I have reached the conclusion (and others may disagree) that there is a certain set of buildings one will tend to want in EVERY region. My draft list:
Farm & Granary: together these account for 30 food, substantial!
Acqueduct & Sewers: I have yet to build a sewer but it must be an even better version of the "Sanitation."
City Walls & Training Ground: seems like the most basic of military infrastructure, though perhaps others should apply too. Again, I just haven't played it enough to know yet.
Infrastructure: what is best seems to vary a good bit more depending on ones provincial/national layout and resources, but at least one or two 'generic' ones like Brickworks seem appropriate.
Market: the only commerce building I can identify so far which seems to be universally a good fit. Probably others?
Preceptor House, Temple & School: decadence reduction, culture and special benefits.
Probably seems pretty obvious, but it took me 30 hours to get a sense for that
Any of you folks with more experience with the game have additional or alternate buildings you'd consider as your baseline "Strive to have in EVERY region" list?
The implied process of: building more Tier I buildings of an given type than you really want long-term in order to upgrade and get to build the Tier IIs that you do want and then either dismantling or keep growing pop to keep room for better newer stuff is an interesting dynamic. Good design I think. I cannot think of any preceding strategy game with this kind of build up in order to build better and then tear down as necessary scheme and it does seem to serve the game's purpose of reflecting a historical pattern of growth and challenge.