Unique buildings - the good, the bad and the ugly

[delra]

We talk a lot about bonuses all civilizations have - but that's only 1/3 of the story. I think special buildings are able to make a whole civ great even if their normal trait isn't very strong.

The good (work great in all cities you have):

* China - Paper Maker, replaces Library, gives +4 gold income, up=1
Absolute star. Boosts research, allows to produce great scientists and multiplies your incomes many times very early into the game. Makes China rich and modern at the same time.

* Arabia - Bazaar, replaces Market, adds +1 of each luxury produced by the city, up=0
Standard trait of theirs (small bonus for trade route money) sucks - this doesn't. Gives a lot to trade with.

* Persia - Satrap's Court, replaces Bank, adds +2 happiness, up=0
Free of upkeep Bank with bonus happiness? Pure joy.

The bad (more like average, situational):

* Egypt - Burial Tomb, replaces Temple, +2 happiness in addition to culture and no maintenance, up=0
+2 happiness isn't that much really but it seriously helps early colonization and snatching a few extra city spots before Ai gets them. No upkeep for temple is quite sweet as well.

* Siam - Wat, replaces University, +3 culture, up=2
University with some extra culture? Not that necessary... but why not.

* Songhai - Mud Pyramid Mosque, replaces Temple +3 more culture over standard version, up=0
Free temple with extra culture? Works for me.

The ugly:

* Aztec - Floating Gardens, replaces Watermill, requires fresh water bordering the city, +15% food, +2 food from lake tiles, up=1
This is a food bomb but there's plenty of other sources of food, founding cities by lakes just to get this bonus doesn't cut it and letting cities grow too fast isn't that good an idea either (better settle more smaller cities near good resources if you aren't going culture).

* India - Mughal Fort, replaces Castle, adds extra 2.5 defence, +2 culture and gold when Flight is researched, up=3
Who builds castles? Maybe if you are desperate for every ounce of culture and would prefer to stay on the defensive...

* Iroquois - Longhouse, replaces Workshop, +1 production from worked forest tiles, up=2
I'd rather have a trade post there...

* Russia - Krepost, replaces Barracks, -50% cost in culture of buying new tiles, +1 maintenance, up=1
Or you could purchase them with money instead...

* Walls of Babylon, replaces walls, +2,5 extra city defence over normal walls.
Meh.

 

[Ahriman]

* Egypt - Burial Tomb, replaces Temple, +2 happiness in addition to culture and no maintenance, up=0
+2 happiness isn't that much really but it seriously helps early colonization and snatching a few extra city spots before Ai gets them. No upkeep for temple is quite sweet as well.

Wha?
One of best UBs in the game. Very early, and +2 happy and no upkeep is awesome.

* Songhai - Mud Pyramid Mosque, replaces Temple +3 more culture over standard version, up=0

+2 culture over basic, no?

* Aztec - Floating Gardens, replaces Watermill, requires fresh water bordering the city, +15% food, +2 food from lake tiles, up=1
This is a food bomb but there's plenty of other sources of food, founding cities by lakes just to get this bonus doesn't cut it and letting cities grow too fast isn't that good an idea either (better settle more smaller cities near good resources if you aren't going culture).

I haven't tested this yet, but on paper it does not look *that* weak.

Does it multiply bonus food from city states and buildings?
So if I get 14 food from tiles, 2 from a granary and 4 from maratime city states, does it give 0.15*(14+2+4) = 3 bonus food?

Iroquois - Longhouse, replaces Workshop, +1 production from worked forest tiles, up=2
I'd rather have a trade post there...

How does it exclude a trading post?
Build the longhouse in the city, forest tile with trading post gives 1/2/2, which is pretty good in this game. No?

* Russia - Krepost, replaces Barracks, -50% cost in culture of buying new tiles, +1 maintenance, up=1
Or you could purchase them with money instead...

Why would you want to waste money on buying tiles? Thats a very low value use of gold.
Krepost is good.

 

[ashmizen]

Agree with most of what you said, but a few issues:

Egypt: free upkeep 2 happiness rolled into the temple? How is this "average/bad"? This is amazing, usually happiness buildings cost $$$, usually 1 gold per happiness, and yet Egypt gets +2 0 upkeep happiness for every city it has!

Longhouse - you can build trading posts in forests, so this just makes trading posts even better, as it is the only improvement that doesn't remove a forest.

Krepost - first of all, no one buys tiles unless absolutely needed, your gold has so much better uses (maritine city states?!). Compare the Angkot Wat, which gives +75% in the city it is built, to the cheap barracks that gives +50%, and you can see this is a good value.

Agree with everything else

 

[ShaqFu]

Settle in a big forest, Mill forests, build a Longhouse, and get 1/0/4 tiles. In this game, where production is rare, that's awesome.

 

[pi-r8]

On paper the longhouse seems extremely good. With the longhouse, a lumbermill, and steam power, a forest tile can produe 4 hammers, more than any other tile in the game without a bonus resource. It even beats the great engineer's special building.

 

[Martin Alvito]

Settle in a big forest, Mill forests, build a Longhouse, and get 1/0/4 tiles. In this game, where production is rare, that's awesome.

Some players swore by State Property in Civ IV. Hammers were much easier to come by in that game. Tiles made more Hammers, you could always whip, and the H:G conversion factor wasn't as draconian.

You get the idea.

 

[SomethingWitty]

Floating Gardens doesn't need the city by a lake, by a river works as well. And +15% food, compared to just +2 food from the granary that it replaces sounds huge (haven't played them yet).

And mud pyramid mosque adds +2 culture in every city (where they are build). That's like being able to build France's (powerful) unique ability early in the game, and it doesn't time out.

 

[agoMiST]

The Songhai's Mud Pyramid Mosque doesn't need the prerequisite of a monument like the temple, essentially it's a temple + monument for 0 upkeep with the option of still building a monument if you want/need to...

 

[Celevin]

The Floating Gardens only adds 15% food onto your excess food. It ain't that good. Growth is almost always limited by happiness. The really good part is getting a 3 or 4 tile lake, as with a lighthouse those lake tiles produce FIVE food each. But lakes seem so rare in this game that it doesn't come up enough.

It's also 1 less maintenance. It's like a better granary.

 

[patrickkrebs]

* Aztec - Floating Gardens, replaces Watermill, requires fresh water bordering the city, +15% food, +2 food from lake tiles, up=1
This is a food bomb but there's plenty of other sources of food, founding cities by lakes just to get this bonus doesn't cut it and letting cities grow too fast isn't that good an idea either (better settle more smaller cities near good resources if you aren't going culture).

I love the Aztec Unique building... it boons population +15% food is always a good idea.
Ashame their UU is weaker than barbarians.

 

[Namel]

I think burial tomb might be best building in game. I get it very early so I can choose to build it instead of monument. If I have early happiness problems it is the only solution early. Since it has no upkeep I pretty much build it to every city and need lot less happiness buildings. It makes getting lot of gold so much easier since it saves a lot of upkeep.

 

[Show]

I'm pretty sure a trading post does not destroy the forest it's built on.

 

[cord]

I just tested the Floating Gardens - it is not only 15% extra TOTAL food (meaning, it's not only excess food like "We Love The King Day" is), but also has the default +2 food bonus from the watermill it replaces. That's on top of the +2 food to lake tiles bonus it has.

I definitely wouldn't call this one of the weaker buildings.

 

[Bibor]

* China - Paper Maker
One of the best unique buildings

* Arabia - Bazaar
Not so hot for a conqueror, but I can see its use in a smaller empire or a harder difficulty game.

* Persia - Satrap's Court
Banks have no upkeep anyway and should be built in every city. Very good UB.

* Egypt - Burial Tomb
No upkeep temple with extra happiness makes this one of the best UBs. Build it in every city.

* Siam - Wat, replaces University, +3 culture, up=2
Universities go into most cities so the extra culture might give you an extra policy. Average.

* Songhai
A strong UB since temples go into every city anyway (for a warmonger this removes the need for later investments into museums etc.)

* Aztec - Floating Gardens
A very effective building for large cities and/or maritime city state allies. Since your core 3-4 cities should be huge anyway (and they are the only ones building a watermill) is good enough. Lakes are just a bonus.

* India - Mughal Fort
Since castles are completely wasted on human players (at least untile the AI improves) this is probably the worst UB at the moment.

* Iroquois - Longhouse
Turns your core cities into super-production cities (as it should be, commerce and science comes from conquests). One of the best UBs if not THE best.

* Russia - Krepost
Doubles the effectiveness of your monuments and makes sure that even hammer-poor cities will grab all the best hexes. Also building it in all cities unlocks Heroic Epic. One of the better UBs. Basically copies the French trait when it comes to border pops.

* Walls of Babylon
Considering the ability of Babylon is pure awesome (and the UU is also very solid) I'm not suprised the UB is somewhat lackluster. However, unlike the Murghal fort, walls of babylon plus the UU archers can push back any early invasion until you use your science skills to get catapults. I always build this in the "resource grab 10 hexes away" city, followed by a bowman.

 

[Vordeo]

Always interesting to read these.

Generally for me the best UBs are the ones with no upkeep costs. Any other bonuses are gravy.

* Arabia - Bazaar, replaces Market, adds +1 of each luxury produced by the city, up=0
Standard trait of theirs (small bonus for trade route money) sucks - this doesn't. Gives a lot to trade with.

I generally will build markets in most of my cities, but the thing with the Bazaar that prevents it from being top tier (IMO) is that it's pretty situational. Assuming you build it in cities with happiness resources, you still need to find buyers. In cases where you're warmongering, or when AI civs are simply poor, the effect is useless. Still a good building though.

* Persia - Satrap's Court, replaces Bank, adds +2 happiness, up=0
Free of upkeep Bank with bonus happiness? Pure joy.

Also a good building, though the fact that it comes late-ish keeps it from top tier, IMO.

* Egypt - Burial Tomb, replaces Temple, +2 happiness in addition to culture and no maintenance, up=0

Second best UB in the game, IMO, after the Paper Maker. Comes very early in the game, very useful effect, and free.

* Songhai - Mud Pyramid Mosque, replaces Temple +3 more culture over standard version, up=0

It's a mini Stonehenge, which is obviously very good. Haven't played the Songhai enough to find out, but this could make them a viable Cultural victory civ. Interested in this one.

* Aztec - Floating Gardens, replaces Watermill, requires fresh water bordering the city, +15% food, +2 food from lake tiles, up=1

I haven't played this extensively enough to say, but this looks like one of the best buildings around, IMO. This provides a massive trade boost, and IMO is almost enough to make up for the Aztecs having a crap UA & UU.

* Iroquois - Longhouse, replaces Workshop, +1 production from worked forest tiles, up=2

Extremely powerful building in forested areas.

 

[Celevin]

I love the Aztec Unique building... it boons population +15% food is always a good idea.
Ashame their UU is weaker than barbarians.

The Jaguar? Insanely powerful. Other than its good early implications, you don't actually MAKE swordsmen. You make Jaguars, and upgrade them to swordsmen, and retain the abilities. So think of it like the Aztecs have two UUs with identical abilities.

 

[JanissaryRush]

It is really two buildings into one and costs no maintenance.

The 15% from the Floating gardens is really good since it works with rivers too. You get way more food and as it is early you won't have the maritime allies that overrun you with food. Add on the regular 2 food the windmill gets and you won't have to worry about mines or stagnating your cities.

 

[AlienFromBeyond]

Note that Maritime city-states add their effects to the base tile of the city, which the Floating Gardens then multiply. You can get ridiculous amounts of food to feed a lot of people, which in turn results in a ton of science.

 

[Vordeo]

The Jaguar? Insanely powerful. Other than its good early implications, you don't actually MAKE swordsmen. You make Jaguars, and upgrade them to swordsmen, and retain the abilities. So think of it like the Aztecs have two UUs with identical abilities.

Eh, I hadn't considered upgrading them, but even then the abilities aren't that great. +2 health for each opponent is solid but not great, and the jungle abilitiy is obviously situational. Still think it's a below average UU.

 

[Martin Alvito]

+2 Health on your melee is strong. It greatly increases the odds that a Shock promoted unit can survive a counterattack, or even series of counterattacks, after killing an enemy on rough terrain.

Ordinarily, melee is dead meat after it scores a kill unless you have a large tech advantage.