Where do you build guilds?

[Marviellac]

Writers, artists and musicians. I'm wondering what are your strategies

1. Do you always build all 9 of them? Or is it a relevant option to go for example into artists only and not even build amphitheaters? (if not going for culture victory)
2. Do you build specialized culture cities with all 3 types or do you use the guilds to combat boredom and spread them more?
3. If specialized, what's important for this kind of city regarding terrain, improvements, infrastructure and buildings?

Any other thoughts, please share

 

[Melchizedek]

I'd want a city with the ability to have gardens, baths, and citizens to work the slots. I think it makes sense to keep them together more often than not, but not always. If you do, you can prioritize things that provide multipliers in those three cities and use the other cities for building military or other infrastructure not related to maximizing specialists.

 

[Stalker0]

My capital will get all three in most cases (definitely if I'm tradition). Beyond that, I usually pick my food heavy, prod light cities as guild cities. Effectively I'm converting my excess food into culture, which turns them into more productive cities and curbs their unhappiness.

 

[cammcken]

food heavy, prod light cities as guild cities

Especially those food-heavy cities that are pressed against the coast — they'll have fewer good tiles, so they can afford to move more pops into specialists.

In general, I usually try to put all three into the national wonder city, and distribute the rest either 1 per city or 2 per city, depending how wide I've settled. The culture helps fight boredom. I'm no deity player though so don't rely on what I do.

 

[andersw]

1. No.
Playing warmonger I build writers, one in capital and two other in high pop cities.
Artists arent as important but I usually built it eventually in a similar fasion but capital + two different cities.
I skip musicians.
2. I was never a big artistry fan and now probably less than ever so its mainly for a few writer spawns and artists are useful for statecraft (since you cant faith buy them like fealty).
3. Usually goes in the highest pop cities, as authority a lot of cities tend to be at somewhat low pop so there usually there arent a huge option of cities to build it in.
But as cammchen mentioned, coastal cites are often a good bet.

 

[DaniSciB]

Do you always build all 9 of them? Or is it a relevant option to go for example into artists only and not even build amphitheaters? (if not going for culture victory)

If I play Domination , I tend to build only the 3 Writer's Guilds in my 3 core cities. This changes when I go Progress-Domination ... Where I also build Artists at some point because there is nothing else to build.

If I play Diplomacy or Science , I build everything except the Musician's Guilds.

If I play Culture , I build everything.

Amphitheaters are important even if you're not going for a cultural victory.

Do you build specialized culture cities with all 3 types or do you use the guilds to combat boredom and spread them more?

It depends, if you go for a cultural victory, creating cities specialized in culture is not a bad option. However, the capital city is what's really important. You want 2 or 3 guilds in your capital, depending on your objective. After that, one guild per city is not bad.

If specialized, what's important for this kind of city regarding terrain, improvements, infrastructure and buildings?

It has to be a city with the capacity to keep the specialists working and keep growing ... Obviously.

For these cities, cultural buildings have a higher priority.

The wonders that give boost to culture always go in the capital except in exceptional cases. (Sistine Chapel or some secondary city has the surprising capacity to have more culture than the capital, maybe due to some luxury or because you "obtained" the capital of Brazil or Polynesia )

 

[azum4roll]

I always build all 3 guilds in my capital and spread the others among my cities. I usually don't immediately work the slots until the cities have enough pop/food to work them and still grow in a reasonable rate, but the guild buildings alone give significant benefits already.