Sistine or Bach's?

[SirSebastian]

Anyone who complains when they don't get both needs to get more realistic and step up the difficulty level of your game. Multiplayer is going to be hell if everyone _HAS_ to get BOTH. I rarely get any wonders, though I'll usually pick up 1 early on that the AI doesn't care about, and maybe rack up some late game ones if I'm ahead. It really is more fun to play on Monarch / Emperor, guys... and it will better prepare you for the vicious onslaught of MP

[Allemand]

It's easy enough to build both if you're playing Monarch or below. Even at higher levels you can use leaders to get both. I rate Sistine as the best wonder with Hoover a close second, but Bach is great if you have lots of little cities springing up all the time. On a large/huge map, 100 cities is not unusual so you'll always have some small ones struggling to grow. They benefit the most from Bach.

[Thrawn05]

Originally posted by SirSebastian
It really is more fun to play on Monarch / Emperor, guys... and it will better prepare you for the vicious onslaught of MP

I feer you already.

[Tuberski]

Originally posted by SirSebastian
Anyone who complains when they don't get both needs to get more realistic and step up the difficulty level of your game. Multiplayer is going to be hell if everyone _HAS_ to get BOTH. I rarely get any wonders, though I'll usually pick up 1 early on that the AI doesn't care about, and maybe rack up some late game ones if I'm ahead. It really is more fun to play on Monarch / Emperor, guys... and it will better prepare you for the vicious onslaught of MP

Some of us are never going to play Multiplayer anyway. The game is already slow, waiting for other players to finish their turn is going to make it slower.

As slow as the AI is, it still will make decisions faster than a human player. Even if that decision sucks.

[Worthingtons]

I agree with SirSebastian, I'd LOVE to have Both in every game, but I play on Monarch level, meaning it is usually only feasable to get one of them, although i will try for both.

[Akka]

Originally posted by DrFell


Actually the manual in civ2 was misleading, and all the wonders which supposedly effected one contient really worked on all your cities

Mmh, I'm sorry but I disagree on it. Bach was actually working ONLY on the continent it has been built in Civ2.

[Dominae]

If you're playing in any level above Monarch, I would imagine Cathedrals are a necessaty in all your core cities (which can be quite a few, if you've placed your FP well). Given this, the Sistine Chapel thus turns the necessary into the extraordinary ("Cathedrals make 6 citizens content...sure, I''ll build one of those!").

By the same token, you're always going to need Theology on the higher levels. Music Theory is a dead end tech, which is huge in an age where techs are so important.

Another point against J.S. Bach's is that your small cities are usually fine happiness-wise due to your luxuries (assuming you're connecting all your cities to your trade network, which is good practice). Thus, you shouldn't need any Wonders helping those cities out until they reach size 5+ (although a Temple always helps to expand your borders). But by the time your cities get that big, you might as well grow them to size 12, in which case you're going to need Cathedrals, and so the usefulness of the Sistine Chapel is all too apparent.

Finally, the fact that the AI places a greater importance on SC than JS is no mistake; the designers knew which Wonder is better. The consequence of this is that JS is easier to get than SC, making it less of a priority.


Dominae

[Txurce]

I don't always get even one of the two happiness wonders, but with enough luxuries, I sometimes don't need either. If I have a choice, it would be the SC, because it's more powerful in more circumstances, allows me to skip researching a tech (as Dominae points out), and has even more value with a religious civ, which I think is the most valuable trait.