There has been a lot of debate on whether expansion past the early game is truly "profitable". I'm still about iffy on it myself, though the change from 7% to 5% for new cities has helped a bit. However, I wanted to consider some ideas to maximize a colony to get the best bang for your buck.
Renaissance cities (often on an island or another continent) are made for a few purposes:
1) Resources: Either to grab a unique lux (or in best cases, 2 new luxs), or some strategic resource that you need.
2) Strategic: Its a defensive or offensive position against a rival.
3) Yields: Raw "stuff".
Its the Yields I want to look at. How well can you make a colony actually produce a net benefit for your civ? My thoughts on best ways to do that.
So under this model, the key question is: What is the minimum list of buildings that should be built? Its a tough one, and definitely would like feedback on this. My thinking is:
1) Maximize base Supply: Supply is one of the good benefits of expansion (and you need additional supply to offset the defense costs of your colony).
2) Forego Production for the most part: Our goal is to build and get out, investing hammers to get more hammers is not what the plan is here. Aka no windmills!
3) Maximize Gold and Science/Culture (I'm going to assume science for my list below).
4) Need defense buildings up to Arsenal: Arsenals may have been voluntary at one point, but the AI is too good at naval endeavors now, so a coastal city has to have an arsenal to be competitive.
Obviously pioneers will give you some of these buildings, this is just meant to be a full list.
Buildings (Hammer Cost / Maintenance)
Supply Buildings
Other Buildings
Benefits and Cost
So if we ignore the bolded buildings for now, that puts us at a bill of:
Science: So we are looking:
Instant Yield Quick Tangent
Also just for fun, lets assume we have all of these buildings and specialists in place for the colony to grow from Pop 3 to Pop 12 (these are not realistic assumptions AT ALL but just to show what instant yields could look like). That would generate 15 * 9 = 135 science from the council, and 35 x .25 x 9 = 78.75 science from the university. That is a grand total of 6 turns worth of science. So under more realistic assumptions, its probably closer to 4-5 turns. I wanted to show that to note that in the long term, for a colony that we are going to cap and not have grow to massive proportions, the instant yields are not contributing a whole lot, so we don't have to think about them too much in terms of our overall benefits.
Gold: We have
Renaissance cities (often on an island or another continent) are made for a few purposes:
1) Resources: Either to grab a unique lux (or in best cases, 2 new luxs), or some strategic resource that you need.
2) Strategic: Its a defensive or offensive position against a rival.
3) Yields: Raw "stuff".
Its the Yields I want to look at. How well can you make a colony actually produce a net benefit for your civ? My thoughts on best ways to do that.
- No investment: Off the bat I want to get controversial, and curious what others think here. Without investment its going to take longer to get the colony running, but gold is in theory one of the best yields you get for a new city....however, if you start spending that money in investment you will very quickly create a debt that city will never pay off. So part of me thinks the way to go is just let the city build as fast as it can build, and collect what you can from it.
- Science or culture, not both: So as soon as you plop down the city, you have incurred a 5% science and culture debt, and the clock is ticking. I think trying to maintain both culture and science to high levels is likely folly. I think its best to just focus on one (with a process) and accept the trade off. Otherwise again your investing too much into the colony.
- Minimum building, then stop growth and process. I think probably the best way to get your bang for the buck with a colony. Make the buildings your going to make, then stop growth (to prevent happiness), put as many specialists as you can afford, and then switch to a process....and then that city just becomes a puppet for all intensive purposes. That way, while in the longest term you start to lose out, you in theory get a boost in yields in the mid game that you can utilize for a better overall game.
So under this model, the key question is: What is the minimum list of buildings that should be built? Its a tough one, and definitely would like feedback on this. My thinking is:
1) Maximize base Supply: Supply is one of the good benefits of expansion (and you need additional supply to offset the defense costs of your colony).
2) Forego Production for the most part: Our goal is to build and get out, investing hammers to get more hammers is not what the plan is here. Aka no windmills!
3) Maximize Gold and Science/Culture (I'm going to assume science for my list below).
4) Need defense buildings up to Arsenal: Arsenals may have been voluntary at one point, but the AI is too good at naval endeavors now, so a coastal city has to have an arsenal to be competitive.
Obviously pioneers will give you some of these buildings, this is just meant to be a full list.
Buildings (Hammer Cost / Maintenance)
Supply Buildings
- Lighthouse (144 / 1)
- Harbor (343 / 2)
- Barracks (103 / 1)
- Armory (294 / 2)
- Walls (103 / 1)
- Castle (294 / 2)
- Arsenal (1000 / 6)
- Council (61 / 0)
- Library (144 / 1)
- University (294 / 2)
- Public School (1000 / 3) [I'm debating here, its a big jump in expense, but if we are maximizing on science specialists it is a big boost in science.]
- Market (103 / 0)
- Bank (500 / 0) [Banks base value isn't all that great, its more about the boosters to other buildings and the science return, which we wouldn't get here. So I'm thinking we may forego banks in this case]
Other Buildings
- Monument (61 / 1) [so cheap for the price, and you need it to get the borders moving]
- Amphitheater (192 / 1) [still cheap for the culture, but every expense matters]
- Chancery (294 / 3) [generally one of the biggest boosts in the game yield wise, and the specialist is good for a city just making as many raw yields as possible.]
- Gardens (294 / 3) [debating this one, I don't know if the 25% more GP will matter much in the colony, but I may need it just for the urbanization reduction]
- Wire Service (1800 / 6) [While its very expensive, its generally a really good return. If I have 5 allies as a diplo civ, thats +10 science. We lose 450 science by making this building instead of using more science process, which is a 45 turn to pay off....usually worth it]
- Observatory (500 / 4): [If you have rationalism, a no brainer but I won't assume it for now.]
- Corp Office (846 / 6): [Once a corp gets going usually the benefits are going to be worth that cost]
Benefits and Cost
So if we ignore the bolded buildings for now, that puts us at a bill of:
- 5,884 hammers (aka 1,471 science through process)
- 34 GPT
Science: So we are looking:
- 9 base from buildings
- ~10 from wire service
- 10 from science specialists
- 6 from civil servants
Instant Yield Quick Tangent
Spoiler :
Also just for fun, lets assume we have all of these buildings and specialists in place for the colony to grow from Pop 3 to Pop 12 (these are not realistic assumptions AT ALL but just to show what instant yields could look like). That would generate 15 * 9 = 135 science from the council, and 35 x .25 x 9 = 78.75 science from the university. That is a grand total of 6 turns worth of science. So under more realistic assumptions, its probably closer to 4-5 turns. I wanted to show that to note that in the long term, for a colony that we are going to cap and not have grow to massive proportions, the instant yields are not contributing a whole lot, so we don't have to think about them too much in terms of our overall benefits.
Gold: We have
- 4 base from buildings
- ~10 from chanceries
- ~7 from city connection
- 4 from civil servants