[GS] Unique District Vs. Unique Improvement Vs. Unique building?

[Navelgazer]

I almost want to do a ranking of the UBs in the game, but most of them feel to me like the Tlachtli, which is kind of the jimmies on the sundae of the Aztec civilization, but ones you never asked for and which don't actually go with the sundae in the ways you might hope (In the case of the Aztecs, they're already given a bonus to how good amenities are, and their whole gameplan is to get as many luxes as they can to max that out, kill enemies to get workers, and use those workers to speed up district construction. So at first glance the Tlachtli looks solid - Aztec are all about Amenities, right? And this is an Amenity-granting building that also gives you faith and Great General points! Except that the Amenity comes from entertainment and so doesn't help your units, the district is unnecessary with your other bonuses, faith likely isn't a big enough part of your gameplan for an extra +2 to matter, and you're better off getting your GG points by building Encampments. If you're lucky enough to take over a city with an already-constructed Entertainment district, sure, build one, for the Era score if nothing else, but you're unlikely to go out of your way for this.

Tsikhe are of course even worse here, requiring a lot of investment in hard-building for limited return, but at least don't require a new district for them. The Queen's Biblioteque is powerful but also requires you to pass on any other L2 Government Plaza building.

But yeah, the Ordu, Basilikoi Paides, Sukiennice and Marae are all solid and central to how their civs operate. The Grand Bazaar is also pure value, giving you bonuses for something you'll probably build a lot of anyway, and if you weren't going to, well, the extra amenities synergize well enough with the Ottoman gameplan that you might reach a little and build more banks than you otherwise would.

 

[Lily_Lancer]

Would you rather have Madrasa or Seowon?

Even if Madrasa is reasonably good (which it is), relative to the closest comparison district it's a joke.

But Madrasa is better than those unique Encampments, unique Harbors, unique Holy Sites, unique Commercial Hubs, unique IZs, unique GPs, unique entertainments, unique neighborhoods IMO.

It is only worse than unique campuses and theatres.

 

[kryat]

But Madrasa is better than those unique Encampments, unique Harbors, unique Holy Sites, unique Commercial Hubs, unique IZs, unique GPs, unique entertainments, unique neighborhoods IMO.

It is only worse than unique campuses and theatres.

Are you talking about the 1 extra science or the bonus faith? If the science, then there’s numerous ways to get better science through uniques (missions and basilkoi paides come to mind). If the faith, I’m not sure the extra faith is better than the extra gold from the Suguba, Cothon, or RND, or the extra GP from the Lavra. And surely, the Hansa is substantially better than either the bonus faith or science.

I will agree that it’s objectively better than the EZ and probably better than the encampment.

 

[Sostratus]

But Madrasa is better than ... unique IZs,

And surely, the Hansa is substantially better than either the bonus faith or science.

As far as science/faith combos, i think the mission outpowers the madrasa. The Arabians have a lot of other stuff going on that makes the madrasa nice but, it's really easy to get them to +2science +2faith, and you can spam them.
It's unfortunate that some good UIs are buried with bad civs.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

As far as science/faith combos, i think the mission outpowers the madrasa. The Arabians have a lot of other stuff going on that makes the madrasa nice but, it's really easy to get them to +2science +2faith, and you can spam them.
It's unfortunate that some good UIs are buried with bad civs.

Missions are secretly very nice if you plant some Campuses in cities on foreign continents. I have had some very satisfying Science Victories with Spain.

 

[S1AL]

But Madrasa is better than those unique Encampments, unique Harbors, unique Holy Sites, unique Commercial Hubs, unique IZs, unique GPs, unique entertainments, unique neighborhoods IMO.

It is only worse than unique campuses and theatres.

...

Wut? No. The only one that's definitely worse is Carnival, and that's just because EC is generally terrible. All the rest are at minimum arguably better, all the way up to way way way way better. Even the Unique Neighborhood is very good, just a bit late.

Tangentially, whoever said that Sukiennice is good because you only need one to get the benefit... Yeah, you might need to rethink the mechanics a bit there.

 

[kryat]

...
Tangentially, whoever said that Sukiennice is good because you only need one to get the benefit... Yeah, you might need to rethink the mechanics a bit there.

I meant the bonus gold to trade routes with trade route stacking. You are absolutely correct you need more sukiennice/lighthouses to get more trade routes in play to get more yield out of the sukiennice bonus. Had the sukiennice been a bank instead of market replacement you would have only needed to build one.