Need advice

[Erneiz Hyde]

I'm still figuring my way in Immortal right now. I figured out you need a Commercial/Harbor for every city, but for every other one I'm still not sure.

Holy Site: These are safe to ignore if you're not gunning for Religious Victory. But if you do, how many do you need exactly? As many as possible?

Industrial Zone: Since this no longer stacks, I figured it's best to only build this in cities that allows maximum coverage with little overlap. And from what I see, the only Great Engineer one would want is the one that grants 100% extra spaceproject and you should get it easily if you skip all the rest.

Entertainment District: same coverage rule as IZ district.

Theatre and Science district: These are the one I have most trouble figuring out. How many of these should you aim for if you're not currently gunning for their respective VC? And how many do you need when you DO aim for their respective VC? This question extends to the buildings in the district as well.

Encampment: this is also perplexing in a different way. Obviously you want this built first if going domination. But for every other condition, this usually is the 3rd district to be built (after Commerce/Harbor and Industrial/Science/Theatre), which is rather late and makes me question whether it would be worth it. If I can figure how many Science and Theatre District I would need and by when, I would be able to squeeze the earlier. Although, if there's Kabul it would make this district a must spam (at least I think it was Kabul, the one that gives Encampment trade routes).

 

[HyJinkx]

Starting at the bottom, for Kabul you get "Your units receive double experience from battles they initiate". The one you are looing for is Carthage for the encampment trade routes. Kabul is still worth getting if you are planning on having any battles but not as important for a peaceful game.

The Theatre and Science districts are based on the type of victory you are looking for. I won an immortal game yesterday with Russia(Culture Victory) with only one science district but I had 12 Theatre districts and half as many Holy sites. The most important thing was I also had an entire continent to myself after removing Greece very early on and absorbing his two cities. I really should have built a couple more but I was trying to focus on a fast culture victory based on buying everything with faith and gold. Kongo was getting ready to start the space race right before I won. Many factors played out in my favor though and I would not suggest only one. Maybe 2-3 with enough cities if you are going for domination as you should conquer a few more along the way. There is no exact amount of either really and you need to base it on what you feel like you may be lagging behind in.

I don't focus as much on the IZ's now, one for Ruhr Valley and one for the Venetian Arsenal. I don't normally concern myself with their placement for the bonus unless I am in a very low production area. They are nice but not great unless you are going for a SV or wonder building game which is tough on immortal.

Entertainment is based on how many luxuries I have and who I am playing. A few will go a long way if placed properly and yes the same as the IZ.

I enjoy Holy site a lot more recently even when I am not going for a religious victory after playing around with them. You can buy troops, great people, and even center buildings and walls with the right City state. They can take a lot of weight off of you gold if you drop to the bottom of the civics tree. They aren't a must but can be very handy if you have space and need them. If you are going for a RV then you want one in almost every city that can support one at some point.

Commercial hubs and harbors are very important but unless you are playing as England you don't need both in every city because of the nerf to trade routes. Harbors have come a long way and will do fine in most costal cities.

Basically I would suggest one CD/HD-One of VC type- One Misc/IZ/ED in each city. You can toss in an encampment here and there if you feel the need to but they are not needed even for domination in single player. If you grab Carthage then spam the to your hearts content as long as you can hold it but it is heartbreaking if you lose it. Always keep a few envoys held back in case as a rule of thumb. Normally I am more concerned with other city states such as Zanzibar, Buenos Aries or Mohengo-Daro for any time uses. I find that trying to hold more than 3 can be very tricky unless I am focusing a lot of effort on them.

Gold should probably be your top priority for any game followed closely by production. If you can't buy it you want to build it to catch up and keep up where you are lacking. Some times you need to get creative to fill in the gaps and that is where faith can come in. It's more a game of catch up once you start at that level but there are lots of ways to accomplish that but it will all depend on what you are dealt with as far as the map and neighbors. Buy it, build it, take it or pray for it just depending what you have.

 

[Magma_Dragoon]

Industrial Zone: Since this no longer stacks, I figured it's best to only build this in cities that allows maximum coverage with little overlap. And from what I see, the only Great Engineer one would want is the one that grants 100% extra spaceproject and you should get it easily if you skip all the rest.

I tried a game where I focused on minimizing the number of IZs I built while still covering everything and I came to the conclusion that the factory and powerplant aoe bonus comes so late that this is counterproductive. I settled on trying to keep every city covered, but not passing up a good spot to build an IZ just because another city's factory and powerplant will eventually cover this city.
And plenty of GEs are useful. Roebling for examble. Even the guy who gives free walls is useful to plant a forward base in a place that would otherwise be too risky to settle.

Entertainment District: same coverage rule as IZ district.

Yes. One early to try for the Colosseum, and no more until you're close to unlocking zoos.

Encampment: this is also perplexing in a different way. Obviously you want this built first if going domination. But for every other condition, this usually is the 3rd district to be built (after Commerce/Harbor and Industrial/Science/Theatre), which is rather late and makes me question whether it would be worth it. If I can figure how many Science and Theatre District I would need and by when, I would be able to squeeze the earlier. Although, if there's Kabul it would make this district a must spam (at least I think it was Kabul, the one that gives Encampment trade routes).

You should have at least one. Even if you want to play peaceful, it reduces the strategic resource cost of many units from 2 to 1.

 

[Erneiz Hyde]

Do I even need Theatres if I'm not aiming CV? Also, apparently civ specific special districts are now also counted towards the normal district limit? Also, can cities and districts be used to grab resources?

 

[Jarhead60]

Do I even need Theatres if I'm not aiming CV? Also, apparently civ specific special districts are now also counted towards the normal district limit? Also, can cities and districts be used to grab resources?

While you do not necessarily need a theater district to win the other VCs it never hurts to have the additional culture the district can give you if for no other reason than progressing through the culture tree. I have done many games without a TD and in every one of those games I found my advancement through the culture tree to be much slower.

 

[Nigel_Tufnel2]

Do I even need Theatres if I'm not aiming CV? Also, apparently civ specific special districts are now also counted towards the normal district limit? Also, can cities and districts be used to grab resources?

As far as the 3rd question - you can settle, but can't build Districts, on resources/luxes. If it is an unrevealed resource due to tech level, you can build Districts on it, then "have" it when revealed.

 

[Victoria]

I am not going to repeat what others have said

I am a CV freak.
I know a CV will be much faster with some science districts early.

A shipyard with a couple of fish nearby can give +10 production with an adjacency card for any civ. that's not bad. +14 for England.

What I do tend to do if not focused on a quick CV is build all +1 prod districts in one city and all +1 food districts in another city. It's a finer point but does allow for better focusing.

The only time I have build IZ everywhere was with Germany, mainly because they have room for another district.

You have to recognise how big you grow cities in the mid game. In the mid game my cities are 7 pop and my cap 10-12.

So choosing the right ones and being aware you may need entertainment are important.

Production is king but gold is god

 

[EpicWestern]

Really starting to feel like multiple campuses are mandatory for every victory type. Most recent game I spawned close to Yerevan and naturally decided best route was religious victory. Some initial attacks were easily held off by archers and then crossbowmen, and I had walls at every city. Neither of my neighbors were very threating. So Aztecs declare war on me, who weren't on the other side of map but weren't really neighbors either so I wasn't too concerned. Then suddenly 4 AT crew corps are at my base. Cities go down in about 3 hits. Crossbow shots do close to nothing. There's a chance they won't press, and maybe declare peace after a few turns, and the game can be salvaged, but it will be rough.

A lot of my post Spring patch deity games have been like this. It seems like you're absolutely cruising to whatever victory type you're going for and then suddenly you're hit when you're far out-teched, be it musketmen, cavalry, AT crews, conquistadors, rough riders, etc.. Its almost like two games need to be played, one for your actual victory type the other for the mid/late game rush that frequently (not always) comes.