Industrial Districts - How to use them?

[SlySlySly]

I rarely use the industrial district. I'm not exactly sure what the point is, the than getting a little bit more production in the city center?

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

If you build I believe a Factory the bonus is extended to a radius of several tiles that affects OTHEr cities as well.

 

[XVeris]

If you build I believe a Factory the bonus is extended to a radius of several tiles that affects OTHEr cities as well.

Same with the Power Plant. And seeing as how you need production to be productive, I'd say build them in every city, anyways. Especially if you're playing as Germany, since their Hansa gives even more production when built next to a Commercial District.

 

[Rosty K]

I rarely use the industrial district. I'm not exactly sure what the point is, the than getting a little bit more production in the city center?

But isn't the production the most important yield in the game? It's the only resource that can be turned into anything

 

[ShakaKhan]

Same with the Power Plant. And seeing as how you need production to be productive, I'd say build them in every city, anyways. Especially if you're playing as Germany, since their Hansa gives even more production when built next to a Commercial District.

I agree and disagree to an extent with both tactics you mentioned.

building them in every city: yes and no. The consensus, it seems, that the forum has concluded is that it is optimal to build industrial zones (and entertainment complexes for that matter) in enough cities so that all cities are covered by the area of effect bonus from factories and power plants (since they no longer stack.) I think this is a pretty good general rule-of-thumb instead of "build them in all cities", however there are some notable exceptions. First, I wouldn't NOT build an industrial zone in a city just because it is covered by another city's factory if it can get a sweet +4 or +5 adjacency bonus from mines and quarries. Second, I wouldn't NOT build an industrial zone in a city (that's covered by another city's factories) if ti is a high production city and you plan on building wonders, late game projects, or late game districts in that city, particularly if you have envoy-level bonuses from industrial city-states. Third, I wouldn't build them in cities, even if they aren't covered by other city's factories, if it is too late in the game- between the increased cost of the district and the limited number of turns remaining to benefit from it, you just aren't going to get the return on your investment.

emphasizing industrial zones/hanzas as Germany: I find that the adjacency bonus that Germany gets is more of a lateral move than a bonus. They do get an additional +2 from adjacent commercial hubs and an additional +1 from adjacent resources, but they lose the +1 bonus from adjacent mines and quarries. Now, when I'm NOT playing Germany, hilly or stone-heavy adjacent tiles are the major reason I would decide to build an IZ in that city, and I generally don't build one unless I can get that bonus of at least +4 (then again, I usually play on "new" maps which have more hills, so this is probably less common for most maps.) And while the +2 bonus from being next to a commercial hub is great, there normally aren't too many CH's that can overlap in just the right way to get multiple boosts from that. I know you can have 4 or even 5 CH's adjacent to the same hanza, but usually it's more like 2, and whether or not there happen to be resources there is even more circumstantial. So the adjacency bonus is more of a lateral move in my opinion, probably slightly better. The other reasons to emphasize them as Germany are good reasons to prioritize them though (you get them at 1/2 price and the other bonus gives you more flexibility with district selection.)

 

[craney1987]

I only build enough for coverage. Then in the cities without them I place encampments which also give production

 

[nzcamel]

I rarely use the industrial district. I'm not exactly sure what the point is, the than getting a little bit more production in the city center?

The point would be to seriously increase production.

 

[historix69]

Germany's Hansa comes at half price (base costs 30 instead of 60) and Germany can build an additional district than population would normally allow, so they can always build hansa first to speed up later city improvements (provided you have enough tiles around your city).

 

[Siptah]

The hansa is a great thing and you rarely build one with less than 4 adjacency, so it is a benefit in almost every city. The problem is that some of the GEs are useless to Germany, since you won't need another free district and the +1housing/+1amenity which usually is nice to get another district sooner is also not that important. I would say if going for a science victory it is important to have quite some Industrial Zones even when not having a large empire just to generate enough GE points to smoothen things out.

 

[Shorlin]

I rarely use the industrial district.

Then you are probably doing it right. Since the nerf to district AOE stacking ID are pretty weak IMO.

Instances where you will build one:
-Playing Germany, you'll want one in all your core cities
-One in your main production city
-One in a central city for maximum factory/power plant coverage
-If there is a beautiful adjacency bonus spot, i.e 4+ adjacent mines/quarries
-If you are going space victory, Wernher Won Braun and Sergei Korolev are great engineers worth investing in. The rest of the GE are pretty garbage though, IMO.

 

[Photi]

if you are going for a science victory, you only need one really productive city, and then maybe a backup. for a culture victory, you may not need an IZ at all depending on if you are going for wonders to boost culture (which according to @Victoria 's culture guide isn't really the best approach to a CV except a couple specific wonders ie Cristo Redentor and Eiffel Tower). A score victory you would need IZs in the cities you are trying to build wonders, settlers, and military units. having one IZ in your most major city is good for the internal trade routes, or maybe in 3-4 major cities if you are relying on internal trade for boosting one specific city like in a space victory. personally i like having a lot of gold to buy most of the later game production needs (though of course districts and projects cannot be bought).

 

[stormerne]

I rarely use the industrial district. I'm not exactly sure what the point is, the than getting a little bit more production in the city center?

Hello neighbor! Having more production is always good. It allows you take advantage of opportunities faster, respond to threats faster, build more units for your military in the same amount of time, build wonders ahead of other civs, win the space race etc .... It also helps you compensate for the higher levels of difficulty (King/Emperor/Immortal/Deity) where the AI has more production capability than you (+20%/+40%/+60%/+80%).

Ways of increasing a city's production have always been in Civilization right from the 90s. You had factories and power plants (even hydro and solar plants to reduce pollution) though they, like everything else, were in the city centers. But can you imagine what it would be like if you couldn't significantly boost production?

if you are going for a science victory, you only need one really productive city, and then maybe a backup.

Only "need" one, maybe, but why not get yourself three? Otherwise you build your Mars projects one after another, and that can be really slow. Sure, I can't remember seeing an AI civ building multiple spaceports, but if you need to catch up and overtake the AI (or human player), or just reduce risk by reducing time if you're ahead anyway, why not build three spaceports and then build all three Mars projects in parallel? What else would you be doing anyway? And that's where centralized industrial zones can really help, bringing production bonuses to surrounding spaceport cities.

 

[isau]

I put them in every city. Finding a suitable location for one with lots of adjacency bonuses is one of my top priorities for settling. It's true you don't need a Factory or Power Plant in all of them. But a Workshop is fairly cheap.

The only time I skip them is if there isn't a spot where I can't get an adjacency bonus of around +3 or better. But that usually isn't too hard to do, if you are planning cities around that bonus.

The great thing about Industrial Zones is you get that production without actually having to work a tile. Plus Great Engineer points (which effectively produces more hammers.)

 

[Photi]

Sounds like some people are a little OCD about industrial zones. Down with IZ tyranny.

 

[PYITE]

I plan for the minimum to cover all cities with the area effect. I build more in other cities based more on the amount of industrial city states available rather than adjacency amount. An extra 3-5 production from adjacency is not much and will take many turns to earn back the production used to build it. The big bonus comes from sending envoys to the industrial CSs. For every one that you can get 6 envoys to you get 4 production for buildings, wonders and districts. The important thing to remember is to always only build the minimum number of factories/power plants to cover all your cities with their area effect.

 

[Siptah]

On a side note, I wish factories and power plants would at least give the local production to the city, even when they are in radius of another one.
And yes, @PYITE, the CS bonuses make a difference. If you have two of those CS with 6 envoys, some adjacency and a workshop, a IZ is worth it in more than just a few cities.

 

[Rosty K]

Yes, the CS. Also, I believe that having IZ in a city affects the production you get from sending traders there (but so do some other districts as well), so that might be another reason to have some. So the good thing about IZ in general is that it sort of gives you production 'out of nowhere' if managed right.

 

[PYITE]

On a side note, I wish factories and power plants would at least give the local production to the city, even when they are in radius of another one..

Yes!!!

Also for those who don't use the more lenses mod; there is a 6 tile radius lense that is very helpful in deciding where to place industrial and entertainment district buildings with area effects.

 

[bbbt]

I think they should bring back the IZ AoE stacking.

But also give them AoE negative appeal that stacks.

And give a city amenities (neg or pos) based on the hex appeal it's on.

So you can have your massive production cities, but they've got to be chock full of entertainment districts and Pairidaezas to get people to live there!

 

[agonistes]

The point would be to seriously increase production.

I think in most cases they are highly ovrerrated. Someone above me posted a decent list of when to use them.

Remember, a good mine or mill is going to get you about the same increase in production if the city is covered by another industrial zone.

1st question you should ask is, 'what will be my return on this investment?'

I factor in whether or not I will be slotting citizens there.

Their value goes up for a science victory.

As mentioned elsewhere several times, if you get a double tap on that great engineer, they are worth building in almost every city through mid-game because the factory ends up being another +4 even if already covered by another zone. So +6 with workshop, + adjacency, + citizens.

I've built them just for engineer points.

Another factor is if you are getting the % bonus to production from faith.

It could be considered counter-intuitive, but the more dom you go, the less value they have. Imo of course. And the further into a game you are, assuming victory conditions are involved, the less value they have.

But I think most would agree that you want at least a couple well-placed ones in most games.