Gold cities & Wall Street?

[JoeBlade]

Whenever I try to build this wonder I feel I'm bending myself backwards and the effort would've been better invested elsewhere.
The main problem is the banks requirement (8 on large maps, IIRC?): I never have that many cities specialised in generating gold so I end up building extra banks elsewhere. Since productions-oriented cities rarely yield more than marginal amounts of gold I mainly divert bank construction to either science cities or GP farms. Unfortunately the hammer output of such cities tend to be quite low, implying it takes them a long time to produce a bank. Time that could perhaps have been better spent elsewhere (or gold/population, when using either Univ. Suffrage or Slavery to build them)

So what do other players think? Is Wall Street worth the effort or not?

Also, how many gold-oriented cities do you tend to have in an average game? Holy shrine cities naturally tend to evolve in that direction in my games, but I rarely have more than two or three in a game and frequently none at all.

Do you ever create gold-oriented cities when no holy shrine is present? And if so, on what basis? Would this be a worthwhile investment compared to an additional science city?

 

[Mulholland]

Even if the cities aren't specialising gold it's worlth it to build the banks if just to get the wonder. Wall street usually helps me fincance my Continent Dominating Army of doom. If you're less of a warmoninger though it's probably not needed.

Edit:
As for gold oriented cities. I have as many that are not suited for big production. My Capital usually ends up with Wall Street and Oxford. And I rearley go for holy shrines. I find Great Prophets at the beggining mess up my Science strategy.

 

[KMadCandy]

i usually do it only in my main shrine city. it does depend on map size. my current game is tiny map, so i only needed 4 banks, then again there's only so many cities total that i can send missionaries to. on a huge map, you can get a lot of cities contributing to the shrine, but you have to factor in the hammer investment of making all the missionaries, and the MM of moving 'em all.

my shrine city in this game is pulling in not quite half of all the gold i'm getting combined (running only 10% gold atm). 27 from temple of solomon, it does have wall street. one perhaps odd circumstance is that i'm persia, so my unique building (apothecary) gives +2 health. i like big cities, so i'm building more of those than some people might, they're all giving +25% gold in those cities as usual.

 

[Mr. Civtastic]

Whenever I try to build this wonder I feel I'm bending myself backwards and the effort would've been better invested elsewhere.

Ive often felt the same way. Usually it takes awhile for me to build it because if Im warring I often skip the tech for it (corporation i think?). And when I get banks I usually just build a couple. My approach is I usually put it off until Im really hurting for money. Otherwise I wont go about building the eight banks. Usually I try to build the banks in waves...trying to split up my money cities, whip cities, soldier cities so that I dont shut down production of everything all at once.

Also, how many gold-oriented cities do you tend to have in an average game? Holy shrine cities naturally tend to evolve in that direction in my games, but I rarely have more than two or three in a game and frequently none at all.

I usually just have a couple as well. My capital is almost always one of them. If Im warring I tend to turn captured capitals into cottage cities or gp farms.

Do you ever create gold-oriented cities when no holy shrine is present? And if so, on what basis?

There are a couple other things Ive built a money city on. One is resources...one of my all-time favorite cities Ive built had five gems and two gold.

The other is, believe it or not, a food-heavy city. Lets say you have a city that can support seven specialists...you can turn them all into gm's without caste system...just build a Grocer, market and wall street.

An extension of that is running a SE with representation. Lower your slider to get more money from commerce, offset the lowering of your science slider with specialists. You could also toss in free religion to give a small boost to compensate for a lower slider as well.

 

[JoeBlade]

There are a couple other things Ive built a money city on. One is resources...one of my all-time favorite cities Ive built had five gems and two gold.

Wow... just... wow

The other is, believe it or not, a food-heavy city. Lets say you have a city that can support seven specialists...you can turn them all into gm's without caste system...just build a Grocer, market and wall street.

An extension of that is running a SE with representation. Lower your slider to get more money from commerce, offset the lowering of your science slider with specialists. You could also toss in free religion to give a small boost to compensate for a lower slider as well.

Indeed, I too frequently rely on specialists (mainly early-to-mid game) because they are unaffected by the slider and maintenance. This allows me to expand my empire without seeing my research come to a grinding halt.

Still, the most pertinent question to me is: why create a gold-oriented city in the first place? Would it not be better to turn it into another science city instead?
After all, with the slider everything would even out either way, no? The main difference would be GP generated, and I definitely prefer a GS over a GM myself.

 

[Godel]

In some situations, creating a gold city (insetad of another science city) is a smart move. Suppose 5 of your cities are working cottages with science multipliers and you are running at 70% science. By building a market, grocer and bank in another city with decent food (whip the infrastructure) you can run 4 merchants for 24gpt. That could well be enough to raise the science rate to 80%. This is a more efficient use of hammers and commerce (i.e. cottage cities only need science multipliers, not banks, and commerce from these cities is directed into science for maximum use). If you have a GP farm your gold city will not give a GM too often. But when it does, send it on a trade mission to get 1700g which will enable you to run 100% for many, many turns.

I do agree that getting Wall Street up and running is a huge investment of hammers (6 banks + WS). But if you do a lot of conquering (esp captial cities) you may capture 2 or 3 banks as you go.

These comments are for a standard size map.