Forge of Empires Great Buildings Value Analysis
Forge of Empires Great Buildings Values Analysis by davidb3
Overview:
Great Buildings are definitely better and more interesting than regular buildings. In effect, they are like large Premium buildings (often much better!), which makes sense given that many were at least partially bought with diamonds, and/or require a LOT of investment to complete. On reviewing their benefits, it is clear that some ARE better than others. It’s difficult to figure out exactly how much though, and whether the difference is fair or not. In part, this is because the initial resource costs of GBs go up significantly – by nearly a factor of 3 for each age. (A Tower of Babel, for example, costs the equivalent of 3000 coins and 3000 supplies to produce the 150 Bronze Age goods needed. Building the Deal Castle though, requires Colonial Age goods that would require 800,000 each in supplies and coins to produce. So is the Deal Castle 267 times better than the Tower? Probably not). Likewise, the space needed is also a big factor. The Lighthouse, for example, produces 12% less goods than St Marks. However, it uses less than half as much space (4×4=16 vs 6×6=36 squares). Further complications are that each GB has different combinations of benefits, and some benefits are worth more in different ages (or when boosting better buildings). For the purposes of the latter issue, I made a table where I estimated the output value of GBs in the Early, High and Late Middle Ages, with an assumed standard set of houses and supply production buildings. (Reality will be different of course, but it is a useful gauge/estimate).
To summarize though, GBs are nearly always worthwhile building, and GBs of later ages tend to be a BIT better than those of earlier ages, to offset their significantly higher costs. If faced with a choice, you should normally build the highest level GB for which you can afford the space and goods construction costs. Exception: both the Bronze and Colonial age GBs can be marginal – check if you really need them for your type of game. Personally, I recommend the Lighthouse and the Hagia Sophia as two of the best GBs in the game (so far, at least).
Tabular summary of Great Building benefits, at different levels of the Middle Ages
Legend:
COG = “Cost of Goods” – Total of both supplies and coins (same number of each) needed to pay for the goods required build the GB. For example, a Bronze age GB costs 150 bronze age goods, which cost 3000 cash and 3000 supplies to produce.
“c” normally refers to coins produced or provided by the GB
“s” normally refers to extra supplies produced by the GB
“G” refers to random goods (of the current age) produced by the GB. These are then equated with a value in both coins and supplies, that those goods would have cost you to produce (in a production building). e.g. 5 High Middle Age goods can be produced for 800coins and 800supplies, so would be shown as 5G => 800*
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Analysis of individual Great Buildings
Statue of Zeus: Mostly decorative (ok for PvP).
The Statue gives a unit attack/defence bonus when attacking. Although this is somewhat helpful to all players for conquest of map sectors (and hence saves on some goods), it is particularly helpful to players later interested in PvP contests and medals, so has enduring value. (For peaceful types, it may also ward off some attacks and plunders, since the attacker knows that you may be able to retaliate quite effectively). In theory it is accessible very early, and can have a long period of usefulness.
The Statue is interesting both because it is the smallest GB (2×3, only 6 spaces!), and the only one with only a single benefit. Since some other later GBs give the same benefit, this is very useful for comparison purposes. It is still hard to figure out the real value of the Statue, but at a guess, I’d think it should give a 5% improvement in your weekly medal rewards, and some goods saved. These are at minimum sufficient to pay back the cost of the space and goods required to build it. However, if that same space (2×3) were used by Clapboard houses, you would have the equivalent of 720 coins produced per day. That’s about the value of one Late Middle Ages good per day, or about one expansion space every 4 weeks. I suspect that the Statue can’t really achieve that real value level, so it’s mostly a decorative / vanity addition to your city, and helpful to those who really enjoy the PvP battles, or want to use those battles to improve their overall game score. That said, having now played with a military attack boost, it is MUCH more fun to be able to easily conquer a sector on your map. The Statue (and Cathedral etc.) do encourage more militaristic play, if you can get them up a few levels.
Tower of Babel: Weak.
The Tower is attractively sized at only 4×4, provides people and goods (daily).
The daily goods production is a bit less than that from the Lighthouse, and the Dresden Frauenkirche. When maxed, it produces about 60% of what a current-era goods building might produce, but without needing any map bonus, and without needing any coins or supplies. This means that the value of the output doubles with each age, as the equivalent coin/supply costs would double to produce those goods in a regular building. (This works out to about 4800 coins and supplies daily in Late Middle Ages, so handily beats the Clapboard-house equivalency test used re the Statue). It’s not as good in earlier ages though, and is of dubious value in the Iron Age or earlier. If you have one of these, you’ll want to spend your forge points to advance to later ages as rapidly as possible.
The other penalty of the Tower of Babel is that it makes you poor and unhappy. That is, it gives you people, without any corresponding income. When maxed, it gives you 1140 people, which is more than 5 LMA Apartment houses, but without the corresponding >5000 coins per day. Worse yet, the extra people require happiness, so you may lose out on the happiness productivity bonus unless you build a few Public Baths or something. That 4×4 small size is suddenly more like an 8×8 monster.
Bottom line, a maxed Tower is bad news early on, and only really beneficial in the Late Middle Ages or later – unless you have another GB or two to cover the increased need for happiness and income (e.g. Colosseum and Cathedral of Aachen).
Lighthouse of Alexandria: Excellent (for peaceful/traders)
The Lighthouse is also an easy 4×4 building, boosts your supplies output, and provides goods. It improves as you progress.
The daily Goods output of the Lighthouse is similar to, but slightly better than that of the Tower, or about 6080 (coins +supplies) equivalent every day (in LMA). You’ll still want to have some goods production buildings, but the Lighthouse definitely makes life easier. Again, you’ll want to advance to the next age as rapidly as possible, to get the maximum benefit.
The other benefit is to boost your supply buildings (by up to 145%). You’ll want to have 10 supply production buildings, collected 4 times per day, or some similar arrangement. The supplies boost is very good (more than 27,000 supplies per day, when you have some farms), and actually exceeds the benefits of the Goods side. With all those supplies, you’ll be able to upgrade your houses fairly easily.
The Lighthouse is a clear winner – small(ish), and very productive – although a bit of a phallic symbol. The Goods output is primarily of interest to more peaceful players, and people wishing to buy provinces, rather than those trying to use military for everything. And if you happen to reach the end of the tech tree or take the last sector of your map, the Lighthouse might not be very useful anymore – but you’ll have had good value in the meantime.
Colosseum: Very Good
The Colosseum is large (6×7=42 squares), but provides happiness and some medals.
A fully maxed Colosseum provides 4000 happiness and 32 medals per day (big increase in update 0.26). The happiness is almost as much as 8 Churches, while using half the space. (It’s also more happiness than four premium Printers, for the same space, i.e. 1800 diamonds or so). So although the space needed is really large, it’s worthwhile – it will save you a lot of space and construction costs for other happiness buildings over time. (I have often found a need to build several of the latest age happy buildings, e.g. multiple Arches, or markets, only to tear them down again later on when something else more space-effective is available. This cost can be avoided, if you have a maxed Colosseum).
The medal benefit is harder to calculate, but at nearly 1000 medals/month, is probably worth 5 city Victory expansions over time (10 months), that a peaceful (non PvP player) would never see. Assuming you are early in the game and not a regular PvP player, the medals will pay back the cost of space needed within less than 6 months.
So, the Colosseum is good, if you are early in the game and can use a happiness GB. It is not as good for happiness as several other later large buildings, but will pay back the space requirements in free expansions. Choosing between GBs is now much tougher after the 0.26 update. If you can’t afford enough space in your city to have two large GBs, I still slightly prefer the Notre Dame or Hagia Sophia happiness GBs over the Colosseum, but if you get a full set of Colosseum blueprints first, then build it for sure. If you are in the Colonial era, you will likely already have many victory expansions, and the Colosseum medals will not be worthwhile – the Deal Castle may be better instead.
Hagia Sophia: Excellent
The Hagia Sophia is also large (7×6=42 squares), providing happiness and forge points.
At 6400 Happiness, a maxed Hagia Sophia makes the Colosseum look puny. That’s the equivalent of 12.3 Churches, or 4.3 (LMA premium) Palaces, but in much less space of course. So like the Colosseum, the space needed to build this GB is well worthwhile. That is, it saves you both space AND multiple happiness building costs. (Read the Castel del Monte section for another interesting comparison).
The daily 6 forge points benefit is harder to quantify. Research-wise, you simply end up being held up by unlock costs of technologies. So the main benefit of those forge points is in donation races when contributing to other Great Buildings – it will be significantly easier for you to win first place to get more blueprints and medals that way. Quite simply, the Hagia Sophia allows you to get more GBs (and allows you to get them levelled up faster too). For the altruistic team players, it also allows getting level 0 GBs of other players into production faster, which will be more of a challenge over time.
Bottom line: strongly recommended, and 50% better than the Colosseum, if you have a choice.
Cathedral of Aachen: Very good
The Cathedral is moderately sized (4×6=24 squares), providing coins and a military unit boost when attacking.
The unit bonus when attacking (+50% when maxed) is the same as the Statue (and stacks), so the Cathedral could be considered as being part Statue, and part (24-6=18 squares) income generator. The daily income provided jumps significantly after level 7, and is rather nice when maxed (12640 coins since update 0.26), but does not improve further over time. The Cathedral is effectively providing the same income as about 12 Apartment houses, while using the same space as 4.5 (or 6 really, plus the military bonus as a freebie). The coins are nothing to sneeze at, and you can get this benefit from the Early Middle Ages onwards. That said, by the Colonial age, the Lighthouse is effectively providing over 12,000 coins and 39,000 supplies daily, in less space. There’s a lot to be said for GBs where the output benefit improves as you progress through the ages. (By the way, the Cathedral is a very helpful addition to your city if you have a Tower of Babel.)
Bottom line: get it – it pays for itself and is not too hard to fit in. Pretty, too. And it helps everyone. Strictly speaking, it’s a lot better than the Statue of Zeus, because at low levels, there is very little benefit from the attack strength bonus (on either GB), but the Cathedral still gives you some coins. (You will want to get the Cathedral up to at least level 6 though, before it will be paying more than the land cost).
St Mark’s Basilica: Excellent (peaceful/traders)
St Mark’s is large (6×6), provides a better daily Goods output than the Lighthouse, and boosts coin production.
The Goods output (25 goods per day) produces about the same amount as a single regular production building, but without the costs (7680 coins+ supplies each per day, in LMA). Again, it’s better at higher ages, so you want to advance to the Colonial era or later as soon as possible.
Where St Mark’s shines is in the coin boost ability. Assuming only 20 town houses (probably in LMA or later), a maxed St Mark’s will be boosting your income by 34,000 coins per day (and more in the Colonial era, or if you upgrade to better houses). This is can unlock nearly one city expansion per day, which is astounding! (You may soon run out of expansion spaces, unfortunately).
Bottom line: definitely worth while, and will quickly pay for itself. Interestingly, the Goods output of St Mark’s is only somewhat (15%?) better than that of the Lighthouse, while needing twice as much space, and having a greater initial goods cost. So the Lighthouse is better for it’s size – but the coin boost of St Marks is so huge that it makes up for the larger size. I’d really rather have both GBs if I could, as a peaceful player. It might not appeal as much to aggressive PvP players though.
Notre Dame: very good
Notre Dame is moderately sized (4×6=24 squares), providing happiness and also supplies.
When fully maxed, it provides 7240 supplies daily. This is nice, but pretty weak compared to the supply boost benefit of the Lighthouse, or even to the goods production GBs’ output.
The other benefit of Notre Dame is to provide lots of happiness (3900 when maxed). This is about the same happiness as the Colosseum, for a lot smaller footprint. (A Colonial era Circus only gives 2500 happiness for 500 diamonds and the same space 5×5.) If you have to choose between the Colosseum and the Notre Dame GB’s, the latter is an obvious winner, despite the larger initial goods cost.
Bottom line: yes, take it for the happiness (the supplies are just a bonus). It’s not as powerful as some other GBs, but this is offset by the smaller footprint.
Saint Basil’s Cathedral: Good
St Basil’s is moderately sized (5×5=25 squares), providing a defence boost, and coins.
The (maxed) daily output of 19750 coins (much less than the pre 0.26 output) is weaker than that from St Mark’s (which is a larger GB), but much better than the Cathedral of Aachen (same size, but earlier age).
The other benefit is a defence boost (100% when maxed). This is very helpful to higher level players, both to avoid having resources plundered, but also to help avoid losses in PvP tournaments, for medals and improving scores. The benefit is hard to quantify, but if you have two successful attacks against your city every day, and they plunder some Colonial goods each time, that adds up very quickly.
Bottom line: take it for the coin production, or if you are in an aggressive neighbourhood. It’s a bit expensive for what it does, but still worthwhile. And it’s pretty colorful!
Castel del Monte: underwhelming (ok for PvP)
The Castel is moderately sized (5×5=25 squares), providing an attack boost, and forge points.
The attack boost is the same as that for the Statue of Zeus (+50% when maxed), and stacks. PvP players are going to want to get a full set of this GB, the Statue, and the Cathedral of Aachen.
Unfortunately the other benefit of this GB is to provide forge points, at the same rate as the Hagia Sophia (+6 each day). Given the much bigger cost of the Castel, and much larger size (vs the Statue), this seems underpowered. Subtracting the Statue’s space (for same benefits), it seems that 19 squares of the Castel are used for the forge point production, which means that the Hagia is producing 6400 happiness from 23 squares (vs only 3900 happiness for the Notre Dame’s 24 squares). Anyway, the Castel could have been better. The forge points may still be very helpful to progress through the enormously long Colonial age technology tree, or the upcoming age of Industry.
Bottom line: get it if you are a PvP player, wealthy, or just collect GBs. Otherwise, go for other GBs first.
Deal Castle: Ok
Deal Castle is huge (7×7=49 squares), providing a defence boost, and medals.
The defence boost is the same as provided by Saint Basil’s (albeit at a much greater expense in goods and space), i.e. +100% when maxed.
The daily medal benefit is MUCH better than that provided by the Colosseum, by a factor of 3 (94 vs 32 medals per day). Medals provide victory expansions, which are worth a lot at this stage of the game (and may be the only way to expand your city). I’m not sure that it’s really worth this size of building, but at least it will eventually pay for the space that it uses. The Deal Castle medals work out to more than what you can get from all the PvP competitions each week, or about 2820 medals per month, or about one expansion every month or two, depending on how many victory expansions you have already taken. At this rate though, it will take a few months to pay back the cost of the space needed to build it – assuming you can get it up to level 10. And the medal value is less if you have already been getting expansions from an iron age Colosseum.
Bottom line: a bit overpriced. Don’t kill yourself to try get this one early (before the colonial era), but it’s ok if you can afford it. Both PvP and peaceful players will like the defense benefit, while the medal benefit is more helpful to peaceful/trader players. It is an amazingly pretty castle though.
Dresden Frauenkirche: Very Good
The Fauenkirche is moderately sized (5×5=25 squares), providing happiness, and goods.
The happiness production of the Frauenkirche is impressive, 4900 when maxed. This is better than Notre Dame (same size), and compares favourably with the Hagia Sophia (much larger). It’s worthwhile for this alone.
The second benefit is to provide up to 17 random goods daily. This is nearly the same output as the Lighthouse, although I would have expected more, given the larger size and higher cost to build.
Bottom line: build this one for the happiness benefit alone. The goods production is just gravy.
Update: Note that the original analysis was made before the 0.26 update announcement on Feb 5, 2013, and some comments have been modified or updated since then. Several GBs were rebalanced or nerfed in happiness, medals and goods production. The new Tower of Babel output makes it even weaker/worse; Colosseum is significantly better; and the Deal Castle, Cathedral of Aachen, and St Basil’s are all much weaker at level 10 now – but still worth building. Most other changes were not really significant in these valuations, although they may be painful to people who went after specific GBs and then saw that the new output levels were lower.
keith1056 here, I am trying to understand how I strengthen my army, fight without auto, pick which GB to build next and how two get more forge points. How do I correctly do fp threads as well. I hope someone could look at my city and help me understand the game better.
Yikes this is all dated and should not be followed in 2018.
Guys, this advice is from about 5 years ago, the game was radically different then. So almost all the info eventually became outdated.
Do some GB’s bonuses cancel other bonuses out? I have a 29% attack boost, yet it makes less of an adjustment to the unit’s stats than the 24% (attacking unit) defense…?
I’m unclear why it doesn’t seem to increase the attack stats accordingly.
Zeus is amazing for GE or PVP. It might look weak, but is by far the cheapest % military boost per FP
Not sure I understand the low rating on the Tower of Babel. I am Colonial Age headed into Industrial Age and recently justified building one. For one, at this level, 4×4 is not a lot of space. Also, the goods required to build it are mostly useless to me at this stage.
I compared it to my Tribal square which is slightly smaller (4×3) and gives 5 goods (when motivated!) It does provide a fair amount of gold, but it needs a reno kit to move up in age. The Tower gives 6 goods at level one and upgrades itself as you move through the ages! Thoughts?
Cyril: You asked for a link…a link to what exactly. Email me direct at dskies at gmail.
Real Ironman: Your use of the Dynamic Tower is superb! I wish I’d used it that way. However I was already at Modern Era when Tomorrow (and the Tower) were released so couldn’t benefit. How do you advise people of low level to get the blueprints and goods to build the Tower so early in the game?
Raging Clue: You can’t directly sell goods for FPs. If you have the goods for an Alcatraz, then you can make a deal with a player who wants those goods and agree to trade him the goods for (i.e.) Bronze age goods that you can produce cheaply AND a (i.e.) 500FP donation to your GB of choice in your city. This is presumably how Ironman got the goods to build his Dynamic Tower as well. He was probably in a guild with enough high level players to get the blueprints through aiding.
DSkies
(The Brethren on Fel Drangyr)
dskies at gmail com
Ty dskies for your time I saved your post for reference. Buh bye coliseum at least I wont make future coliseums
The Real Ironman, I have a couple questions regarding your strategy you mentioned because I want to try that out. I am currently in the Colonial Age but I think your strategy would still help me out some. First off, how do you get the blueprints for the dyna tower while in the CA? I have looked through all my guild/friends/neighbors and have not found anyone with that GB so I cannot contribute FP to get them. Also, will you please explain how you go about buying/selling goods for forge points? I assume I will need to be on the buying end of that for the TE goods necessary to construct the dyna tower after I get the blueprints since it would take forever to trade up to TE goods from CA goods for them. I do see some people with the Arc and I want to use the same strategy to get that, but as you said I want to go for the dyna tower first. Anyway, please just clear up this process for me of how to get the later age GBs while still in a lower age. Appreciate it!
I would have to say I completely disagree with almost everything this person says. I am a relatively advanced player there is some variance depending on your playing style, but mathematically, the worst building in the game is clearly the coliseum. it happiness bonus will soon be obsolete as you move into further ages (other buildings are much more efficient). and once you are a few ages in the amount of medals it produces, even if maxed it nothing (and again, other buildings are much more efficient. No high level player has it. A close second for worthless is Nortre Dame. Again, it will soon be obsolete. Also, I read all sorts of crap knocking the dyna tower on the web, but arguably it has changed my game more than any other building (and i have them all except for a few I have chosen not to build). My strategy is to get teh dyna tower before i am out of the LMA. Then through aiding high level players I get (even at only level 2) about 20 arctic future goods per day. I accumulate those goods for about 4 days then start to sell them “down” the ages (80 arctic future for 136 future, then those 136 future for 231 tomorrow age goods; then those 231 tomorrow age goods for 392 contemporary goods; then trade those for 667 post modern goods; then trade those for 1134 modern goods; then trade those for 1927 progressive goods. That is significant because that is the age of alcatraz (progressive) THE most popular GB in the game. so in four days I produce enough goods to build an alcatraz and I’m only in the LMA. I can literally build any GB i want. That’s not all. After I do that I then sell those goods to people dying to get alcatraz. The going price for alcatraz goods is around 500 FPs. So think about it. It takes me 4 days to get goods which I can in turn sell for 500 FPS. Tell me what GB can touch that. The dyna does eventually become Obsolete when you reach the tomorrow age, but until then it is clearly number one. Beyond that Arc is second best. I’m not alone in that. I have friends whose arc is at level 90 and above (that is not a typo) when then get a contribution reward it doubles it. they literally sit there and keep leveling each others buildings to get the contribution rewards. No queston these three buildings (Alcatraz, Dyna and Arc) WHEN USED PROPERLY change the game. everything else takes a back seat.
Dskies: I came upon your analysis last month. Printed it. Now, in trying to advise someone in my guild in her quest to choose the correct GB, I can’t find anything other than the above. Your guide ended with Arctic Orangery. The above ends with Hagia Sofia. Can you provide the link?
I have to agree with Dskies about the Colosseum,
I find it worthless for the space it wastes.
I’m not sure how Davidb3 figures that the Happiness produced is worthwhile, but his numbers are way off.
Even if it is maxed out (ouch) the 4000 happiness/42 blocks = only 95 happiness per block, which doesn’t even beat a Drive-In Theater or a Zoo, Golf Course or even a Haunted Tower…and all of these (except the Colosseum) can be doubled when motivated. So even maxed, the Colosseum is woefully a waste of space.
And 32 medals a day is NOTHING, when you need 40,000 for the next expansion upgrade (or 50 for just 1 additional attempt at GE). Almost all metal generators are a waste of space.
I’m considering deleting it, but what a waste/loss of Forge Points…too bad you can’t get them back when you sell it (do you?)
Thanks Dskies. Your detailed list of GB and its rating are the most accurate here. I joined FOE as a totally new player and followed your list. And it received agreement as well from a Big Guild I managed to join. Start with Zeus, Lighthouse, Hagia, Aachen, Castel, Relics, Alcatraz, Cape. Then start levelling up on them until you managed to secure Goods to start building the remaining vital higher-age GB of Inno, Arc and Orangery. Total GB shouldn’t be more than these 11.
I passed on the opportunity to add GBs of any kind up until the PE. DON’T, repeat, DON’T make this mistake. Read all you can on GBs. Then pick those that fit your style of play. Don’t rely as I did on building separate Goods, Supply, Residential, Cultural & Decorations when, with some effort, GBs will supply those necessary needs faster. Not saying the former aren’t important; they have their place. Just don’t rely on them at the expense of a good GB or two.
The only exception are Military buildings. No GB can supply you with attached units. If you enjoy the warfare side of the game, you’ll need em.
To Wizzy, you make some good points. However, in saying you don’t understand why players max out their fp producing GB’s, you are ignoring the fp exchange aspect of the game. You would be correct if you are the only one contributing to your own GB. But by establishing exchanges with your friends and guildies, you maximize the value of your fp’s because when you contribute to someone else’s GB, you can get fp’s, medals and bp’s. In turn, your contributors also get the rewards as they help level up your GB’s.
If you are going to do a review of GBs, you should at least know what you are talking about. You obviously don’t play. Zeus, though it only gives one bonus, is a MUST for a fighter, as it gives 30% increase of fight power. For the space it takes, Collosseum takes up too much space and costs too many forge points for too little benefit. Take down your article, you are misleading noobs.
GBs are crucial to enjoying FoE. This author has missed the point a little.
As a player of 3 years in the game, let me give you my thoughts.
Firstly once you’ve built a GB you won’t want to delete it. Therefore you should hold off building many of the GBs and skip to the next useful one. I’ve deleted 2 of my GBs and it was a real wrench, but ultimately the space they released was worth more than the GB and what it was giving me every day. Forge points are the mot valuable asset in the game. Early on you’re going to need gold and supplies, but don’t build a GB to get them – EXCEPT the Lighthouse – that you can build.
Here are my GB reviews:
LIGHTHOUSE OF ALEXANDRIA (LoA) “Good” is the most important GB in early levels – it really helps you out and will continue to help for a long time. Once you have more resources than you can use (you’ll probably only reach this point around Tomorrow Era), then it become smus less useful. Build this GB first.
TOWER OF BABEL “Bad”. This was the one description I agreed with above. Don’t bother. It’s not the worst GB, but it’s close!
ZUES.”Very Good” should be built by everybody as it gives you a boost that will be useful for your entire playing of the game – as long as you actually do some fighting, which is impossible not to if you want to go through the map. It’s also small so doesn’t take up much space.
COLLISIEUM. “Bad” Useful for happiness early on, but soon becomes way too big for the benefit it gives. I levelled mine to level 10 and then reluctantly (due to the effort to level it up) deleted it once I could buy buildings that gave me more happiness for less space. Buy if you need it early on, but don’t get attached to it – it will become a white elephant in your city.
HAGIA SOFIA “Very Good” – It’s too big. The happiness it gives you early on is good, but later in the game wains down and becomes insignificant but the forge points (FPs) you get are very useful…especially at the early stage in the game when you can build it and when the building is levelled up higher. However, the high level players are unlikely to level their HS higher than lvl 10 as there are other FP GBs that give you more bang for your buck.
CATHEDRAL OF AACHEN – “Very good”. The gold is worthless, the attack % is vital if you fight. You’re going to fight. Build it.
St BASILS “Bad” – the coin boost is useless once you get to high middle ages and beyond as you will have more gold than you can spend anyway. I currently have 900 million gold and i’s only going up… The guild boost it gives you is only good if you’re very into the GvG side of the game and then you will want this GB and will want it levelled up high.
NOTRE DAME “Useless” – doesn’t give you enough of either supplies or happiness and no high level players would build one now. The only high level players that have them are ones that are sentimental and like the look of it in their city.
CASTEL DEL MONTE. “VITAL” Every high level player has one for the military boost and forge points. Forge points are the most valuable resource in the game. You need to produce as many as you can. You will find examples of the CDM levelled up beyond level 80 in the game (giving their owners more than 50/60 Fps every day)
DEAL “Bad” – way too big and the defence bonus it gives is not worth the investment and space. Much better to build a Zeus and CoA and level them up, less space and more useful attack/defence %.
DRESDEN “Ok” – the goods it gives you will be useful-ish, as will the happiness. Probably not worth it if you’re pushed for space.
St MARKS BASILICA “Ok/bad” – As above, but gold is useless.
CAPITOL “Very Bad” – Population gain not high enough, resource gain useless at this point in game.
ROYAL ALBERT HALL – “ok/Good”. This is basically a better LoA. Replace your LoA or add and it is not bad. The goods it gives are handy.
ALCATRAZ – “Very Good/VITAL”. Its big. It’s massive in fact. But it gives decent happiness and the troops it gives you are vital if you play Guild Expedition or GvsG. Build it ASAP.
SPACE NEEDLE “Useless” – Not enough happiness and you absolutely don’t need gold at this stage of the game.
ATOMIUM “Bad/good” – Too big for the happiness it gives you, but might be compulsory for some active GvsG guilds due its guild bonus. Don’t build unless you “have” to.
CAPE CANAVERAL “Very good/vital” – 1 FP for every level it goes up. I saw a lvl 82 CC the other day giving it’s lucky owner 82 Fps every day. Build as soon as you can and keep levelling it.
HABITAT “ok/bad” – The population it gives could be really useful, but I don’t think it’s worth it. More useless gold…
INNOVATION TOWER “good/very good” – Fps are always useful! Population boost worth the space since you’re also getting FPs
LOTUS TEMPLE “useless” – the rarest GB in the game. Useless gold and not enough happiness to make it worthwhile.
DYNAMIC TOWER “ok” – Tough one this one – useful when it gets levelled up a higher AND you aid lots of people every day. A bit too much time and effort needed to make it useful IMHO.
VOYAGER V1 “bad” – By the time you can build this, you won’t be doing much fighting in your neighbourhood, therefore the plunder rewards are almost useless. For pure psycho fighters who like terrorising their neighbourhoods only.
THE ARC “VITAL” – This building is only ok at lower levels, but for any player wanting to be a high level active player it is invaluable. It means that your FP donations to other GBs get rewarded much higher. Theres a reason why this GB is the most levelled GB in the game. More players spend time levelling their Arc than any other GB (so far).
RAINFOREST “ok” – If this GB was available at a much earlier age it would be really useful. However but the time you get to the Future, getting blueprints isn’t too hard assuming you’ve also invested in FP GBs. Not worth it.
GAIA STATUE “ok/good” – good happiness, not too bad medals. Ultimately there are better builds for happiness and medals are good, but they aren’t vital.
ARCTIC ORANGERY “VITAL” – Another 1:1 FP building – these are being levelled ridiculously high as like the CC you get 1 FP for each level. The Critical hit bonus is also great. It can sometimes make an unsinkable fight suddenly winnable.
Well that’s my twopence on the GB subject! Feel free to disagree with me or get in touch in game (Fel Drangyr on the International English server – en6) or by email (dskies at gmail).
Good Luck!
I have just reached the industrial age and my view on GBs is now very different to when I was earlier in the game. Picking the right GBs for your style of play is very important. You will make a huge investment in FPs in your GBs so making a mistake early on will be costly. IMHO avoid all FPs that give a fixed amount of asset and go for the ones that increase goods and coins by percentages. 2000 coins per day from a GB may feel good in EMA, but is nothing later in the game. GBs that give goods are v helpful. Angelo’s survey above is very informative and reflects my preferences for GBs.
Can’t understand why people max out GBs giving FPs, as they invest thousands of FPs in these GBs to get 5-8 FPs back. The payback time is years.
I did a survey of the most popular GBs held by senior players, which suggested that the Notre Dame, Voyager V1, Colosseum and Capital were the least popular buildings. At the other end, Alcatraz won hands down, with CdM a distant second.
Full report at:
https://forum.en.forgeofempires.com/index.php?threads/analysing-the-real-value-of-great-buildings.11260/page-4#post-185701
Please take a look at the date this article was posted and try to turn your head on.
Nice graph but terrible evaluations of GBs by the author. The author fails to understand the basic structure of the game. Forge Points / Happiness / Goods / Attack & Defense Power / Medals are the pillars of success in FoE.
CdM – Underwhelming?!?!?
Zeus – Decorative ?!?!?!?
Cleary the author farms and must have been a poor player of the game. An article worth referencing would have a base point rating which harnesses the 6 pillars of success into a basic formula.
FPs are the core to the game. Diamonds can buy FPs and goods. Space (medals) have the next palpable value.
I think I disagree with just about every ranking here.
The Zeus, C of A, CDM, Basils, and Deal are all necessary, just to protect yourself and fight when needed. Any GB that can boost your Goods, Coins or Supplies production is necessary as well: The Lighthouse, St. Marks, RA Hall, Chateau, Frau, Dynamic Tower.
If you want to be a good guildmate, build the Observatory and Atomium to give goods to your guild treasury.
Obviously, Alactraz is a must, as well if you’re a fighter.
All other GBs are either weak for their foot print or only offer FPs and happiness. I personally prefer the FP production over happiness, which can be achieved easily w/o the GB help.
*The post does not include FE GBs.
Notre Dame …. $hit … the worst great building.
Statue of Zeus ……. must have it (for those who fight)
Colosseum ….. not good. Doesn’t worth to have it.
Babel …… well yes and no…. it small … but even in level 10 the population that provides is less than a resident in progressive era.
Haghia sophia …. for sure not excellent. Too big … for the happiness that provides. It becomes worthless.
Better have shrines of knowledge
Actually, more than two flaws. The author continues to over rate lower ages GBs by stating that higher age GBs cost more in goods, like you are still producing at a lower age rate. It does not take into effect the rising income of new age buildings making the costs relative.
It also needs to basically break the GBs into the two styles of play (PvP or just questing). Zeus, CoA and CDM are musts for the PvP player; without those you’re just pretending.
Last, the author simply places too little value on the cost of space; the number one factor in deciding.
Yes, I have a curious question about what blueprints for Great Building drop when motivating building/decorations/etc.
Example: When motivating a chalet you can get a Zeus BP. Is there a list of what BP can drop from motivating each type of building within the game?
Thanks
Thanks CW this is a wonderful analysis, can you speak about how to get blue prints, is where a certain number of times that you need to mov/pol to get a blueprint , I don’t see where that is address, thanks for the good work
Thanks CW – I think the long game considerations are helpful to note. I will not touch babel and colo. Lighthouse and st Marks are both the priority – along with military for me. Many players do not want to fight, yet they miss a good part of the game and leaves them vulnerable. If player like trading and supporting guildies then goods producers help, but are ultimately not needed as a players gets so many goods – good luck all and enjoy :)
There are two flaws in this analysis. (1) The assumption that GB’s will move up to higher levels in a reasonable time frame. The average quantity of GB’s per person currently is around 4. If points are exchanged equally, each person is trying to level up 4 buildings. If a level requires 80 forge points and you contribute 2 per day then 320/2 = 160 days to move up one level. As the levels go up, more points are required and the delay grows. Most GB’s will never see level 10, probably not 5. In that case most of them are bad investments. (2) In the end game everybody is in Progressive Era with the same army. Then the winner is the one with the most military boost. Already it’s common to see people with more than 100 points attack/defense boost. If you don’t invest in military buildings early and level them up, you will be a helpless victim in the Progressive era.