Cathedrals and Colloseums: Do you build them?

[vee4473]

Don't you want the culture points?

[Modo44]

Personally, I do. But the higher the difficulty level, the more I have to worry about surviving. Culture is seldom a part of that.

[joncnunn]

If the Catherdial is the difference between a city being in a WLTPD and not being in one, it's the better investment.
If the city wouldn't be in a WLTPD even with a Catherdrial, it's not a paricularly good investement unless needed just for order.
Or of course if your Religious and it's therefore cheap anyway.

Similarly, Scientific civs should build Scentific structures early.

I don't usually build that many Knights, It's much more common for me to build the Horsemen I need before Chivary, and then upgrade.

Originally posted by gunkulator
Looks like the consensus is to build Cathedrals, even if not religious. I dunno, every time I think about building one I look at Banks, Universities or Knights and I think those are better choices.

[gunkulator]

Originally posted by Modo44
Sistine Chapel works for every Cathedral in every city. It doesn't need to be on the same continent.

Egad! I never noticed that before! Learn something new every day I guess.

[joncnunn]

Basically, the contiential wonders are:
1. Every wonder that counts as a city improvement
2. Bachs.

[Modo44]

I'll give you another reson to leave Cathedrals or Colosseums alone. They are fairly expensive structures that can be used as prebuilds for Factories, assuming you can't use Banks or Universities.

Of course, maintaining WLTKD still has priority.

[joncnunn]

On Monarchy level running a Republic / Democracy. Non-religious / Non-scientific

0 luxaries
Don't run Republic / Democracy

1 luxary
10% luxary slider
City Build Order : Temple, Catherdrial, Libary, Market Place, University, Bank

2 Luxaries
10% luxary slider
City build order : Temple, Libary, Market Place, Catherdrial, University, Bank

3 luxaries
0% luxary slider
City build order : Temple, Libary, Market Place, Catherdrial, University, Bank

4 luxaries, either build Catherdrial early for a WLTPD or if too late delay until needed to keep order

5+ luxaries, Catherdrial whenever needed to maintain a WLTPD

[Jon Shafer]

I haven't built a Coliseum or a Cathedral in a looooooong time...

[jshelr]

On demi and higher, not that I go much higher , you will often run into culture problems when a civ on another continent expands -- they can win by culture before it is easy to attack them. Culture builds are important to slow that down.

Generally, however, happiness buildings are built from necessity, when lux are scarce, or modern cathedrals are built after factories / Hoovers, since they are useful and cheap then.

I don't keep cathedrals as prebuilds because a coliseum is a preferred alternative for that purpose.

By the way, I've also downgraded banks to be a post-factory build as well. I noted above that some people build banks regularly. But they just don't seem to make much difference. Is that generally an agreed point?

[vmxa1]

Banks are a prereq for stock exchange IIRC. If you want to build Wall Street, you need 5 cities with them.

Beyond that, I will build a bank if it can pay for itself and I have nothing pressing to build in that city.

[Jon Shafer]

Banks are basically the builder option in the late Medieval/early Industrial era when you're trying to maximize your cities. Obviously if you have more important things to be building (like an army) then Banks aren't so very important, but they definitely pay for themselves and then some if you build them in large enough cities.

[Cort Haus]

Banks are best when you're not sellling tech for high gpt to the AI. While you're raking it in with the Sci slider on 100%, Banks do nothing most of the time.

If I've got Smiths I might build them despite this as there's no upkeep and even at 100% research you still pull the slider back for the last turn - where the banks can do their stuff.

As for Cathedrals (Catherdrials?) - definitely if Religious, or if short of luxuries. Modo made a good point about the perils of luxury-trading pre-navigation on island maps. Otherwise only prioritised if setting up a size 12 city while the rest are much smaller, or if there's an urgent need for culture and Lit isn't available for some reason.

[joncnunn]

Banks vs Univeristys in Conquests

If a Scientific -> University.

Otherwise, if Science Slider <= 40% : Bank
if Science Slider >= 60% : University

Tiebreaker for 50% : If 50% produces a tech every 4 turns : Bank. [Your probably in a GA] Otherwise University.

[Theseus]

I like to build just about everything. Seriously, being a straight-out warmonger is booooring, and as I've repeatedly argued, not at all the most effective Pillar for strategy. So, yeah, if I can get them built in a reasonable period of time, I'll build both Cathedrals and Colosseums... which one first, and whether or not to build both, are obviously determined as per the considerations above in the thread, for each particular city/game.

[Shogun Gunner]

I always build one or the other. It seems I am yet to explore some of the more esoteric strategies... I can say that I'm more likely to build Cathedrals -despite the increased costs because I'm usually going for a wonder that will multiply the happiness effect.