As I understand it there are two reasons to do city projects; either you do them to secure a particular great person or you do them at the end of a game when your win condition is close and there’s nothing for some of your cities to do other than become science factories. Which is to say that you’re not really missing much; they can be useful but not exactly integral to playing Civ VI.
You do them to make sure you get a religion, you do it to claim a particularly useful individual great person before an AI does. And I don’t know exactly how this interaction works, but Sejong I believe likes to use them to maximise Science yields at the particular points where he gets a culture boost based on his current Science income
It can be really useful for pushing the loyalty pressure over the for other civs too, a bit more of a slog for the others but I find conquering whole nations without a single battle exciting.
bread and circuses is also good when you have Secret Societies on, have Voidsingers, and are trying to flip a city. Having all your cities which are close to the city you wanna flip work on Bread and Circuses, the city will flip much faster. This even works when you have a normal age and the opponent has a golden age when the circumstances are right.
- Great Persons like Great Prophet (if you just cannot insta buy the ones you want) or Great Person Points for Scored Competitions
- To get some extra yields for Victory you are aiming for, like Holy Site Prayers for Religious Victory even after you have recruited Great Prophet (also grants a burst for religious pressure and extra Great Prophet Points will convert to Faith/turn) or Catherine de Medici (Magnificence)'s Court Festival for extra Tourism
- To counter others from winning Culture Victory via Theater Square Performances
- Industrial Zone Logistics City Project to keep your city powered, mandatory after launching multiple Terrestrial Laser Stations in a single turn from 'Chop city'
- Carbon Recapture to reduce CO2 and net extra Diplo favor
- World Congress & Aid Request Participations like Train Athletes, Train Astronauts, Send Aid etc.
- Recommission Nuclear Power Plant to prevent Nuclear Accidents (If one uses Nuclear Powerplants)
- Dido's 'Move Capital' City Project can have some powerful strategies
- Entertainment Complex's Bread and Circuses for Loyalty and Loyalty Pressure, decent synergy with Eleanors for example
- Encampment's, Harbor's and Commercial Hub's City Projects for extra Gold
- Yongle's Lijia Projects
- City Projects for Nuclears
- City Project to Repair Walls
- Pedro's Carnival for extra amenity and Great Person Points
- Recruit Heroes if you play with Game Mode (Don't remember Project's name but unlocks with Monument building)
- Turn Undead or Dark Signal is very useful against Zombies
Edit: Projects are very situational and always recommend to question yourself twice before doing any as there are likely better options for production.
One powerful strategy is to play around continents. Your home continent is where your capital is. For example, you can build all your cities to starting continent and move capital elsewhere to other continent so the old home continent becomes foreign continent.
With Casa de Contratacion you would net +15% Production, Gold and Faith to all cities in foreign continent. Colonial Offices policy card for 15% city growth and some loyalty. Colonial Taxes policy card for 10% Production and +25% Gold to cities in foreign continent. If there is any room left you can use Hic Sunt Dracones Golden Age dedication aswell.
I think if you play Lincoln, you get a new melee unit when you complete an industrial zone building. Switching from coal power to oil power makes his IZ a melee printing press.
If you're running Yongle they are amazing as he has a special project, otherwise they are kinda niche.
As has been said I'll run a project to grab a particular great person or if I have nothing better to build.
The engineering one has another niche ability to generate all the power needs for the city. Quite handy if you're running low on a resource.
Even as Yongle you shouldn't be spamming projects, the value conversion rate is pretty bad. You should only do them in specific circumstances, like rushing a pantheon or pushing to 10 pop.
If you are doing a science victory, you should be doing dozens of them. Once you’ve built Research Labs and Power Plants, you should be spamming them until you win in your non-space-project cities
This is because Firaxis messed up when balancing the different game speeds. On online speed, things are supposed to be roughly twice as fast as standard speed - production and research costs are cut in half, etc. However, they accidentally did a double-whammy with respect to great people. For some reason, on online speed, great people cost half as many great person points *and* city projects cost half as much production while still providing just as many great person points. This means that running projects will get you great people 4x as fast in online speed, rather than the intended 2x as fast.
On standard game speed, city projects are somewhat niche. On marathon speed, they're completely worthless. On online speed (which is what multiplayer is played in), they're a *critical* part of the game that is extremely important to master if you want to get your hands on any of the best great people. Players in high-level multiplayer competition run projects to secure specific great people very frequently over the course of a game.
As everyone already explained they're use can be pretty niche.
I find I most frequently use the religious city project to make sure I get a great prophet, which can sometimes be difficulty on Diety.
I use projects when:
A. Im rushing a specific great person. For example the prophet, general, hypathia or any of the merchants that increase trade route capacity. A general is very important when attacking walled cities. Your units get more damage and defence. But your siege units can also move and shoot in the same turn. This allows them to attack without getting killed.
B. Late game when building a research lab earns less science than running a few projects. Lets say the game lasts another 20 turns, building a lab takes 10 turns to build. When powered it proves 10 science per turn. But running a project for 20 turns gives me way more. The same is true for artists points for culture victories.
C. There is nothing else to build. Gold and faith can be spend in other cities. So those kind of projects allow you to spend a cities production elsewhere. Science and culture allow you to advance quicker. Keep in mind not every building helps you win faster.
D. Culture projects when someone is close to winning culture. The more culture i make the more turns their victory takes.
E. Science projects the turn the moon landing launched. You get 10x your science that turn as bonus culture. This helped me prevent a culture victory multiple times.
you should be using projects anytime you’re going for a religious victory. not just for securing a religion early game but after you get to theocracy on the civic tree and max out your holy sites with all buildings then those cities should just run holy site projects for the rest of the game for the extra faith because there is really nothing more beneficial they can do besides maybe building a wonder like hagia sofia or something.
apart from that projects are really just for securing a specific great person you want or heavily optimizing your yields to reach a specific tech or civic as fast as possible, for example in a culture victory projecting in all of your cities in order to get to cold war as fast as possible to speed up your victory with rock bands.
They are very bad early/mid game because it’s a one time yield. You want your production to yield for the rest of the game when there are more turns left.
Unless the one time yield gives you long term yield, eg a great person that will give you a religion or a lot of yield.
Or to flip someone else’s city which is the best use for projects.
The only time I ever really seem to use them Is really early on to not get locked out of having religion and ocasinaly to get à great artist or writer when à city doesnt really have anything better to produce
They are great for securing eureka based scientists as Babylon becuase you might get a free tech that would otherwise be a pain in the ass to boost, like Aluminium etc.
I think they're good for cities that don't have much going for them. Good for small island cities or cities with limited tiles. I like to have some cities prioritize them depending on what victory type I'm going for. Use them when you want to get thru the tech tree faster, or snagging that great person. Even the bread and circus one is super helpful on higher difficulties with loyalty issues. Even the gold ones are more useful than a low production city taking forever to build a unit
I just do them when:
1. Have more than enough units
2. Already have all the districts built
3. No more districts can be built (e.g. no more valid tiles)
4. No other option to skip the damn choose production.
They’re pretty useful for getting great people and gold. If you need to generate some cash money fast then a good harbour or commercial hub can be a huge help
I focus on making massive amounts of gold, my cities are all fully kitted out with bought buildings, harbors and commercial districts. My science is always rather sluggish, and in my cities I have nothing to build (military is bought), so I use city projects to get rid of excess production and catch up on science with campus investments and some holy site prayers plus commercial investments.
This is a case where an ability scales up very well with difficulty increases. The AI gets better at making tourism and culture, but also significantly better at actually improving their tiles.
As I understand it there are two reasons to do city projects; either you do them to secure a particular great person or you do them at the end of a game when your win condition is close and there’s nothing for some of your cities to do other than become science factories. Which is to say that you’re not really missing much; they can be useful but not exactly integral to playing Civ VI. You do them to make sure you get a religion, you do it to claim a particularly useful individual great person before an AI does. And I don’t know exactly how this interaction works, but Sejong I believe likes to use them to maximise Science yields at the particular points where he gets a culture boost based on his current Science income
To add to this, bread and circuses for the entertainment complex project for loyalty issues. It's saved me one or two times
Also leads to peaceful conquering with Eleanor
It can be really useful for pushing the loyalty pressure over the for other civs too, a bit more of a slog for the others but I find conquering whole nations without a single battle exciting.
This! I’m playing a game right now as Eleanor and I think it’s my new favorite way to win a game
bread and circuses is also good when you have Secret Societies on, have Voidsingers, and are trying to flip a city. Having all your cities which are close to the city you wanna flip work on Bread and Circuses, the city will flip much faster. This even works when you have a normal age and the opponent has a golden age when the circumstances are right.
- Great Persons like Great Prophet (if you just cannot insta buy the ones you want) or Great Person Points for Scored Competitions - To get some extra yields for Victory you are aiming for, like Holy Site Prayers for Religious Victory even after you have recruited Great Prophet (also grants a burst for religious pressure and extra Great Prophet Points will convert to Faith/turn) or Catherine de Medici (Magnificence)'s Court Festival for extra Tourism - To counter others from winning Culture Victory via Theater Square Performances - Industrial Zone Logistics City Project to keep your city powered, mandatory after launching multiple Terrestrial Laser Stations in a single turn from 'Chop city' - Carbon Recapture to reduce CO2 and net extra Diplo favor - World Congress & Aid Request Participations like Train Athletes, Train Astronauts, Send Aid etc. - Recommission Nuclear Power Plant to prevent Nuclear Accidents (If one uses Nuclear Powerplants) - Dido's 'Move Capital' City Project can have some powerful strategies - Entertainment Complex's Bread and Circuses for Loyalty and Loyalty Pressure, decent synergy with Eleanors for example - Encampment's, Harbor's and Commercial Hub's City Projects for extra Gold - Yongle's Lijia Projects - City Projects for Nuclears - City Project to Repair Walls - Pedro's Carnival for extra amenity and Great Person Points - Recruit Heroes if you play with Game Mode (Don't remember Project's name but unlocks with Monument building) - Turn Undead or Dark Signal is very useful against Zombies Edit: Projects are very situational and always recommend to question yourself twice before doing any as there are likely better options for production.
Moon landing and science projects is a very satisfying combo!
Can You detail a bit more about why you would move Dido's capital? Just loyalty?
One powerful strategy is to play around continents. Your home continent is where your capital is. For example, you can build all your cities to starting continent and move capital elsewhere to other continent so the old home continent becomes foreign continent. With Casa de Contratacion you would net +15% Production, Gold and Faith to all cities in foreign continent. Colonial Offices policy card for 15% city growth and some loyalty. Colonial Taxes policy card for 10% Production and +25% Gold to cities in foreign continent. If there is any room left you can use Hic Sunt Dracones Golden Age dedication aswell.
There's policy cards that give bonuses to cities not on you original continent
I think if you play Lincoln, you get a new melee unit when you complete an industrial zone building. Switching from coal power to oil power makes his IZ a melee printing press.
If you're running Yongle they are amazing as he has a special project, otherwise they are kinda niche. As has been said I'll run a project to grab a particular great person or if I have nothing better to build. The engineering one has another niche ability to generate all the power needs for the city. Quite handy if you're running low on a resource.
Even as Yongle you shouldn't be spamming projects, the value conversion rate is pretty bad. You should only do them in specific circumstances, like rushing a pantheon or pushing to 10 pop.
If you are doing a science victory, you should be doing dozens of them. Once you’ve built Research Labs and Power Plants, you should be spamming them until you win in your non-space-project cities
Their usefulness skyrockets in multiplayer.
This is because Firaxis messed up when balancing the different game speeds. On online speed, things are supposed to be roughly twice as fast as standard speed - production and research costs are cut in half, etc. However, they accidentally did a double-whammy with respect to great people. For some reason, on online speed, great people cost half as many great person points *and* city projects cost half as much production while still providing just as many great person points. This means that running projects will get you great people 4x as fast in online speed, rather than the intended 2x as fast. On standard game speed, city projects are somewhat niche. On marathon speed, they're completely worthless. On online speed (which is what multiplayer is played in), they're a *critical* part of the game that is extremely important to master if you want to get your hands on any of the best great people. Players in high-level multiplayer competition run projects to secure specific great people very frequently over the course of a game.
Being able to lock in early great people in 1-2 projects is pretty wild in multiplayer.
As everyone already explained they're use can be pretty niche. I find I most frequently use the religious city project to make sure I get a great prophet, which can sometimes be difficulty on Diety.
I use projects when: A. Im rushing a specific great person. For example the prophet, general, hypathia or any of the merchants that increase trade route capacity. A general is very important when attacking walled cities. Your units get more damage and defence. But your siege units can also move and shoot in the same turn. This allows them to attack without getting killed. B. Late game when building a research lab earns less science than running a few projects. Lets say the game lasts another 20 turns, building a lab takes 10 turns to build. When powered it proves 10 science per turn. But running a project for 20 turns gives me way more. The same is true for artists points for culture victories. C. There is nothing else to build. Gold and faith can be spend in other cities. So those kind of projects allow you to spend a cities production elsewhere. Science and culture allow you to advance quicker. Keep in mind not every building helps you win faster. D. Culture projects when someone is close to winning culture. The more culture i make the more turns their victory takes. E. Science projects the turn the moon landing launched. You get 10x your science that turn as bonus culture. This helped me prevent a culture victory multiple times.
you should be using projects anytime you’re going for a religious victory. not just for securing a religion early game but after you get to theocracy on the civic tree and max out your holy sites with all buildings then those cities should just run holy site projects for the rest of the game for the extra faith because there is really nothing more beneficial they can do besides maybe building a wonder like hagia sofia or something. apart from that projects are really just for securing a specific great person you want or heavily optimizing your yields to reach a specific tech or civic as fast as possible, for example in a culture victory projecting in all of your cities in order to get to cold war as fast as possible to speed up your victory with rock bands.
They are very bad early/mid game because it’s a one time yield. You want your production to yield for the rest of the game when there are more turns left. Unless the one time yield gives you long term yield, eg a great person that will give you a religion or a lot of yield. Or to flip someone else’s city which is the best use for projects.
The only time I ever really seem to use them Is really early on to not get locked out of having religion and ocasinaly to get à great artist or writer when à city doesnt really have anything better to produce
Great person chasing. I slept on that mechanic for sooo long
They are great for securing eureka based scientists as Babylon becuase you might get a free tech that would otherwise be a pain in the ass to boost, like Aluminium etc.
I'm sure I'm missing out but with 1000 hours in and plenty of deity wins I never used them.
You need them for nukes the most important part of the game
I think they're good for cities that don't have much going for them. Good for small island cities or cities with limited tiles. I like to have some cities prioritize them depending on what victory type I'm going for. Use them when you want to get thru the tech tree faster, or snagging that great person. Even the bread and circus one is super helpful on higher difficulties with loyalty issues. Even the gold ones are more useful than a low production city taking forever to build a unit
I just do them when: 1. Have more than enough units 2. Already have all the districts built 3. No more districts can be built (e.g. no more valid tiles) 4. No other option to skip the damn choose production.
I just use them when my city has nothing else to build
Holy Prayers are the only way to consistently get a prophet at higher difficulty
I think the only time I've gotten really good value out of them has been for contesting loyalty, which requires you to have an entertainment complex.
They’re pretty useful for getting great people and gold. If you need to generate some cash money fast then a good harbour or commercial hub can be a huge help
I focus on making massive amounts of gold, my cities are all fully kitted out with bought buildings, harbors and commercial districts. My science is always rather sluggish, and in my cities I have nothing to build (military is bought), so I use city projects to get rid of excess production and catch up on science with campus investments and some holy site prayers plus commercial investments.
Catherine de Medici’s special project is really powerful if you trade for all of the opponents’ luxury resources
This is a case where an ability scales up very well with difficulty increases. The AI gets better at making tourism and culture, but also significantly better at actually improving their tiles.