What is the best use of gold?

[Disgustipated]

Best being most efficient use of gold. Some comments in the general section got me thinking maybe I'm not spending my gold in the best manner. A poster said that gold is generally only used for unit upgrades. And I've been using it for damn near everything. I love gold, and can't get enough of it. It's nice when you are making enough to buy factories and such, though usually I hard build those.

My main uses of gold are for buying tiles and unit upgrades. Tile expansion is extremely slow in this game, and I do like to speed things up slightly. My main question is about buying buildings. Is it worth it?

 

[Victoria]

Buying a few key tiles early is really helpful if you are lacking their use... The value is less the larger your empire.

Buying key buildings or other key things like archaeologists can really speed things up. Buying a building just because you have gold is not good, you must be able to quantify it. Especially science buildings. Using money at the right time on the right things is a game changer. I remember in one GOTM I just could not get the culture of another player... their answer on response was I bought a granary in that city.... OMG, so simple... and so effective. It is not how much something costs but how much you will gain by doing so... and the biggest gain is speed... will buying it speed things up. Buying a factory in a city already turning out 50 production... really?... why?

If I start getting more than 1K gold in the bank and am not going for a science victory I consider that I have overdone my mercantile side.

 

[Archon_Wing]

I prefer buying buildings in cities that would take forever to build them normally. Except commercial hub buildings. That wouldn't make much sense.

Also, upgrade units with that policy that reduces upgrade costs.

 

[antimony]

Unit upgrades with the 50% discount card, and recruiting great people with democracy are two places where gold is more cost effective than production, by which I mean you get the equivalent of 1 prod for less than 2 gold. In other cases you're paying a premium to get something right now (often 4 gold per prod, worse if you have a production multiplier policy card), so like Victoria said above it's a matter of determining how important the benefit is.

I used to buy builders but realized it was inefficient compared with building them with discount card. Buying them should be a last resort e.g. in new remote cities.

Buying commercial buildings or traders with gold is fine if you have excess gold now and they will pay for themselves in a reasonable time. It's the same as deciding whether to build a factory or whether to build a university vs. run science projects.

 

[Victoria]

so like Victoria said above it's a matter of determining how important the benefit is.

I just spent 600 gold on a worker
This 6 charge worker will now make 6 seaside resorts for about 100 tourism. I feel that is money well spent

 

[antimony]

Definitely a better ROI than an archaeologist in that particular case, not to mention the gold from the resorts.

 

[EpicWestern]

My one small issue with buying workers is that then you aren't taking advantage of the 30% production cost reduction from the policy card (or is it reflected in gold cost? admittedly I haven't tested). That said its pretty rare that I won't miss sending a worker along with a settler somewhere at some point so I'm almost certainly buying workers at least a couple times a game.

But yeah, tiles and upgrades are probably the two best uses for gold. Even getting your second luxury resource through tile purchasing will pay for itself rather quickly.in trades (even if you merely accept as opposed to initiate). Monument purchasing has to be right up there too since its arguably the most cost effective building in the game.

 

[Lily_Lancer]

First ensure you have enough money for key purposes (e.g. unit upgrades/ Rocket GP purchasing)

If you're sure that you have enough money stored for the future(since those events usually happens in far future instead of now, you shall calculate your possible gold income. Note that this income is far from your current GPT and needs careful calculation. ), use your money as soon as possible at anything you want to build. Preferrably those without speed-up policies. (e.g. the 1st trade route often worth purchasing, as long as you're not heading for a T35 Swordman rush.)

Also you shall keep in mind that it is money that helps your other purposes instead of the reverse. Don't let the servant become your master. Oftenly Commerical Hubs are not worth building.

 

[Victoria]

I am with @Lily_Lancer on this but despite how many posts I make on it people just have golden eyes.... they look pretty but they cannot see.

 

[Disgustipated]

I still love commercial districts because I love great merchants. Adam Smith especially, but I like the amenity ones quite a bit as well.

I suppose I could build more industrial zones, but why? I find that not every city needs to build a lot of things. As mentioned above, having gold for great people purchases in the late game is pretty handy. I'm usually okay with only 3 or 4 cities with great production. Usually just 3.

And then there's buying units, which isn't something I do often. Mostly for emergencies. Though occasionally I buy horseman before getting military tactics. They are pretty cheap, it's hard not to. I know I could run theocracy, but I never cared for that government.

And yes buying workers late game I sometimes do as well. Especially with the way cultural victory works, it takes time to accumulate those tourists, so the earlier I can get stuff up, the better. I do buy archeologists as well, but they are pricey.

 

[Victoria]

I suppose I could build more industrial zones, but why

IZ are worse... in value I would place them

1. Campus
2. Encampment
3. Commercial
4. Harbour
5. Theatre
6. Entertainment
7. Industrial

with Holy site being dependent on VC and to some degree choice in some strategies.

The point is why build a district at all if you do not need it. The hard part about gold is just how much you need.
Commercials are required for 2 markets and 3 (4) trade route eurekas and also the AI tends not to build many so the GM do pop up for you now and then. 10 trade routes great... but 20?

 

[Bee7]

10 trade routes great... but 20?

Agreed from the pov of gold, but with the right cards, the hammer benefits of trade routes are surely useful, particularly for cities with, say, space projects? I tend to use trade routes for gold early on, and hammers later.

 

[Lily_Lancer]

IZ are worse... in value I would place them

1. Campus
2. Encampment
3. Commercial
4. Harbour
5. Theatre
6. Entertainment
7. Industrial

with Holy site being dependent on VC and to some degree choice in some strategies.

The point is why build a district at all if you do not need it. The hard part about gold is just how much you need.
Commercials are required for 2 markets and 3 (4) trade route eurekas and also the AI tends not to build many so the GM do pop up for you now and then. 10 trade routes great... but 20?

I usually ignore the market and trade route eurekas. But if I capture a Commercial Hub/ Harbor I'll do the rest to fulfill these requirements.

Also, in fact I consider CH worse than IZ, but it's nonsense comparing two types of districts that you almost never build unless for eurekas.

 

[Bad_Viceroy]

@Victoria would you really rank IZs last? Even for fast SV or dom?

 

[antimony]

What also plays against IZ is that they arrive later and are thus more expensive, unless you're playing Germany.

For SV you generally need one high production city, so the regional effects are less important, and the local production boost can be achieved by centralizing all your trade routes, not too mention that trade routes also provide the gold to buy great people.

IZs would become more useful if unit upgrades were not so cheap and people actually had to build late game units from scratch.

 

[Victoria]

@Bad_Viceroy well ED's are useful, immediately, you only build them when needed, I do try to avoid them but handy and the colosseum requirement is a key one.
A theatre or 2 is handy and with Greeks it now brings extra envoys.
Now Hanza's are useful so I tip my hat to Germany but it's the extra district that truly makes them rock makes hanzas stronger. So for Germany they are great.
For everyone else the numbers just annoy me

Let's say 100 production for the zone which may give back 3 production in adjacency.
That's 33 turns to get that back and that original 100 could be much more useful for a chopping builder which will happily chop in 500 production in 5'turns instead.

Then the figures take a nosedive

The workshop costs a whopping 195 production for 2 production in return?.. I mean really near 100 turns for a return.

A factory costs 390 production for 3 in return.... 130 turns for a return unless you count a second city.

Power plant 580 for 4 production.... ffs

It was OK before the nerf but it did make people do weird stuff to be efficient so I support the nerf. I never clumped for it anyway, seemed wrong.

For the space race on the big city, sure, all production welcome as long as you have time. Great Zim is much better but both and an encampment and harbour, even better. Ruhr in the space race, only if you are running a longer game would it be worthwhile.

I can use a single chop from a builder to chop a marsh to get an extra person to work a 5 prod mine... people treat IZ like power houses while chopping is the real powerhouse. The difference is phenomenal, especially delaying the chop.

Glad to be wrong, but that's the way I see it.

 

[Bad_Viceroy]

@Bad_Viceroy well ED's are useful, immediately, you only build them when needed, I do try to avoid them but handy and the colosseum requirement is a key one.
A theatre or 2 is handy and with Greeks it now brings extra envoys.
Now Hanza's are useful so I tip my hat to Germany but it's the extra district that truly makes them rock makes hanzas stronger. So for Germany they are great.
For everyone else the numbers just annoy me

Let's say 100 production for the zone which may give back 3 production in adjacency.
That's 33 turns to get that back and that original 100 could be much more useful for a chopping builder which will happily chop in 500 production in 5'turns instead.

Then the figures take a nosedive

The workshop costs a whopping 195 production for 2 production in return?.. I mean really near 100 turns for a return.

A factory costs 390 production for 3 in return.... 130 turns for a return unless you count a second city.

Power plant 580 for 4 production.... ffs

It was OK before the nerf but it did make people do weird stuff to be efficient so I support the nerf. I never clumped for it anyway, seemed wrong.

For the space race on the big city, sure, all production welcome as long as you have time. Great Zim is much better but both and an encampment and harbour, even better. Ruhr in the space race, only if you are running a longer game would it be worthwhile.

I can use a single chop from a builder to chop a marsh to get an extra person to work a 5 prod mine... people treat IZ like power houses while chopping is the real powerhouse. The difference is phenomenal, especially delaying the chop.

Glad to be wrong, but that's the way I see it.

Well, if you put it like that! I might have to start actually reading the text descriptions of stuff and thinking about them, daresay it might improve my play. Just to clarify on the nerf, before IZs with factory or better affected all city squares within six tiles, now only one city square within six tiles, is that correct? Also, is it the nearest city if there are two or more within range? Please and thank you.

 

[Victoria]

Only one is affected, I believe it is the nearest and if it already has a factory it does not get it.
... 3 more production when by then you should be producing around 20-30 in your cities.

If you are going to play to T300 then it's probably worth it.
Keep an open mind, I am not some preacher on a mission, there will be times like a low production city where it may be of value.
But be more aware of chopping, it is a game changer used right.

.... also if you find yourself with 3 production CS you really want to sink your envoys into....
IZ has say 12 production with all 3 buildings and 3 adjacency.
Double that for 6 envoys at 3 CS.... 24 production.... not bad... but sinking envoys into these is not clever.... if you want to do this then get the mausoleum as that adds a stackable engineer charge which makes them a lot stronger.

There has been 2 nerfs for IZ... the adjacency one effecively killed any value they had.... last batch they increased building prices.

 

[Bad_Viceroy]

Only one is affected, I believe it is the nearest and if it already has a factory it does not get it.
... 3 more production when by then you should be producing around 20-30 in your cities.

If you are going to play to T300 then it's probably worth it.
Keep an open mind, I am not some preacher on a mission, there will be times like a low production city where it may be of value.
But be more aware of chopping, it is a game changer used right.

.... also if you find yourself with 3 production CS you really want to sink your envoys into....
IZ has say 12 production with all 3 buildings and 3 adjacency.
Double that for 6 envoys at 3 CS.... 24 production.... not bad... but sinking envoys into these is not clever.... if you want to do this then get the mausoleum as that adds a stackable engineer charge which makes them a lot stronger.

There has been 2 nerfs for IZ... the adjacency one effecively killed any value they had.... last batch they increased building prices.

Thank you again, I have been away from the game and missed the double whammy. That honestly seems like overnerf but it is what it is. I guess between the GPP and cheaper space projects it comes out in the wash. The Civilopedia has to be worst in the whole franchise so far though IMO.

Chopping and harvesting though... when and what... a whole other thread I guess

 

[Disgustipated]

@Bad_Viceroy well ED's are useful, immediately, you only build them when needed, I do try to avoid them but handy and the colosseum requirement is a key one.
A theatre or 2 is handy and with Greeks it now brings extra envoys.
Now Hanza's are useful so I tip my hat to Germany but it's the extra district that truly makes them rock makes hanzas stronger. So for Germany they are great.
For everyone else the numbers just annoy me

Let's say 100 production for the zone which may give back 3 production in adjacency.
That's 33 turns to get that back and that original 100 could be much more useful for a chopping builder which will happily chop in 500 production in 5'turns instead.

Then the figures take a nosedive

The workshop costs a whopping 195 production for 2 production in return?.. I mean really near 100 turns for a return.

A factory costs 390 production for 3 in return.... 130 turns for a return unless you count a second city.

Power plant 580 for 4 production.... ffs

It was OK before the nerf but it did make people do weird stuff to be efficient so I support the nerf. I never clumped for it anyway, seemed wrong.

For the space race on the big city, sure, all production welcome as long as you have time. Great Zim is much better but both and an encampment and harbour, even better. Ruhr in the space race, only if you are running a longer game would it be worthwhile.

I can use a single chop from a builder to chop a marsh to get an extra person to work a 5 prod mine... people treat IZ like power houses while chopping is the real powerhouse. The difference is phenomenal, especially delaying the chop.

Glad to be wrong, but that's the way I see it.

I'm not going to dispute your numbers. Now unless I'm seeing something wrong, it seems to me industrial zones would get better at slower game speeds. Since you are getting 2 production a turn. Of course it takes more turns to build. Why not then spend gold to build a workshop? If you are rolling in gold, would this not be worth it? So you just aim for 1 city with an IZ then? I may try that. But I often play at slower speeds like epic, and IZ's just don't seem that bad to me.

Not going to dispute the awesomness of chopping. Of course certain maps have more limited chopping options. You keep no forests around for lumber mills or appeal for a CV?