Wonders: To build or not to build?

[Neal the Neophyte]

One of the War Academy articles states:

My advice is simple: do not build a single wonder until you have mastered Regent level. Do this, and you will have your first Deity victory in a fraction of the time it took me.

This advice was directed towards newbie’s such as me. I buy most of the article, but I still struggle with the concept. In particular, is it so bad to build a couple of minor wonders, specifically Hadrian's Wall and the Military Academy? They seem to be especially useful for defense and creation of offensive units - with a bonus of getting more armies.

[Kloreep]

I could be mistaken, but I imagine the article means Great Wonders only when it says wonders, not Small Wonders that each civ can build such as the Military Academy. There are two reasons I can see for the advice, which I tend to agree with. One is psychological, the other practical as far as in-game strategy goes.

The practical reason is that if you get caught up trying to grab lots of wonders, you're going to have to devote high-production cities to wonder builds, both early and often. This may pull high-production cities away from units in times of war preparation, make a war you otherwise would have waged nearly impossible, etc. It could possibly even impede REX in the case of the ancient age wonders.

This practical reason is one reason why wonders can be psychologically bad. If you want that one wonder so bad that you'll quit the game if you don't get it, or reload till you get it, or won't move up past the lower two levels because that will let the AI build your precious wonders, that's a problem, and not just for your strategy - for your fun as well. I used to have a Pyramid addiction myself... I only shook it once I learned about food pumps and decided they weren't as powerful as I had thought.

If you find yourself shying away from higher levels or getting frustrated with your game because of the AI building wonders, you should probably follow this advice. But if you can somehow walk through the halls of power - I mean wonders - and somehow remain untouched, then you might as well go for a Great Wonder now and then if you think it's best.

[Tall Stranger]

I agree. I think the article is referring strictly to Great Wonders.

Another reason is even more simple: at the higher levels, your chances of beating the AIs to a wonder are MUCH lower (particularly the ancient era ones, when it's harder to start a prebuild for it).

Thus, by learning how to win without great wonders at a lower level, you'll get used to not having them and be more capable of winning at higher levels.

[joncnunn]

Re: Wonders: To build or not to build?

I am positive this article refers to the epic game and not to conquests.

(Hadrian's Wall is in Rise of Rome and is the equivlent of Great Wall in epic.) Anyway, in Epic game, I'm of the opinion that Great Walls is a waste of 300 shields unless it would help trigure your GA.

In fact in Mesopotiania one, not building any wonders may be virutally suicidal if your playing the Greeks.

The idea on the war academy is to get used to managing happiness yourself without help from them on the lower levels because it's much more difficult to build wonders on higher ones. (Combined with citizens naturally less happy.) And similarly if you seem to need the Pryamids to win on Regent level, you'd have an extra hard time moving up to Monarch.

Military Academy is a Small Wonder. This article is really refering to Great Wonders and not Small wonders.

I'd also exempt Statue of Zeus from the "no wonder building" unless you've gotten into the habit of restarting when you don't have Ivory nearby.

Originally posted by Neal the Neophyte
One of the War Academy articles states:

This advice was directed towards newbie’s such as me. I buy most of the article, but I still struggle with the concept. In particular, is it so bad to build a couple of minor wonders, specifically Hadrian's Wall and the Military Academy? They seem to be especially useful for defense and creation of offensive units - with a bonus of getting more armies.

[Neal the Neophyte]

After I posted, I started another try at RoR in Conquest. Winning RoR in eluding me. I insist on sticking with Rome, even though I'm surrounded by potential enemies and have few luxuries available.

I checked the Wonders and discovered that Harridan’s Wall is a great wonder instead of a minor one. But that is the only wonder I went for, even through my advisors kept insisting that I go for more of them.

The difference was soon obvious. I was able to produce many more attacking units. Even though I lost again, I believe the reason for the loss was my bad strategy. Because I was more aggressive and played the diplomat cards a little better, I had little use for the advantage of Hadrian's Wall since my cities were seldom attacked. I also failed to send my attacking and defensive units in a flow towards my enemies to support captured city defense and my attacking armies. This was because in previous games I was frequently and agressively attacked and I needed many units to repulse the attacks.

My next attempt, no wonders. I will also go for an early as possible conquering of the Celts and Goths for the territory gain. But first I will exploit the Celts and Goths against the Carth's and my eventual enemies, the Macedonians and Persians.

OK, I've strayed somewhat from the original post, but comments on RoR strategy would be appreciated.

[Solomwi]

As said above, that's geared toward the epic game. Start a new thread on RoR, and I'll be happy to share my thoughts, rather than hijack this one. That's quickly become my favorite conquest.

[Neal the Neophyte]

Off subject started as new thread.

Thanks.
"How to win at RoR" thread started.