealth is on all cities except the Big 3, or at least enough of them to keep slider at 100% culture. For the Big 3, obviously culture should be on.

If going for fat score and you can already 100% culture at positive gold, then set cities to manual research. This way, you can keep pushing cultural victory and still snag techs at some steady pace.

 

[Camikaze]

I often build research when my cities have no more buildings to build, and when at war constantly. It's the alternative to building wealth. I just prefer building research to wealth, though. The interface makes it easier to see the effect it has in achieving whatever I'm aiming for, IMO. And, of course, I build culture if I'm going for a cultural victory, providing there are no other buildings that could be useful to build first.

 

[Hsinchu]

If your sliders are maxed at 100%, there really is no reason to build wealth... unless you are a hurry fiend. Research 100% + Research production.

 

[DoubleCheck]

I usually build research at the end of the game when there is nothing left to build (building-wise). I can never seem to find a time for any of the three otherwise because it seems there is always a useful building ready to be built.

 

[mechaerik]

If your sliders are maxed at 100%, there really is no reason to build wealth... unless you are a hurry fiend. Research 100% + Research production.

Usually, if I run 100% anything, you will be running large deficits. I mean large. In my current game (my first Prince game), If I turn the slider to 100%, I'm losing over 300 gold per turn. I'm running the slider at about 60, and I'm making a small profit. I'm currently making a general bee-line to Communism to help my economy.

 

[Flying Pig]

I tend to try not to go below 70% in total, of which 10% is espionage and 10% culture. I sometimes cut the culture to make more money in a pinch

 

[mechaerik]

I tend to try not to go below 70% in total, of which 10% is espionage and 10% culture. I sometimes cut the culture to make more money in a pinch

Yeah, I also think 70% total is a good amount. But my empire spans 20 cities on 3 continents.

 

[Loki Strikes]

I tend to build wealth rather often, production cities when not churning units/building barracks/forges(which is often), build wealth/fail wonders that I have resources for.

I only build research when I have maxed slider/don't have currency yet

and slider percentage doesn't matter as much as commerce base, 20% of 1000 is more than 100% of 150...

 

[mariogreymist]

Yeah, I also think 70% total is a good amount. But my empire spans 20 cities on 3 continents.

If you go for corporations, and manage them well, you can easily get tax rates down to 10% or even zero at the prince level, with a kingdom that big. State property is a decent stop-gap, but if you really want a healthy economy run a free market and found a couple of corporations in your Wall Street city (which should be a shrine city if you have one). So if you want a really powerful GNP, and you can do without it, my general advice is to stay away from state property.

Of course, if what you want to do with those 20 cities is build a big, industrial army and conquer the world, state property rocks.

 

[Silu]

When the empire spans 3 continents it's kind of hard to beat SP.

If you have a decent amount of the corpo resources (with 20 cities, chances are that he has) they don't even really make money.

 

[mechaerik]

If you go for corporations, and manage them well, you can easily get tax rates down to 10% or even zero at the prince level, with a kingdom that big. State property is a decent stop-gap, but if you really want a healthy economy run a free market and found a couple of corporations in your Wall Street city (which should be a shrine city if you have one). So if you want a really powerful GNP, and you can do without it, my general advice is to stay away from state property.

Of course, if what you want to do with those 20 cities is build a big, industrial army and conquer the world, state property rocks.

But of course I have a massive army to conquer the world. It's bigger even than Genghis's. I meant to say 20 cities, and growing. I'm at war with Egypt, who is terribly backwards but has quite a few great cities, including Thebes (which is mine now ), which is a double-holy city and surrounded by flood plains.

Even after that, I plan to fight Carthage on a fourth continent, then betray Genghis.

When the empire spans 3 continents it's kind of hard to beat SP.

If you have a decent amount of the corpo resources (with 20 cities, chances are that he has) they don't even really make money.

As soon as I get SP (just need to finish SciMet and I can get Communism), my research rate will jump, as it always does.


Just to show how much money is in play here, some of my cites are costing over 10 per turn even with a courthouse, especially in Egypt.

 

[Stylesjl]

Sometimes I use wealth and research, usually when I get tired of micromanaging so many military units and want a gold/research boost. Also I may use culture if trying to expand a city border without having to build a full fledged cultural building

 

[mechaerik]

I got Communism and immediately revolted to SP.

Here's some pics of my slider.

1) Before
2) After

 

[mariogreymist]

Remember though, SP does not actually generate any real commerce, but only allows you to reduce what you spend in upkeep. Moreover, it does this at the expense of trade routes (as opposed to FM) or free specialists (merc) and disallows corporate benefits. And if you don't think a corporation can make up for this, just consider how many resources you have, and count the extra production or food you could be getting in every single city, not to mention the cash you can get in a good Wall Street/Shrine city.

SP is an excellent civic for finishing a multi-continent military conquest. But if you think it's going to take time to finish off your rivals, use your lead to get corps + medicine + railroad + GM + GE and see what you can do in a free market. If any of your rivals are close to you in tech or manufacturing when you develop the sid's sushi/mining inc deployment, they won't be for long. I promise. (assuming you actually have lots of the resources, or will get them quickly)

Proof:

 

[FidelZandro]

I'll build culture for pushing back borders to reclaim a resource and/or for cultural victory
And, as mentioned a brazillion times aboves, wealth for recovery
On smaller landmasses it can sometimes help to build a little bit of research