What to build first in newly captured cities?

[DeadDark]

I am usually befuzzled when I look at the long build list in a freshly captured city. Based on experiences with previous versions of Civ, I am always tempted to first build a Temple, which, according to the list, will take 76 turns (at the moment the city is captured). But then there is a Forge for 121 turns, and everything else on the list.

This issue does not arise when I am building my own cities from scratch, as they have already built so many of the buildings that appear on the list for newly captured cities--over time and for very specific requirements.

I realize that what a player builds in a particular city will depend largely on where that city is, its surroundings, the circumstances it is in (whether enemies are nearby, whether the war is continuing, etc.).

If it helps narrow the focus any, what do you build in a captured city first if it is not in any danger and you have brought some garrison troops to protect it? I expect the answer to this will all come down to: "It depends." Still, are there one or two buildings that you usually build before anything else?

--DeadDark

 

[Joshua368]

If the granary got destroyed, I build that first. It's cheap and vital for the city's growth. If the courthouse got destroyed, that's the next highest priority. After that comes culture buildings... usually a theatre or library (depending on how much cultural pressure it'll have).

 

[Conqistador]

I go with culture until the borders pop the first time to 20% (the entirety of the cities workable tiles under potentially your control), then build Granary, Courthouse, Forge, Barracks and other buildings as needed or available.

 

[AmazonQueen]

Civics often affect my choice
If I'm running Caste System culture buildings probably won't be a priority as I'll just use an artist to pop borders
If I'm running Democracy or Slavery I might rush a courthouse or a theatre (in large unhappy cities) before starting a granary
If I'm running Nationhood barracks are usually fairly early
but granary, courthouse, culture building is a pretty good general order

 

[UncleJJ]

If I'm running Nationhood barracks are usually fairly early
but granary, courthouse, culture building is a pretty good general order

Barracks don't help much with Nationhood except if you just want the +2 happiness. Remember you can't draft until you have 10% of the tile culture in the city. So if you want to draft in a captured city it's often best to build a theatre and library to kick start the culture, unless you have another source. In fact it's usually good idea to wipe the other civ out if you want to draft in his cities, the combination of motherland and drafting unhappiness can make drafting very difficult otherwise.

Granary, courthouse and culture are good initial builds as everyone has said. If those aren't needed then a forge can be a good way to boost productivity including that through Slavery and it has benefit of a happiness boost with the right resources. If the city has a shrine then a market, grocer or bank can be a good way to get a profitable return so develop those fast.

 

[zeedee11]

you All mentioned courthouse. Why such high priority?

 

[Magma_Dragoon]

Courthouses cut costs of running the city in half.

 

[DeadDark]

Many thanks for the responses--I thought for sure when I came back there would be only a few "It depends" answers, even though it really does depend.

I have never built granaries or courthouses first; almost always Theaters and Forges. Theaters, thinking, "All these poor souls suddenly have a new leader in the big house--gotta calm them down!" [even though the game mechanics do not exactly work that way] or, with the Forge, "Oh man, there is so much that needs to be built here--let's get it going hard and fast!"

--DeadDark

Edit: In my initial post I meant Theaters, not Temples. Darned caffeine!

 

[Wolfshanze]

Pfft... Courthouses is not a priority on a brand new city...

Assuming you just took/captured a city, you're probably at war, so the most important thing in a war is borders to launch attacks from, and to prevent/slow-down your enemy from attacking you... to achieve that end, you need CULTURE, not $$$. The 2-gold a turn you save from a courthouse won't expand your borders to launch new attacks from or protect/slow enemy invasions.

Always, always, always build culture producing buildings of some-sort when capturing a new city... theaters, temples, libraries, etc. Also, when in war Slavery is not a bad civic to have... considering most newly-captured cities starve for lack of food for two-three turns anyways, instead of losing population to starvation and waiting 10-30 turns for a temple or theater, turn what you're going to lose anyways into a free temple or theater... use slavery once the revolt is over and whip the population into a theater... you probably would have lost the population anyways to starvation.

 

[champ82]

1st - theater
2nd - courthouse (maybe lighthouse if coastal)

From there on in different orders depending on the city - granary, forge, factory, power plant.

If you've taken over 4 or more cities and build forges before courthouses, your economy is going to have big problems.

Creative Constructions is amazing for taken cities. Gets those savages happy (from the culture) and productive at the same time. Plus it makes you money.

 

[UncleJJ]

you All mentioned courthouse. Why such high priority?

Courthouses cut costs of running the city in half.

It does depend on how many cities you have and how far the ones you're capturing are from the capital. In my current game where there has been some very heavy warmongering I've got 19 cities in 1100 AD and some are a long way from the capital. The maintenance cost of one size 2 city is 10 gold while its income is just 4. I have 6 cities without courthouses and my research slider is at 30%. So much of my gold is haemoraging away that's why it's vital to get a courthouse early in every one of my cities.

Other games have different circumstances and it certainly can be more important to build either culture or even walls to enhance the defence. Later in the game and when I have State Property I don't worry about building courthouses at all. Then the maximum a city can cost is 7 gold (on Emperor) and a courthouse only saves 3.5 gold and gives 2 EPs so other buildings can be a better deal.

 

[Joshua368]

Always, always, always build culture producing buildings of some-sort when capturing a new city... theaters, temples, libraries, etc. Also, when in war Slavery is not a bad civic to have... considering most newly-captured cities starve for lack of food for two-three turns anyways, instead of losing population to starvation and waiting 10-30 turns for a temple or theater, turn what you're going to lose anyways into a free temple or theater... use slavery once the revolt is over and whip the population into a theater... you probably would have lost the population anyways to starvation.

Well yeah, I mean, if you're done fighting. But when wars last a while the enemy's cultural bounderies should get "pushed away" naturally. Under most conditions trying to have a city fight away enemy culture by buildings simply takes way too long (except maybe if I can get sid's sushi in there) for it to matter, unless there's like a 100-year gap in the war.

I'm not saying making culture buildings a priority in a culture war is bad, it's definitely the right strategy for a long term battle. And I build culture as well to get that first all-important border pop as quick as possible. When when it comes to first builds during the war... well preferably by the time it comes out of revolt, all its culture problems are gone anyway. But even then, it'll take dozens of years of culture pumping to passively remove enemy culture.

Unless I'm Creative, in which case I'll probably toss in a theatre simply because they're so cheap.

 

[-FC-Commando]

Always play Dutch so Dike if possible otherwise theater for culture, then forge then market and bank and last the science buildings.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Pfft... Courthouses is not a priority on a brand new city...

Assuming you just took/captured a city, you're probably at war, so the most important thing in a war is borders to launch attacks from, and to prevent/slow-down your enemy from attacking you... to achieve that end, you need CULTURE, not $$$. The 2-gold a turn you save from a courthouse won't expand your borders to launch new attacks from or protect/slow enemy invasions.

Always, always, always build culture producing buildings of some-sort when capturing a new city... theaters, temples, libraries, etc. Also, when in war Slavery is not a bad civic to have... considering most newly-captured cities starve for lack of food for two-three turns anyways, instead of losing population to starvation and waiting 10-30 turns for a temple or theater, turn what you're going to lose anyways into a free temple or theater... use slavery once the revolt is over and whip the population into a theater... you probably would have lost the population anyways to starvation.

"Always" is bad advice unless your "always" is "decide based on situation".

I often chain-capture cities, to the point where by the time the city is out of revolt and can put up a culture building (even with the whip), I'm headed for the next city already. If we're talking early game here, I usually try to put a barracks in this city and make more units, use courthouses if the distance/#cities is making it cost a lot, or build a monument or other culture building if religion won't take care of it and I'm not in caste/don't have music.

Later in the game cities stay in revolt so long that I often capture another city further in while the one I took is still in revolt. Short of bombing an artist, there's no way culture will be meaningful here - and if the intent is to wipe the civ out, culture buildings take a back seat to other things, such as production buildings in hammer cities, (which admittedly does have some overlap with culture), or commerce multipliers.

Usually when you're taking cities the enemy culture is far stronger than what you can get with a border pop - a border pop MIGHT give you one tile to march at the AI... IMO this isn't worth it compared to preparing the city as a permanent part of your empire or churning out more units instantly (the exploding monty jag is funny - capture high pop cities and whip more from them ASAP haha, but any city can do it with siege/gunpowder etc). If the city has religion that will pop it, I almost never bother with a culture building.

Once you have music though any city can get a pop in a few turns by building culture.

Oh yeah - one last final note - sometimes WW forces the culture slider up anyway. If this is the case, you're going to get a border pop no matter what religion the city is or what you build - so build something else .

There's no right answer to this, OP. Look at the situation and think about what each option will do for you, and pick the one that helps most.

 

[johnny42strom]

Usually a theater. I work on culture first so that whenever the war ends, I'm able to give the city its space. Then Granary and stuff to help it grow in pop. Finally stuff for production (unless the city is good in hammers, then Forge ASAP).

 

[Brian Boru]

I'm usually in Slavery during the capture phase of a war, so Granary 1st and Forge 2nd are my default choices. A coastal city might get Lighthouse 2nd.

Culture is rarely an issue. If it's a city I'm keeping, then it won't suffer culture problems for long, for reasons others mentioned above.

If I'm not in State Property, then Courthouse is often 3rd choice. Occasionally it's #1 choice if I goofed while planning the war and get into dire finances.

In a war situation, you probably won't have Workers at the front-line cities, so economic buildings generally take a back seat for a while. A hammer city could of course get Barracks immediately after Forge if I need more troops--you probably won't whip much in such a city.

 

[DeadDark]

I am always intrigued at the different approaches/stategies/priorities the Civeterans(TM) on this forum have in a given situation, such as in this "what to build first" one. These differences make the game fun and endlessly new.

If Stonewall Jackson, Napoleon, Alexander and Rommel were to rise from the dead and add their contributions to this thread, I think it unlikely they would all say the same thing. Anyway, these posts have caused me to reassess some of my thinking, and consider a few things that I had not been considering. Live and learn .

Jackson: "Forge!"
Napoleon: "Theater!"
Rommel: "Courthouse!"
Alexander: "Granary!"

Hee-hee.

--DeadDark

 

[Iranon]

Exactly as Mike Feury said. Commerce multipliers can wait for a while; I'd rather get the infrastructure up ASAP and while I'm focusing on hammers libraries/grocers/etc won't do much while courthouses will do their thing no matter what.

 

[sydhe]

Theatre first if I have Drama, Temple or Monument if I don't. Then Courthouse, Forge and Barracks.

 

[Charonicus]

Theatre. As many other people have said, the city produces no culture and a theatre helps it keep its land. Granary usually follows so it can grow and work the tiles it now has access to. After that it depends, although courthouse is high priority as it grows.