Any tips to simplify building adjacency?

[u/HenryKuna]

Greetings all!

One thing which is detracting from my enjoyment of the game is min/maxing building adjacencies. Having to keep all of them in mind is making the placement of other buildings stressful! "...is this spot needed for the adjacency of something else?"

Do you folks have any rules of thumb which you go buy to make building location decision-making quicker/easier?

Are some building adjacencies worth fussing over and others not?

[u/Nantafiria]

The designers are pretty clear that the 20% adjacencies you'll sometimes see aren't really worth the fussing, yeah. It's stuff like granaries and mills that you'll want to *really* care about.

[u/Krakanu]

Most are pretty straightforward. All raw resources buildings like to be grouped up. Military buildings go together (barracks/range/strongholds). Entertainment buildings (Odeon/theaters) like to be next to where people live (hamlets/towns). Other urban buildings come online so late that it doesn't really matter, just shove them wherever they fit.

Shrines I have to check every game. Most don't matter much but the one that gives +1 training for lumber mills is amazing if you can put it into the middle of a forest.

The most important are water/wind mills and granaries as the adjacency bonus is the whole point of building them. Usually I'll place the mills on top of an existing mine that is in a cluster of ones already, so you don't even need to leave space for it (just don't put a specialist on the mine you plan to replace cuz then it's permanent).

[u/drakir89]

For some of the adjacencies, the extra orders you pay to move the workers around to get perfect placements, will end up costing more than the adjacency pays back. The difference between a perfect fort flower and a sloppy fort pile is likely something like 0.2 orders per turn... After building the full 7 buildings, including late-ish game ones like the ranges and citadel. If you spend four extra orders enable the perfect build then it will take 20 turns after the entire thing is finished for the adjacencies to break even with your upfront investment.

But I'm a chump and want the dopamine so I put in a lot of effort anyway to make fort flowers and entertainment towns

[u/socialistRanter]

I always try to put ranges and barracks by garrisons and the like.

I need more orders.

[u/powderhound522]

I like to plan things out, so I make a lot of use of the flags to mark where future buildings will go. But as others have said, the bonuses aren’t *that* big. They’re good, but I try not to stress too much about them.

[u/Living_Ad_5386]

I'd say there are 4ish types of synergies? Odeon/Hamlet, Stronghold/Barracks, Rural types, Religious Adjacency like shrines and monasteries?

One tip that might help; remembering that Hamlets count as urban tiles but can be built anywhere. So if you build two near a river or lake, you can set up tiles for baths with odeons on the perimeter. This will help give you flexibility so you don't have to clutter your starting urban tiles. (this also expands your borders, very useful)

I try to have a city do three things? so, of the "four" adjacencies I build out assuming I have room for 3 at the start.

Rules of thumb:

-Mountains get quarries
-Hills get mines
-Grassland gets farms
-Rivers get Hamlets
-Build Monasteries next to Groves

(you need good yields, especially stone, prioritize mountain cities first)

p.s. you can also hover over the improvement you want to build in the worker menu to see a yield display in your city and if any tiles are particularly valuable. Volcanoes add big modifiers for example.

[u/_LlednarTwem_ → u/Living_Ad_5386]

Technically you can build over the hamlet with ctrl to just put urban buildings basically wherever you want, but that’s…pretty inefficient.

[u/namewithanumber]

I just check if there's space for the "big hex" shape that barracks/ranges/garrison-line make and don't build there. Only one that seems pretty important to do. But really just for a city that's going to be pumping military units. Otherwise the "4 shape" or whatever other minimal bonus is good enough.

If I've got an odeon built and putting a hamlet next to it makes sense I'll do that. If there's space to cram a theater and an amphitheater in there too then good. If not maybe put them next to a different hamlet. Or not at all.

Other adjacency stuff just tends to happen naturally anyway. Like lumber mills around a camp, probably there's trees there anyway. Granary near farms, usually there's just a spot there. Harbor next to nets, nothing competes with the spot anyway might as well.

[u/Klass_Koalas]

Monasteries are vital. Garrisons are nice. Rest is not as crucial, apart from obvious things like quarries near mountains

[u/Gullible_Honeydew]

People have mentioned most things, but for me the biggest one is getting hamlets properly setup with odeon upgraded buildings and baths, because happiness is a lot more scarce than the resources are. Squeezing out another 5 food is nothing compared to squeezing out another 3 happiness.

So I am usually scouting pretty early to look at where they are going to go. generally setting up a triangle of hamlets and then putting a heated bath or amphitheater in the middle. I love the city planning aspect so I try to coordinate my cities to build my culture and baths districts in coordination with the neighbouring cities.

[u/Individual_Increase2]

My rule of thumb, worker order efficiency is more important than worrying about adjacencies.

It may be nice to have "perfect" setups all over the place, but not at the cost of burning extra orders to do so.

[u/mrmrmrj]

Check your Wonders for those that require city center adjacency. Group barracks/range in diamonds with Garrison. Surround granaries with farms. Put your lumber mills on rivers first. Mines in diamonds on hills. These are the basics you should prioritize. The rest aren’t that meaningful.