IS THIS UNHEALTHY THINKING?

[DeletedUser8532]

I've got to do something, because I need space, and I don't mean an expansion, I'm talking like 4 or more to feel comfortable.
So, here's what I'm thinking, being in dwarves, almost to the other side, thank odin, oh yeah, important to include I'm an elves player.
Anyway, I now have access to "the ancient grounds" 3x7 @ 1800 culture. I've got all kinds of culture, but therein lies the problem.
Herds the gathering 4x6 @ 1960
Garden of harmony 5x6 @ 2100
Subterfuge 4x4 @ 1930

70 grid/6000 culture bonus -vs- Ancient grounds 63 grid/5400 culture bonus
These are all culture bonus and nothing else, as I don't want to forfeit population for the sake of space.
If I go this route, within the week I'll also unlock temple of the holy fire which is 7200/75 grid, so to me, the temp loss in culture, as It still keeps me at 300% over the necessary, and is more than commensurate in the long run, is negligible.

Thoughts?

 

[DeletedUser9601]

I generally do not like The Ancient Grounds, for 2 main reasons.
1. The building isn't terribly "efficient." Meaning it is not significantly better than population-only buildings or culture-only buildings you can get elsewhere in Dwarves (as you note above, Temple of Holy Fire is unlocked in the chapter too, and better). Typically pop/culture buildings from Events are much more efficient (and all-around better) than what you find in the chapter you are in, so I prefer to only use those.
2. The Ancient Grounds cannot be upgraded (whereas residences can). So even if Ancient Grounds lets you proceed through Dwarves, you get into a bind in Fairies or Orcs. Since you can't upgrade those buildings, your options are A. have substandard population numbers, or B. delete the Ancient Grounds and build up new residences from level 1. Option A isn't manageable long-term, and Option B is very expensive and time consuming.

I think your instincts (if I'm reading your post correctly) are right. If you don't need culture, hold off and build the best possible culture on a per-square basis. So if your event buildings and the Temple will beat Ancient Grounds, no need to build Ancient Grounds.

Dwarves is a challenging chapter, but it is considerably less challenging than upcoming chapters. So I think its actually a good idea to assess your whole city. If you are laying out your city efficiently, you should have enough room for buildings.
Things to think about:
1. how many factories do you have? Are they max-level?
2. how many tier 1/2/3 factories do you have? Are they max-level?
3. have you deleted culture buildings from prior chapters?
4. are you laying out your buildings on roads correctly?
5. do you have the most recent road type?
6. do you have too many AWs?

If you finished Dwarves and weren't tech-locked, you shouldn't need that much more guest race space for Fairies. I found that the 2 guest races occupied about the same amount of space (plus the extra expansions early in Fairies).

 

[Ashrem]

The best metric is culture/square. The garden of Harmony is attractive, but if you are at 300%, you have more culture than you need. The extra isn't getting you anything. Anything more than 170% base* doesn't help you.

* not including bonuses from neighbors if you are using Ensorcelled endowment. it might be worthwhile just getting rid of one of the ones you have, and maybe filling back a few squares with something smaller until a better item turns up in your event chests or the tech tree.