Temples

[ramses II.]

When do you build them?
When I found a city, I build
- a warrior for defense
- a 2nd warrior for exploration
- a settler for expansion
a 3rd warrior to keep my peaple content
a temple (maybe a market place would be better?)
and then:
another settler for expansion
or
a diplo for defense purposes (enemy bribing) every 4th or 5th city
or
a trireme
or
caravans caravans caravans caravans

I need those temples for my later Fundy phase - they bring me a lot of ca$h.

[Scouse Gits]

The 1g/turn upkeep for a Temple renders it a major nuisance in the early game - reserve them for those cities that you wish to grow - your capital and SSC - Fundy is a Loooong way away - building a Temple when martial law will suffice is simply wasteful.

SG[1]

[rah]

This is for MP (deity), since in SP, you get whatever wonders you want so it's too different and happiness is an anoyance rather than something that must be carefully managed Or in less than deity for those that haven't learned to manage happiness yet.

In my major cities as soon as they stop spitting settlers and have enough units in defense. (this occurs when the core cities are too far from your expanding area and it would take too long to get the settlers there. Your border cities take over building settlers. (unless you're pinned in and have to go to sea to expand) This allows you to prepare for caravan spitting while waiting to finish developing trade. Unless you get a few breaks beelining to trade, there should be 4-5 turns where you have nothing to build that's more important.

Then around when you build the 10th or 11th city because you're going to start needing them soon. (provided you haven't built HG) And as your core expands so does the number of cities spitting caravans.

Then around the 15th or 16th city (maybe as early as your 13th depending on relative distance from your cap), you're rushbuying the temples the turn after your city is founded and revolts (despite a unit sent with the settler).

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

I build temples when I need them. In SP, that means if the city keeps spitting out Settlers, and I have HG early and MC a bit later, I might not ever need a temple in some cities.

I work pretty hard, early on, to keep most cities at size 2 so that I don't need to be rushing temples in any but the key cities.

[War4ever]

i follow rahs train of thought for MP games, but i think i build temples before he does, sometimes sacraficing units in the process....

many times i expand to quickly and thus need temples b/c my one unit isn't going to quell disorder

[Purple]

My basic builder strategy calls for prioritizing temples (and the enabling tech) fairly high in order to start accumulating culture. Garrison units come from older cities, so a newly founded city can start off with a defensive unit in place. By the time a city is templed, it's ready to start churning out settlers and workers in alternation with military units.

[War4ever]

yes....but your talking civ3 here

[Ming]

Culture... yeah, must be talking Civ III. Boy is he in the wrong forums.

Yeah, I'm like Rah and War4ever... It's all based on the number of cities, and what else is worth building. I try to get along without them as long as I can, but it gets to a point that you have to have them to continue expanding.

[War4ever]

often i build temples too early, but dammit i hate surprise unhappiness

[Scouse Gits]

Try looking at the 'happiness' tab - that will normally give a good indication of when the 'surprise unhappiness' is about to strike...

SG[1]

[rah]

Originally posted by Scouse Gits
Try looking at the 'happiness' tab - that will normally give a good indication of when the 'surprise unhappiness' is about to strike...

SG[1]

I'm sure he looks at the happines tab.

But when you place 4 cities down the same turn, after the 10th city, you can't always seem to predict quickly which city is going to take the unhappiness hit. You have a good idea, but it doesn't always go the way you think. Distance and order of build impact it, but I've seen so many exceptions that I don't know the hard and fast rule. Something for the game geeks to look at.

[Bloody Monk]

I have always thought I could predict somewhat regularly which would boot their mayor by using the happiness tab. The cities with red heads in its happiness screen will revolt before cities which are blue bloods. At least, that is the rule of thumb I use.

Maybe that is more micro management than you MP'ers have time for; or maybe, it is something I am mistaken about...like the sneak attack bonus, which surely must exist, in spite of tests to the contrary. That is, it may only be an observation.

Monk

[rah]

Normally what you say is true, but when you place 4 cities the same turn, when you already have 10. It crosses the barrier to the next level of unhappiness. I've seen the 10th city, which was previously ok, take the hit, while the 13th city is OK. Even if you're looking at the attitude screen, the city may not have updated yet, and the city must be viewed to update the attitude advisor. These are the circumstances where I usually miss it and have a revolt.

AND you are 100% correct that it comes down to the amount of micro management necessary in the shortened timeframe given in MP.

[Bloody Monk]

One other thing I have observed about this phenomenon of which city/cities will revolt is the importance of arrows. Usually, I find the city with the most arrows--but other things being equal, red heads, etc--will NOT be the one to revolt. In any case, it only seems prudent to update, and then check the city list after laying down a new city... much less four new cities on a turn...and make any needed adjustments.

I fail to see how getting a "surprise" revolting city is anything other than sloppiness...a form of the "...I didn't know it was loaded" defense. If you fail to check, you cannot object!! (with apologies to J Cochran)

But, my experience is solely with SP. Results in MP may be very different.

Monk

[rah]

Sloppy, maybe a little. Considerate definately. You shouldn't be checking your happiness during your movement phase, only during the other peoples turn. You review as many cities as you have time for, to check possible build micro management decisison (.i.e. If I buy up two shield to twenty, my seven shields a turn is maximized, or I don't need the all the shields, might as well take food or arrows), possible growth causing it to revolt., checking possible caravan delivery cities. I always check the attitude screen quickly but it's annoying when it isn't updated. You don't always have time to cycle through all your ciites. (especially if you're squeezing a smoke in the garage in in between turns)

RAH