Has anybody found a use for the Courthouse?

[Comrade Tribune]

Since it doesn´t significantly reduce Corruption, why should one ever build it?

[Comrade Tribune]

To bring this up again: I built 2 Courthouses in my 2nd game, and found them to be totally useless. Did I overlook something, or do you all agree this building is really just a method to waste some shields? Is this some sort of Firaxian joke?

[yin26]

I only build them for culture value. My guess is the entire corruption system will be addressed in the first or second patch.

[Mnus]

Wait, Yin, do they have cultural value? Don't have the game in front of me, but I didn't think they did. ?!?!

I'll build them to an extant, just to ever so slightly curb the corruption, but they really don't seem to be that great.

[Pyrodrew]

Courthouses give no culture points. They do make the city resistant to propaganda tho. They are also good if you want to increase your total maintenance cost by +1.

[Pembleton]

I've only noticed a slight decrease in commerce corruption and I think a few times I've seen it decrease the shield corruption by 1 or 2 shields.

And they don't produce culture.

[yin26]

Don't produce culture, eh? Hadn't checked carefully enough.

Well, then, they do seem rather worthless then, eh?

[Peterk]

Well guys, think of them like an investment, sort of like the banks/colosseums.

They cost you one gold in support (if i remember correctly) per turn and they'll reduce your corruption by a couple golds and a couple shields per turn. Are you making profit on the deal? Yes. Then they're worth it. I don't think they should magically reduce corruption down to zip like some people expect. I buy them in pretty much all my cities but it's never a high priority buy.

A colosseum costs more gold and it might only keep one-two more worker happy and on the job and those guys might just add a couple of shields/golds. Not too much different.

[Jing]

Just to give a more precise idea of the (in)effectiveness of the courthouse, it reduces corruption and waste by 25%, e.g. corruption 16->12, waste 8->6. I have only tested this under Republic, but I suspect the number should not depend on government.

As you can see, as ineffective as it is, it would still make a huge difference in far away cities where almost all production and commerce are lost to corruption, you know those only produce one shield and commerce per turn without it.

[yeesh]

In my huge monarchy game I build a courthouse in every city. I know they don't decrease corruption and waste as much as we'd like, but to say they do absolutely nothing is overstating it. A city on the fringes with only one unwasted shield will produce two or more after a courthouse, and even getting to two is a doubling of your production power. And it generally pays for itself in commerce as well.

[mathgoulet]

build a Forbidden Palace

Courthouses affect corruption, but only winthin a radius around the palace or the forbidden palace. You have no choice but to build the palace and the Forbidden Palace according to their radius, to optimize the fight against corruption. Of course you have to build a courthouse everywhere and you have no choice but to use Democracy/Republic.

When you conquer foreign city that are outside this radius, burn them to the ground and build some colony to pump resources.

[player1]

I DO BUILD CHORTHOUSES AND THEY HELP MUCH (giving 10-30% extra shields & commerce).
THEY ARE MUST HAVE.
THEY ARE RELATIVLY CHEAP

THEY ARE GREAT IN COMBO WITH WE LOVE THE KING!

P.S.
Played on Normal & Large maps.

[cheerful]

In my game, courthouse does nothing in remote city that has 1 shield/gold output. It seems the distance OR the city#, as suggessted by some, dominate all other factores.

[Frito]

Your only going to notice a decent effect if its in a big city thats on the edge of your empire. The problem is border cities are the last cities to get big. I build them anyways because they do help down the road and I'd rather have it built early then have to deal with it when I could be building more important stuff like factorys, banks, armys, etc. You also have to play in democracy to notice a major effect too.

[cheerful]

I am playing democracy and managed to buy these remote cities a lot of stuff. They are at size 12 with about 10 total shields/golds. But I net only 1 with courthouse, temple, cathedral, aqeduct, library, granary. Even with WLTKD, same result.