Need advice: Build ALL possible bldgs in a city or not?

[earthwulf]

I find that I always queue up all possible buildings for a city, then ctrl click anything I need to get faster. I have no strategy other than "hey, it's there, so there must be a reason to build it!" Occasionally I leave out barracks, walls, castles and drydocks, but not usually.

My biggest problem is that when I start a game (always with a random leader) is that I have no clear cut end goal in mind... I know that Machiavelli and Lao Tzu would be rolling their eyes at me, but I try to leave options open.

Does anyone know of any posts/resourcces that show basic strategy hints for each type of victory? I checked out the "Condensed tips..." at the top of the forum, but I'd already figured out most of it (and disagreed with some)... This helped a lot, too, but it's still not quite what I need.

I'm a 35 year old strategic moron who needs his hand held as each strategy is talked out - any help is appreciated.

 

[Grand Fromage]

I've found no reason not to build everything if it's possible. Just don't sacrifice other areas (like the military) in favor of building things you don't really need right away.

 

[diamond geezer]

Civ's own hints suggest that you should specialise your cities, but of course this assumes that you have a clear idea what you want them to specialise in from the word go!

I tend to buy most upgrades in my biggest cities, but I never queue. Things are too fluid and I like to take a fresh look every time. Generaly I start out with culture upgrades, then money ones, and take health/happiness as they become necessary. One I always build as fast as possible is Forge (when it's available), but then I don't take random leaders.

For smaller cities I tend to be more specific in what I'm aiming for. Border cities need walls and castles, "ports" need all the relevant upgrades, etc.

BTW I barracks is something I almost always build. Jail seems fairly useless, and there's no gain in building additional culture generators in some cities once they reach 5000 (or even 500 if late in the game), or health buildings if not needed.

I've seen two general strategies for a culture victory - one depends on getting one "Great Artist" generating city and the other gets 9 cities and all the religions so it can have all the "Cathedrals".

 

[Charles 22]

My strategy (keep in mind I never get past mid-point of the game due to CTD's) is that continually building buildings is the thing to do when apparently the alternatives, building settlers or workers, is not desireable. Once you get far enough in techs that you can devote production to research etc. then there is a point to not building every building. That reminds me of one thing I have not done in this game yet, and in CIV3 you could do it, is sell off a building for cash. From what I've seen of this game you can't sell off any of the units, though you may be able to add them to the pop. A possible advantage to buildings in that while excess of some unit, such as workers, may not be wise for the current state of things, they may prove a good buy for later (new city add-ons etc.).

 

[soul_warrior]

you really DONT need ALL buildings in your towns.
these will cost you lots of gold.

what you need to do is specialize your towns.
make atleast one military pump (barracks + keep pumping units out)
make a worker-settler pump when possible (high food towns)

border towns can use some minor culture builds followed by defensive ones.

you need to decide which victory you're after. when going conquest, building culture on the border is quite useless, as your borders should be expanding as is.

NEVER auto queue your builds, as your needs change from time to time.

basically, build just what you really need, with the rest being military.
culture if you want to grab that lux-food-resource, defence if you're at a choke point or expecting attacks, rax if building military, etc.

when building wonders try to put them in one city, so you can enhance your Great People output.

 

[jeremiahrounds]

The primary problem of building every building type is it takes away from units you can produce. If your tech pace is decent youll be struggling to keep up with buildings in my experience (and religious stuff and boats) etc. So if you can say to yourself "i really dont need this building" then thats efficient as it lets you slip in a unit and keep cities that do need these buildings free of that burden.

Usually though if its not the last 100 turns then it seems pretty good just to build everything. However i submit that maybe a winning efficiency is in learning not to overbuild cities?

 

[baboon]

you really DONT need ALL buildings in your towns.
these will cost you lots of gold.

Buildings don't cost any gold, that's the point.

When I don't need any more troups I just keep building stuff that's semi useful, like universities in cities with hardly any Commerce. It doesn't hurt, although I could also let them produce wealth instead.

 

[narmox]

yep, no use building a library in a 5 beakers city when it could be building military units leaving your 40 beakers city to build a monastery (for +4 science, vs +2 or +1 or whatever with the first city I mentinoed).

 

[petey]

You should probably eventually build most of them in most of your cities. The question is when you should do it. For my science city, I build all the science buildings as soon as possible and anything else when those aren't available. For my military cities, I tend to build three units then a building, then three units then a building and go like that. Since I try to have more than one city focused on military, there is always someone building units, even when one of them is on a building.

There are some general buildings that everyone should have - barracks, granary, courthouse, forge and harbour and lighthouse if the city is on the coast. Other than that, focus on what the city is specializing in and go to the other buildings when those aren't available or something is needed for happiness/health. While it's great to have as many super-cities as possible, trying to make all of your cities that means that you're neglecting building in another area while that's happening and that area is likely the military, so all your nice juicy large cities will just get run over by the AI's larger armies.

 

[eataTREE]

You do not pay upkeep on buildings, so from one perspective it is not bad to have all buildings in a city. However, when you build buildings of marginal utility, you aren't spending those hammers on something more useful, like an army or a great wonder. The only reason not to have a big army is if you can't afford to maintain it -- if your economy can sustain it, it is never bad to have a powerful military. Even if you're pursuing a "peaceful builder" strategy, a big army will persuade the other civs to leave you alone to build in peace.

As far as an overall strategy goes, I think there are really only two (each having many variations): "peaceful builder" and "take over the world". In the former, you concentrate on pulling in commerce and maintaining a tech lead, which you use either to build the spaceship or legendary culture. In the latter, you concentrate on production and cranking out military units, while not worrying about tech so much as long as your weaponry is up to date. On this path, victory comes via conquest, domination, or (when only your allies remain) the UN. You should decide which strategy you are pursuing fairly early on in the game, or you will find you do not have time to do either.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

Basically you have 4 types of 'other' things to build in you city besides buildings
1. Military units (only reason not to build these is if your maintenance is high)
2. settlers...if there is space left over
3. Workers..if you have lots of undeveloped territory
4. Gold, Culture, Science... If you are going for a peaceful win, then these would be the things you would build instead of Military units

So past the early game there is always Something useful to do with your production, so you should NOT build a building unless you thing it will be usefull (if you have a city that you have decided to specialize for production, then don't build any buildings that boost science or gold, unless they have some other effect that is useful, ie Marketplaces happiness boost. If you know you aren't going to be building Military from City X, ie it is a Wonder, GP, or Some type of commerce city, don't bother with Barracks or drydocks)

Now if you aren't sure how you are going to specialize a city, then building everything is good, but after a while you should begin to specialize them, leading to decisions to not build building X instead to build science in science cities, Culture in Culture, Gold in Gold, +Military Units in Military cities...until the next building that is useful there becomes available.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

double post

 

[earthwulf]

Wow! Thanks for all the replies - they're all already coming in handy.

Next question: Farms vs. Villages Vs. Watermills Vs. Windmills

The last two I rarely use unless I have a city in a tundra with a river running through it and a hill in the city borders... I usually end up splitting farm and cottage evenly, and try to leve 1-2 forest/jungle spots open (usually for a lumbermill later on).

 

[DwWinnebagos]

Any city generally has an immediate need, except for fledgling cities late in the game.

You'll either need to build health or happiness, or there will be an obvious enhancement path. (reference beakers and coin, determine which multiplier should be built)

Sometimes you need to build unis in cities that are producing only 3 beakers per turn, however. Oxford U takes 6 unis. Wall Street takes 6 banks.

So while specialization is key for prioritization of buildings, you do end up building a lot in almost every city, depending on the size of your empire.

 

[Grand Fromage]

Wow! Thanks for all the replies - they're all already coming in handy.

Next question: Farms vs. Villages Vs. Watermills Vs. Windmills

The last two I rarely use unless I have a city in a tundra with a river running through it and a hill in the city borders... I usually end up splitting farm and cottage evenly, and try to leve 1-2 forest/jungle spots open (usually for a lumbermill later on).

It of course depends on the situation. I also find myself rarely using windmills except in tundra or desert areas where I really need the bonus food from hills. I've been building tons and tons of villages early in the game lately, then converting them over to watermills and workshops as I get further up the tech tree. I almost always put a watermill on every river-bordering tile these days, and use State Property. More food and more production is always good.

 

[Beamup]

If you more than occasionally find yourself thinking "nothing really useful I can build here, so I'll just build something semirandom" then it's high time to move up in difficulty.

 

[earthwulf]

It's not that I'm thinking I'm about building random things, it's that I'm still trying to get the basic concepts down... eg, when is it better to build up cottages, when is it better for farms, and the like. I like the State property idea, Big Cheese

 

[Beamup]

Sounds like I wasn't clear. If you can build everything in a city, then you should move up because that level can no longer be a significant challenge. Randomness isn't really the issue.

If you can get away with not having and sticking to a plan, it's time to move on to a more challenging level that will force more prioritization and learning.

 

[Artanis]

Wow! Thanks for all the replies - they're all already coming in handy.

Next question: Farms vs. Villages Vs. Watermills Vs. Windmills

The last two I rarely use unless I have a city in a tundra with a river running through it and a hill in the city borders... I usually end up splitting farm and cottage evenly, and try to leve 1-2 forest/jungle spots open (usually for a lumbermill later on).

Like Grand Fromage said, it depends on the situation (other than putting a Farm on Rice/Wheat/Corn, which is a no-brainer). In my experience, this is one place where city specialization really kicks in.

For example, my Commerce-whoring city will most likely be on a coast, river, or (preferably) both. I'll cover everything possible with Cottages, only placing enough Farms and Mines/Watermills to keep the city's population and hammer output high enough for the city to function. Cashville won't be producing too many soldiers, but that can be left to other cities as it pumps out several hundred beakers per turn.

Likewise, my Soldier Factory city will have as many Mines, Watermills, Lumbermills, and even Workshops as its food supply can support, with as many Farms as necessary to provide said food supply, and no more. Cottages only dilute such a city, and as such are right out. Soldierville won't produce a whole lot of cash or research, but that stuff can be left to other cities while it pumps out 5 Modern Armor every 6 turns

 

[KrikkitTwo]

Wow! Thanks for all the replies - they're all already coming in handy.

Next question: Farms vs. Villages Vs. Watermills Vs. Windmills

The last two I rarely use unless I have a city in a tundra with a river running through it and a hill in the city borders... I usually end up splitting farm and cottage evenly, and try to leve 1-2 forest/jungle spots open (usually for a lumbermill later on).

Basically Jungle=always cut, after that

Commerce city (Science, Gold or Culture Specialized)
Farms as needed to feed population
Mines, Watermills, Lumbermills/Forests, Workshops (best to worst) as needed to maintain 'reasonable' production levels
Cottages everywhere else possible
Windmills everywhere else

Production city
Farms as needed to feed population
Mines, Lumbermills/Forests, Watermills, Workshops (best to worst) everywhere else

Food city (Specialists for GP)
Mines, Watermills, Lumbermills/Forests, Workshops (best to worst) as needed to maintain 'reasonable' production levels
Farms everywhere else possible
Windmills on hills


*one exception being Always build the resource harvesting improvement on a resource

For any city

Farms as needed to feed population
Mines, Watermills, Lumbermills/Forests, Workshops (best to worst) as needed to maintain 'reasonable' production levels
for extra Food/Prod/Commerce
Flatlands: Farms/Lumbermill, Watermill, Forest, Workshop/Cottages,
Hills: Windmills/Lumbermill, Mine, Forest/Windmill
USE Hills first for Production, Flatlands first for Food+Commerce