Useful monuments?

[Testeria]

I'm still playing 1.31.0 campaign - so I wonder: which monuments are still worth building and upgrading in the current version?

I suppose Baku Ateshgah is still relevant and worth building if You are playing Zoroastrian Persia - and monuments that add Governing capacity are always useful - but is there anything else that is actually worth the enormous cost and time spend before You dominate all Your neighbors anyway? Or one should rather spend money on mercs and left monuments for the flavor and roleplaying?

 

[Marquoz]

These are my favorites. Most are useful to any nation that controls them, but a couple are more specific:

The Alhambra, for 5% Admin Efficiency
The Dutch Polders, for a global +10% goods produced and +15% burgher loyalty equilibrium
The Escorial, for 10% GC
The Harmandir Sahib, for a phenomenal -15% minimum autonomy in territories. One of two great reasons to play Hindu Mughals (Hindughals)
The Historical Center of Prague, for +0.15 Imperial Authority. Huge in any HRE campaign. I always annex Prague as Austria during my war to force a PU on Bohemia.
The Kashi Vishwanath Temple, for 15% CCR, -10% AE, and +15% Brahmins loyalty equilibrium. The best blobbing monument in the entire game and the other great reason to play Hindughals.
The Malta Forts, for -15% warscore cost vs. other religions.
The Royal Palace at Caserta, for +100 GC and +15% reform progress growth
Versailles, for the +15% improve relations modifier

There are many others that are helpful, but these are the ones that I currently value most.

 

[ArtFart]

The Alhambra, for 5% Admin Efficiency

+ Vassal income, Diplo rep and liberty Desire decreases, amazing if playing as Castile for Portugal, Aragon, Naples and colonies income + Liberty desire.

The Belem Tower is also pretty powerful if you are playing as any of the Iberian nations, a nice trade bonus to fully dominate the Seville node + some global trade modifier, sailors and manpower.

 

[Marquoz]

+ Vassal income, Diplo rep and liberty Desire decreases, amazing if playing as Castile for Portugal, Aragon, Naples and colonies income + Liberty desire.

The Belem Tower is also pretty powerful if you are playing as any of the Iberian nations, a nice trade bonus to fully dominate the Seville node + some global trade modifier, sailors and manpower.

I was listing the standout powers in my list, the ones that make them the most desirable to me. So while the other Alhambra perks are nice, it's the Admin Efficiency that puts it on my "must have" list. It doesn't matter what nation I play. I want the Alhambra and I'm going to take it for my own!

To address your other point, as any Iberian nation, I fully dominate the Seville node by conquering all of its provinces and then all of the provinces that feed into it, so that aspect of the Belem Tower's not helpful. Its other powers can be of use, and if I don't have better uses for my cash I might upgrade it, but the Tower's not a priority the way the ones I listed are. For me, of course. Different playstyles will emphasize other things.

 

[Umturock]

I'd say for generics:
Timbuktu wonder, T2 is worth if you can afford it imo;
Ayutthaya wonder, easily snipe-able with charter mechanic
Monument in kotagede, easily conquered, -unrest can be powerful
Malta forts, really powerful
Mayan monuments are really good too but you kinda have to work for it
Quechan(?) Monument in south america is good too but similar in effort to mayans
Alhambra is obviously powerful,ESP lategame, however it makes you a Target for spanish inqusition that'll Dow you when you least expect
Chaul forts in Western india, ESP good if you're a big country with a short coast
Zimbabwen(?) Monument, T2 is worth too
Monument in West pacific, it starts as T1 already so send your colonist there if you have one

Man writing in mobile is torture

 

[Testeria]

The Kashi Vishwanath Temple, for 15% CCR, -10% AE, and +15% Brahmins loyalty equilibrium. The best blobbing monument in the entire game and the other great reason to play Hindughals.

Does "syncretic dharmic religion" mean that Tengri religion with dharmic acceptance would work?

 

[necro84]

I would add to this list monuments reducing advisor costs. Kanbawzathadi Palace, Mehrangarh Fort, Parthenon, Santa Maria del Fiore, Gyeongbok Palace can give -20% advisor cost each, Pyramid of Cheops another 15%. Initial cost of upgrade can be big but with few monuments like that you can have almost free lvl 5 advisors

Does "syncretic dharmic religion" mean that Tengri religion with dharmic acceptance would work?

Yes. It can be syncretic with tengri.
For some monuments harmonized with confucian works too

 

[adin85]

I remember there was time when one monument was most op in the game, because it has one more 0.

 

[ArtFart]

I was listing the standout powers in my list, the ones that make them the most desirable to me. So while the other Alhambra perks are nice, it's the Admin Efficiency that puts it on my "must have" list. It doesn't matter what nation I play. I want the Alhambra and I'm going to take it for my own!

To address your other point, as any Iberian nation, I fully dominate the Seville node by conquering all of its provinces and then all of the provinces that feed into it, so that aspect of the Belem Tower's not helpful. Its other powers can be of use, and if I don't have better uses for my cash I might upgrade it, but the Tower's not a priority the way the ones I listed are. For me, of course. Different playstyles will emphasize other things.

Yep that's understandable. The Belem tower is brilliant when playing GB too, as you can grab a lot of the Seville node from Castile/Spain which are usually your rivals I've found. It's also good as Portugal when trying to fight Castile's influence, and it's a very good modifier for Spain aswell, just to eliminate pirate influence. The Global trade modifier is amazing too, really useful for Spain when taking the ivory coast node and the New World trade. Plus who doesn't like manpower?

Admin efficiency is great, but so is diplo rep, very very useful early game and even mid to late game. Plus LOADS of income from colonies with next to no liberty desire as Spain is unmissable for me. But like you said, it's different playing styles, that's why monuments are cool, each can correlate with a different playing style.

 

[Terixis]

Almost all of them are good, and a handful of them are amazing. They definitely feel like "win more" though since if you can drop 8.5k ducats+either a ton more money or manpower to finish it you've already won. So the best ones are the ones that make it easier to do a WC: Alhambra for the 5% admin eff, Malta for -15% war score cost, Kashi Vishwanath Temple for -15%(!) CCR for Hindus, and the various -stability cost ones for cheap truce breaks.

Shout out to Historical Center of Prague (and the meme Ulm one) for making playing as the HRE a thousand times better.

 

[Testeria]

Almost all of them are good, and a handful of them are amazing. They definitely feel like "win more" though since if you can drop 8.5k ducats+either a ton more money or manpower to finish it you've already won.

I'm not into WC or the late grind game and this is my main problem with great works. But they could be useful on the far east there You can milk Ming for an insane amount of money from the very beginning. Gyeongbok Palace is great and doable early on as Oirat or Manchu. Indian/Siam monuments are harder but probably doable. I will try them with my next Lan Xiang into Poland campaign.