Why to avoid building ...

[OTAKUjbski]

I'm trying to improve my Prince/Monarch games, and I see my biggest weakness in the form of city specialization.

Many posts and guides I've read advise against building "non-essential" buildings in specialized cities (like a factory or barracks in a Commercial city, a University or Observatory in a Production city, etc).

But ... why not?

Even if the +50% research is only 10 beakers or the +50% production is only 10 hammers, it's still more than I had before, right?

Is there some kind of secret math I don't know about?

What is the detriment of building non-spec buildings in specialized cities?

 

[Orion071]

There's no disadvantage other than opportunity cost. What could you have built that would give you a bigger benefit than that Library? In a military city, you could gain 5 more beakers with a Library, but it means that's 2 less Axemen for your army. Your commerce city could build a Barracks, but a Market or a University is obviously a better use of hammers. Eventually, you'll have all of the military you will need and all of the essential buildings you'll need and then you can build that University. Even then, some people would rather "build" gold or science than a building with such a limited benefit. But I'm with you, I tend to eventually have every building in all of my cities when I'm going for a space ship.

 

[Winston Hughes]

As well as the opportunity cost in terms of other builds, if you prioritise hammers to get all those buildings there's also a cost in terms of beakers, food, or GP points. Instead of working a mined hill you could be working a cottage, a farm, or a specialist (or you could have cottaged the hill instead of mining it).

Specialising your cities means you don't need as many buildings (for example, as Orion071 points out, production cities with minimal commerce will get little benefit from a library's research bonus), so you can get more of the things that will give you significant benefits: more troops from production cities, more beakers and/or gold from commerce cities, and more GP points from GP farms.

 

[Ray Patterson]

Many posts and guides I've read advise against building "non-essential" buildings in specialized cities (like a factory or barracks in a Commercial city, a University or Observatory in a Production city, etc).

Orion nailed it, just would like to add this: the latter is far more important than the former. Buildaholics are buildaholics because they think there are many buildings a city "needs". But other than keeping happy, healthy and fed a city doesn't need any buildings (except perhaps a building that generates some culture). The point of other buildings is their contribution to your empire as a whole. Military units, missionaries, settlers and (extra) workers benefit your empire, but not the city that builds them. However, the same thing goes for universities for example, and even for a courthouse: it's not the city that needs the courthouse, it's your empire. City specialization is (among other things) a way to help you think about your cities as tools in the service of your empire.

 

[Ecofarm]

If you run out of things to build in a city, you can assign specialists (an engineer in a production city with a forge, or even a merchant if this does not overly pollute your GPP pool (go to caste system if you must), or you can "build" research in science cities and wealth in production cities. It may be that the seemingly insignificant extra beakers/gold, will do more good in the long run:

that 1 beaker you needed to finish liberalism first

that 1 gold coin you needed to upgrade a unit at a critical time

Think of the long term goals/stratagies of a city within the context of your entire empire, and try to appreciate even the smallest steps in that direction, in leu of the more obvious accomplishment of "you have completed a barracks in -your science city-, what would you like to build next".

I also have problems with the "nothing else to build" syndrome.

Perhaps this could be cured by playing on a higher difficulty level, where building every building in every city is simply not possible (on the way to a satisfying win). There is also the "tactic" of starting a wonder you have no intention of finishing, just to produce the gold from failing to get it first. However, if you find yourself doing this, you are probably playing on too easy of a difficulty level.

"The devil will find work for idle hands". The devil, in this case, is a lack of long term strategy and appreciation of small gains within a huge context.

 

[axident]

If you run out of things to build in a city, you can assign specialists (an engineer in a production city with a forge, or even a merchant if this does not overly pollute your GPP pool (go to caste system if you must), or you can "build" research in science cities and wealth in production cities. It may be that the seemingly insignificant extra beakers/gold, will do more good in the long run:

that 1 beaker you needed to finish liberalism first

that 1 gold coin you needed to upgrade a unit at a critical time

Think of the long term goals/stratagies of a city within the context of your entire empire, and try to appreciate even the smallest steps in that direction, in leu of the more obvious accomplishment of "you have built a barracks in -your science city-, what would you like to build next".

I also have problems with the "nothing else to build" syndrome.

Perhaps this could be cured by playing on a higher difficulty level, where building every building in every city is simply not possible (on the way to a satisfying win). There is also the "tactic" of starting a wonder you have no intention of finishing, just to produce the gold from failing to get it first. However, if you find yourself doing this, you are probably playing on too easy of a difficulty level.

"The devil will find work for idle hands". The devil, in this case, is a lack of long term strategy and appreciation of small gains within a huge context.

I agree with what he said, except that if you have OR + industrious, and an idle wonder city with no pressing needs, why NOT build 99% of a wonder and then let it rot in the queue? Especially if you also have stone or marble or whatever is appropriate for that cash cow?

 

[OTAKUjbski]

So the mere existence of the building in the city has no negative impact on the city's ability to be specialized ...

... it's just that X hammers could have been more effectively spent on something else in the meantime.

Anybody know the conversion rate of failed wonder hammers to gold?

 

[Ecofarm]

I agree with what he said, except that if you have OR + industrious, and an idle wonder city with no pressing needs, why NOT build 99% of a wonder and then let it rot in the queue? Especially if you also have stone or marble or whatever is appropriate for that cash cow?

It's cheesy.

 

[CliftonBazaar]

For a military victory all I build in a city is forge -> library -> barracks -> military units.

Forge for the 25% hammer bonus;
library for the culture bonus NOT the beaker bonus (theatre would be better but in a military game I don't research Drama) - if I am a 'creative' leader then I don't build the library;
the barracks for the experaince;
I will build stables if I have mounted units.

One thing about military victories? You can never have enough units.

 

[Idlenessss]

A lot is really beyond your control but determined by terrain availible around cities and circumstances which occur during the game. Its pretty rare for me personally to find a spot perfect for one exact type of city, most of my cities wind up having a somewhat hybrid purpose.
furthermore, these really cheap multipliers and all just seem vital everywhere. A forge is good in almost every city, cause even for say yr labs city, that forge is gonna make building university and great library/oxford/whatever a lot quicker. I wind up building library is almost every city, only a little bit for labs and mainly for culture. They are so inexpensive for this, really. Observatories are rather more of a specialized city sort of thing I suppose, but i would expect almost every city with pop more than 5 to have a library. I put barracks usually in more cities than i need really. But this is useful, imo, cause it means that if you NEED to, you can rush production of a lot more units at once.