Hurrying Wonders - trick workaround?

[gamma]

Many of you know that the game will not permit you to hurry production of a Wonder (except with a leader). OTOH, it will allow you take a city that's been working on, say, a palace for the last 30 turns, and switch it over to producing a Wonder, with no penalty, resulting a leg up on construction. Furthermore, if you hurry production on some normal improvement or unit, it isn't actually built until next turn.

This suggests a trick for buying your way to a Wonder, partway at least. Switch a city to building something huge, like a palace. Hurry it. Then switch it over to your Wonder. Voila, huge advance in Wonder construction, for the cost of a lot of money, or more insidious still, loss of one population, quickly replaced by a worker.

Does anyone see anything stopping this from working? (For instance, can you switch out an improvement right after having hurried it?)

[Master Marcus]

You CANNOT hurry the regular Palace, it seems to be the only "city improvement" having the same conditions as the wonders at this regard.

[ToeTruck]

I just tried to hurry a high expense city improvement (the colosseum) and then switch to a wonder in the hopes of cutting a couple of turns off the build time. It let the rush buy go through, but then did *not* let me switch to the wonder.

- TT

[solo]

I think you can switch to a wonder, if an improvement is almost completely built, so if the tech for a wonder you want is coming up, start on something big like colosseum, but just make sure it is not finished before you make the switch.

Another idea (which I have not tried) is to rush the second largest improvement available, and then switch to the largest. Then switch again to the wonder.

[Plutarck]

The funny thing is that this is actually one feature that isn't bugged.

If you have any shields from rush buying, disbanding, or forest clearing you CANNOT switch to building any wonder. It simply isn't given as an option, and there seems to be no work-around.

Too bad they didn't give us a choice to turn off the "feature" in mods.

They actually got something right

[SanPellegrino]

But you can (in contrast to what was written before from Firaxis or at the forums) switch production of wonders, maybe starting with the great wall and switch to sistine chapel when it becomes available, but only one city at the time is allowed to build a certain wonder. (maybe that won't work on higher levels because all wonders are built then).

[miloII]

the invoice switching does not work after you get the item you are building down to its last turn. You must switch before the last turn.

[Xin Yu]

I tried to work around wonder building but nothing worked (Deity level). The only way to beat AI to wonders is to build your capital on river, build a lot of workers to work the city radius then add the workers to the city -- you get a size 12 capital. Adjust luxury rate to get them content. Then you'll be able to build wonders quickly. <20 turns for Pyramids.

[jones]

Try rushing granaries in the beginning at a few central cities, then use them to supply workers for populating other cities.

Search the SMAC forums for "pod booming" and i believe the granary rush mechanics were posted on civfanatics

[Diety]

Building a wonder on diety is indeed extremely hard... Doing the worker-add to city does the trick, but this seriously cripples your science, cause you need a high luxury rating to keep them happy. And even then "they" often beat you to it.

What I do on diety level is forget about the early wonders I don't even try them, saves me alot of hassle...

[Xin Yu]

Originally posted by Diety
Building a wonder on diety is indeed extremely hard... Doing the worker-add to city does the trick, but this seriously cripples your science, cause you need a high luxury rating to keep them happy. And even then "they" often beat you to it.

If you get a good starting point your size 12 city can give you a lot of science even after luxury is deducted. You'll get a 4-turn ceremonial burial, 5-turn warrior code, etc. Especially after you've built the Colossus, your science will fly.

[darkangel]

I’m not sure if this issue has been directly addressed so if it has discard this post.

This idea is not really a hurrying a wonder trick but more like a bank account. Have you ever spent a long time working on a wonder and say 10 or 15 turns before its build the PC builds it and you have no other wonders available - lost production, right? Well just switch to a new palace and hope you get a tech advance with a new wonder before you complete the new palace.

[Blaupanzer]

Start a high-production city on a small wonder, e.g., Forbidden Palace or Wall Street, while developing the tech for the desired wonder. When tech comes through, switch to wonder. Still lose some, but it is a running head start. Incidentally, actually building the Forbidden Palace at some potentially lucrative edge of your empire can be a big help for income and shields.

[Shaka II]

Sometimes a large city improvement, factory, etc. works too. I try to sync up my turns to build with turns to research and adjust shield production to keep 1 turn left before advance. I think this is a small, but acceptable cheat, compared to the AI cheats.

Sometimes I try desperately to trade tech to switch wonders. Sometimes I get burned with a few turns left. I have not lost a wonder with 1 turn left, so I wonder if there is something in the code that lets you by here.

[ToeTruck]

Originally posted by solo
Another idea (which I have not tried) is to rush the second largest improvement available, and then switch to the largest. Then switch again to the wonder.

Thanks Solo; that's an excellent suggestion. I tried it and it seems to work fine.

The best way to rush a Wonder still seems to be by sacrificing a leader, but it's so hard to predict when one will come along.

-TT