Research/Wealth City Specialisation

Matty R

Veteran Newbie
Joined
Jun 17, 2006
Messages
416
Location
Bolton, England
Hello :)

I have a question to ask about research and wealth cities, but I'm having trouble wording it.

In general, if I have two cities producing alot of :commerce:, but one produces more than the other, which type of city should I make the one producing the most :commerce:, research or wealth?

I can see arguments for either, but only being a newly promoted Noble player, I'd really like to get the views of other people.

In my current game, I've decided to make my capital my wealth city. It looks to be the best site in the territory I'll have once my plans come to fruition, and I've founded Buddhism there.

In my last game, I chose to make my wealth city the one producing the most :commerce:, because I had a continent all to myself and was expanding at a rapid rate, so I went for more gold to overcome the increases in maintenance.

If I'd made that city specialise in research though, I could have increased my already significant tech lead.

So I just don't know. :rolleyes:
 
So long as your research slider is still high, I think you're better off specializing in research. Building wealth-increasing buildings when you're only converting 20-30% of commerce to gold seems like a waste of hammers.

That can change once you've built a shrine in that city, or decided to run gold-producing specialists.
 
I think it is best to make the city with the most commerce your science city with Oxford and the city with the most food your wealth city with Wall Street, especially if it founded a religion. Enemy capitols are good for wealth cities if they founded a religion because they tend to have food resources and fresh water for farms. I use the highest food city in order to run merchant and prophet specialists which will generate more gold than a high commerce city will. If you have your slider set to 80-90% research your commerce cities won't generate a lot of gold but a city with a few merchants will.
 
Thanks for the replies. :)

It turns out my capital will be producing the second most :commerce:. I've since captured Genghis Khan's capital, which has 2 Gold, Marble, Iron, Cows and 3 Clams in it's BFC, along with loads of grassy river tiles. I'll make that my research city.
 
If my high :commerce: cities are growing cottages, I tend to focus on research buildings first. As a general rule I build :gold: buildings later because when I've got a lot of mature cottages I'll tend to go Universal Suffrage.

I generally count em up and put Oxford in the city with the highest number of cottages. Wall Street is a toss up but I don't like to put it in the same city as Oxford. Those cities often have little production so it takes a while. In games where I put Oxford/Wall Street in the same city, I find myself getting new cities where Wall Street would make more sense (Shrine cities mostly).
 
I assume you are going for a space victory as Wall Street is generally not worth having for other victories. When you tech education, set the research to 100%. Check the city that has the most research, build Oxford there. When you tech/trade for Corporations set research to 100%, check which city has most gold, build Wall Street and Corp offices there (If you can - depends on national works, you may have to pick a second city because Oxford and Nat Epic/Heroic Epic are in the capital and it's still the best location.
 
I assume you are going for a space victory as Wall Street is generally not worth having for other victories. When you tech education, set the research to 100%. Check the city that has the most research, build Oxford there. When you tech/trade for Corporations set research to 100%, check which city has most gold, build Wall Street and Corp offices there (If you can - depends on national works, you may have to pick a second city because Oxford and Nat Epic/Heroic Epic are in the capital and it's still the best location.

Wall Street's not worth having for any VC other than Space?
Where'd you get that idea from?
 
Wall Street's not worth having for any VC other than Space?
Where'd you get that idea from?
The tech paths for other victory conditions don't include Corporation, so no Wall Street.

Conquest and Dom need military techs and gold comes from taking cities.
Diplo needs tech that don't include Corp and who needs extra cash anyway?
Culture tech path ends with Lib, never gets to Corporation.
Religious ends with Theology.
Time is just a form of Conquest/Dom so you can build Wall Street but there's no real need for it.

Wall Street is good for Space because it comes early enough to let you run 100% research with fewer cities building wealth. This lets you build more military units to control the AI.
 
Do you play only Pangea maps that end in a cavalry rush?
You need to get corporation for assembly line.

No, I cycle through all the HOF acceptable maps with random leaders. Usually trying for a specific victory condition based on map/leader once I've generated the map.

Just out of curiousity, what prompted the thought? Rifles and Trebs is usually what I aim to finish with in Emporer games.
 
No, I cycle through all the HOF acceptable maps with random leaders. Usually trying for a specific victory condition based on map/leader once I've generated the map.

Just out of curiousity, what prompted the thought? Rifles and Trebs is usually what I aim to finish with in Emporer games.

I usually win conquest or domination on emperor, but I usually play fractal maps, where you have to do an intercontinental invasion most of the time.
I can win a pangaea type map with some combination of rifles, cannon and cavalry, but need transport, infantry and flight for an intercontinental invasion.
 
Why wouldn't you want to put both Oxford and Wall St. in the same city? Wouldn't it be true that the city that makes the most money will also make the most research as well?
 
@QuantumPion: Conversion of :commerce: into :beakers: and :gold: is completely slider dependent. Putting both Oxford and Wall St. in the same city (Bureaucracy Capital for example) will generate good :beakers: when the science slider is high, and good :gold: when your sliders are low. Unless your science slider hovers around 50% or your frequently shifting it between 100% and 0% you are wasting some of the potential output of those buildings.

The same trade off is true when Wall Street is put in any city that is powered by :commerce:

Wall Street really shines in Shrine Cities (which I find I rarely have) and with Corporation Capitals (typically can get one or two Corps). Spread your religion or corp (carefully so you don't hand the AI a necessary advantage). These sources of gold are independent of the sliders.
 
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