[GS] Do you use canals?

[Alaindor]

After reading about how many players do not levy CS units I wanted to come in here and ask the bigger question.
Do you build IZ's, Dams and Canals?
I rarely do this.
Many games I don't build one IZ as I usually take them.
I have played around with them a few games where I was able to get 200 or 300 production but I still just stick with Campus, Commercial Hub and Theater Squares as my go to for just about every city.
I was going to make a separate thread but I think the IZ question goes along with the Canal Thread.

I definitely build a lot of IZ's, production seems so important to me for anything really, and since I always play Marathon it feels like it really gets things going. I haven't done the maths if it's really worthwhile, but I also find it provides you with GE points and some of them are really interesting to get (get the Mausoleum as @Disgustipated said and it's one extra charge, that will get you to the Moon AND Mars in two turns!).

 

[UWHabs]

Only where I can get great adj without overlapping power plant coverage. Dams and canals are primarily to boost IZs. If you can get a +6 or better IZ with a coal plant that covers at least two other cities itll pay for itself especially if you run production boosting cards for whatever those cities it covers are building.

Short answer, not many but at least a couple every game. They just take planning to be effective.

I do find it annoying to debate between coal plants for the single city bonus vs switching to oil for the regional effect. Especially if it's a good one - +6, plus running the double-adjacency card means I need a bunch of cities in the region of that plant. That's why I often plan a few super-mega power plants that I run coal on, and then just make sure I have a few other moderate adjacency IZ nearby for cleaner power and the regional production spread.

The other piece of IZ and power plants that often gets forgotten are the envoy bonuses. Especially if you have a lot of that type of CS nearby, you can actually get some very serious hidden bonuses from those T3 buildings. And unfortunately the IZ bonuses don't show up on the tooltip like the others do as it's only a situational bonus.

 

[Socrates99]

I do find it annoying to debate between coal plants for the single city bonus vs switching to oil for the regional effect. Especially if it's a good one - +6, plus running the double-adjacency card means I need a bunch of cities in the region of that plant. That's why I often plan a few super-mega power plants that I run coal on, and then just make sure I have a few other moderate adjacency IZ nearby for cleaner power and the regional production spread.

The other piece of IZ and power plants that often gets forgotten are the envoy bonuses. Especially if you have a lot of that type of CS nearby, you can actually get some very serious hidden bonuses from those T3 buildings. And unfortunately the IZ bonuses don't show up on the tooltip like the others do as it's only a situational bonus.

That's true, other power would be better if there's enough cities in range.