What is the worst Unique Building?

[MarcoPollo]

I'd have to agree with higher game. The shopping mall comes too late to be of any real use. The game is usually won by that time.

Even the more mediocre UB still can affect the game in early situations. Late game anything is a waste IMO.

 

[Ataxerxes]

Somebody voted for Apothecary? That's what's fun about these polls, you see some opinions you don't believe.

I voted for Dun, but it has rivals.

I don't understand the two who voted Baray. Granted, the building it replaces isn't great, but one extra food can be quite good, especially if you want the building for health. Food is king!

 

[NihilZero]

It's odd to me that the Terrace is so popular, but other culture UBs are hated. Obviously the Terrace is a building you will always build anyway and as such it essentially gives its bonus for free, but c'mon, pushing a border and clinching a critical tile can really be worth a few hammers in the early game.

 

[Silu]

It's odd to me that the Terrace is so popular, but other culture UBs are hated. Obviously the Terrace is a building you will always build anyway and as such it essentially gives its bonus for free, but c'mon, pushing a border and clinching a critical tile can really be worth a few hammers in the early game.

Getting culture where there is none is a huge boon, to pop borders without a hassle. Getting more culture where there already is culture is usually useless. Controlling a critical tile should not rely on culture pushage (a fight you're practically guaranteed to lose on high levels anyway without heavy wonderage, CRE or Steles or not).

 

[andersw]

Voted for the Dun (I rarely build archers/long bows).
I could opt for others as well:
I very rarely build walls and castles even less (as Spain I'll consider one in my capital).
The modern tech UB's generally comes to late to make much difference.

Come to think of it I try keep myself building "only" granary, courthouse, lib, forge.

I disagree with the Steele bashing, it may look redundant but you put a huge culture press on your neighbours with Cre/Steele(obe).
Of course if you're nowhere near of getting boxed in it's of less use (unless going for cultural).

 

[Ghpstage]

I've come to rethink my opinion on Salon being worst from the last time this poll was up, I still dislike it intensley though .

Dun isn't so bad, aside from whats been said, i've also had reasonable success turning the Dun into a worker producing structure. The AI is utterly incapable of handling G2 promo units, even the otherwise underwhelming Archer.
I think of it as a UB that helps you dig your way out of a bad starting position (no metals etc).

Obelisk may be a one trick pony but its one of only 2 UBs I can think of that can win the game all by itself, which is a lot better than things like the Pavillion and Stele that suffer the same narrow scope. Heck it can let me win on Deity so it can't be all bad.

I'd say the Mall is definately not worst either, while it comes too late to be considered top end its bonuses are pretty big and despite being so late its probably going to get a lot more use than flops like the Feitoria or Stele.
And i'm gonna guess the Madrassa was another joke vote?

The two I find least useful, and this isn't even close to the rest, are the Feitoria and Stele,
The Feitoria for its weak bonus for a building I never build anyway,
and the Stele for its weak bonus and dubious honour of obsoleting twice, once before the game even starts!!
So i'm gonna have to vote Stele.

 

[bestbrian]

I voted Dun, but just as a knee jerk reaction to my worst games being as Brennus.

The Salon always drives me nuts. Why on earth would I want to risk tainting my Science city with frackin' Artists? It's bad enough the artist pollution from the NE is good for at least one of the buggers a game; I don't need anymore than that.

 

[georgjorge]

I haven't played with the Celts so far, so I don't know if the Dun is as bad as it looks like. Stele and Salon, while being very limited, at least have a certain scenario where you will love them for what they do (culture victory - the multiplier from the Stele should more than make up for not getting intercontinental trade routes), while I can't imagine ever being excited about getting to build a Dun...?

 

[NihilZero]

Only one vote for the Trading Post? It's pretty weak imo. And I quite like the Research Institute, accepting that it is usually too late to matter.

Getting culture where there is none is a huge boon, to pop borders without a hassle. Getting more culture where there already is culture is usually useless. Controlling a critical tile should not rely on culture pushage (a fight you're practically guaranteed to lose on high levels anyway without heavy wonderage, CRE or Steles or not).

All true, but it's still nice when you have two cities going head for head for a tile, they both have the same infrastructure, and a UB bonus makes the difference.

 

[Whiskey_Lord]

Tsk tsk tsk @ you people bashing the Stele. The advantage of this building is that it is strictly a war time build. It allows you to grab land very quickly and aggressively and makes your culture crush very hard to beat in the early game. It's probably one of my favorite buildings, but I'm a ruthless warmonger. I voted Dun because guerilla promotions just aren't that useful. I still build them, though, because any promotion is better than none. My CIV philosophy is very Gorin no Sho oriented.

 

[Silu]

Tsk tsk tsk @ you people bashing the Stele. The advantage of this building is that it is strictly a war time build. It allows you to grab land very quickly and aggressively and makes your culture crush very hard to beat in the early game. It's probably one of my favorite buildings, but I'm a ruthless warmonger. I voted Dun because guerilla promotions just aren't that useful. I still build them, though, because any promotion is better than none. My CIV philosophy is very Gorin no Sho oriented.

Exactly how does Stele help warring? If you're going to take stuff with your army, why are you worried about "culture crushing"? Pushing culture is a total waste of time if you're going to take the area with force regardless. If you mean consolidating conquests, that +25% won't do anything against thousands of entrenched foreign culture if the former owner is still around.

Only one vote for the Trading Post? It's pretty weak imo.

The fact alone that you get +2 move to Galleons, Transports and Carriers (allowing them to keep up with support vessels) with a simple Drydock gets it out of the crap club. 3-move Galleys and synergy with trait+UU on top of that makes it quite solid.

 

[NihilZero]

The fact alone that you get +2 move to Galleons, Transports and Carriers (allowing them to keep up with support vessels) with a simple Drydock gets it out of the crap club. 3-move Galleys and synergy with trait+UU on top of that makes it quite solid.

How often do Galleys really do much of anything? I rarely sail very far pre-Astronomy and the majority of my inter-continental invasions are done post Combustion, when +1 movement is fairly minor. The Trading Post has to be well below average for being next to useless most of the time, certainly on Normal speed when the earlier naval units have little impact.

 

[Silu]

How often do Galleys really do much of anything? I rarely sail very far pre-Astronomy and the majority of my inter-continental invasions are done post Combustion, when +1 movement is fairly minor. The Trading Post has to be well below average for being next to useless most of the time, certainly on Normal speed when the earlier naval units have little impact.

It's not only +1 movement, it's the possibility for +2 move with a single promotion (normally Nav promos require you to pick the nigh-useless Flanking1). Faster invasions and the ability to outrun Battleships and Submarines with Transports and Carriers can certainly come in handy. For Galleys, on maps with a lot of interlandmass movement is required, such as Big&Small, Medium&Small and Archipelago, 3-move Galleys are a serious help.

That said, "quite solid" may have been a slight exaggeration, as it's certainly below average, but still nowhere near the crap club of Stele, Feitoria & co.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

IMHO the definite worst is the portuguese UB ( I refuse to use the name that Firaxis gave to it because it is a complete nonsense ... it is worse than having VOC as the Dutch UB or the EIC as the British one ), and that is only because of one reason: it is a improvement of a very bad building , but not enough of a improvement to make it more than decent ( and yes, Customs houses are a bad building, even in archipelago, because they only give +100% to a thing that in regular instances is already multiplied by + 200 - 350% ... that is too little for the rough hammer equivalent of 1,5 rifles ) ... and having a one city Collosus by a hammer price that actually can be bigger than the Collosus one ...

P.S On the Dun: people really, really hate walls and castles Dun, properly used, is a extremely useful UB ( in that sense is equivalent, as other poster said, to the NA UB ). The guerrilla promo line is a very useful one ( especially Guerilla III ) , btw ... definitely better that the effect of a bunch of other UB. And about the old talk that it doesn't give Guerrilla I to melee units: if you expected that of the Dun, you surely expect that the Viking UB gives navigation I to catapults, right?

The Dun does not deserve majority votes. It is sometimes useless, but does see some use game to game...a LOT more than the UB you name. At least a 2f 3c tile might have some potential in moai or as a "last tile worked in the city outside rep" situation...better than below.

The worst, however, is probably Germany's assembly plant. Trash, and late. The extra engineer slots MIGHT help you get a corp, but keep in mind that it will be a later corp than if you go for them sooner. The production bonus with coal? It helps...marginally...very late in the game.

Compared to the consistently pathetic returns of the assembly plant most of the buildings on this list aren't even worth considering in last place.

 

[Fei Kelei]

^I kind of like it when I'm playing as Frederick and I'm at war, because he already gets it at half price from the Organized trait, so those two bonuses combined means you'll get your factories up in no time and start cranking out Infantry sooner. You're right, though, it's still pretty bad overall.

It's not only +1 movement, it's the possibility for +2 move with a single promotion (normally Nav promos require you to pick the nigh-useless Flanking1).

I didn't remember that from my games playing as the Vikings, so I did a quick worldbuilder check, and it turns out it isn't true. I built a caravel in a city with a trading post and drydock, and despite the free Navigation I promotion, the only promotions available were Combat I, Flanking I, and Drill I.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

It's not only +1 movement, it's the possibility for +2 move with a single promotion (normally Nav promos require you to pick the nigh-useless Flanking1). Faster invasions and the ability to outrun Battleships and Submarines with Transports and Carriers can certainly come in handy. For Galleys, on maps with a lot of interlandmass movement is required, such as Big&Small, Medium&Small and Archipelago, 3-move Galleys are a serious help.

That said, "quite solid" may have been a slight exaggeration, as it's certainly below average, but still nowhere near the crap club of Stele, Feitoria & co.

Stele isn't bad in that it is a cheap culture boost that will allow you to dominate tiles. In games where diplomatic considerations are realistic this is a palpable benefit, and it does help for those lib - nat stoptech culture wins. IMO that brings it out of the crap club and into "below average"

Navigation I unlocks nav 2 as you say (I'm not sure what the other poster is talking about, I've done this?!). Don't forget that with theocracy or vassalage (and you probably want one if warring in the time galleys are viable and trying to use the UU), you can actually get 4 move galleys pretty early.

Galley warfare is interesting. I've done it with success even on immortal, via shuttling troops. IMO the viking benefits don't REALLY shine on most maps until galleons, but it's still a nice boost and definitely removes it from consideration of "worst UB"

^I kind of like it when I'm playing as Frederick and I'm at war, because he already gets it at half price from the Organized trait, so those two bonuses combined means you'll get your factories up in no time and start cranking out Infantry sooner. You're right, though, it's still pretty bad overall.

Technically speaking, it has more marginal utility for Bismark. However, the engineer slots are not too helpful if at war generally, and the build time only matters at all if you have the resource. This thing is basically like playing without a UB and easily a bottom UB.

The shale plant is interesting. It is NOT a good UB, but I wouldn't consider it an awful one. It offers a base production boost over regular coal plants, but the fact that it does not require resources means you can trade away your coal (if you don't use mining inc) and accept a health benefit too. It is also viable in a national park city. The ability to trade a coal for something trivial (or not so trivial), and the production on top of what is essentially a health boost lift it past craptastic UBs a bit.

The forum is actually not a very impressive effect, at all. Is is the only thing about rome that is not utterly ridiculous in strength. They have excellent leaders, a top notch UU...and a very lackluster UB. Oh well. Not everyone can have a "good everything" like Inca...thought Inca does have its limitations.

 

[NihilZero]

The only bad thing about the Incas is that they start with Mysticism, which is the last thing you need when you essentially get free border pops after pottery...

And the Shale Plant is cool. Everything about it is good. Coal plant without coal? Sounds like a winner to me. The only UB with a production bonus*? Even better!

* apart from the Dike, but you have to work those tiles to get it so it's not a bonus as such.

 

[TrailblazingScot]

I voted for the Assembly Plant.

It comes far too late in the game and doesn't do much even though you've waited for it all game. At the time of factories you're rarely that pressed for production that a few more engineers will be a worthwhile investment.

At least the Dun (which most hate) actually will help alot of units and helps get Celtic Swordsmen to Guerrila 3 should the map make that worthwhile. But, the main value of the Dun is making archers and longbows even harder to kill in your hill cities, or in multiplayer to send x2 hills longbows or swords to pillage mines.

So, clearly alot of people voted badly

 

[Disgustipated]

I voted for mall, but I can't remember what Dun does. Can someone explain? It actually made me realize I have never played the Celts before.

 

[Fei Kelei]

Navigation I unlocks nav 2 as you say (I'm not sure what the other poster is talking about, I've done this?!).

Can more people try this out and see if we can resolve this? All I know is that I went into a game, used the worldbuilder to change a lighthouse into a trading post, then built a caravel, and it had the free Navigation I promotion like it should but no option to take Nav II with the first promotion. I even tried it again in another game, this time with a transport, and once again I had to take Flanking I before I could get Navigation II. I'm running BtS 3.19.