Every city does not need every building?

[madscientist]

Err, Umm, well. SHould I build a courthouse in each city or not????

 

[UncleJJ]

Err, Umm, well. SHould I build a courthouse in each city or not????

I would say yes in almost all cases. But it does depend on certain other factors. All economic buildings have a cost in hammers and an "income" which is usually dependent on other factors. In the case of a courthouse it saves you maintenace costs and the amount it saves depends on many things (size of city, distance from palace, number of other cities, colony maintenace, corporation costs). In the late game those costs can be enormous, and in BtS a courthouse gives 2 EPs anyway, it is usually a no brainer.

In deciding if it is worthwhile constructing an economic building you should consider not only its cost in hammers but also how long it will take to pay back the investment. If it takes a long time to recover the cost (hammers can be considered to be worth 2 gold in many circumstances) then don't ever build that building in that city. But do take account of likely growth in income (e.g. growth of cottages, spreading the religion for a shrine) when calculating if the costs will be repaid.

 

[DaveMcW]

...long term.

Nice analysis. What happens if we add an extra farm/hill pair to both plans, thus allowing Plan B to complete the courthouse in 30 turns?

 

[UncleJJ]

Nice analysis. What happens if we add an extra farm/hill pair to both plans, thus allowing Plan B to complete the courthouse in 30 turns?

Dave, I'll let you work that one out yourself. It was your attempt to prove a point not mine. I just called you out on it

I think in general you underestimate the beneficial effects of infrastructure and over sell the benefits of cottage development, but that's just an opinion gleaned from your many short and witty posts in this type of thread. You never seem to give us the benefit of a substantial and balanced analysis which I am sure you are capable of.

 

[Percy]

I must add my voice to UncleJJ's (whose substantial and balanced analyses i've benefitted in the past). Dave, almost every post i've read from you was either very informative, or very funny, or funny (if one is into repetition humour relating to cottages, i know i am ^^). I want more, More, MORE.
(UncleJJ, that goes for you as well )

 

[Unconquered Sun]

I usually value buildings in terms of research, i.e. Custom House to 180 beakers.

 

[joasoze]

I play marathon - and I usually find time for most buildings in most cities after a while. I cannot produce military all the time cause of the maintenance cost. I have a suspicion that I would benefit from more focus on specialists and less on production sometimes. I play on monarch.

 

[madscientist]

Well, to followup on this my game is moving into the industrial age. Have assembly plant, almost done with electricity, next is industrialization. Agustus is still furious with me, ahead in power graph numbers, has cav and rifles and amssing another invasion force. Again the lone source of oil is in a precarious position too close to the border. My goal is to get tanks ASAP for protection and offense. I am already building destroyers and transports, but Agustus clearly beeds to be defeated by land.

However, buildings are an issue. I need factories and power plants to pull ahead in military. I also need some health bigtime, so grocers/aqueducts/harbors/public transportation and probably hospitals (tech medicine AFTER industrialisation. Also espionage is not something I can just shake off anymore as I am getting too many mines/plantations/farms wrecked and too many cities with water poisoned.

So some questions on building priorities

1) I am running state property right now. Is it worth running environmentalism and drop the science slider down 20% because of costs but I would not have to worry about building health structures in each city?

2) My goal is to produce military units in about half my cities (I despreately need to keep up with Agustus), and have the other half produce factories/plants. I have three cities that are getting me 3 promotion units right off the bat (only one is in a core city). I have coal/oil so each factory/coal plant is going to cost me +7 unhealthiness. Once I build a fact/plant I am going to need to some health buildings in each city. Once all the factory/plant infrastructure is in place I can swing the other half of the cities from military to infrastructure and vice versa. Reasonable plan?

3) Money is not so much of an issue I have a well spread shrine and currently building Wall Street (MOAI statues are just flat out awesome in a fishing village). I got the minimum stock exchanges built for wall street but plan no markets but will be spoamming grocers for health.

Any advice on how to prioritize buildings is appreciated. I am posting advice on this game's military aspect in antoher thread so perhaps answers here should be related to buildings.

 

[popejubal]

However, buildings are an issue. I need factories and power plants to pull ahead in military. I also need some health bigtime, so grocers/aqueducts/harbors/public transportation and probably hospitals (tech medicine AFTER industrialisation. Also espionage is not something I can just shake off anymore as I am getting too many mines/plantations/farms wrecked and too many cities with water poisoned.

One observation: cities with less population have less pollution. Go ahead and whip away some of your population to cmoplete the factories and coal plants and work lots of production tiles rather than food tiles so that your cities don't grow back as quickly. That way, you'll get tons of production to get ready for your war without worrying as much about polution.

Normally, I would not like a short term gain at the expense of long term profit, but in this case, you are getting a short term gain while avoiding a long term problem that you will eventually overcome. Build Aquaducts, Grocers and Hospitals in the cities that need them (in that order) after you are finished with Augustus. Build Infantry and Tanks now.
can wait.

So some questions on building priorities

1) I am running state property right now. Is it worth running environmentalism and drop the science slider down 20% because of costs but I would not have to worry about building health structures in each city?

Ewww. Environmentalism has cooties.

Environmentalism gives you +6 . Since each population point eats 2 food and produces 1 pollution, cities that are at their pollution cap and producing no more food will eventually be able to work 2 more tiles or run 2 more engineers. Dropping from 60% research to 20% research is cutting your science by two thirds. Is it really worthwhile to do this for 2 more population in your most polluted cities and no benefit at all in many of your cities?

It's possible that this might be worthwhile if you are spiritual or have built Christo Redentor, but even then, I doubt it.

Unless you're a One City Challenge National Park, Environmentalism is poo.

2) My goal is to produce military units in about half my cities (I despreately need to keep up with Agustus), and have the other half produce factories/plants.

Solution:

Now you can produce factories in all of your cities quickly and get to work on those military units everywhere. Alternatively, you can draft units as well. If you are spiritual, it's probably worth a quick trip into Nationalism/Slavary/Theocracy so that you can spit out a tremendous number of units while still whipping your buildings into production. If you are not spiritual, then you probably can't afford the anarchy.

I have three cities that are getting me 3 promotion units right off the bat (only one is in a core city). I have coal/oil so each factory/coal plant is going to cost me +7 unhealthiness. Once I build a fact/plant I am going to need to some health buildings in each city. Once all the factory/plant infrastructure is in place I can swing the other half of the cities from military to infrastructure and vice versa. Reasonable plan?

3) Money is not so much of an issue I have a well spread shrine and currently building Wall Street (MOAI statues are just flat out awesome in a fishing village). I got the minimum stock exchanges built for wall street but plan no markets but will be spoamming grocers for health.

Any advice on how to prioritize buildings is appreciated. I am posting advice on this game's military aspect in antoher thread so perhaps answers here should be related to buildings.

'

Your plan seems good overall, but I encourage you to remember the old adage:

Spare the and spoil the empire.

 

[madscientist]

Some good advice there. I think I need to stop all city growth first of all, anticipating the health issue. The enviromentalism questions seams answered, I need to keep the tech edge over Agustus, that's my biggest advantage.

As far as I am churchhill without Radio yet so switching to slavery from emacipation is not really worth it. I guess I could decrease the science slider to boost gold and use US, but I will wait until I get industriasation.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[slobberinbear]

Having a builder addiction myself, I can point to at least a few excuses and rationalizations why I have favored buildings over units:

1. my city won't grow if I build that worker
2. I'm not at war so I don't need that military unit
3. making buildings lets me maximize my production

All of these rationalizations are dangerous, in that they are generically true statements but can lead one to a sort of tunnel vision regarding city production.

The obvious facts are that workers repay their investment many times over. More workers, and more workers early, is critical. Neglecting one's military will lead to a reduced power rating and sudden invasions and will also cause future military ramp-ups to take longer while all the necessary units are built. And ramping up one's production capacity is fine, if it's not a diminishing return (i.e. building a barracks in a city that will never make military units).

Put another way, you can spend the whole game developing your production capacity, but if you don't actually produce anything (settlers, workers, and military), your production capacity has no value. This has been a hard lesson for me to learn.