Good UB – Bad UB #3: Unique Buildings (Civ4)

[jobe]

Even though the title suggests different, there are basically no just good or just bad unique buildings (and units). Every UB and UU has to be evaluated in the context of the game settings and overall strategy it´s supposed to be used in. A (fictional) unique unit archer that gets +100% against melee units is useless in an game played on Islands, where you have no (military) contact with your opponents until Astronomy is researched and archers are long obsolete. A unique building is good if it significantly supports a (playable) strategy.

Bad

Mint
Unique building for the Malinese; Replaces Forge

+1
+25%
+10%
Can turn 1 citizen into Engineer
+1 from Gems, Gold, Silver

This is just plain useless. Usually every building has a scenario during which it helps. Those that have more scenarios or help a lot in a specific often occuring scenario are good Unique Buildings. This is a forge that additionaly gives your city +10% . In almost all sitiuations you want to keep the research rate as high as possible. Now if you run 80 or 90 percent research, that´s 10% bonus on 10 or 20 percent of your overall GNP - besides maybe for a massively cottaged capital that´s basically nothing, an insignificant amount at least.

If you ran 100% wealth for a few turns to save money and maximize the use of the Mint, you´d still be receiving way less bonus then you would on research with only a library in cities, which gives +25% . Saving money on 100% wealth to maximize bonuses if anytime is effective with markets, grocers and banks build. Those together though give a bonus of +100% - so the 10% of the Mint doesn´t play any role either.

A forge is a forge even if you call it a Mint and give it some kind of weird castle thing as a picture. Or what´s going on in that art :P ?

Good

Ger
Unique building for Mongolia; Replaces Stable

+4 XP for new Mounted Units

This building finds its uses from ancient to industrial - it´s almost never a game breaker, but especially in clan games in planned out strategies it can play a nice role.

In earlier eras - whenever you´d have build stables anyway, you´ll be happy about the 2 additional experience points bringing you one fight closer to the next promotion level - which can potentially make the difference during an attack with Kehiks, the Mongolian horse archer or with Elephants.

It gets really interesting when you start combining the Ger with Vassalage and/or Theocracy and/or the Charismatic trait. Either two of those combined with barracks and the Ger result in tripple promoted mounted units. That can be Horse Archers or Elephants (Medieval), Knights (Renaissance) or Cavalry (Industrial). A charismatic Mongolian can build tripple promoted cavalry without having to leave Bureaucracy for Vassalage.


For Good UB - Bad UB part #1 click here

For Good UB - Bad UB part #2 click here

[trev]

In almost all sitiuations you want to keep the research rate as high as possible. Now if you run 80 or 90 percent research, that´s 10% bonus on 10 or 20 percent of your overall GNP - besides maybe for a massively cottaged capital that´s basically nothing, an insignificant amount at least.

This sort of research rate I almost never get, rather my research rate particularly earlier on is quite low, sometimes zero percent for a while during a period where I expand cities quickly in number. I consolidate later, but early on I like more cities = more hammers = more units for war or for buildings. A mint would be a great building in these circumstances.

[jobe]

This sort of research rate I almost never get, rather my research rate particularly earlier on is quite low, sometimes zero percent for a while during a period where I expand cities quickly in number. I consolidate later, but early on I like more cities = more hammers = more units for war or for buildings. A mint would be a great building in these circumstances.

Define what you understand by "early", please . Quick expansion is definitely the way to go in civ4 in most games. When you overexpand like you describe or at least come close to doing so, you are not exactly working tons of cottages in those newly founded cities. 10% on 4 or 5 (that´s almost optimistic!) gold is nothing. Don´t get me wrong: Grabbing lots of land, making use of an builder traits like Expansive or Imperialistic is common practice and the way to go, BUT!

Depending on the difficulty level (MP for example is mostly played on noble, basically never over Monarch) your economy should never crush like that. Even a free mint wouldn´t save you, if you let if do so - and you still gotta build it. A courthouse will always be a better investment here for example in terms of gaining you gold.

Just check your cities when you play if you come into a situation like you described and look how much gold you are actually accumulating in each. Than add 10% everywhere - you will see that it´s a (less than) marginal gain.

In general your strategy is fine, especially against the AI. You recover later on and it´s not like you are playing bad by expanding hard and than later on consolidating, but it´s not 100% optimal in most games to do so. Against a human you would take yourself out of any race for key wonders, for liberalism etc. for example.

As a rule of thumb don´t let your tech slider go below 30-40% for longer than a few turns and overall have it at 70-80% and later on more the majority of time. Keeping up in tech is just so key in civ4 in any kind of longer games (so all SP games ).

In all that a forge is still a forge and should be build in almost all cities, if not all in a longer game . Just the 10% wouldn´t be much if the empire worked 100% gold and are basically nothing since the empire actually should be working as close to 100% science as possible the vast majority of time. So if you get Mali in random, still build it, just don´t pick Mali purposefully for the mint

[rah]

10% is still 10% on a building you're going to build anyway. I'll take that vs that one court house replacement or the shopping mall any day of the week. There are many more that I find reasonably useless.

[jobe]

10% is still 10% on a building you're going to build anyway. I'll take that vs that one court house replacement or the shopping mall any day of the week. There are many more that I find reasonably useless.

Sure! The Mall is hell, worst of all probably.

The court house replacement has some uses though on some setups. On higher difficulty, pick Organized Sumeria and go for quick courthouses. Also giving you the option for a quick Great Spy - which can be something to consider on some setups (if it´s not banned ).

It´s not about "don´t build mints (still a forge!)", it´s about "whatever your strategy might be, whatever the setup - there isn´t a situation where you shouldn´t pick for another UB than the mint" - obviosuly If you don´t play the game on random civ . Still there it´s just - as you say - "yeah, I´ll gladly take those free 10%, but it will be really, really few gold I´ll get additionally".

[rah]

Yes, we usually play random, so it's not unwelcome. Unless I snag a few shrines, I'll try to run at 80% most of the game. Less when expanding at someone else's expense , so it's usually more than a few gold difference. But I will agree that unless you're really working it, it's fewer than it sounds.