Buildings

Madrasa

The Madrasa adds extra production per turn to the research item in the queue of the city it stands in.

Its effects

• Research +2 production per turn

This contribution is not drawn from the empire's shared production pool and it exceeds the city's per-turn draw cap (The production queue): the point of the Madrasa is to speed up research without the researching city being limited by its own cap. It only works while the item at the head of the queue is research — it waits while a unit or building is up next. The contribution arrives once per turn: when the head research item finishes, what is left passes to the research item right behind it; if a non-research item comes in between, the rest is lost for that turn. While the queue is empty and the empty-queue default (see The production queue) is on, the contribution flows into the implicit Wisdom item; with the setting off it is lost for that turn.

What it's for

Research and the tech tree costs rise with tier. The Madrasa's own cost is cheaper than a tier-1 node, so it pays for itself over the course of two research items and is pure gain after that.

When to build it

• In any city where you want to speed up progress through the tree; the contribution is city-specific and does not spread across the empire.
• When approaching the doctrine (tier 4) or mastery (tier 5) node: high-tier prices ask for more turns in a city without a Madrasa.

The opposing AI builds the Madrasa once its city quota is full and no enemy is near: once expansion is done, production turns toward research (The AI opponent).

The numbers on this page are read from the game’s balance tables.