"Must Have" Buildings

[khumak]

Re: "Must Have" Buildings

All of my cities get

-Granary
-Forge
-Theatre
-Market
-Grocer

On top of that any coastal cities get:

-Harbor
-Lighthouse

My reasoning for these is that I want to maximize growth, production, health, and happiness first. Once those are taken care of then I start adding commerce and research related buildings.

Only cities along hostile borders get walls/castle and only a few of my cities get barracks unless I'm using the civic that gives a happiness bonus for them. Most of my cities never build any units so barracks are pointless. Same goes for walls/castle. If a city in the middle of my empire needs walls it means I'm about to lose the game.

Production cost doesn't matter much to me since I tend to rush buildings in my newly founded or conquered cities with cash. Being Spiritual really helps with this since I can switch back to Representation when I'm done with my spending spree or I'm too low on cash to buy anything. This is also great for when I want to go to war. Switch to Police state/Theocracy/Vassalage to crank out a bunch of +8 xp units at a 25% discount, then switch back with no anarchy. I'd have to say this flexibility makes Spiritual my absolute favorite leader trait. It's also nice being able to build so many cheap temples.

[Azuarc]

Theatres. Cultural leaders want it to expand on culture and they're cheap as hell, everyone else wants it simply to have a little.

Nothing else have I found to be particularly essential.

[Cabbagemeister]

I build a lighthouse first in coastal cities, no matter what. It's like a worker went around and farmed all of my sea squares, all at once!