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I still don't see the argument that the 1G maintenance leads you to specialize- since most buildings pay for themselves by either giving you more gold or giving you something you'd have to pay gold for otherwise.



I can see the argument that scarcity of TIME (rather than gold) could lead you to prioritize certain buildings in certain cities. But I think this is different than specializing cities. I have yet to have a game where my capital city couldn't build most regular buildings. Sure- if I devote it solely to building wonders, I might not be able to get the buildings done until the medieval age (but going whole hog after wonders is a risky way to waste that scarce time given how aggressively the AI targets them). So to me, the Roman power is never wasted (though it is hardly the best in the game.)



There is mention of cities with 8 production or only three gold...I...guess I have been doing something wrong, because every single city I've worked so far has had access to much more than that. Either there are hills to be mined, or forests to build lumber mills. You have 30 tiles available to you...That means when I need to build a large building, I move guys around to maximize production, and then maximize food when I've got all my buildings built.



So if you are constrained by time, I can understand choosing one set of buildings- but once a city controls 10+ tiles, I guess I've never had a situation where the cities have a huge backlog of buildings. There are choke points for sure when the first gluts of classical-era buildings get researched. But when you get to civil service (more food, freeing up citizens) and steam power (more hammers from forests), you clear through these early buildings quite quickly.



As I said, there are exceptions- maybe one or two specialized cities maxing out science (if you had a wonder there) or production (if it had really good resources) but I don't see specialization as the target for everyone.

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