Which new wonder is the best?

[MasterDave]

Which new wonder is the most powerful?

Great Wall
Temple of Artemis
University of Sankore
Forbidden Banana

From my vast experience with Warlords (2/3 of a game finished), I would have to say that my favorite wonder is the University of Sankore - I tend to build a lot of monasteries, and some temples, and adding two light bulbs to each one has a huge impact on my empire of about nine cities when I built this thing. Also, the great scientist points are nice. I only wish I had the Spiral Minaret too, because this wonder caused me to suddenly perform an empire-wide rash of Buddshist Monastery and Temple building!

The Great Wall seems powerful too, although barbarians are not usually a problem for me by the time I can be completing wonders. The Temple of Artemis seems nice, but doubling trade routes that pay 1 commerce for the early part of the game is not that thrilling. The free priest is nice, though.

I would say that all three of the new wonders are probably among the best in the game, but that University really stands head and shoulders above the rest.

[monkspider]

It is hard to choose, they are all great!

I love that Great Wall is fairly cheap *AND* gives you Great Engineer points.

Temple of Artemis is very handy, and can be quite powerful if leveraged properly.

University of Sankore can no doubt give a significant boost to your research, but is best in a larger empire.

In the end, I gave my vote to Temple of Artemis just because it has such a lovely wonder video.

[dregor]

I voted Great Wall. It looks fantastic, has a great video, and keeping barbarians out of my territory in the early game = priceless. The fact that it keeps them out of my cultural borders that spread past the Wall is nice too, but I'm not going to get to used to it as it seems likely to be a bug.

[Thedrin]

I' won't vote since I don't have the game yet but The Temple of Artemis looks to be the best so far. Doubling income from trade routes at such an early stage of the game looks like a huge boost that will benefit just about any game.

The University of Sankore would require a large empire and a well spread state religion to be as good. By early accounts the AI goes for The Great Wall meaning that getting it will have it cover only a very small area against barbarians. It's value might be better if the doubling of great general points extends to within all of your borders instead of just within the boundaries of the wall.

[Mergle]

Originally posted by Thedrin
I' won't vote since I don't have the game yet but The Temple of Artemis looks to be the best so far. Doubling income from trade routes at such an early stage of the game looks like a huge boost that will benefit just about any game.

The University of Sankore would require a large empire and a well spread state religion to be as good. By early accounts the AI goes for The Great Wall meaning that getting it will have it cover only a very small area against barbarians. It's value might be better if the doubling of great general points extends to within all of your borders instead of just within the boundaries of the wall.

As I understood it, that's exactly what;s supposed to happen - keep barbarians out of the bits surrounded by wall, but double GG points within your (current) cultural boundary.

[Thedrin]

Temple of Artemis still seems better.

Fighting inside your own borders means that you'll be fighting proportionally more defensive battles which generate less XP than offensive battles.

[Arrian]

I built Artemis and Sankore last night. I had marble, so Artemis wasn't all that expensive. I liked the effects of both. The GW... nice, if you have stone handy anyway.

Hmmm, I wonder... GW on a Terra map would be awfully nice, wouldn't it?

-Arrian

[TheArsenal]

Originally posted by dregor
I voted Great Wall. It looks fantastic, has a great video, and keeping barbarians out of my territory in the early game = priceless. The fact that it keeps them out of my cultural borders that spread past the Wall is nice too, but I'm not going to get to used to it as it seems likely to be a bug.

Is that right? It keeps Barbs out of cultural borders entirely? Certainly a bug, but a nice one since I completed the wall before going to bed last night.

[Arrian]

Yes it does, and AFAIK it's no bug.

-Arrian

[TheArsenal]

Well, if that was the intent of the designers then it shoots up my list to best wonder by far. On a Huge map with raging Barbarians, that will turn out to be a very powerful wonder indeed.

[eris]

Originally posted by TheArsenal


Is that right? It keeps Barbs out of cultural borders entirely? Certainly a bug, but a nice one since I completed the wall before going to bed last night.

It says in the documentation, (I am at work and cannot quote from the manual.) that although the visual drawing of the wall would not move, its effects will. Maybe I misread, and it is not true for other effects, but I was fairly convinced that it was saying barbs could not cross your cultural barriers. It sure seemed that way. I had no barbarian conditions.

Note: I have only played one game, and am, in fact, still in progress, working my way towards a Domination. I got the Great Wall only because there was Stone on the tile right next to my starting position. (That's not going to happen again any time soon, I bet.) I built the Wall because of that and because I wanted to see if you could really see it from outer space. You can!

[Son of David]

'The Forbidden banana'

[Blaupanzer]

Originally posted by eris


I built the Wall because ... I wanted to see if you could really see it from outer space. You can!

'Nuff said!

[MasterDave]

One think I like about the University of Sankore is that it comes at a point in the tech tree where there are not a lot of other wonders clamoring for attention, and not as much competition from the AI to win the wonder race. Both the Temple of Artemis and the Great Wall are available at the same time as other critical early wonders such as Stonehenge, the Oracle, the Pyramids, and the Parthenon. That means you have more AI's (or human players in multiplayer) in the wonder race. Also, there is a greater opportunity cost associated with building the Temple of Artemis and/or the Great Wall because it could mean passing on the other four early wonders, which are all quite important.

On the other hand, it is a little easier to prioritize learning paper in the tech tree and get the University of Sankore built without as much risk of getting beaten to its completion by another player. There are less wonders available at this point in the tech tree (at least within the tech order that I usually follow), so there is also less opportunity cost for building the University.

[Prussia]

"The forbidden banana."

3rd place!