Taj and Statue of Lib

[frenzyfol]

I was wondering what the people thought of this little strategy which seems to be part of almost every game I play.

When I manage to be the first to liberalism I use it to grab nationalism at which point I almost always try to build the The Taj Mahal. My tech path after that is always towards democracy so I can build The Statue of Liberty.

Are the Taj and Statue of Liberty worth the effort?
Is there a better bee line at that stage in the tech tree?

ps. I almost always have a large empire on a single continent when doing this. My usual goal is a warmongering one.

[kiky]

I only build those wonders only when I'm in leading the game AND i'm in 'builder mode'.

Also, depends on how tight the race to finish Liberalism, but usually i'll delay getting Liberalism so that i can get higher tech, or just go straight to Nationalism > Military Tradition. Early cavalry is

[Mies78]

If you have a big empire, and you still have to go through a couple of centuries, they sure are. SoL and rep. + 15 cities or more is soo nice. Can decide games for me.

If you have an small empire, let them be. Unless you have an GE somewhere chilling.

Late-game warfare is also easier if you have the Sistine C. and the SoL; fast borderpops without needing to whip a theatre. You can start to massacre iraqi's for the courthouse from the start.

[couerdelion]

For large civs both are strong wonders

[Ming]

Re: Taj and Statue of Lib

Originally posted by frenzyfol
Are the Taj and Statue of Liberty worth the effort?
Is there a better bee line at that stage in the tech tree?

Granted, it always depends on the game situation... but usually I'm with Kiky. I use Liberalism to take Nationalism and then race to cavalry. If I have a city I can spare, I "might" build Taj, and time it's building to the turn I get military tradition. I use the golden age to kick out the first wave of cavalry from almost all my cities Not a necessity, but if I have a spare city with no other needs, it's fun if I can do it.

The Statue of Liberty is a nice but expensive wonder. It really depends on what I'm trying to accomplish. I rarely beline to it, because I usually have higher priorities. As a war monger, I prefer to beline to military tradition. Granted, if I get democracy, and it looks like I can build it, I will... I'm usually saving an engineer for it, to at least speed it along. But SOL is not my highest priority in most games.

[zeace]

Taj is (most) useful if you're not running a specialist economy, whereas SoL is (most) useful if you are running a specialist economy. Obviously I'd take both if I could get them, but if you have to choose one or the other, I let my overall economic style dictate which.

If you're not running SE, than SoL is a lot less useful. Representation is very powerful with it...

[couerdelion]

SE?

[rah]

Specialist economy

[frenzyfol]

mmmm Taj for a wave of cav...
Good idea, I'll try it out.

[Qwertqwert]

I do something similar. I try get Liberalism first to get Nationalism, and then nab Gun Powder, and Military Tradition. If you go right for that, you can easially be in a situation where you only have to attack longbows with your calvalry.

[emperor]

Both wonders are far from necessities, but if I have a spare Great Engineer sitting around I'll usually pick them up. I tend to build them quite often in single player, and very rarely in multiplayer (where it's necessary to fully focus on military).

[MrWhereItsAt]

You know, I've not once managed a Golden Age in cIV yet, and, in light of that, have never built the Taj. I'm usually concentrating by then on either the other wonders that pop up around that time, or building an army of City Raider Macemen to upgrade to Grenadiers.

Next game - must get Taj!