Is marble completely indispensable?

[Dis]

I hardly ever build the early wonders.

[clarkcd]

I guess if you're someone who has to build every wonder then it is probably a good thing to have. IMO the resources you really need are iron, coal, oil and to a lesser extent horses. Everything else is just gravy.

Why not just play an industrious civ and not worry about it?

[Arrian]

Hmm, I think I'd rather have stone (Pyramids). Marble's good, though.

-Arrian

[Kriegsspieler]

Originally posted by clarkcd
I guess if you're someone who has to build every wonder then it is probably a good thing to have. IMO the resources you really need are iron, coal, oil and to a lesser extent horses. Everything else is just gravy.

Why not just play an industrious civ and not worry about it?

I certainly would not disagree that iron and coal are pretty important. But my experience has been that if I didn't start off with having built some of the early wonders (because I had marble), then I was already far enough behind the other civs to make the possession of iron and coal insufficient to compensate for the disadvantage.
Perhaps I just need to be a better warmonger.

[-Ab-]

Stonehenge takes 3 or 4 chops to complete, its so quick you migth aswell have it cause the culture boost is nice and it pumps out those great prophets
If you get your religion in aswell you can use the first prophet to make the religion wonder thing and after that you got free techs or whatever you want
If you want the henge just plant a city in a clump of trees and cut em all down maybe 12 turns

[Brutus66]

With a screen name like yours, i would expect you to be a warmonger.

[ljw1004]

Does the stone/marble need to be worked by a citizen of the city that builds the wonder? -- or do you get the production advantage merely for having stone/marble linked through your trade network?

[khumak]

It almost seems a waste of a leader pick if you have an industrious leader but no stone or marble anywhere within reach. In my latest game I'm Ind/Spi and there's 1 patch of stone all the way on the other side of the continent past 3 other civs and there's no marble at all. At least I have copper and iron.

[Blake]

I havn't found games without Marble/Stone particullary hard.

The most lethal thing that can probably happen is lacking BOTH copper and iron. Iron is better than copper, but without either you don't get axemen/macemen...

Also worth noting some wonders use other resources for the discount (such as copper).

[Blake]

ack

[Dis]

I've had a few games without stone or marble. I'm used to it by now. I usually have copper and/or iron though.

[khumak]

I've never had a game without iron but I've had several without any of the others. Building wonders without any stone, marble OR copper = major suckage.