[R&F] Government Plaza

[SupremacyKing2]

I like that each government building fits different play styles. Here is my quick take on which play style fits each building.

Audience Chamber - Tier 1 +Amenity + Housing, only in cities with a governor, - Loyalty in cities without a Governor, +1 Governor Title, Unlocks the Republican Legacy Policy Card.

Great for a tall strategy. Best to keep your cities few, make sure that all cities have governors and focus on promoting governors rather than hiring new ones. Turtle in rather than expand. Focus on amenities and housing in the few cities you have.

Warlord's Throne - Tier 1 +Production in all cities when capturing an enemy city +1 Governor Title, Unlocks the Republican Legacy Policy Card.

Best for the warmonger player. Go bonk some heads, general! Your civ will get a nice production boost to crank out even more units.

Ancestral Hall - Tier 1 +Production of Settlers, New cities get a free Builder, +1 Governor Title, Unlocks the Republican Legacy Policy Card.

Perfect for the player who wants to go wide and expand fast. Crank out those settlers faster and get a free builder to help your new cities develop faster.

Foreign Ministry - Tier 2 Leveraging City States Armies costs less Gold, Leveraged Units get bonus Strength +1 Governor Title, Unlocks the Monarchy Legacy Policy Card.

Great for the player who wants to focus on city-states. Great for Pericles and his city state bonus. Focus on being a suzerain of as many city states as possible and use their armies to do your bidding.

Intelligence Agency - Tier 2 +1 Spy, All Spy Operations are more successful +1 Governor Title, Unlocks the Monarchy Legacy Policy Card.

Ideal for the player who wants to play the spy game. Great for Catherine and her espionage bonus.

Grand Ministers Palace - Tier 2 Can buy Units with Faith, can get Faith from Pillaging Tiles/Districts +1 Governor Title, Unlocks the Monarchy Legacy Policy Card.

Great for the religious/warmonger civ. If you have a lot of faith, this building is great since it will help you convert all that extra faith into military units.

 

[UWHabs]

Will be interesting to see it in practice. If the card that gets unlocked is just whatever government you're in, then we may have some weird cases of making sure you very briefly switch to one government when you complete the building just to make sure you lock in the bonus.

The other thing that will be interesting to see is when do you get the govt district out? The building bonuses are very strong, so you want to get them out early. Also will be interesting to see if it should go in your capital or another city. I think when they flashed the governments on screen some of them had bonuses to both the capital and city with the GD, so that would imply it might be a better build in your second city.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

I like that each government building fits different play styles. Here is my quick take on which play style fits each building.



Great for a tall strategy. Best to keep your cities few, make sure that all cities have governors and focus on promoting governors rather than hiring new ones. Turtle in rather than expand. Focus on amenities and housing in the few cities you have.



Best for the warmonger player. Go bonk some heads, general! Your civ will get a nice production boost to crank out even more units.



Perfect for the player who wants to go wide and expand fast. Crank out those settlers faster and get a free builder to help your new cities develop faster.



Great for the player who wants to focus on city-states. Great for Pericles and his city state bonus. Focus on being a suzerain of as many city states as possible and use their armies to do your bidding.



Ideal for the player who wants to play the spy game. Great for Catherine and her espionage bonus.



Great for the religious/warmonger civ. If you have a lot of faith, this building is great since it will help you convert all that extra faith into military units.

Rome with Ancestral Hall seems like it'll be pretty fun.

 

[Rosty K]

Seems to me like there's little choice for Tier 1 - cheaper settlers + a free builder on top of each settler (effectively) beats everything else (I'm not a warmonger though). Tier 2 looks just useless except for the faith units occasionally. Maybe them cards could change something though.

 

[kryat]

Seems to me like there's little choice for Tier 1 - cheaper settlers + a free builder on top of each settler (effectively) beats everything else (I'm not a warmonger though). Tier 2 looks just useless except for the faith units occasionally. Maybe them cards could change something though.

This is the great thing about this system. Several people have said “only ‘x’ building looks useful,” but with “x” varying between people. It really demonstrates how it different people play in different styles. The first government building is very similar to picking between Tradition, Liberty, and Honor in V.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

Seems to me like there's little choice for Tier 1 - cheaper settlers + a free builder on top of each settler (effectively) beats everything else (I'm not a warmonger though).

It depends on your playing style. You only think it is the best choice because it fits your style. The warmonger will love 'warlord's thone" and the turtle player will love "audience chamber".

Tier 2 looks just useless except for the faith units occasionally. Maybe them cards could change something though.

Again, you only think this because they don't seem to fit with your style. I rarely use spies in my games, so I will probably never bother with the intelligence agency building. The Foreign Ministry building will definitely be good for players with a lot of city states.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

It depends on your playing style. You only think it is the best choice because it fits your style. The warmonger will love 'warlord's thone" and the turtle player will love "audience chamber".

Maybe, but I usually play a builder style (Few but well developed cities), and to me free builder + Settler bonus still seems much better than + 1 amenity and housing.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

Maybe, but I usually play a builder style (Few but well developed cities), and to me free builder + Settler bonus still seems much better than + 1 amenity and housing.

Keep in mind that these bonuses last the entire game. So while faster settlers and free builders are amazing in the early game when you are first expanding out, they will be less useful later when you have finished expanding. The extra amenities and housing will continue to help your cities for the rest of the game.

 

[UWHabs]

Keep in mind that these bonuses last the entire game. So while faster settlers and free builders are amazing in the early game when you are first expanding out, they will be less useful later when you have finished expanding. The extra amenities and housing will continue to help your cities for the rest of the game.

It's a tough call. As mentioned, the bonus lasts the entire game, so there's definitely a good argument for each. The only thing I don't like so far is the audience chamber has a negative part to it, selecting that really could kill you if you can't get enough governors to keep up with expansion. Cheap settlers and free builders are definitely really nice to be able to expand and get new cities up quickly, but as mentioned, you're probably only settling a handful of new cities unless if you really rush to get it early.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

The only thing I don't like so far is the audience chamber has a negative part to it, selecting that really could kill you if you can't get enough governors to keep up with expansion. Cheap settlers and free builders are definitely really nice to be able to expand and get new cities up quickly, but as mentioned, you're probably only settling a handful of new cities unless if you really rush to get it early.

A lot of civics give you a governor title that you can use to get a new governor. You can basically get a new governor every 1-2 civics. So I don't think getting a new governor will be a problem. Of course, you are limited to 7 governors. If you picked Audience Chamber, you should keep your cities to 7 or less in order to avoid the penalty. Also if you are using your governor titles to get new governors instead of promotions, in order to keep up with your expansion, then your governors won't be promoted as much. So I think Audience Chamber is better used for small empires where you have fewer governors but with higher promotions. But you can use Audience Chamber with a larger empire, you will just need to make new governors who probably won't be promoted as much.

Also, map size is a big factor here as well. On smaller maps, you won't be settling as many cities, so Audience Chamber will probably be slightly better than Ancestral Hall. On larger maps, Ancestral Hall will be really good.

The bottom line is that it all depends on what you consider a tall or wide empire. Audience Chamber is best used for empires with 7 or less cities total, including any cities you might conquer. So I would say Audience Chamber is not a good idea if you plan to go on a mass conquest.

 

[agonistes]

Keep in mind that these bonuses last the entire game. So while faster settlers and free builders are amazing in the early game when you are first expanding out, they will be less useful later when you have finished expanding. The extra amenities and housing will continue to help your cities for the rest of the game.

What does "finished expanding" mean? I have not encountered such a thing.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

What does "finished expanding" mean? I have not encountered such a thing.

I tend to expand pretty aggressively early on but once I butt up against my neighbors, I stop expanding and switch to building up my cities. But I gather you are the player that keeps spamming cities in every possible piece of the map even in the late game. Oh look there are 3 empty tiles in tundra all the way to the north of the second continent, quick put a city there!

 

[Phoenix1595]

I am curious about the Foreign Ministry perks-- why are they all about unit levies? Maybe I play differently than other players, but that is a feature I rarely use. I suppose it is useful if you are caught in the defense of a surprise war, but I always try to keep up a strong homeland defense myself.

 

[darkace77450]

The only thing I don't like so far is the audience chamber has a negative part to it, selecting that really could kill you if you can't get enough governors to keep up with expansion.

True, it does comes with a potential downside. But the upside is a very early Neighborhood with a built in amenity that costs no production and occupies no map space, and all that costs is a governor title. This building is clearly made for people who want to play tall, and if you want to play tall a maximum of seven penalty-free cities doesn't sound too prohibitive.

 

[Guandao]

I'm pretty sure "Grand Ministers Palace" is actually called Grand Master's Chapel. You can see the name in the youtube video.

 

[Ogro]

Where is our Thursday wonder release?

 

[agonistes]

I tend to expand pretty aggressively early on but once I butt up against my neighbors, I stop expanding and switch to building up my cities. But I gather you are the player that keeps spamming cities in every possible piece of the map even in the late game. Oh look there are 3 empty tiles in tundra all the way to the north of the second continent, quick put a city there!

I have been known to put some strategic submarine bases down on tundra islands, yes. For refueling.

edit: but in all seriousness, no, I don't go that far. I usually play the giant earth tsl and try to recreate approximate borders for whatever civ I'm playing, plus a few extra. Atm I'm once again Russia, and I've just about got my border wall to the Sea of Japan. China just dow'd me. I may get 50+ cities as Russia, but she's a real monster. I'd say 20-30 is more normal for the expansionists.

 

[pgm123]

Will be interesting to see it in practice. If the card that gets unlocked is just whatever government you're in, then we may have some weird cases of making sure you very briefly switch to one government when you complete the building just to make sure you lock in the bonus.

You could do that, but you can't simply switch back for fear of anarchy. Anarchy could risk you losing some disloyal cities and might make you fail to get the golden age bonus. It's a pretty big risk to briefly switch to a government. If you switch, you're probably going to want to stay there for a while.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Where is our Thursday wonder release?

That was Friday, not Thursday.

 

[Cerilis]

Where is our Thursday wonder release?

Wasnt that friday? Or was it at 6 pm CET... cant remember which one of those. Not at normal times at least.