How do you spend your gold?

[civi'je]

I'm currious what you like to spend gold. Sometimes i buy units, though i try not to. Others i buy things like a grainery, or tiles to get a jumpstart on a new city.

I'm just currious are there buildings you consiter a waste, or ones you consiter that it is more than worth spending the money on. Some new strates i have been trying, get a golden age more often for more rapid development.

I don't typically pay gold to get gold though, like a gold mine would take 100 turns, to get the 300 gold the tile cost, But at times that extra production might be worth it. Another i spend cash on are food tiles, because getting people 50 turns sooner can do things like double speeds of production.

I've also tried going to war, get the other person to surrender, and then take that 2000 or what ever i just made and then expand to another city, or boost production in one i have.

So how do you use your gold?

[suzzi]

Jumpstart on new city is about the only place I use it (maybe a workshop, granary, harbor...) I generally have amassed a large amount by game end as I'm more of a saver than a spender. Sometimes I might buy a worker for a new city especially if it's far from the capital (an island for instance).


Edit oops:

I do upgrade troops and that's probably my biggest spend and I will occassionally buy a couple tiles, usually when i don't want a nearby opponent to get them.

[Methuselah]

Early game, I'll use it to buy workers/water mills etc in cities, and occasionally a tile if there's a resource on it that I need asap. Later on, I just save it so if I get declared on I can buy defense troops.

[finkelmana]

I will spend gold on buildings when a city is taking time to build a wonder. Also, I will buy a building or two if it allows me to start working on a national wonder. I only buy military units if its absolutely necessary. I will only buy tiles to prevent another civ from expanding, especially if they might get a resource I want (or not want them to have). I usually let my borders grow naturally to get a resource, as the borders naturally creep towards them.

[zephyrtr]

Buying factories mid game I usually blow 2-3 thousand on that. Emergency purchase of units. Um... Harbors & workshops in new cities. Work Boats cause they're cheap and I'm impatient. City-States when they're requesting money. Workers early game, or settlers probably.

[chmilz]

Early game: Workers, tiles, a couple archers
Meta game: Missing buildings for national wonders, unit upgrades, city-states
Late game: A dozen bombers which I use to obliterate my opponents without prejudice

[mandead]

Poorly, it seams.

Is it just me or is it a hell of a lot harder to run a surplus in G+K? What economic tips do you pros have?

[finkelmana]

Poorly, it seams.

Is it just me or is it a hell of a lot harder to run a surplus in G+K? What economic tips do you pros have?

Put your mouse over the gold icon in game. You can see where your gold is coming from and where its going. If you have a city with multiple sources of gold, be sure maximize that cities potential for income. Build markets, banks, treasuries, and any other gold modifying buildings in that city. If you have cities that overlap working areas, make sure one city has all the gold producing tiles, so that the buildings with % modifiers work on the most amount of gold. Large armies are a huge gold drain, so if they arent doing anything with them, then you could reduce the number of units. Take a good look at each individual social policy, many increase gold or reduce costs of units and maintenance. Some even give free buildings. If you plan on doing a lot of interaction with city-states, be sure to invest in the patronage tree, that way you will maximize your gold for influence. Dont build roads if you dont have to. Roads take a lot maintenance, harbors give you trade routes without roads. If a city is inland, you can connect if via to a road to another city with a harbor and it gets connected to the capital trade network that way.

[avalon7030]

Poorly, it seams.
Is it just me or is it a hell of a lot harder to run a surplus in G+K? What economic tips do you pros have?

I agree that it is in the beginning of the game due to how long it takes to be able to build trading posts.

[mandead]

I'd never considered that actually. I noticed you now need to research Guilds, whereas in vanilla you could just spam TPs.

[Magic_Hotdog]

First thing I do when I settle a new city mid-to-late game is buy an aqueduct. In terms of effectiveness it is better than any other building to purchase for a fresh 1 population city.

[Miravlix]

Strange, not one person mention using gold for upgrading your army.

Early game: worker/setlers/army
Midgame: Citystates/Unit Upgrade
Later Game:New City jump start buildings, CityStates, Unit Upgrade.

[Hellogoodbye123]

early game and throughout i upgrade all my jaguars until like mechanized inf

and late game, if i have a super overflow of happyness, I create what i like to call an artificial city. i make it, rush granary, floating gardens, lighthouse, and a work boat for fish, making it grow extremely fast by this point i have all tradition completed, so .. theres another food bonus there

i also like to buy territory, in early game

[Okim]

I usually spare gold for the times of trouble by buying only some very badly needed things (buildings, workers, rarely tiles) for my cities. I`m not militaristic at all and almost always end up with just a single military unit per city. Should i be dragged into war - the spared money is quickly spend to reinforce my military.

Now, with the introduction of faith and ability to buy pre-industrial military units with it i tend to spend more money on buying buildings and bribing states.

[VicRatlhead51]

Early game I use it to buy settlers. That way you avoid the growth penalty on your cities.

Mid game I use it for units and CSs mainly

End game I don't really have much strategy for spending. Basically I use it for anything I feel like I need but don't want to wait for. Usually that's a few nuclear subs complete with a couple nukes. Insurance for if I see some one getting close to victory and I need to slow them down.

[chmilz]

Depends on the game I guess, but I just finished a regular map on Emperor pulling in 1150 gold per turn, year 1930 (not Golden Age).

I was a behemoth though, I simultaneously won via science, conquest, and diplomacy. (UN election next turn and I was allied to every single CS, 1 rival capital remaining which was surrounded and had 0 hp, and last spaceship part finished building in my capital and was sitting there). I didn't plan for this, it surprisingly just kinda happened.

[Trashcat]

One of my starting cities (usually my capitol) typically ends up focused around wonder production and nothing else -- I use gold to buy up building that I would have normally produced for the city -- food & production generating buildings typically. Anything else goes to City States and emergency units.

Not saying that this is by any stretch a good strategy -- it's just what *I* do

[Postpwned]

Early game I use it to buy settlers. That way you avoid the growth penalty on your cities.

Is this a good idea? I do it, for the reason you stated, but it doesn't seem like anybody else does. Just seems dumb to have 10 turns of non-growth while you build a settler.

[Miravlix]

My first settler is build, since that is created so early I don't have the cash for them.

If I feel I can afford them I sure use cash to get them.

[cahtush]

I buy buildings in new cities mid-late game and units late game. Early game mostly just tiles or workboats, sometimes my first trireme.