Wonders... your thoughts...

[Apple_The_Man]

First of all, my apologies because I am sure this thread has been brought up only 100 times, but it never hurts to bring it back up.

What wonders are the best? What wonders are the worst? How should you go about building wonders to get them before other civs do?

[Rhothaerill]

Like most of Civ3, wonder building is often situational and map dependent. Take for example the Great Lighthouse. On a pangaea map it is practically worthless, but on an archipelago map it is very desirable if not mandatory to build.

That said, I don't have a specific favorite wonder. Some are obviously better than others (who among us builds the Oracle if the Pyramids are still available? ). I've learned that wonders are ultimately not necessary for a win, which is a far cry from when I started and had to have all the powerful wonders. If I can build a wonder then it will most likely help me, but I also tend to play on difficulty levels where ancient age wonder building is touchy at best.

My "most useful wonders" ranking by age:

Ancient: Pyramids (granary in every city is very useful).
Medieval: Leonardo's Workshop is the one I usually try my hardest to get, though there are many wonders that are very useful to have.
Industrial: Hoover Dam can put a civ with factories over the top for production and the wonder that gives two free techs is always useful (currently blanking on the name of the wonder ), but I see most of these wonders as "ways to increase your lead if you're in the lead" rather than "ways to catch up if you're behind" since if you're way behind the AI will often have a chance to build the tech wonder before you.
Modern: None of these wonders especially impress me. The only one I try to make sure I have is the United Nations and only so I don't lose via diplomatic victory.

[ducki]

Here's my favorites:
Ancient
-Mausollos - especially when on a river, happiness/contentment makes it really easy to grow a big city for ... more wonders!
-Hanging Gardens - widespread contentment, even better, though I hardly ever research Monarchy
-Lighthouse - especially if seafaring. 5-move galleys sure are nice. 6-move caravels can get troops to a far-off target much faster, even on Pangea.
Medieval
-All of them, really.
-Sun Tzu - seriously, free barracks, instant healing in captured towns.
-Sistine and Bachs - gimme a break, I'm a happiness freak.
-Smiths - more free stuff!
Industrial
-ToE - head and shoulders above the rest. 2 free techs gets you to the Hoover tech faster. Usually I can get to the Universal Suffrage tech just before ToE finishes, so I've got two wonders to build.
-Hoover - more freebies, and this one is huge.
-Universal Suffrage - I'm usually a republic and mid-late Industrial and Modern is where the long wars happen. Really like it, but won't jeopardize ToE or Hoover for it.
Modern
-There are wonders in the modern age?
-The UN - Seriously, unless you turn off diplo, ignore this one at your own risk.
-The Internet - it's just cool. I pretend I'm an evil Tim Berners-Lee, taking over the world and installing secret labs everywhere, bent on nefarious research and global domination via spam. Hehe.

Edit: The Great Wall is not a booby-prize any more, though not a primary target. Before you start a war, check if your target has this Wonder and take that city First if at all possible.

[Arrian]

The Pyramids is most often the best ancient wonder, I'd say. If you're on a small island, of course, it's tough to beat the Lighthouse. I love the cost-benifit of the Colossus. The Statue of Zeus, if you can get it (ivory), is just flat NASTY. The Great Library obviously has its uses, particularly at higher levels of play (though I'd generally prefer the Pyramids, I'm not gonna argue with a bunch of free techs while I run max tax for half an age).

It's in the medieval that I get really, really greedy. I honestly want them all. The Sistine, Sun Tzu, Leos, Bachs and Smiths are all very strong. I have a thing with keeping my people happy, so if I'm forced to accept losing some of the wonders, the militaristic ones (Sun Tzu, Leos) are most likely to get dropped... even when that is probably bad strategy.

Industrial... well, it's hard to argue with ToE -> Hoover. Universal Suffrage is more of a luxury (though I still want it).

Modern... the Internet is a nice toy, but the game has probably been decided long ago.

-Arrian

[Inverse Icarus]

my picks.

Ancient: Statue of Zeus
Mideval: Sun Tzu
Industrial: Hoover
Modern: There's a modern age?

[TheArsenal]

Pyramids and SOZ, make for a fairly good start in the ancient age no question. Since the benefit is particularly good on the Large maps I play, I begin building the Pyramids almost straight away.

The rest of the wonders I covet depend on a few in game factors, but as a rule I try not to live without: ToE, Hoover, and Smith’s. The UN would matter, but I generally play with the diplomacy victory option turned off. I am fond of Leo’s and Sun Tzu, but it’s not the end of the world if the AI beats me there. As I’ve become a better player, the GL, once a must build, has lost a great deal of its luster (I don’t play above Monarch).

Even though I am often around in the Modern Age, I don’t know that I’ve built either Longevity or Cure for Cancer. Without looking it up I’m not certain I can even tell you what the exact effects are. So those are probably the least of the wonders for me.

[Artifex]

I play emperor. The GL used to be a must build, now I can do without it. Ancient age I would say none of them are that important. SOZ is good IF you have access to ivory ofcourse. Mainly because it's so cheap and cost benifit makes it well worth it.

In medieval I like Sun Tzu, then Sistine.

Games usually done for me by cavalry at the latest.

[vmxa1]

Ancient -
Pyramids (hard for me and watch for the GA trigger)
Colossus (because I can often get it)

Middle -
Sun (mostly miss it
Adams (mostly get it if not a bad start with limited contacts)

Ind -
ToE ( rarely miss it)
Hoover ( rarely miss it)

Modern -
UN (could lose a vote otherwise)

[Cerbykins]

Most folks here like SoZ, but I have to admit Knights Templar is more my thing. Granted crusaders are not that fast, but by that stage in the game you have a little more wonder influence, and crusaders are the strongest unit to pop up so far in the game. And if you're perpetually looking for your next target like me, a few extra troops can't go far wrong

Plus, no need to worry about that daft ivory!

UN isn't a big issue for me, if someone gets it (or is likely to) I can play dogpile on them with the remaining civs. Me being the usual #2 candidate at least otherwise...problem solved

[vmxa1]

Crusaders are too slow and too late to be a big factor in most games. You will be building the Templar in the core and it will be a fair distance to any hostile cities. You can get them in the action a bit, if you are fighting during that small window.
First it will take scores of turns to get a decent number of them and then you have to have conflict with someone you can reach quickly. I often do not even try to build it.

[Cort Haus]

Lots of the usual good advice here that I won't repeat - but I just want to add a builder's word for the Statue of Zeus. I first built it because a neighbour had Ivory too and I didn't want them having a dozen 3/2/2 units, but soon realised that I didn't need to order another unit for one-and-a-half epochs. Pure-Builder's heaven.

[Stuie]

My wonder strategy has completely changed of late with regard to the Middle Era; I used to go for the more military-type wonders, but now I'd rather have the "happy" wonders.

So....

Ancient: Pyramids
Middle: Sistine/Bach (I used to think Leo was a "must have", but I'm usually so awash in $$$$ by the Industrial Age that upgrading really isn't an issue)
Industrial: MUST HAVE HOOVER.
Modern:

[Arrian]

Originally posted by Cort Haus
Lots of the usual good advice here that I won't repeat - but I just want to add a builder's word for the Statue of Zeus. I first built it because a neighbour had Ivory too and I didn't want them having a dozen 3/2/2 units, but soon realised that I didn't need to order another unit for one-and-a-half epochs. Pure-Builder's heaven.

Great "builder" wonder. Combine with a relatively modest warrior -> sword upgrade and you can do a fair bit of conquering while devoting your empire's production to civilian projects. Then, later, avoid chivalry and do the horseman -> cavalry upgrade. Voila!

It's such a nice toy. Too nice, I think most of us agree.

-Arrian

[Brundlefly]

I want to know how anyone playing at Emperor or above can manage to build an Ancient wonder without help of an SGL and without sacrificing expansion of your civ. If I'm lucky, I will get to Hanging Gardens before others. Otherwise AI is just too far ahead production-wise to make a wonder build attempt worthwhile. In a recent game, I was 4 turns away from Great Lighthouse when an AI civ came in and built it. Had to use the shields to build a Colliseum instead. Had an opportunity to build Statue of Zeus in another recent game, but other civs were expanding so quickly that I had to focus on expansion and military defense and wound up losing SoZ to another civ.

[vmxa1]

I guess it depends on the meaning of expanding. At some point you should have 2 cities that can handle most of the task of pumping out troops/workers/settlers and one that can work on a wonder.
That city should be able to get one wonder. Often SoZ is an exclusive property. That is no one else has ivory in their city for a long time and some times no one else even has it. This allows you plenty of time for SoZ. I can almost almost always get at least one ancient wonder at Emp and Demi, not always though. Sometimes you are correct I had to make a sacrifice to get it.
If I am fairly isolated, I will sacrifice to get the GL. It is the only way I can get back in the race for tech and stop them from getting all the SGL's (even if I don't get onemyself).