The "Must Builds" for your play style

[RickDuzEnuff]

In a recent thread, I explained how I was having cash flow issues. Many of the responses pointed out that I had over-built city improvements. There is actually another thread about "addictions" that is very entertaining, and it appears that I suffer from improvement addiction.

So I started a new game trying to curb that need to build everything under the sun in all my cities. The new game has met with much greater success. So here is my question...What do you consider a "must build" in your cities? Obviously this will depend on city location vs. game goals.

Myself, I tend to play space race games. Cash is king. Actually, cash is king in most play styles, I would think. So I will build any and all improvements that generate cash. So my "must builds" are MP, Bank, SE, Harbor and CD in all coastal cities, and Smith's for a wonder. Aqueduct and Hospital kinda go without saying, unless the city can't grow large enough to warrant them. The reason I bring this up is that it was pointed out by some that a harbor in every coastal city is not necessary. What do you think?

 

[Bandobras Took]

I actually tend to build everything myself.

However, I only usually do it after I switch to Communism and have at least half if not all of my continent under my control.

Usually my "Must Builds" are some barracks for creating Veteran troops and culture if I need to squeeze an annoying city.

I'll add Libraries/Marketplaces if I have good Commerce after corruption in a city, but usually I'm far too busy claiming every bit of land I can.

 

[The Professor]

If you're trying to launch, the most important improvements will be libraries and Universities. You will probably have 10-20 cities that produce enough commerce to make a library worthwhile, and 10 or so that can use a University. Marketplaces are useful, especially if you have more than three luxuries, because they increase the happiness you get from the luxuries. Most of the time, I would expect to have the slider at 80% science or higher, so banks and stock exchanges are not going to be all that useful.

Some of the most important towns will have no improvements at all--the science farms. With rails, you can frequently have towns that have two laborers and 2 or 3 scientists. Those beakers will be completely uncorrupted, and can make a huge difference in the research time. Of course, having the territory to make science farms frequently requires war, and so I would suggest that your most productive towns have barracks, so that you can produce units to go take territory to make your science farms.

 

[splunge the 2nd]

I'm no expert, so take my advice with a grain of salt:
I never build hospitals. I will build aqueducts in the core but in terms of production, having high populatio cities doesn't really help me much, I feel.
I always build marketplaces in any productive city at least for their happiness factor. If I plan to research on my own, I'll build libraries and universities, if not I'lll build money multipliers.
For a cultural victory, I'll build everything I can in the culture city, especially Shakespeare, otherwise, I try to avoid the "wonder addiction" and only build AA or MA great wonders if I get a scientific leader.
I've learned the hard way that barracks are very helpful in productive cities as well as a town near a battle front for fast healing.
I probably build more harbors than needed.
I build courthouses in potentially productive cities with ~50% corruption. I've never bothered with police stations.
Once in a while I'll build temples or cathedrals if I need to push back a rival's cultural border or if I'm lacking luxes.
For a spaceship victory I build factories in the core and have had good luck getting Hoover's Dam which is dam useful but not essential. (sorry for the pun).
I don't believe I've ever built an airport, coastal fortress, commercial dock, research lab, recycling plant, mass transit, manufacturing plant or civil defence.
I build granaries for potential settler or worker producing towns early if I can.
In a conquest game I'll tend to build the 3 small wonders relating to armies
Unless I've limited myself to a small number of cities I always build the forbidden palace, usually with a leader.
I build the Intelligence agency and obviously build the Apollo program if I'm going for space race.

 

[CommandoBob]

Broadly speaking, for any victory, you need to consider the corruption of a city in deciding which improvements to build.

Generally, you will have three types of cities; The Core, The Courts and The Farms.

In The Core, (cities with less than 10% corruption) you will need barracks, library/university, market and a factory. An aqueduct might be needed to get to size 12. And maybe a granary. These cities can build things fast, including Wonders.

In The Courts (cities that have between 10% to 70% corruption) you will need a courthouse to reduce corruption. In your core, where corruption is not an issue, courthouses are not needed. But once corrupt sets in, courts can be helpful. Libraries and markets are fine, too. If you are warring a bunch, build a barracks for veteran units or just build bombardment units instead. This cities are rather slow builders, but they are steady.

In The Farms (cities that are over 70% corrupt) you don't need any improvements, except maybe the odd barracks or two as you kick the AI around. Courthouses are ineffective at reducing this much corruption. Just irrigate everything, let the cities hit size 6 or 12, and then micromange the city so that it has just enough food to feed itself and let the extra citizens become geeks and help you to research. These cities build at 1 or 2 shields per turn. They can build settlers, workers or wealth; anything else will be outdated when it is finally completed.

That is how I have come to look at what to build where. And of course the victory type plays a role in this, as does the in-game situation. I haven't mentioned harbors because they are mainly useful in trading overseas and are thus a seperate consideration from what is normally built. (And my more recent solo games have been on pangeas, too.)

 

[Fiddlin Nero]

Diddo on CommandoBob's Core, Courts & Farms. The only thing I would add are Temples depending on your city spacing to get good border integrity. I just recently cleaned up some Science Farms on a secondary continent and added Graneries to speed up the process, simply because I had the money to through at it.

 

[CommandoBob]

Diddo on CommandoBob's Core, Courts & Farms. The only thing I would add are Temples depending on your city spacing to get good border integrity.

A library is more expensive than a temple (80 vs. 60) but it adds 3 culture per turn compared to the temples 2 culture per turn. It will take longer to build but will expand faster. Not much faster; it will take 4 turns to expand the borders. A temple does it in 5 turns. For border integrity, a temple will build faster and usually expand sooner.

Advantage: Temple

But after the temple is built, what does it do? It helps with happiness, which is an issue in large cities. In your border towns/science farms, happiness is maintained by hiring specialists; geeks and taxmen and such. In your larger cities, markets and luxuries do a better job than temples.

A library contributes to science and research each and every turn after it is built. No happiness; just smarts. That means you learn things faster and have better toys with which to inflict pain and damage upon the AI. Plus, 3 culture per turn compared to the temple's 2 culture per turn. A library will reach the second border expansion (100 culture) in 34 turns; the temple will take 50.

And both cost 1 gold per turn in upkeep.

Long term advantage: Library

And with all that said, sometimes a temple is the best build.

 

[Fiddlin Nero]

Library v. Temple

Library only contributes to research if there are any beakers to multiply, farms and towns built only for border integrity usually don't have any.

If I am in a hurry to get the first expansion I disband a worker and buy a Temple, next turn disband another worker and buy a Library, next turn you have the expansion. Usually not worth the cost to save 2 turns.

So for me its the Temple and sell it after the first expansion if I don't care about the 2nd.

 

[Spoonwood]

I like CommandoBob's classification, however, in my experience I ONLY have "farms" in conquest, domination, or histographic games.

For a conquest or domination victory: granaries (in food-rich cities for workers and settlers), barracks, aqueducts, and marketplaces. Maybe some courthouses too. Also perhaps temples for border expansions. Forget libraries, and everything else (except the Military Academy, Heroic Epic, and Pentagon)... unless playing as scientific and not religious, then libraries for border expansions. Perhaps a few banks also to help buy armies.

For a 100k victory: temples, libraries, MAYBE universities (depending on how you want to/if you can use the Temple of Artemis), granaries for A LOT of settlers, cathedrals, and markets in your core.

For a diplomatic victory: granaries, courthouses, libraries, universities, aqueducts and markets. Forget banks. And a factory and a power plant in case you don't have an SGL to rush the U. N. Cope's and Newton's can also help, as might an ancient wonder or two if it doesn't hamper your expansion (careful, they often do).

For a space victory: see diplomatic victory, but add more factories, and perhaps also hospitals. If you build hospitals, then irrigate all the tiles you can so that your cities can get as many scientists as they can as fast as they can. Also, mass transit systems, and of course research labs. Also consider police stations. Scientist farms MAY help, but if you go to war for them, make sure you don't get all that much war weariness, and also realize that if you can buy a courthouse and/or a police station, you'll get beakers in faster that way.

For a 20k victory: all cultural buildings you can get in your 20k site. Elsewhere buildings to help with research (libraries, universities, courthouses, and markets which indirectly help by keeping happiness high), and barracks to successfully mount a war to get a leader for the Heroic Epic.

Histographic: see conquest/domination, and then perhaps libraries and universities after most-all military matters have gotten taken care of.

Very technically speaking, I wouldn't classify any of these as "must" have. I feel sure that at least up to Emperor and maybe even Demi-God and Deity, one could win any VC (except for 20k and 100k, of course) with NO buildings whatsoever.

 

[undertoad]

@CommandoBob: your Core/Courts/Farms classification is excellent.

I tend to build Courthouses selectively in the Courts, only for the most-corrupted/potentially most productive cities. (Dunno if I'm the only one, but for me a city's value is Shields Shields Shields - I road everything for commerce of course, but unless a city has e.g. a Gold tile, Colossus or Copernicus, commerce doesn't enter into my Courthouse decisions much - let the Science slider handle the bean-counting).

Farms can be turned into awesome Worker-factories with a Granary. This is useful when approaching Steam Power and just afterwards, to deal with the enormous railing workload. But Workers are a non-depleting resource - unless you're very careless with them in a war-zone, or are a big fan of Radio Towers and Airfields (both very late-game features). So though I do build Granaries in farms, the long-term benefits are doubtful.

Very technically speaking, I wouldn't classify any of these as "must" have. I feel sure that at least up to Emperor and maybe even Demi-God and Deity, one could win any VC (except for 20k and 100k, of course) with NO buildings whatsoever.

Interesting point. It's just theory-crafting for me (never dipped my toe into the deep waters above Regent), but I think you're right. It would be an interesting variant - Always Units rather than Always War. You'd have to adapt your game to substitute an Infinite SmallTown Sprawl for Aqueducts/happy-buildings, and substitute the sheer zerg-mass of dozens of Regular units for the benefit of Barracks.

 

[hsy]

I would say barracks (not in every city), the cheapest culture-generating building (i.e. lib for sci civs except Babylon, temple for the rest) I can build, and markets.

Aqueducts would be needed in potentially productive towns where applicable.

Harbours would also be needed if I need to trade across oceans.

Of course those are needed to survive the game, you would probably have to build more if you want to win.

 

[Spoonwood]

Of course those are needed to survive the game, you would probably have to build more if you want to win.

I understand that this might surprise you, but one can win the game without any military whatsoever. See these threads http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=84619, http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=43471