Most powerful wonder?

[The Humble One]

A plug for the East India Company and the Lighthouse

As opposed to wonders that do something for you, these two wonders allow you to do more for yourself! Using Med Mod or not, these are still early enough in a game to make a major difference. If you are exploring, the advantage of not having to hug the coastline is obvious, plus allowing you to reach islands past the two tile range. And should you have another civilization attack you, any extra leverage in fighting their navy is invaluable. If it's the AI, then attacks against you seem to come against fishing nets and by single triremes.

First things first! Blow their navy out of the water! They lose the rounds spent to build that ship, and maybe there were units on the ship, which are also now lost! If you have ships that can bombard onland, be particular about your targets. Destroying warriors and archers with your ships may not really help - remember, these units take up one of those nine spots within a city. And they're relatively weak! But, if you see a cannon (or bombard), lunge at it! With two ships!

With two ships, you'll destroy that unit, taking some damage yourself. But hey, they lost the unit! Now, just let your units rest and recuperate! And use overwhelming force. Adding an extra ship to the attack gets your fleet roaming faster. If you can bottle up your enemy in his home ports, then he can't attack you. And if far from home, take a small foreign city quickly. That gives you a port for your damaged ships to be repaired in one turn. That can make a huge difference!

The best defense is a rapidly-deployed, multi-weaponed, deep-water offense!

[Aolathiin]

I have quite a few that I like to go for:

Stonehenge: The food boost is a big plus this early in the game. At this point I haven't advanced technologically enough to make war all that profitable. I concentrate on building an empire that will be able to churn out units quickly. Lots of food = lots of well populated cities = lots of very productive cities.

Philosopher's Stone: It lasts a short time, but I use the free embassies to negotiate any advances and to get maps. I consider it worth the effort.

Gutenburg Bible: Worth considering if your neighbor is religious, and the science boost is a plus.

Galileo's Telescope: If it's built in the right city, it's a big help.

London Exchange: Extra money = more science. Extra money means more for emergency rush buys. This is my second favorite wonder.

Edison's Lab: This is the advance that allows me to pull away bigtime from the other empires. I consider it the most important one to get.

The Internet: By this time I don't need it to gain advances, but I prefer to keep it out of other's hands.

Contraception: I usually don't go for this unless I'm having chronic happiness problems.

Genome Project: At this point in the game I'm almost always at war with someone. Making my military units a little stronger is quite nice, and so is the production boost.

Nanite Defuser, Gaia Controller, Immunity Chip: The "disaster control" wonders. I like to get all three of them as soon as possible. If I can only get one, it's gotta be the Gaia Controller. Once pollution is eliminated, you can build factories, oil refineries, robotic plants, etc with impunity.

Eden Project: I've had a few games where my nearest competitor was a heavy polluter. This is a nice way to cripple him.

Wormhole Sensor: If you've made it this far and a win isn't imminent, you might as well try to win the alternate way.

[Grandpa Troll]

Originally posted by Aolathiin
I have quite a few that I like to go for:

Stonehenge: The food boost is a big plus this early in the game. At this point I haven't advanced technologically enough to make war all that profitable. I concentrate on building an empire that will be able to churn out units quickly. Lots of food = lots of well populated cities = lots of very productive cities.

Philosopher's Stone: It lasts a short time, but I use the free embassies to negotiate any advances and to get maps. I consider it worth the effort.

Gutenburg Bible: Worth considering if your neighbor is religious, and the science boost is a plus.

Galileo's Telescope: If it's built in the right city, it's a big help.

London Exchange: Extra money = more science. Extra money means more for emergency rush buys. This is my second favorite wonder.

Edison's Lab: This is the advance that allows me to pull away bigtime from the other empires. I consider it the most important one to get.

The Internet: By this time I don't need it to gain advances, but I prefer to keep it out of other's hands.

Contraception: I usually don't go for this unless I'm having chronic happiness problems.

Genome Project: At this point in the game I'm almost always at war with someone. Making my military units a little stronger is quite nice, and so is the production boost.

Nanite Defuser, Gaia Controller, Immunity Chip: The "disaster control" wonders. I like to get all three of them as soon as possible. If I can only get one, it's gotta be the Gaia Controller. Once pollution is eliminated, you can build factories, oil refineries, robotic plants, etc with impunity.

Eden Project: I've had a few games where my nearest competitor was a heavy polluter. This is a nice way to cripple him.

Wormhole Sensor: If you've made it this far and a win isn't imminent, you might as well try to win the alternate way.

Just a few repies to a few of them answers my friend:

On Contraception-It is a great Wonder..because you can increase the work day..and help offset the associated unhappiness accompanying it. While building is increased and amount of turns decreased, build Drug Stores..which come with Pharmeuticals Advance..which give +3 Happiness and 25% better production..which is definetly worth the effort.


As for London Exchange-Man..thats a blessing..remember..more gold=better science..so..with -0-% maint. fees..all that gold is going toward science! Cant beat that.

As for Optics--Gally Scope-An absolutely awesome wonder..build a city around grassland..put pw to use with farms around that city..and get it as big as possible ...I usually start a wonder in that city and keep switching to a more advanced wonder to save turns..make sure you defend it..so no one takes it out..but if you can get a size 8-10 city..built before completeing the wonder then I usually put 2/3 on science..because it gives a 200% boost in scientist in that city!

Also..I raraely building ancient wonders..because by the time they are built..I can outpace them in normal science..and concentrate on future wonders..such as Internet..which is a great wonder..wheher you are in lead or not..if you are in lead, keeps others from accessing your fortunes..and if not..get some free tech from others hard work!

Oh..and Edisons Lab..thats a great one too!

Genome--Super too!

Thats my take on a few

[Aolathiin]

My top three:

1. Edison's Lab
2. London Exchange
3. Stonehenge

Contraception, whenever I've gotten it I've really appreciated it, but I've won games without it. I'm comfortable enough with my ability to keep production high while keeping happiness up to manageable levels that I don't consider it a "must have". Whether I get it kinda depends upon the mood I'm in tht day.

I'd say that the Philosopher's Stone is very underrated. I like to play on a huge map with 8 civilizations, and being able to talk with all of them early on is a big help. I use to see how I'm doing technologically compared with the others and secure my place as the technological leader, and to get maps. Getting 2/3 of a huge map before the Renaissance Era begins is rather nice.

[Stolp13]

london exchange is easily the best wonder, its an unfair advantage. i sometimes exclude it when playing multiplayer. Early on, Hagia Sophia is the best, cuz happiness is so important, especially on higher levels. maybe i'm playing the wrong way, but labyrinth usually doesn't do me that much good. Stonehenge is the best of the wonders that becomes obsolete at Age of Reason.

[Aolathiin]

Another underrated one is the Star Ladder. Unlimited pollution-free trips into space is nice when you're fighting a war on the other side of the globe.

[Sk8terth]

Ummm...

I love beer! i mean ummm...

Ilike london exchange

I Hate AI Identity

[M. Darkheart]

Originally posted by Martin Gühmann
Actual the AI Entity is the strongest wonder, the trick is to get it under controll, so my trick was save every turn and when it revolts than reload the last turn and than I use the sliders to make all my people happy, max out happiness and than I keep my cities. I think the problem is when the happiness level of your AI-Entity city as it would be without the AI-Entity gets to low than the revolt will happen so, a mind control emmiter should control the AI-Entity.

-Martin

I love the AI entity using the same save and load tactic, however I just keep everything the same, I don't increase happiness, if you just load it works as well. I don't know if happiness has anything to do with the fact if the entity revolts or not but I haven't really tested this.

But my real question is, can you somehow use the entity in a PBEM multiplayer game? Since saving and loading won't work. If there are factors that determine if the entity revolts there might be a way to manipulate them in your favor.

BTW, I'm always forced to build the AI entity because nearer to the end I always have way too many cities for the government I use (I always use technocracy and the max number of cities is 110 I think). Most of the times I already have 110 cities before even building sea and space colonies, not to mention all the cities I'm still conquering from enemy civs. I wish there was another solution to this problem, if anyone knows, please tell me. It's difficult to found a new sea or space colony when you're already 10 to 15 cities ofer max, try preventing a riot then!

So far only one solution comes to my mind (except for building the AI entity which is dangerous to use in a multiplayer game as explained above) and that is to found a city and rush buy a mind controller immediately with it. For your already existing cities you should have built them already. But all that rush buying will cost a lot.

And I DO want to expand more, I would like to fill the entire globe and space with all of my cities. I'm sure on a gigantic map (which I always play on) I can fit at least 250 cities , overrunning my opponents.

[J Bytheway]

Originally posted by M. Darkheart
So far only one solution comes to my mind (except for building the AI entity which is dangerous to use in a multiplayer game as explained above) and that is to found a city and rush buy a mind controller immediately with it. For your already existing cities you should have built them already. But all that rush buying will cost a lot.

IIRC that's not very effective, because the city will revolt before the controller is built, even if you rush it immediately. I'm not certain, though.

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by M. Darkheart
And I DO want to expand more, I would like to fill the entire globe and space with all of my cities. I'm sure on a gigantic map (which I always play on) I can fit at least 250 cities , overrunning my opponents.

If I remember correctly I had in my last CTP1 game more then 300 cities on a gigantic map, and sea and space weren't filled. Unfortunatly my old 233 Mhz K6 with 64 had some problems to handle that map with this number of cities, but better Civ2 with it's only 255 cities.

-Martin