When to build 'filler'?

[DEO3]

It seems like some buildings are a no-brainer - science, gold, wonders suited to your end game strategy, etc. but when those are all said and done, and you just have a big list of 'filler' to produce in your cities, I find myself unsure about what order I should be building these in:

Granary
Water Mill
Stone Works
Lighthouse
Stable
Aqueduct
Forge
Garden
Workshop
Windmill

Can someone help me separate the what from the chaff? Which of these building are important, and which aren't?

And when you have nothing but unimportant buildings left to choose from, what to build? Growth? Production? What about the resource enhancing buildings, are they only worth it if you have more than one (or two?) of that type of resource?

Or does it all simply just 'depend', and if so, could someone go into a little more detail?

 

[Full Metal]

I always build workshops like the 2nd building, after monument. Also helps to get Ironworks.

Granaries get built sooner if the city has deer, wheat, or bananas. Later if it doesn't.

Windmill/Water Mill if the city doesn't produce many hammers.

Aqueduct gets built once the hammers are up there.

Lighthouse if the city works more than one sea tile. Stone Works if there's more than one quarry. Stable if there's more than one cow/sheep/horse.

Forge if there's more than one iron being worked OR if said city is a military producer.

Just me, but I tend not to build gardens in any but my largest cities; and plan to have a lot of GP.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Workshops are a no brainer for me. Extra production to build other buildings I need is very nice.

Granaries are good if you really want more food, or there's not enough food. It's just 1 gold anyway.

Aqueduct is good for cities you want to grow large. Think of it as a Science building.

Stone Works is another good building. Happiness and production.

Gardens are good if you have the Peace Gardens Follower Belief. Otherwise, build one in your Great Person production city, if you have one.

 

[Moriarte]

To me, buildings you mention are secondary. I tend to set up the gold flow by hard building markets first. With money in hand, plus resource money, i ll buy universities, then public schools, then R labs. So, without the need to direct hammers into most important buildings, i will usually pick what is available, or build a necessary unit for defense/offense. Granary + Watermill (Stone works) usually go first, then Aqueduct, Workshop, Garden, then i go for the rest of minor enhancers. If nothing is left, then, guess it is Research/Wealth.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Isn't gold buying inefficient though? Seems its better to spend gold on City States or Research Agreements.

 

[mike678]

Isn't gold buying inefficient though? Seems its better to spend gold on City States or Research Agreements.

It's not as much now because you need to have a declaration of friendship to get a research agreement so you can't really spam them like you use to. Plus you only really need one maybe two mercantile city states to get a massive amount of happiness now so unless you need culture you get quite the stock of gold going.

 

[Calouste]

Growth is everything IMO, so Granary first, then Water Mill and/or Lighthouse if available.

 

[Polycrates]

I'm a great believer that population and productivity are long-term the best drivers of research and gold, and so I would prioritise many of these buildings well above library and market in most new cities. A city has to get on its feet first with buildings that benefit itself, then it can start benefiting the empire. The main exception is specialised gold cities, which stay relatively small and low-infrastructure by design.

Granary is often the first building (possibly even before monument depending on terrain) to get the city growing as fast as possible, particularly if there's wheat or deer. If there's fish, a lighthouse will substitute. Maybe watermill with granary later instead.

I often like to go for a production building after that if it's a city that will see significant infrastructure; stone works is a no-brainer if it's available (it's cheap and it's at least +2 prod, +1 happy), stable if there's enough pasture resources, or a workshop.

Aqueduct may come from Tradition finisher, or else is around mid-priority for established cities; for later cities, I'm a big believer that rush-buying an aqueduct in new cities is one of the very best ways to spend gold.

So yeah I guess I tend to alternate food-prod-food-prod

Libraries are high priority if I'm racing for my National College (though in that case I'm more likely to just buy it), otherwise they're well down the list. I'd rather have the extra science from having +50% population, and there is exactly zero point in spending the huge resources on a university if you can't afford 2 full-time science specialists. Markets are another "the city can pay for itself once it's established" thing, except of course in specialised gold cities


The others:
I always build watermills if possible, but they'll be fairly far down the list.
Stable only if there's two or more pastures, high priority if there's 3+ or if it's a production city and I'm going cavalry-heavy
Lighthouse only if there's fish or 2+ other sea resources
Forge only in a specialised production city or with 2+ iron sources
Garden only in my National Epic city, unless I'm going specialist-heavy
Windmill for me almost never justifies the cost, and by the time I can build them I'm probably pretty close to factories

 

[hbar]

A granary, water mill, or lighthouse (if you're working two or more water tiles anyway) is basically a free mine in your production city, so I build them whenever I need more hammers. They're also good for a free specialist (or two), but since the specialists come later, they are lower priority when there's already a surplus of food.

I'm currently playing a Perfect World map that has lots of tiny rivers and I chose the Sacred Waters pantheon, so I'm building gardens in almost all of my cities, though I don't think I've ever built one outside of my capital before this.

The other ones are extremely situational. Things like stables and forges will only get built if there are at least 2 resources and nothing pressing to build. Stoneworks are a little more appealing from the +1 happy, but I'll rarely build more than one per game. I don't think I've ever built a windmill - this building is in desperate need of a buff.

 

[joebnr]

I used to always prioritize these buildings first, but as I've gone up in difficulty, I don't anymore. (I play the one before deity, don't remember the name).

Now, I rarely build them - but always buy them. This is especially true for cities I build later in the game, I'll drop 1000-2000 gold into a city right away to build: granary, lighthouse, workshop, factory, aqueduct and windmill.

Once those are built - which sometimes takes a few turns - the population and production of the city will be large enough to hammer out water mill and stone works/forge (if applicable) in 1-2 turns.

After that, I start building "real" buildings, which go up ultra-fast with these super-boosted cities.

Although, I should point out, my strategy is to go to war early, puppet any cities that aren't amazing, and trading post every one of their tiles. This gives me the gold I need to do this.

 

[Machiavelli24]

Granaries, Stone works and Workshops are really good and you should build them early. Granaries are great because they are cheap and enable a city to grow its first couple of population much faster, giving you not only the +2 food the building provides but also the yields those new citizens are working turns sooner. Even if a city has crested in population granaries are still worth it as they allow citizens to work hills or be a scientist instead of working a farm.

Build stone works whenever you can. They are a cheap production and happiness boost, two things that will be useful no matter what.

Watermills can also be worth it but they are lower priority than Granaries, Stone works and Workshops.

Buildings in that list that are more city dependent would be the Aqueduct, Forge and Stable. Only bother with Aqueducts in cities that are going to grow in population past 10 or so and are not already at their peak size.

Just for their production bonuses Forges and Stables generally aren't worth it. If they provide less than 3 hammers then Granaries, Workshops, Watermills should all be built before. If they are only providing 1 hammer it is usually going to be a waste, unless you plan on building a lot of land units and a Forge would help.

 

[bokaj]

Granary - only when I have 2 or more wheat, deer or bananas...or if I seriously need the food
Water Mill - as soon as I can
Stone Works - if I have more than 1 stone I try to build it very soon. Otherwise I wait until more important buildings have been built.
Lighthouse - same as Granary but with fish
Stable - same as Granary but with the animals
Aqueduct - I usually go Tradition with 3-4 cities. Otherwise I try to build them as soon as possible
Forge - same as Granary but with Iron
Garden - only in my biggest city that produces the most GP
Workshop - as soon as I can, before everything else
Windmill - not sure when I build this

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

I would not build buildings which I do not need. Often I do not build buildings for a long time because I make war so often and so early which I found to be good.

 

[Syailendra]

Well, granaries are not filler... Imagine this, with a granary, you can convert one of your farm to tp. Which means adding 1 gpt (and 2 beakers with rationalism).
That is not including the early growth boost to your cities.