sunrise089 Wrote:I know if Monasteries didn't expire they'd have a very good beakers+culture/hammer ration, worse than a library but better than any other building IIRC. Because they obsolete, where do then rank T-Hawk? Are they ever worth building before a University (excluding when you need borders popped ASAP)? Are they worth building at all once you reach the Ren era?
Beakers/hammer is tied with observatory, so if you don't need the culture, a monastery is better for pure beakers because it starts producing sooner. But yes, expiration makes the monastery wrong.
AP monasteries are always worth building up until 20 turns before Sci Meth, since they will pay for themselves in hammers (with forge and Org Rel.)
Non-AP monasteries pretty much never outside of a Bureaucratic capital. Sometimes early in a big commerce border city (our Bombay in RBTS10 was perfect), but never after Education/Astro. And the monastery is only worth it if the religion happens to already be there; 100 hammers (plus failure chance) for a missionary+monastery is too much for anything besides a Bureaucracy capital.
A Bureaucratic capital will usually build them all, even pretty close to Sci Meth. The payoff on both sides of Bureau means it's better than double the standard beaker/hammer ratio: Instead of +10%/60, it is +15%/40. And a Bureau capital always runs out of things to build, plus the missionary-building ability can be useful. Also think if you'll be going Free Religion later meaning you need the monasteries ahead of time; ironically the civic that most benefits from extra missionaries takes you out of the civic that allows building them.
One last case: culture victory where you don't even reach Sci Meth. 2 culture / 60 hammers is the next thing to build after all the cathedrals are completed. If culture is at +400%, that is payback in 6 turns over building Culture.
Quote:(excluding when you need borders popped ASAP)?
See, this is one effect that annoys me about monasteries. 2 culture for 60 hammers is a decent deal. But it never helps to actually pop the border, since the religion is a prerequisite which itself produces culture. Very rarely the case comes up where a city has a foreign religion, needs a border pop, and you can't/won't send a missionary of your own religion.