Parallel Building Several WoW

[ramses II.]

If often happens that you can only build one desired wonder. So I use this tactic:
In nearly all my games (single player, deity) , i begin to build some wonders oft the world parallel in two or three cities. I like it if the concerning wonder has already been built, so I can wait until I've got the needed tech for a desired wonder (Leo's, Mike's, Bach's, Sun Tzu's, SoL, Shakespeare's). They will be completed by caravans.
If you've got the GL or Marco Polo's , for example, you will get or trade the techs for Mike's, Leo's, SoL, Adam Smith's and Bachs nearly at the same time - and you've got a big problem. With the above tactic, you can build 3 or 4 of these WoW.

[Scouse Gits]

In the early game - one cannot afford the investment in more than a single wonder - it cramps your expansion too much - after Trade - setting a city to Wonder production is non-optimal - caravans can be rushed at circa 2 gold/shield and reap 4 gold/shield when converted to Wonders - so just build (and stockpile) caravans.

[ramses II.]

I say: you can. I usually do this in my 2 or 3 oldest cities. Expansion will be done in the outskirts of my empire, not in the core. First I try to get HG or Colossus, 2nd MPE / GL. I continue building obsolete wonders (wonders that already have been built), changing them to the desired ones when the needed tech is available. In my last game, for example, i managed to build Mike's and Bach's in one turn (found theology in a goody hut) and had enough stockpiled caravans to build the SoL in the next.
This tactic works better, if you've got the HG. I set the luxuries to 40-60% for some turns, I built a phalanx or an archer in a new founded city, then a settler for expansion. I switch to republic as soon as possible.
The "core" cities continue building caravans for trade and wonders.

[Scouse Gits]

I guess it depends upon your preferred tech tree - for me the first Wonder (normally the Gardens) is the only wonder I build as such all future Wonders are built from Caravans - even a city with only one shield available can build a caravan in 5 turns for 110g which becomes 200g when you use it for a Wonder - obviously more shield production lowers the cost and increases the profit.

OK in the end game when you have cities pumping > 50 shields/turn the equation changes - but I rarely see that stage of the game.

Of course this means that I put a high priority upon Trade as a must get technology - without it other strategies must be used.

As Smash has said elsewhere on this forum - the Wonders are at best useful crutches and can be viewed as counter productive at times. But I like them at least HG, LH, Mike, Magellan & SoL...

But one can argue that my choice of Wonder defines my strategy (or vice versa) race to Fundy with super Ironclads and vet Crooks and goodbye World.

[ramses II.]

I prefer Fundy, too - for quick expansion (no unlucky people), for making money to bribe an rush-buy wows. But I'll switch to Demo soon. I play Single Player, my target is Alpha Centauri. But perhaps its more wise to defeat the enemies early in the game, not when they have stealth-bombers and howitzers ...

[geofelt]

As pointed out before, the key to building wonders is caravans. I build caravans even in the city which will build the wonder. If a city building a wonder comes under attack and needs to change production to defense, you can waste lots of shields. Sometimes, you need to build two wonders at once. If the ai is about to complete a wonder, you must , of course rush it to get it. If the ai has another wonder it can build, you must rush that one, also.
MY tactic is to stockpile caravans in a central location within three squares along roads to two to four cities. It is now easy to keep track of how many you have, and to direct them to the best place to use them. Early on, I don't protect the caravans, but when I have time, I build a fortress to limit the loss to one, and I might even put a defender in it. When competing for wonders, build the low shield wonders first if you hope to get them both.

[Marquis de Sodaq]

Once trade is discovered, it makes no sense at all to begin building a wonder. As SG points out, pumping out caravans has the simple cost benefit. It also allows production change in case of urgency. Having 20+ caravans waiting around to build wonders in a single turn is the way to go.

Before trade, it is hard to dedicate more than one city to wonder production. I'll start to colossus early, but rarely any other wonder. Trade will be discovered by the time it's done, anyway...

[Ming]

Another reason to just build caravans instead of working directly on the wonder after you have trade...

A cheap diplo can walk up and sabotage your hard earned shields. If you are building a caravan, you don't lose all that much.

[Xin Yu]

If you can deliver a caravan for 200 golds or more then the best way is to deliver those caravans and buy the wonders using cash.

[Messer Niccolò]

Originally posted by Xin Yu
If you can deliver a caravan for 200 golds or more then the best way is to deliver those caravans and buy the wonders using cash.

Xin Yu, good point but obtaining 200 gp from a caravan should be hard in early stages of the game, and considering the moves it takes to deliver the caravan, it should be cheaper to "help to build wonder".
For later stages

[rah]

Yes, early in the game I never start on more than one wonder. By the time i'm looking for the second one, I have trade and am building caravans.

200 gold early for a caravan isn't that hard in our MP games.
(We do play 2x production so the early cities have considerably more trade arrows.)
If you have two good trade cities in a straight line/or optimum path (even as close as 5 squares), connected by road, and it's a premium demand commodity, 200 isn't that abnormal. Even if it's just close, the science bonus makes it a good deal.
Or if you have ships and can deliver it safely to an apponents cap that is demanding it, I expect considerably more than 200.

RAH

[Scouse Gits]

Wow!! or should that be WoW? - I had not realised that 2x Production made that much difference - two celebrating early cities one with HG & one with Colossus joined by road even with a desired product is unlikely to get 100g in 1x

[rah]

Also consider that unless there just isn't one near, My cap will always have a trade special in range. Really useful in 2x.