Everyone loves a Wonder

[djpsychonaut]

Hi all,
I haven't really seen a lot of discussion about Wonders. I don't know about you, but Wonders are my favorite part of the game!

What are you're favorite/least favorite Wonders?

Back in the day, my favorite Wonder in Civ 3 was the Sistine Chapel! What a boon! Double effects of Cathedrals... Do you hear "We Love the Emperor" celebrations?!

Civ 4 is much different and I find that this new Sistine Chapel totally sucks, +2 culture for all specialists?? That's it??? Are you kidding me? Where's the beef?!

Anyways, I'm partial towards: the Pyramids (any government civic in the Ancient Era!!). Also, I love the Eiffel Tower, especially if you can combine it with any of it's sister Wonders: Broadway, Rock N Roll, and Hollywood (a free luxury resource with a doubling effect with a Broadcast Tower!).

The Hanging Gardens can always be a nice boost in the health category, and I usually find it an easy hit because of the Aqueduct per req. I usually don't find a reason to build the Aqueduct for any reason except to build this Wonder until much later in the game. I think the AI thinks similarly and almost never gets the Wonder before me.

Three other Wonders that speak for themselves are The Three Gorges Dam (continent-wide electricity??? it's a no-brainer!!), UN (hello! need I say more?), and Versailles (a third Forbidden Palace, what respectable civ couldn't do without less maintenance costs??).

[tanathos]

Yeah, the Pyramids are high up there in terms of choice.

Next i'd say it's Broadway, Hollywood and Rock'n roll. The other civs are basically at your knee to get them after that.

I've yet to try a game like civ3 (the "build no wonders" strategy).

[alva]

Hmmm, one I do try to get (every) game is the statue of liberty.

[Kuciwalker]

Pyramids definately - Representation is just amazingly powerful in the early game.

[baboon]

Stonehenge, Pyramids, Hanging Gardens, Colossus, Great Lighthouse are my favourites. And I often build the Oracle because it's fast to build and I get that Forge tech for it most of the time.

The late(r) game wonders are often great, but I usually can build them easily so I'm not focusing on them.

I build all the wonders in my Capital usually for the GPP. The rest of the empire is building forces, I'm a total warmongerer at the moment.

[Martinus]

Hanging Gardens also gives the boost of giving each of your cities 1 pop, iirc, which can be quite powerful if you have several cities.

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by Martinus
Hanging Gardens also gives the boost of giving each of your cities 1 pop, iirc, which can be quite powerful if you have several cities.

Unless your cities are all at their happy cap.

[Blake]

Great Lighthouse is probably my favorite.

Pyramids are really good... but not that easy to get. The lighthouse is easier if you really want it, because it involves a more unusual tech/build path and isn't boosted by stone or marble.

As to why Lighthouse rules, it adds scads of income to your coastal cities. In ideal situations probably a lot more than you'd get from the Pyramids. It really is one of the best wonders in the game. Better than something like the Statue of Liberty for sure. I know it's hard to make comparisons, but if you get to really leverage the lighthouse it is probably the most powerful wonder in the game. (this is offset by the fact that it's like tits on a bull if your cities are mostly landlocked and no-one will trade with you)

[djpsychonaut]

I don't really like bulding Stonehedge because the obelisks all become obsolete with Calendar, which is pretty early in my opinion. It's still a nice early game boost to culture. It lets you focus on building other things and still expand your borders.

I'm not really a fan of the Statue of Liberty, although I would build it if I had the chance. I think that there's more important Wonders to be building around the point in the game when this becomes available, specifically Broadway or the Eiffel Tower.

Representation is pretty good in an early game when you build the Pyramids... just think low maintenance, and basically all of your cities will receive the happiness bonus. I'm not sure if the science bonus is relevant early on. I don't even know if you can have scientists that early actually...

[KyuuA4]

I have played a few games where I did not go for the Pyramids. What I can tell you with that is -- I struggled moreso in comparison to games where I completed the Pyramids.

The early access to civics is a HUGE plus.

[Blake]

The biggest benefit I find with the Pyramids is actually the +3 happy from rep. If I'm lucky enough to have some luxuries lying around then I don't really care about the Pyramids.
The science bonus is spamtastic if you do the quick library tech, especially if you go for multiple Great Scientists and add them to the city.

So... it's nearly always a good thing. But like most wonders it is situational, if you have an abundance of happy it's easy to get away without building it. Especially if you grab the great lighthouse (which on the right maps will provide far more income than the +3sci per specialist).

[Mujadaddy]

Doublepost, sorry

[Mujadaddy]

Wonders: I get beat to them a lot, for a few reasons...

1. Playing around with the other bells & whistles in Civ4
2. Taking quirky tech paths
3. RARELY do I get Marble or Stone. Very rarely.
4. I don't play with Industrious by choice

That being said, I concur that the AI doesn't get Hanging Gardens. I think I've built it in every single game I've played. Other wonders?

Pyramids--what can you say? They're the freakin' Pyramids!!

Religious Shrines--money machines. There are only seven of these! By research or conquest are they acquired.

Spiral Minaret-- I like it. +1 gold per state-religion building?

Why are the Lighthouse, the Oracle and Stonehenge so cheap? Because they expire so soon and because they're ancient? They're still really cheap...

[DeepO]

Originally posted by Mujadaddy
That being said, I concur that the AI doesn't get Hanging Gardens. I think I've built it in every single game I've played.

? Yes? Wow... I have not yet built the Hanging gardens. I surely would want to, but the AI beat me to it in every try I made. Now, I simply don't try anymore...

Spiral Minaret-- I like it. +1 gold per state-religion building?

Yeah, this one is one of my favourites as well. But it will only be worth the trouble if you make sure you built all buildings everywhere: temples everywhere, but also monasteries (including in cities which don't have a lot of commerce to start with). It requires a specific type of game, sometimes it's just a waste of time.

Other favourites:

- Pyramids for obvious reasons. Although it is becoming rare to go for them, but give me stone and an industrious leader and I will surely try.

- Oracle... wow. In so many games, the Oracle shapes the early game. It allows all the nice beeline strategies to work, it always give you an edge in one way or another, it even gives enough GPP to get a prophet, which will give you one more tech away from the pack if you want.

- Eiffel. Happy is going to be the most limiting aspect of expansion in this stage of the game, you can't go conquering without either heavy use of the lux slider, or too many resources. Free buildings everywhere are always very powerful, which also explains 3 Gorges.

- Statue of Liberty, especially when you still have plenty of smaller cities (or many cities relative to the AI. Works well with representation too.

- Internet. Can give you some techs you need in a space race, but is only woth it if you beeline for it, and if you've got multiple competitors. If one AI is far ahead of the rest, he will win by SS before you get the techs you want.

- West Point. Build it in a coastal city, and get 6XP (or even more) ships... Combine it with Iron works, of course (might need to wait until IW before deciding where to start West Point), or with National Epic.

- Pentagon (if it still gives 2 XP, this one has changed a lot while testing).

- great lighthouse. Ahhh.... in so many situations the most powerful wonder of all. Add harbors and you will outresearch the AI on almost any diffulty level. Add currency, obviously. You will need to avoid corperation, though, which will limit the paths you want to take: strangely enough, this means that at that part of the game the most economically focused people will be pressed to not go for the econ techs.

And worst wonders:
- Hanging gardens. Haven't built it yet, the AI are just crazy in getting it first.

- Sistine chapel... only useful for culture value

- Colossus. Not because it's a bad wonder, but because I use it wrongly (I know, can't help it). I always end up building the Colossus in those games that require me to go for Astronomy asap. The Colossus is a very powerful wonder if you can prolong its life... but somehow I don't built it in those games where I could do that, but built it in those situations where I only used it for a couple of turns. E.g. terra maps: the amount of Colossus I scored there is just stupid: I know I can't use it, and still it magically gets built by me!

DeepO

[kolpo]

The space elevator is the most powerfull wonder in my view. In a close space race can it easily determine who shall win. If you get a great engineer in the modern era is it often a good idea to save him for the space elevator. Combine this with making labaroties an absolute priority and you shall make space parts very fast, keep a spy in the city of your closest competitor and blown up the production of an expensive part to get an even bigger edge

I also like the great library but the AI also likes it. The great scientists this wonder gives can really help boost your science when you build academies in your biggest science cities. Thought doing this shall make it harder to acquire other great people.

Wonders I don't care about are the sistine cathedral and the wonder that gives +50% worker speed, because by the time I get this wonder are most improvements already build and I can use serfdom anyway.