Tax Office or Theatre?

[kaasbris]

Which one is better on which situation?

As Sweden, I have provinces where only one government building can be built/changed (tax office or theatre or military). Those 2 options are so similar, I cannot decide.

[Astaroth]

Moved to Gameplay and Strategy Discussion.

[Travisk]

It depends on your current situation.

If you are still developing your economy, buil the tax offices.

If you are generating a minimum of 10,000 gold per turn, start building theatres.

[ckangas]

It depends on the region and length of game.

In a poor region and early game a theater is better....for example.

Take for instance:
region A: 5,000 wealth
region B: 500 wealth


A theater will produce roughly the same effects in each region, and is largely a static bonus each turn - a flat amount of money added each turn.

A tax office will produce roughly 10 times more benefit in region A than B, since it is % based.

As a general rule, build tax offices in rich regions (or potentially rich regions) and theaters in poor regions.

[kaasbris]

Thanks for advice.
As most one-building-provinces are rather poor with 1,000-2,000 wealth, theatre seems better choice.

[Brusilov]

One of the features I like in NTW is the ability to change the type of building without having to destroy the original one first. I'm not sure if it's possible to change the top level building once it's built. So, you could start out by building a tax building and then change it to a theatre when your income is secure (trade etc) and replace it with a theatre to keep your populaiton in-line (personally, I just add another unit of militia and they stay in-line).

Edited: Even at the top level building it's possible to change the building type.

[Ishiro]

I only build theatres if the city has 3 or more building slots in it. If there's 3 building slots i build a theatre, a tax office and an arty manufactory.

[Bowden]

Im having this very good rule to myself:

1 slotted cities (if frontal city: barracks
1 slotted cities (if not frontal city): tax office
2 slotted cities: tax office + barracks
3 slotted cities: tax office + barracks + artillery foundry
4 slotted cities: tax office + barracks + artillery foundry + theatre

Why barracks earlier than artillery foundry? I find infantry to be more important than artillery. 1 unit of infantry (line) usually wins from 1 artillery battery, and militia have a "town watch" bonus.

[Guffrus]

Hey guys,

1 slot = theatre

2/3 slots = theatre and tax office

4 slots = theatre tax office, barracks, arty, wall, defenders led by general

Note sometimes you might want to use 2x3 slot cities as a 4 slot city if they are close, one barracks and other arty but then you need alot more defenders and 2 lots of walls or go without walls, what if you loose it cos not enough defenders then you have to get through the wall to get it back.. i just use 4 slot cities myself and these should be your primary targets go right into nme lands and take out their capital and then build defenders and walls, that way they cant build good units to attack you with and you have a perfect staging area to take the rest of their lands if you want to.

i would much rather have happy faces in my town than repression, if you are having to repress your people its because youre not a nice guy.

Guffrus

[Vivat Imperator]

I always go for a tax office. If they get restless - send in the troops.

[Ishiro]

If i just captured a settlement, i build a theatre, if the settlement it's producing less than 1k of income i place a theatre till it reaches that number. If the front line settlement has one slot i build barracks, if it has two slots a barracks and a arty factory. I never leave generals defending settlements, only momentarily, it's a waste of their value. The best way to defend settlement IMO it's ambushes, need very few units 2 line inf, 2 militia a skirmisher and cannon, you can basically wipe out a full stack army with a quarter of units. Or if you are very rich, forts of course.

[tyres]

Money's better spent on roads and merchantmen, imo. In general I only ever develop the capital regions I seize, rest of my cash goes to upgrading infrastructure and getting enough stacks to throw against the AI's stacks.