Help granaries

[nameless53]

im not that good but so far ive been doing


captial=

barracks-> archer->granary-> so forth

for other cities

barracks-> (defence provided by precreated unit from another city) temple-> granary if possible...

i like doing culture stuff... though i never won by it.. just it claims stuff at max city radius first.

 

[WackenOpenAir]

The simple fact is, a granary is an investment that will pay itself back over time.

The earlier you build it, the more time it has to pay itself back and the better it gets.

There are 2 ways you can use your resources, you can spend it or invest it. Invest being something that will make you grow and will more than pay itself back over time.

Settlers, workers and granaries are investments. Units are only investments if you conquer cities with them. Culture hardly is an investment. It can be a necessity to survive, and it can win you the game (if you choose to go for that)

Unless you are planning to make those other things investments by going for a very early attack (and not just without a reason, but a usefull early attack, that will pay you some rewards) or going for a cultural victory, in early game you should try to maximize your investments and minimize your spendings. Therefore, build the bare minimum of units and culture needed to survive.
Try building less and less of these and see with how little you can get away. This mostly depends on barbarian settings and AI agression.

buildings for happiness could be counted as an investment, but it is an investment that costs shields and pays back gold (in needing lower tax slider) Espescially in early game, gold is by far not worth as much as shields and therefore, it is better not to invest in this early.

leaves the choise between workers, settlers and granaries. Must find a good balance between those.

 

[Rassnie]

To answer your first question I might want to answer your second first. You have 30 cities? I'd suggest switching to The Republic to alleviate the corruption problems you're probably having. The Republic will serve you well through out most (if not all, especially if you're not a religious civ) of the game.

Now when you switch governments look at your gpt. Are you making, or will you be making soon, enough to build granaries in the first 10 cities as well as enough to cover the costs of universities in as many cities as you can build them in as well? If so, then go ahead and build them. Once your first 10 - 15 cities are well developed, you shouldn't have much of a problem with money.

The only city improvements I build in every city at Emperor level are temples, marketplaces, libraries, and aquaducts. I'll probably have granaries in my first 3 or 4 cities from settler production and barracks in all the cities I'll be producing units in (at some point all of my cities have barracks and granaries, but we're talking ancient and early middle ages). If I get Sistine Chapel I'll also build cathedrals in all large cities if I don't have enough luxuries. If I don't have Sistine Chapel and I don't have enough luxuries to keep a size 12 city happy through trade or from my own empire, then it's time for war. But I digress. I find that granaries are a waste of money in earlier times. They're most useful when you get Sanatation so that you can get your tiles worked asap after you build Hospitals. But if you can afford it with a republic, then I'd suggest building as many as you can afford while still having a military.

 

[digitalgoodtime]

The simple fact is, a granary is an investment that will pay itself back over time.

The earlier you build it, the more time it has to pay itself back and the better it gets.

There are 2 ways you can use your resources, you can spend it or invest it. Invest being something that will make you grow and will more than pay itself back over time.

Settlers, workers and granaries are investments. Units are only investments if you conquer cities with them. Culture hardly is an investment. It can be a necessity to survive, and it can win you the game (if you choose to go for that)

Unless you are planning to make those other things investments by going for a very early attack (and not just without a reason, but a usefull early attack, that will pay you some rewards) or going for a cultural victory, in early game you should try to maximize your investments and minimize your spendings. Therefore, build the bare minimum of units and culture needed to survive.
Try building less and less of these and see with how little you can get away. This mostly depends on barbarian settings and AI agression.

buildings for happiness could be counted as an investment, but it is an investment that costs shields and pays back gold (in needing lower tax slider) Espescially in early game, gold is by far not worth as much as shields and therefore, it is better not to invest in this early.

leaves the choise between workers, settlers and granaries. Must find a good balance between those.

When playing at emp or higher you have to have everything and the granary and barracks are imho two of the buildings that may not be needed right away. That goes without saying that you have to have a granary in your settler factories and a barracks built at any troop factories or border cites. A temple at the higher levels can make growth more possible than a granary b/c of all the unhappy citizens the puter throws at you....

 

[Longasc]

I usually build a settler before a granary.

I think it is more efficient to get a 2nd city up and running early than to wait for the effect of the granary to kick in.

The comes the usual "it depends". If you start in a low growth area, and do not start over, they will probaby become more important. I would however say moving a settler to a somewhat better spot ASAP to create a settler factory e.g. while your capital does the "rest" might give you an early boost.

I wonder how the top players think on this issue, besides from "it depends" in general.

 

[Longasc]

My usual build order for the capital:

Warrior - Warrior - Warrior - Settler - Temple - Granary

No barracks, I am not going to war this early.

 

[King Alexander]

It depends on the terrain, really. If I have a cattle/wheat inside my radius(before or after the border expansion), I'll go for 3 warriors(otherwise scouts)-settler-granary(if I start with Pottery, that is).

 

[WackenOpenAir]

When playing at emp or higher you have to have everything and the granary and barracks are imho two of the buildings that may not be needed right away. That goes without saying that you have to have a granary in your settler factories and a barracks built at any troop factories or border cites. A temple at the higher levels can make growth more possible than a granary b/c of all the unhappy citizens the puter throws at you....

The only reason i ever played lower than deity are the GOTM. I rarely ever built a temple in my life, the build order for half of my cities starts worker-granary. For most others it is warrior-worker-granary. I never use any clowns, just let the cities grow and use the tax slider, every citizen costs 1 luxury from the slider, but it also produces at least 1 commerce, so they will always pay for themselves. Happiness is no problem.

In other words, i dissagree with what you are saying

A few of my cities do sometimes build a rax before granary though, but not much.

Some possible build orders for my capital if it can be a settler factory would be:
curragh - granary - settler
curragh - warrior - granary - settler
warrior - warrior - granary - settler

For me building a settler before granary if your capital has the opportunity to be a factory sounds like a huge mistake unless maybe when that settler could become a second settler factory. That settler would cost you 15 turns or so while it costs you 4 turns after the granary. All your other cities will be 11 turns later only for that 1 city (that would be like 15-20 turns earlier).

I am lame enough to restart my games until there is a food bonus near my capital, so i don't have recent build orders for non settler factory starts.
(did so in the past, but haven't thought about non settler fact games in a while)