Question re Buildings in Cities and Settlements

[Saladin87]

Hi guys, since 2.0.X came out, I've finished two somewhat successful playthroughs with Rome and Epirus, without building any of the buildings below (also demolished those built by AI upon conquest to free up building slots).
- Cities
1. Forum
2. Mill
3. Tax office
4. Port (other than shipbuilding)
5. Earthworks
6. Training camp
- Settlements
1. Barracks
2. Tribal settlement (I understand this is for tribal nations, so no issues here)
3. Slave estate
4. Provincial legation
Unfortunately I can't think of any good reasons to build these in my cities/settlements and maybe I'm mistaken to think that. Do you build any of these buildings in your game? If so, why? In what situation are they helpful? Am I missing some crucial information here? If there are some playstyle that require these buildings in some way, I'd love to know about it. I guess I just want to understand better the use of these buildings, because at the moment seeing these building buttons empty across my empire just makes me feel disappointed. Thank you for listening to my rant!

 

[Daft]

I usually build some tax offices as Rome, to boost ta. Income in more populous regions.

I am not a min-maxer at all though, so might be that I'm just waiting building slots. I just like money really.

 

[Saladin87]

I usually build some tax offices as Rome, to boost ta. Income in more populous regions.

I am not a min-maxer at all though, so might be that I'm just waiting building slots. I just like money really.

Within the first 50 years my commerce income just exploded to more than 3 or 4 times the tax income, after that I just didn't see the benefit of keeping them anymore, let alone building more of them. The only time they felt worth building is in Poseidonia/Pisentia where I got a +3 to tax income from missions. Other than that it just felt useless to be honest.

 

[Daft]

Within the first 50 years my commerce income just exploded to more than 3 or 4 times the tax income, after that I just didn't see the benefit of keeping them anymore, let alone building more of them. The only time they felt worth building is in Poseidonia/Pisentia where I got a +3 to tax income from missions. Other than that it just felt useless to be honest.

Yeah, I see the same, but I sometimes want even more, and find them useful in that regard.

Although I've never 'plateaued' in terms of expansive ambition, so I always need money to build stuff all over the place.

 

[Herennius]

If the trade good in city is rare one, I ccasionally use Mills (together with a Foundry) to create as much surplus copies as possible.

Earthworks might be useful if you are small nation and in a defensive position.

Slave Estates are my choice, if no better improvement (Mine, Farm) is available and I either need their extra income, food or population capacity.

 

[olivenkranz]

Also if you expand quickly into Hispania or Gallia, the Forum will be quite useful bc most pops are freemen and slaves. They also add a modifier on food.

 

[Armfeldt]

So what about barracks? Any use, or money better spent elsewhere? I often feel deprived of manpower in the early game, so looks useful on paper at least.

 

[olivenkranz]

So what about barracks? Any use, or money better spent elsewhere? I often feel deprived of manpower in the early game, so looks useful on paper at least.

Early game maybe. Lategame... rarely. Maybe in a long Imperial Challenge that you cant just smash through or something.