Wonder Building Tip

[jpk]

Building wonders with caravans is fine for early wonders. In my games there is often competition with the AI for wonders like Copernicus and Sun Tzu.

I usually play on a large multicontinent world. If you play on small single continent worlds things may be different.

Caravans prior to Invention are quite valuable. If you can deliver one to an AI Republic city situated on another continent, then you can get hundreds of coins and an equal amount of science. Typically this is more science than your civilization will turn out in several turns. Even if your ships are triemes, delivery to a nearby AI civilization is generally far more productive than using it for Wonder Building. Two to three such caravans will provide the funds for any premodern wonder. Then you can either buy the Wonder outright or spend the money building lots of food caravans. Which you choose will depend upon whether you need the wonder right away or you can wait a while.

As I never play MP, I will defer to Ming on the proper strategy in that situation.

Carolus Rex might disagree , but if you can no longer produce caravans for trade, then a good strategy is to produce food caravans for wonder building.

Actually harbor and courthouse building are good things to do. Once you go to Democracy they really help with We Love The President Days.

[Novi Nomad]

Hasdrubal,

You say that you only lose the food unit when actually establishing a food trade route. In other words, this means that if you use a food caravan to create a wonder, you don't lose the food unit at all?

Ming,

What does it mean when a science is white? I've noticed this before, but never really could tell what it meant....

Do you guys all rush build wonders even in SP games? I just started playing at King level, and I haven't usually found this to be necessary.

Is there a thread anywhwere that defines all the abbreviations used in these posts? How about a thread on OCC and ICS strategy? I'm still kind of new at all this. Thanks for all the interesting information.

[Ming]

If a science is white, it means you are the first to get it. (nothing better in a MP game to get Monarchy and see that it is white)

[Carolus Rex]

jpk: Heh, heh, heh!

A clarification:

Obviously, I too build a wonder with available caravans the turn I get the needed tech. In the beginning of the game the timing is more difficult, though.

So I'm satisfied even if I first discover the tech and have three caravans ready in range when the fourth is built in the wonder city to be.

I hate completing the fourth caravan if I already have the tech but the other camels are too far away to complete the wonder immediately.

Carolus

[This message has been edited by Carolus Rex (edited July 14, 2000).]

[Paul]

Novi Nomad, you can find a list of abbreviations at http://apolyton.net/forums/Forum1/HTML/000967.html

And you only lose a food unit when you actually establish a food route, so no food is lost when you use a food caravan to build a wonder.

A white science in the science advisor screen means that you are the first to discover that science. In the foreign advisor's "check intelligence" screen a white science means that you don't yet have that science.

[Tom DeMille]

quote: Originally posted by Carolus Rex on 07-14-2000 07:41 AM Does that mean you build the library before the Colossus? Sorry if this is spelled out in the forthnight threads, but I'm not à jour with OCC...

After building a couple of warriors, we OCCers start building the Colossus right away (basically because there is nothing else to build). Caravans are used to speed the building of subsequent wonders.

As for the order of building a library and a caravan, it depends on the game. I tend to try for trade and build my 3 commodity caravans right away, and then build a library and marketplace.

[rah]

Smash, good one. I've disbanded a couple of units before for just that reason.

The worst is, now you're racing for another tech so you can use those wonder shields but you're constantly worried that some other player is going to slip a diplo in and sabotage the production, or barbs will come and kill a few defenders. I hate it when you have to build a 200 shield phalanx.
Not often, but it has happened.

RAH

[jpk]

RAH and Smash:

I've gone so far as to disband every defender of my capital to build a wonder. Luckily neither Mongols nor barbarians have shown up to see if anyone is home.

[Smash]

Ya, pretty much any unit will do in a pinch.I don't think I'd disband a non unit.Or I would give it a hard think anyway.I like diplos as they don't require support and they can do stuff while you decide to disband them or not.

hehe..one of the worst things that can happen early is being stuck with a 90% finished wonder but none to build.AND a bleak outlook for the next 2 or 3.That is almost always the point you get barbs or other visitors.
[This message has been edited by Smash (edited July 14, 2000).]

[My Wife Hates CIV]

In a way the leader in science is awarded a limited embassy. If you see new sciences white you know no one else has it yet. I don't know why this is in the game.

[inca911]

Novi Nomad:
You can go to the "Distilled Civ Tips and Notes" thread that I started. I try to pull the best kernels of information from threads such as this one for more concise review. IMHO (in my humble opinion), it has discussions of lots of civ things that will help you play a much better game.

To all:
Well, I have no qualms about building some actual commodity caravans to try for a Wonder for the following reasons:
If the caravan is from a small city, then the bonus will be fairly small as well, so no big deal if I delay the commodity. If I lose the Wonder race, I can then decide to ship the commodity somewhere else or I can sit on it for the next Wonder. Typically all my cities have 3 trade routes ASAP so I'm only postponing the trade bonus until later and not missing any trade arrows from not having 3 established routes. Also, if the next Wonder I care to build isn't coming up very soon (I don't try to build them all), then if I have a bunch of food caravans sitting around, I can't quickly grab a nice science/gold boost by establishing trade routes whereas with commodity caravans I can. The food caravans are just too stagnant for my personal tastes. Of course, OCC is another story. Not taking advantage of every available trade commodity is a bid no-no.

Can someone point me to a good discussion on rush-buying? I do it quite often, but I noticed that I have not yet included it in my Distilled summary. Thanks!

[rah]

MWHC, not just the leader in science gets it, everyone gets this info. Lets say I am behind in the Mono race, (which I know since whenever I get a prerequisite and it is blue, which is critical information to have), I go another path. When I get feud, and it's white, I know I'll get the war acadamy if i can build it in one turn. SO everyone can benfit from this feature. And that is probably why they included it.
You just have to know how to use it

RAH
It's probably a left over from the old SP days when you could use it to judge how you were doing against the AI, and they just left it in not realizing the strategic nature of this info in an MP game

[This message has been edited by rah (edited July 14, 2000).]

[Smash]

Before Trade, or, your chosen path doesn't include Trade early, a few diplomat disbands can be the difference between building a wonder and "xxxxx is building XXXX but that has allready been built...."

[jpk]

Smash:

Over time wonders take an increasing number of shields. If you have a city that is working on a dead Wonder, plan ahead for a wonder that requires more shields. This is no doubt easier in single player than multiple player.

Have other cities send over a good offensive unit and a good defensive unit to withstand attacks. Again this is no doubt easier in single play than multiple player.

Say you know you will be able to build a 400 shield wonder and your already in the low 300 shields. Set the city to as high a trade as possible or convert workers to scientists.