Favorite UB.

[Cyrus The Mike]

just vote for your favorite UB




*NOTE*
Beacuse of the limit you will have to type in the following:

Native American | Totem pole/Monument
Ottoman | Hammam/Aqueduct
Persian | Apothecary/Grocer
Portuguese | Feitorua/Customs House
Roman | Forum/Market
Russian | Research Institute/Laboratory
Spanish | Citadel/Castle
Sumerian | Ziggurat/Courthouse
Viking | Trading post/lighthouse
Zulu | Ikhanda/barracks

[Jaybe]

Roman | Forum/Market

I understand that it is not generally favored, but for some stupid reason I consider Rome to be the only valid candidate for "standing the test of time," and for playing.

Of course, my favorite NON-unique building (introduced in BtS) is the Levee.

[TriMiro]

Persian | Apothecary/Grocer

Comes right on time and gives the Persians almost the equivalent of Expansionist trait.

[Will9]

Cothon for sure. When combined with the Great Lighthouse and Temple of Artemis, it is a truely powerful.

[darrelljs]

Sacrificial Alter. Plays great with Montezuma.

Darrell

[Kuciwalker]

I'm a big fan of the Odeon.

[Blake]

Greek Odeon.

It's about the most loaded UB in the game.

+1 Happy is a decent effect by itself.
+3 Culture is about as good as +1 Happy, perhaps better.

Basically, it can be seen as a +2 Happy UB, like the Hamman. But the base building is also quite good, arguably better, since usually in the early game happiness is more important than healthiness.

Further benefits of Oedon:
For Alexander the relentless warmonger, it comes on Construction which is obviously a critical warmongering tech. Furthermore, it can come as a freebie in newly captured cities, or if it doesn't come as a freebie, can be the first poprush. Either way, you get lots of happiness to quell the new dissenters and also get the border pop. That can't be beaten for a single rush (or a freebie ).
For Pericles, it comes at half price!

And if that weren't enough it comes with the later game +1 happy from hit singles, which is probably the singlemost odd effect of any UB . Comedy is priceless.

When compared with traits, it's like getting most of the happiness effect of Charismatic combined with the border culture-wars effect of Creative. Granted these effects only kick in early game, not right at the start of the game. But the Greeks have good starting traits anyway, so no biggy.

It's worth noting that the Oedon gives Pericles unrivaled border-pushing ability. Creative and also getting a cheap UB with a free +3 culture which can't be got by other means (ie if both players in a border struggle build all their culture buildings, not only does Pericles complete everything first, he also has an extra +3, so he wins convincingly).
It gives Alexander a convincing ability to hold his own, sure, creative gets +2 for free, but Alexander gets +3 for a song, so even against Creatives, Alexander can hold his own.

The Hamman and Ikhanda are probably my other most-liked UB's.

[Dominae]

Hammam. +2 Happy and on the way to Contruction, it's a UB that you'll put at the top of the poprush queue as soon as it becomes available.

I also have a soft spot for the Ethiopian Stele. It's probably the best weapon for the Culture-denial strategy, which is otherwise not very powerful in Civ4 (rushing Great Artists works sometimes, but is often a waste of time).

[Sir Og]

I can't single out one UB. The Terrace, the Odeon, Ikhanda, the Rathaus, the Ziggurat and the Mint are all favorites of mine.

Eventually voted for the Terrace because it comes earliest and makes one of the best civs even better practically making it fin/ind/cre. What is more most of the time you get free terraces in the captured cities.

[Littiz]

I voted the Baray (Khmer) since it gives interesting possibilities to the game. The +1 food can be very valuable in some critical situations.

I also agree the Ethiopian Stele can be very interesting. Trying a game right now.
The culture output is scary, and I'm not even going for a cultural game.

[Kataphraktoi]

Rauthaus and Ziggurat are uber

[Kuciwalker]

How can anyone prefer the Stock Exchange to the Mint?

[joncnunn]

+1 Ottoman | Hammam/Aqueduct : It comes at a very good time to give both happiness & health a boost. As a side note when playing Ottoman I highly recomend building the Hanging Garden wonder as well.

[darrelljs]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
How can anyone prefer the Stock Exchange to the Mint?

Maybe because they don't build Forges in their commerce cities, but they always build Banks?

Darrell

[Supr49er]

IF you have lots of water and rivers it's hard to beat the Dutch dike. In addition to the +1 hammer on all your river tiles, you get +1 hammer for all water tiles! Map specific sure, but can create a monster.