In reading various threads, learning from others and through my own game experiences, I have helped kicked the Wonder building habit and am more selective with regards to building Wonders.

But I figure that helping newer players, or players who still can kick Wonder addiction, would be good, and thus I have started a strategy guide regarding the Wonders, which includes general advice and looks at what Wonders best fit into a player's strategy of choice.

This will be a work in progress as I cover each Wonder in detail, and also as I seek opinions from people about the Wonders that are available in the Warlords expansion pack (which I don't have yet). I've led it off with general advice about Wonders as well.

I appreciate all and any feedback.

INTRODUCTION

Many people will remember the days of past Civ editions in which the Wonders available were hotly pursued by almost every player. You could get yourself a free building in every city with the right Wonder, you could spend less time worrying about happiness, and you could gain the satisfaction in knowing your opponents didn’t get those free technologies from Darwin’s Voyage.

In Civ IV, however, it is not a wise idea to chase every Wonder that can be built. While it’s true that Wonders are still powerful, they are now better served as fitting into a player’s strategy for a particular game.

This guide will go over the Wonders that can be built in Civ IV and give some guidelines as to which strategies each Wonder best fits into.

GENERAL NOTES ABOUT BUIDLING WONDERS

When you are thinking about pursuing a Wonder, keep the following in mind:
• What is your strategy for the game and will the Wonder benefit that strategy?
• Can you commit to building the Wonder without taking away from other items your civ may need? (infrastructure, military, more Settlers, etc.)
• Do you have an appropriate resource to speed up production of the Wonder, and do any of your opponents have it as well?
• Does your civ possess the Industrious trait, and do any your opponents have it as well? (Industrious civs get a 50 percent production bonus when buildinga Wonders.)
• How long has it been since you and/or your opponents have acquired the technology needed to build the Wonder? (The longer you wait to build a Wonder after acquiring the tech for it, the more likely your opponents will have long since started building it.)

If, after considering these things, you decide to pursue a Wonder, then you should decide which city is going to build it. Sometimes it may not always be your most productive city, meaning you will likely want to have some forests you can chop to speed up production.

If you have the Slavery civic enabled, you can “crack the whip” to finish production of a Wonder, but bear in mind that it will cost a lot of population points to do so, and the option usually won’t be available until the Wonder is nearing completion. If you have the Universal Suffrage civic enabled, you can spend gold from your treasury to finish production, but it will cost a lot of gold, unless you rush buy when the Wonder is nearing completion.

If one of your cities produces a Great Engineer, you can use it to contribute toward either the completion or partial completion of a Wonder. A Great Engineer contributes a set number of hammers to a wonder, depending on map size, game speed and other variables. This is enough to finish most early wonders in one shot. For later wonders, it might be enough for 3/4, 2/3/, 1/2 or even less.

If an opponent beats you to a Wonder, any hammers you have accumulated toward production of that Wonder are converted into gold that is added to your treasury.

Bear in mind that every wonder generates points for a particular Great Person, so if you are trying to generate a certain type of GP in a city, you may wish to avoid building a Wonder there that would generate a different type of GP. (Example: Stonehenge generates points for a Great Prophet, so you may not want to build that in a city designed to generate Great Scientists.)

WORLD WONDERS

World Wonders are those Wonders that can only be built once by one civ. Some of the Wonders have their effects expire after you discover a certain technology (although they will still generate GP points and produce Culture), and if you acquire that technology before you or another civ completes the Wonder, you will not be able to build it.

WORLD WONDERS

STONEHENGE
Cost: 120 hamers.
Tech needed: Mysticism
Obsolete with: Calendar (in Vanilla and Warlords), Astronomy (in BTS)
Production Speed Doubled By: Stone
Great Person Points Per Turn: Two Great Prophet Points
Effect: Free Obelisk in every city, centers world map

Stonehenge doesn’t take long to produce as far as World Wonders go, but those who choose to build it need to do so early. This means, if your strategy involves building multiple cities as quickly as possible, or building military for an early rush on an opponent, you probably won’t have the time to devote to building the Wonder before an opponent does. Those who opt to found an early religion can benefit from the Great Prophet points the Wonder generates and use that Prophet to create a Holy Shrine. Creative civs don’t need to build Obelisks to expand their borders, so this Wonder isn’t as necessary for those civs.

PARTHENON
Cost: 400 hammers
Tech needed: Polytheism (in Vanilla and Warlords), Aesthetics (in BTS)
Obsolete with: Chemistry (in Vanilla and Warlords), Scientific Method (in BTS)
Production Speed Double By: Marble
Great Person Points Per Turn: Two Great Artist
Effect: Great Person production in all cities increased by 50 percent

Parthenon can be useful for players who want to generate a lot of Great Persons, although some players will argue it is better to be a Philosophical civ. The Wonder could be used to help boost a GP farm, but some will argue the GA points it generates can “pollute” that GP farm by producing Great Artists that a player may not want. Those who intend to grab a Cultural victory may find the Wonder useful in helping to generate more GAs.

GREAT LIGHTHOUSE
Cost: 200 hammers
Tech needed: Masonry
Obsolete with: Corporation
Great Person Points Per Turn: Two Great Merchant
Effect: Two additional trade route per coastal city

Two things to bear in mind with this Wonder: A Lighthouse is needed in the city before it can be built (and you need Sailing to build a Lighthouse) and there is no resource that can speed up its production. Great Lighthouse is fairly popular on Archipelago maps, not as popular on Pangaea maps. It provides the most benefit to players who have a lot of coastal cities… if you have just one, it’s not as beneficial. Additionally, trade routes can vary greatly in value. If you are on an isolated island or continent, you'll only have trade routes with yourself. In this case, it's really not worth building the Great Lighthouse. On the other hand, if you are in contact with many other civilizations, and have Open Borders agreements with more than one of them, this Wonder rises in value as it's possible to have trade routes wth multiple civs. The Great Lighthouse recieves a boost from Astronomy (which allows trans-ocean trade routes), so if you build it, make Astronomy a priority. It is rendered almost useless by Mercantilism, which closes off foreign trade. If you are planning to run a specialist economy, or are Philosophical, Mercantilism is attractive, so that makes the Lighthouse a bit less interesting. On the other hand, Mercantilism's effect only appears in the midgame, when this wonder is nearly obsolete anyway.

PYRAMIDS
Cost: 450 hammers
Tech needed: Masonry
Production Speed Doubled By: Stone
Great Person Points Per Turn: Two Great Engineer
Effect: All government civics are available to the player

Pyramids are an expensive Wonder for their era, so most players will not pursue them if they don’t have Stone. The Wonder is sometimes pursued by players who are running a Specialist Economy so they can run Representation early in the game. Because the Wonder generates Great Engineer points, it’s possible to use the Wonder to generate an early GE to help finish another early era Wonder.

ORACLE
Cost: 150 hammers
Tech needed: Priesthood
Production Speed Double By: Marble
Great Persons Points Per Turn: Two Great Prophet
Effect: One free technology to the civ that completes it.

Oracle is now a scaled down equivalent of Darwin’s Voyage/Theory of Evolution from past Civ games. That being said, it is a Wonder that shouldn’t be considered a “must have” if it means diverting from the strategy you are running (example: if you are not pursuing the techs for early religions, you are not likely to get to Priesthood in time to build Oracle). Oracle can be useful in acquiring key techs… at the lower levels, Civil Service is a tech that can possibly be acquired. There is also the Oracle-Metal Casting slingshot that some players will sometimes use to generate a Great Engineer to get the Pyramids built in one turn.

COLOSSUS
Cost: 250 hammers
Tech needed: Metal Casting
Obsolete by: Astronomy
Production Speed Doubled By: Copper
Great Person Points Per Turn: Two Great Merchant
Effect: Water tiles in every city the player controls generate +1 commerce

Colossus is another Wonder that gains usefulness on Archipelago maps, less so on Pangaea maps, and is dependent on the number of coastal cities you have. It also may be better for civs that have a lot of seafood resources within the Big Fat Crosses of their cities. Some players argue that this Wonder is not as valuable as the Great Lighthouse as you need to work water titles in order to take advantage of the Wonder’s benefit, when it may be better to work non-water tiles instead. You must have a Forge in the city you wish to build the Colossus.

THE HANGING GARDENS
Cost: 300 hammers
Tech needed: Mathematics
Production Speed Doubled By: Stone
Great Person Points Per Turn: Two Great Engineer
Effect: +1 health bonus in every city. Additionally, when the Wonder is built, each city under the player’s control receives an additional population point.

Hanging Gardens can be a useful Wonder for increasing health in cities as well as for generating Great Engineers. The city that builds it needs to have an Aqueduct first, so players that have plenty of health resources may never need an Aqueduct in a city, and thus may never build the Wonder. When captured, the Wonder will provide the health bonus to the civ that captures it, but not the population bonus.

GREAT LIBRARY
Cost: 250 hammers
Tech needed: Literature
Obsolete by: Scientific Method
Production Speed Doubled By: Marble
Great Person Points Per Turn: Two Great Scientist
Effect: Two free Scientist specialists in the city it is built.

Great Library is a popular Wonder among players, considered by most to be the perfect anchor for a Science/Research city. The free Scientist specialists, combined with the points the Wonder produces for Great Scientists, can help produce a long run of Great Scientists in the city the Wonder is built. Often, players will use those GSs to “light bulb” techs such as Philosophy, Paper, and in some cases, Education, on the way to pursuing Liberalism.

HAGIA SOPHIA
Cost: 550 hammers
Tech needed: Engineering
Obsolete by: Steam Power
Production Speed Doubled By: Marble
Great Person Points Per Turn: Two Great Engineer
Effect: Worker speed increased by 50 percent

Hagia Sophia can prove beneficial for players who have claimed or conquered a lot of territory and need many improvements, or have a lot of jungle to clear. The Wonder provides the benefit of the Serfdom civic without having to switch to that civic. Players looking to generate Great Engineers can also benefit from the GE points Hagia Sophia generates. In many games, though, the Wonder tends to get bypassed as players are often concentrating on building military or infrastructure, or have their attentions focused on other Wonders.

CHICHEN ITZA
Cost: 500 hammers
Tech needed: Code of Laws
Obsolete by: Rifling
Production Speed Doubled By: Stone
Great Person Points Per Turn: Two Great Prophet
Effect: All cities the player controls receive a 25 percent defensive bonus

Chichen Itza is a wonder considered by many to be weak and not that useful. The AI does not often try to take control of a player’s cities unless it senses the player is very weak, and most players will see to it that they have a strong military to prevent that from happening. In multiplayer games, human players are smart enough to bring along plenty of catapults, and the defensive bonus Chichen Itza provides can be stripped away by Cast just like any other bonus. The best use for the Wonder may be for those players who are pursuing a religious strategy and want to produce many Great Prophets.

ANGKOR WAT
Cost: 500 hammers
Tech needed: Philosophy
Obsolete by: Computers
Production Speed Doubled By: Stone
Great Person Points Per Turn: Two Great Prophet
Effect: All Priest specialists produce one extra hammer. Additionally, the city that builds the Wonder may turn three citizens into Priests.

Angkor Wat is only useful for players pursuing a religious strategy. A player who is not intending to generate Great Prophets won’t get much use of the Wonder because that player will not be interested in running Priests. For those who do want to run Priests and generate Prophets, the production bonus the Wonder grants can be beneficial.

NOTRE DAME
Cost: 650 hammers
Tech needed: Music (in Vanilla and Warlords), Engineering (in BTS)
Production Speed Doubled By: Stone
Great Person Points Per Turn: Two Great Artist
Effect: +1 happiness per city under the player’s control on the same continent the Wonder is built.

Notre Dame can provide a nice bonus for increasing happiness, but players can usually remedy that with resources, civics and religion. Where this Wonder really shines is for players seeking a Cultural victory, as the Wonder itself generates a lot of culture per turn. Since players aiming for a Cultural victory will beeline to Music for the free Great Artist, it’s pretty easy for them to pick up this Wonder along the way.

SISTINE CHAPEL
Cost: 600 hammers
Tech needed: Theology (in Vanilla and Warlords), Music (in BTS)
Production Speed Doubled By: Marble
Great Person Points Per Turn: Two Great Artist
Effect: Every specialist generates an additional two Culture points per turn

Sistine Chapel is considered to be a “must have” Wonder for players pursuing a Cultural victory. Not only does the Wonder generate plenty of culture, but Artist specialists can generate even more Culture than they normally do, and other specialists, whether taken from the population or from Great People settled in the cities, get the bonus as well. While the Wonder can provide a benefit to people running a specialist economy, such players never build it as Theology is not a priority for those running SE (but it does provide a nice bonus for SE players who capture another civ’s city that has the Wonder). People who seldom use specialists (even if that type of player is rare, given the power specialists have) will have no use for Sistine whatsoever.

SPIRAL MINARET
Cost: 550 hammers
Tech needed: Divine Right
Obsolete with: Computers
Production Speed Doubled By: Stone
Great Person Points Per Turn: Two Great Prophet
Effect: All state religion structures generate +1 commerce

While Spiral Minaret certainly is a wonder coveted by those pursuing a religious strategy (particularly for the Great Prophet Points), it can benefit anybody who has adopted a state religion and is building plenty of temples, monasteries and cathedrals. That being said, you need to have a state religion adopted to benefit from the Wonder. Players who intend to switch to Free Religion as soon as it is available to them will not benefit from the Minaret. Additionally, Divine Right is a tech considered by some to not be imperative to research.

VERSAILLES
Cost: 800 hammers
Tech needed: Divine Right
Production Speed Doubled By: Marble
Great Person Points Per Turn: Two Great Merchant
Effect: Reduces maintenance costs in nearby cities resulting from distance from the palace

Versailles serves the same function as Forbidden Place (a National Wonder available to everyone). It can be useful to players who have an empire that is so large, even Forbidden Palace isn’t enough to control maintenance issues, as well as for players who intend to generate a lot of Great Merchants. However, players with large empires can generally get more benefit by beelining to Communism to switch to the State Property civic. As with the Minaret, Divine Right is a tech that some players never bother to research. One possible strategy is to let an AI civ build it, then conquer that city, thus giving you the reduced maintenance cost in a city that is likely to be some distance from your lands. The only caveat is that you won't have any control over its location.

TAJ MAHAL
Cost: 700 hammers
Tech needed: Nationalism
Production Speed Doubled By: Marble
Great Person Points Per Turn: Two Great Artist
Effect: Triggers a Golden Age for the player who builds it

Taj Mahal can be useful to any player who prefers not to use Great People to start Golden Ages. Players seeking a Cultural victory can also benefit from the Great Artist points generated. This Wonder is pretty popular among AI civs, so timing the Wonder to be built for a specific time frame can be risky. Taj Mahal is not a “must have” Wonder, despite its benefit, as while a Golden Age can help give you a short-term boost, it’s still possible to win a game without ever having a Golden Age.

STATUE OF LIBERTY
Cost: 1500 hammers
Tech needed: Democracy
Production Speed Doubled By: Copper
Great Person Points Per Turn: Two Great Merchant
Effect: One free specialist in every city on the same continent as the Wonder

Statue of Liberty is a very popular Wonder among players as it can benefit just about any strategy. Specialist Economies benefit from additional scientists, Cultural players can add another Artist, and so on. SoL allows players to continue to get the benefit from the Mercantilism civic while not losing out on foreign trade routes, and the Great Merchant points are a nice bonus for players wanting to generate them. The Wonder does require a Forge in the city you wish to build it in, and given that it costs so many hammers, it’s best to build it in your top production city if possible.

PENTAGON
Cost: 1250 hammers
Tech needed: Assembly Line
Great Person Points Per Turn: Two Great Engineer
Effect: All new units receive +2 experience points, regardless of which city they are built.

Players looking to finish up a Conquest or Domination victory in the late game have much to gain from Pentagon. Combining this Wonder with civics such as Vassalage and Theocracy means units that are produced in cities without Barracks come out with 6 experience points for Level 3 right away, and in a city with Barracks, these units will be Level 4 (10 experience points). The Great Engineer points can help players who are looking to generate those Great People to help finish other late Wonders, but players who are more interested in pursuing a peaceful victory may opt to pass on Pentagon and concentrate on other builds. There is no resource that can speed up the building of the Wonder

KREMLIN
Cost: 1000 hammers
Tech needed: Communism
Obsolete by: Fiber Optics
Production Speed Doubled By: Stone
Great Person Points Per Turn: Two Great Artist
Effect: “Hurry production” costs are reduced by 50 percent

Players who are running Universal Suffrage can really benefit from the Kremlin, as cutting the amount of gold needed to hurry production in half can go a long way to pumping out more units or buildings. While it can also benefit players who run the Slavery civic, by the time the Kremlin is available, most players are switching to Emancipation to curtail unhappiness. If a player never intends to run Universal Suffrage, building the Kremlin is a waste of time. While the Wonder does generate Great Artist points, most players pursuing a Cultural victory are running the Cultural slider at 100 percent and aren’t pursuing Communism, hence they don’t plan to build the Wonder.

BROADWAY
Cost: 800 hammers
Tech needed: Electricity
Great Person Points Per Turn: Two Great Artist
Effect: The player who builds it gets access to the Hit Musical luxury. The number the player receives varies based on the size of the map. Additionally, the city in which the Wonder is built has it cultural output increased by 50 percent.

Broadway is most useful for players who are pursuing a late Cultural victory and looking for that one final push for one of the cities to reach Legendary Culture. Other players can benefit as well, such as those who are pursuing late Conquest or Domination victories and are looking for a way to counter unhappiness from War Weariness. It is not a Wonder to drop everything else to build, as if another civ builds it, it’s usually easy to get the Hit Musical luxury in trade. Broadway can not have its production sped up by any resource.

EIFFEL TOWER
Cost: 1250 hammers
Tech needed: Radio
Production Speed Doubled By: Iron
Great Person Points Per Turn: Two Great Merchant
Effect: Free Broadcast Tower in every city the player controls

Eiffel Tower is fairly popular among players, as the free Broadcast Tower is useful for generating Culture, and players then don’t have to research Mass Media (which is required for Broadcast Towers) if they are not planning to pursue a Diplomatic victory. For those seeking a Cultural victory, Eiffel Tower is more useful than Broadway or Rock N’ Roll in the final push to get cities to reach Legendary Culture, as its effect applies to all cities. The Great Merchant points are a nice bonus to those generating those Great People.

ROCK N’ ROLL
Cost: 800 hammers
Tech needed: Radio
Great Person Points Per Turn: Two Great Artist
Effect: The player who builds it gets access to the Hit Single luxury. The number the player receives varies based on the size of the map. Additionally, the city in which the Wonder is built has it cultural output increased by 50 percent.

Rock N’ Roll’s benefits are similar to those Broadway provides, except most players seeking Cultural victories will not build it as their games have been won by the time they can start building it (and if they haven’t, they are more likely to concentrate on Eiffel Tower). The Wonder’s production cannot be sped up by a resource.

HOLLYWOOD
Cost: 1000 hammers
Tech needed: Mass Media
Great Person Points Per Turn: Two Great Artist
Effect: The player who builds it gets access to the Hit Movie luxury. The number the player receives varies based on the size of the map. Additionally, the city in which the Wonder is built has it cultural output increased by 50 percent.

Of the three late-game Wonders that provide a luxury, Hollywood is the one few players build. Those seeking Cultural wins have usually won their games by this point, players wanting a Diplomatic victory will pursue United Nations, and other players aren’t likely to bother with Mass Media because it is a dead-end tech. There is no resource that can be used to speed up Hollywood’s production.

UNITED NATIONS
Cost: 1000 hammers
Tech needed: Mass Media
Great Person Points Per Turn: Two Great Merchant
Effect: The player who builds is assured to be a candidate in elections for Secretary General

The rule of thumb to always follow with United Nations is this: If you want a Diplomatic victory, build it. Even if you have the largest population, it’s a good idea to build UN to assure that you will be a candidate for Secretary General in case another civ slips past you in population late in the game. Those who are not pursuing a Diplomatic victory can pass… even the Great Merchant points generated aren’t a good enough reason to build the Wonder. The Wonder’s production cannot be sped up with any resource.

THREE GORGES DAM
Cost: 1750 hammers
Tech needed: Plastics
Great Person Points Per Turn: Two Great Engineer
Effect: Every city on the same continent the Wonder is built receives a power plant.

Three Gorges Dam is the equivalent of Hoover Dam from past Civ games. It needs to be built in a city along a river. The Wonder is most useful for players pursuing a Space victory as it can help give an extra boost to production and the player doesn’t need to spend time building power plants in each city that will build spaceship parts. The Great Engineer points are a nice bonus, but one can easily get a Great Engineer at this point by beelining to Fusion. Its production cannot be sped up by any resource.

THE SPACE ELEVATOR
Cost: 2000 hammers
Tech needed: Robotics
Production Speed Doubled By: Aluminum
Great Person Points Per Turn: Two Great Scientist
Effect: Spaceship part production increased by 50 percent in all cities.

Simply put, if you want a Space victory, get this Wonder. The AI does not put Robotics as high on its list as other Space techs, so most players will find it easy to beeline to Robotics, get the Wonder started, then head straight to Fusion to claim the free Great Engineer, finish production of the Space Elevator from there, then backtrack to get other needed techs to finish building the spaceship. Because the game is nearly won by the time Space Elevator is finished, the Great Scientist points generated are just gravy. Bear in mind, though, that the Wonder must be built in a city located at a latitude of at least 30 degrees.

WORLD WONDERS ADDED IN WARLORDS

THE GREAT WALL
Cost: 250 hammers
Tech needed: Masonry
Production Speed Doubled By: Stone
Great Person Points Per Turn: One Great Engineer (in Warlords), two Great Spy (in BTS)
Effect: Prevents barbarians from entering your borders on the continent it is built, chance for Great General emergence increased by 100 percent for combats that take place within your cultural borders.

The Great Wall can be a good defensive move for players who want to keep barbarians from entering their borders and pillaging improvements, and it is particularly cheap if you have Stone. It can also be useful for generating a Great Spy early in the game. The Great General benefit tends to get less usage, as most players planning to go to war will take the battles outside their borders, although it is possible to engage in a defensive war to start, then take the battle outside the borders.

TEMPLE OF ARTEMIS
Cost: 400 hammers
Tech needed: Polytheism
Obsolete by: Chemistry
Production Speed Doubled By: Marble
Great Person Points Per Turn: Two Great Merchant
Effect: Income from trade routes increased by 100 percent and a free Priest in the city it's built.

The Temple of Artemis can be useful for generating additional commerce from trade, but really has its biggest benefit when you have a lot of foreign trades. In terms of Great Person generation, it's a double-edged sword, as while the Wonder itself generates points toward Great Merchants, the free Priest generates points toward Great Prophets. It can be useful to those pursuing a strategy that revolves around founding many religions.

UNIVERSITY OF SANKORE
Cost: 550 hammers
Tech needed: Paper
Obsolete by: Computers
Production Speed Doubled By: Stone
Great Person Points Per Turn: Two Great Scientist
Effect: +2 research for all buildings associated with your state religion

University of Sankore can help boost your research, provided you have adopted a state religion. Those adopting a state religion can consider placing this Wonder in the same city as the Great Library to generate more scientists, and it does have some use for a specialist economy. It doesn't serve much use if you never adopt a state religion, though.

NOTES ON PROJECTS

A Project differs from a Wonder in that it cannot be sped up by using the whip, gold or a Great Engineer to hurry production. Projects can have their production speed doubled with an appropriate resource and you can chop forests to contribute hammers to their production. Projects do not contribute any Great Person points

MANHATTAN PROJECT
Cost: 1500 hammers
Tech needed: Fission
Production Speed Doubled By: Uranium
Effect: All players can build nuclear weapons and bomb shelters.

Manhattan Project isn’t necessary to win the game. Most players who build the Project are trying to complete a Conquest or Domination victory late in the game and need a quick way to finish that victory. Using nuclear weapons carries diplomatic penalties, so nukes should be used with caution. Building this Project as a defensive or intimidation measure doesn’t work as all players, once they have the Fission tech, can build nukes the instant anybody finishes the Project.

APOLLO PROGRAM
Cost: 1600 hammers
Tech needed: Rocketry
Production Speed Doubled By: Aluminum
Effect: Allows the player to begin building spaceship parts.

As with Civilization III, if you are planning to win by Space Race, you need to build the Apollo Program yourself. Players who do aim for the Space Race victory shouldn’t be too worried if another AI civ build the program first, as the AI tends to prioritize the techs that cost less to research and build spaceship parts as it acquires the techs. So as long as you have strong production cities and time your research so you get to Space Elevator before the AI does, you should be fine. Obviously, players not interested in a Space Race victory can ignore the Program.

SDI
Cost: 750 hammers
Tech needed: Satellites
Production Speed Doubled By: Aluminum
Effect: Has a 75-percent chance of intercepting nukes. The Manhattan Project must have been built.

If you never intend to build the Manhattan Project, and nobody else does either, SDI will never be an issue. If the Project has been built, then building SDI may be necessary if you plan to win via Space Race and you don’t trust your rival to stay peaceful. While it doesn’t happen often, it is possible that the AI will use nukes, particularly Aggressive civs or any civ who is your sworn enemy and suspects you are weak.

THE INTERNET
Cost: 2000 hammers
Tech needed: Fiber Optics
Production Speed Doubled By: Copper
Effect: The player who builds gains every technology discovered by at least two other civilizations.

The Internet is a Project that only one civilization can complete, and while, on the surface, it appears to be useless given how late it appears in the game, it can come in very handy if one is trailing in tech and trying to claim a Space Race victory. There are plenty of techs that can be bypassed on the path to Fiber Optics, so somebody who is trailing in the tech race can quickly catch up by building the Internet. The Internet’s effect is best seen on higher levels, on which the AI is more likely to gain a tech advantage over the human player.

SPACESHIP PARTS
Obviously, one is only going to be concerned with building spaceship parts if pursuing a Space Race victory. The Apollo Program must be built before any part can be built. The parts are:
Casing – Five needed, 400 hammers each, requires Rocketry, production speed doubled by Aluminum
Thrusters – Three needed, 600 hammers each, requires Satellites, production speed doubled by Aluminum
Cockpit – One needed, 800 hammers, requires Fiber Optics, production speed doubled by Copper
Life Support – One needed, 600 hammers, requires Ecology, production speed doubled by Copper
Stasis Chamber – One needed, 1000 hammers, requires Genetics
Engine – One needed, 1000 hammers, requires Fusion
Docking Bay – One needed, 1200 hammers, requires Robotics, production speed doubled by Aluminum
An ideal research path to follow for a Space Race victory goes like this:
• Research Rocketry so you can begin the Apollo Program
• Pursue Robotics next so you can begin the Space Elevator. Computers comes on the path to Robotics, so you can, if desired, start building Laboratories to speed up spaceship part production. Plastics also comes on this path, allowing you to build Three Gorges Dam if you wish.
• Pursue Fusion next to get the free Great Engineer. By this time, you should have Space Elevator about halfway completed, so the GE can finish it in one turn. You will pick up Fiber Optics along the way, allowing you to build the Internet if deemed necessary to grab techs.
• From there, backtrack to pick up missing spaceship part techs.

NOTES ON NATIONAL WONDERS

National Wonders, sometimes referred to as "Small Wonders," can be built by every civ. The catch is that a city can not have more than two National Wonders, so it requires strategically placing them. There are certain combinations that veteran players may consider ideal.

Note that the required number of buildings is based on the Standard size map. The number of buildings can vary based on map size.

FORBIDDEN PALACE
Cost: 200 hammers
Tech needed: Code of Laws
Production Speed Doubled By:
Great Person Points Per Turn: One Great Merchant (Vanilla and Warlords), One Great Spy (BTS)
Effect: Reduces maintenance in nearby cities
Requires: Six courthouses and at least eight cities

Obviously, the best place for Forbidden Palace is a city far from your capital. If you ever plan to move your capital, delay building Forbidden Palace until you've decided on the new spot for your capital.

GLOBE THEATRE
Cost: 300 hammers
Tech needed: Drama
Production Speed Doubled By:
Great Person Points Per Turn: One Great Artist
Effect: No unhappiness in city, may turn three citizens into Artists
Requires: Six Theatres

Globe Theatre is an ideal Wonder for a cultural victory, particularly when it's paired up with National Epic, as it allows for plenty of Great Artists. If not pursuing a cultural victory, an option could be to build Globe Theatre in a production city, as it allows you to keep whipping units and buildings with no unhappiness penalty.

HEROIC EPIC
Cost: 200 hammers
Tech needed: Literature
Production Speed Doubled By: Marble
Great Person Points Per Turn: One Great Artist
Effect: +100 percent military unit production
Requires: Unit of Level 4 experience (Vanilla), unit of Level 5 experience (Warlords and BTS)

The best spot for Heroic Epic is usually your main production city, as it then allows you to crank out military units rapidly. It works well when paired with West Point (a National Wonder you are certain to get if you are warmongering) as it allows you to quickly crank out units with lots of experience right off the bat.

NATIONAL EPIC
Cost: 250 hammers
Tech needed: Literature
Production Speed Doubled By: Marble
Great Person Points Per Turn: One Great Artist
Effect: +100 percent Great Person birth rate
Requires: Library

National Epic should always go into your Great Person farm. As mentioned earlier, pairing it up with Globe Theatre is a good strategy for pursuing a cultural victory. But even if you aren't pursuing such a victory, getting this National Wonder helps greatly with Great Person generation and the Great Artist point it contributes is negligible.

OXFORD UNIVERSITY
Cost: 400 hammers
Tech needed: Education
Production Speed Doubled By: Stone
Great Person Points Per Turn: One Great Scientist
Effect: +100 percent science, may turn three citizens into Scientists
Requires: Six Universities

Oxford University belongs in your main science city, and if you are pursuing a Specialist Economy, it should be in the city that houses The Great Library.

HERMITAGE
Cost: 300 hammers
Tech needed: Nationalism
Production Speed Doubled By: Marble
Great Person Points Per Turn: One Great Artist
Effect: +100 percent culture

Hermitage can be useful for anybody pursuing a late cultural victory, as it can give one of three Legendary Culture candidates a final push. For other players, Hermitage is strictly optional, but could be used to help push cultural borders against a nearby neighbor.

IRONWORKS
Cost: 700 hammers
Tech needed: Steel
Production Speed Doubled By:
Great Person Points Per Turn: One Great Engineer
Effect: +50 percent hammers with Coal, +50 percent hammers with Iron, +2 unhealthiness, may turn three citizens into Engineers
Requires: Six Forges

Ironworks should obviously go into a production city. The unhealthiness usually does not present a problem as production cities aren't meant to be large cities. It can be paired with Heroic Epic if you aren't warring enough to ever get a unit that allows you to build West Point, but it's not the most ideal pairing.

WEST POINT
Cost: 800 hammers
Tech needed: Military Tradition
Production Speed Doubled By: Stone
Great Person Points Per Turn: One Great Engineer
Effect: New units receive +4 experience points
Requires: Unit of Level 5 experience (Vanilla), unit of Level 6 experience (Warlords and BTS)

Those who are seeking conquest and domination victories are the ones most likely to get this National Wonder, which obviously should go in a production city, and certainly paired up with Heroic Epic. That allows you to pump out military units with plenty of experience points from the start.

WALL STREET
Cost: 600 hammers
Tech needed: Corporation
Production Speed Doubled By:
Great Person Points Per Turn: One Great Merchant
Effect: +100 percent gold. may turn three citizens into Merchants
Requires: Six Banks

The best location for Wall Street is in a cottage city to take advantage of the commerce that is converted into gold. Some players will try to locate it in a city that has a holy shrine to multiply the gold that the shrine generates.

SCOTLAND YARD
Cost: 500 hammers
Tech needed: Communism
Production Speed Doubled By:
Great Person Points Per Turn: One Great Scientist
Effect: Required to train Spies (Vanilla and Warlords only)

Scotland Yard is only available as a National Wonder in Vanilla and Warlords and comes late in the game, but it can be useful for those engaging in late wars, or if you have a nearby opponent who is in the space race with you and you want to sabotage his production. In BTS, Scotland Yard is not a National Wonder, but instead a building that a Great Spy can create.

MOUNT RUSHMORE
Cost: 500 hammers
Tech needed: Fascism
Production Speed Doubled By: Stone
Great Person Points Per Turn: One Great Artist (Vanilla and Warlords), One Great Spy (BTS)
Effect: -25 percent war weariness

For those pursuing a late Conquest or Domination victory, this National Wonder is useful for helping to combat war weariness. Paired with the Police State civic (which is also allowed with Fascism), the effects of war weariness are greatly reduced and you are able to finish off those late wars without much problem.

RED CROSS
Cost: 600 hammers
Tech needed: Medicine
Production Speed Doubled By:
Great Person Points Per Turn: One Great Scientist
Effect: Units built in the city receive the Medic I promotion
Requires: Six Hospitals

Red Cross is, in my opinion, of dubious value. In Vanilla and Warlords, players seldom pursue Medicine as it is nearly a dead-end tech, and in BTS, the main appeal of Medicine is to found the Sid's Sushi Co. corporation. Additionally, most players will take an early unit, intending to designate it as the Medic, so that as the game progresses, that unit will not be called upon to defend stacks. When Red Cross is built, it's no longer possible to build a Warrior or Chariot to use as a Medic. Even in BTS, players seldom build Hospitals as healthiness can be addressed in other ways, so it's extremely rare that a player will opt to build Red Cross.

A very promising start to what looks to be a very good guide.

A suggestion regarding the Colossus: as its benefits are dependent upon actually working water tiles, I would suggest that it's really only useful if you have several coastal cities and you have a significant number of seafood tiles that those cities are working. Are you really likely to work a water tile early in the game just for 1 extra coin?

Also, once you cover the wonders themselves, you might want to get into which ones provide good "synergy". For example, combining wonders for similar Great People production. Or building a combination of the Temple of Artemis and the Great Lighthouse to maximize trade route income. Or building the University of Sankore and the Spiral Minaret to get the most out of religious buildings (especially if you're spiritual and temples are cheap).

Sisiutil, thanks for the feedback. I updated the guide to include your suggestion about Colossus. Also added five more Wonders.

The "synergy" strategies you mentioned would be good to cover as well. Like I said, I don't have Warlords and would love to get suggestions from people about how to use Wonders such as Temple of Artemis.

But yes, there are several Wonders that can work well together in the same strategy, be it multiple World Wonders, a World Wonder paired with a National Wonder, or even a case of pairing two National Wonders together.

Sisiutil, thanks for the feedback. I updated the guide to include your suggestion about Colossus. Also added five more Wonders.

The "synergy" strategies you mentioned would be good to cover as well. Like I said, I don't have Warlords and would love to get suggestions from people about how to use Wonders such as Temple of Artemis.

But yes, there are several Wonders that can work well together in the same strategy, be it multiple World Wonders, a World Wonder paired with a National Wonder, or even a case of pairing two National Wonders together.
You're welcome. Good additions, and very clear-eyed evaluations.

One benefit of Hagia Sophia you didn't highlight: GPP towards a Great Engineer. GEs are notoriously difficult to generate because you can't run many Engineering specialists until very late in the game, and only in the Ironworks city. This goes back to my point about combining wonders for synergy. So if you build the HS in the same city as the Pyramids, the Great Wall, and the Hanging Gardens (yeah, good luck getting all of them!), or even one or two of those GE-generating wonders, you can expect to have at least a couple of GEs during the game.

The real weakness of Chichen Itza is that you want to be actively defending your tile improvement from pillagers, not cowering in your cities. So it's of little utility to a smart human player. (And aren't all Civ players smart? :D )

one thing you could add about the ToA is that you may not want to build it because if you send a GM into the city eith th ToA you get +50% gold

What Wonders fit well into a Diplomatic Victory decision?

A very good wonder synergy is the Great Lighthouse and ToA, if your captial is coastal. This allowed me to get a capital that was pulling in over 1200 beakers (without settled specialists), and is a very good option if you are Industrious. However, without Industrious it is rather dangerous as the GL is quite expensive and the ToA has to be built in the capital.

It also has a nice side-effect of generating mostly Great Merchants (which are useful now for popping Civil Service) and giving Great Prophets at the beginning of the game when you need them, as the great prophet points disappear when Chemistry is discovered.

What Wonders fit well into a Diplomatic Victory decision?
The U.N., obviously--although you might not want to be the one to build it.

The vote rivalry will be between whoever builds the UN and whoever is highest or next-highest on population. So if you're the biggest civ and your bosom buddy is #2, you might want to try to engineer things so that #3, who is your mutual worst enemy, builds the U.N. so it's a contest between you and the pariah.

That can, obviously, be tricky to pull off. Trading and/or withholding Biology can be useful, allowing your preferred rival to grow while an ally stagnates.

I've been struggling with the stonehenge lately. It's potentially an extremely powerful wonder, but you have to work towards it.

First of all, the basics: how many cities do you plan on having before acquiring calendar? Stonehenge costs 120 hammers, a monument costs 30 hammers, so depending on whether you built the Stonehenge in your capital or not, it pays off after you settle 3 or 4 new cities. But if that's the only benefit, no-one would build it, because you also have to consider the oppertunity costs of delaying your initial settler. On the other hand, if you have the industrious trait and/or you start with stone, then it becomes extremely powerful, as you get granaries much earlier in your cities, which translates to escalating early-game advantages.

There are a few more concerns though, and this I may need help from more wonder-happy players out there. First, if you're building (or capturing) a lot of cities early, is it almost necessary to build The Oracle for code of laws as well? Even if so, how would you obtain enough workers to chop all the courthouses, and what about granaries? If you do have a lot of cities, chances are hapiness and therefore calendar won't be a pressing issue, as more land area means more variety of hapiness resources. One thing to note is that if you're shooting for cultural victory, than Stonehenge and Oracle are extremely powerful, because you get them so early, and buildings generating culture double their output after 1000 years (NOT a set number of turns, very critical).

Now the hard question: which of these traits are more important for determining whether you build stonehenge or not:
- industrious trait
- start with stone
- imperialistic
- charismatic
- expansive
- organized
- lots of forests

Just a quick update... been spending the time I haven't been working with playing an offline game of CIV. :) I'll do some work on the guide tomorrow.

Thanks to everyone for the feedback so far.

OK, all the World Wonders from Vanilla CIV have been covered. I'll get to the rest when I can... I'll be heading out of town for a few days this week.

@sylvan:
My experience has always been that Stonehenge is best suited for players who are wanting to generate Great Prophets. Obelisks don't cost much to build. As far as when to acquire Calendar, that depends on how many Calendar resources you have nearby. I know there are players who just don't bother with Stonehenge if they know Calendar is going to be a priority tech based on what resources they have available.

Also, Oracle should be built not simply to try to grab a free tech. You really need to keep in mind _what_ tech you are going to grab. A person grabbing Code of Laws from it is probably less interested in building Courthouses right away and more interested in founding Confucianism (which fits into a religious strategy).

That being said, I haven't seen too many players use Oracle to grab CoL, since it doesn't cost as much to research as other techs people might want to grab, particularly ones that fit into a strategy a player is pursuing.

I am playing on Noble - Prince . I usually don't have time for wonders but when i do the Ai always builds them faster forcing me to lose hammers. Though i am always concentraing on having a military and wining , conquering lands . I find wonders useless in most of my games there is usually always something more necessary to build. I usually lead the score and have no wonders.

I play Huge maps on Monarch, and find it absolutely mandatory to have wonders. Because aside from their direct benefits they provide Great People and those are key for me in 1000-1750 frame, helping me get key technology, start a very important (for me at least) Golden Age! Because many cities is not a solution and great army doesn't always help you.

It is my first post:mischief: I am nervous!:eek:

I play Huge maps on Monarch, and find it absolutely mandatory to have wonders. Because aside from their direct benefits they provide Great People and those are key for me in 1000-1750 frame, helping me get key technology, start a very important (for me at least) Golden Age! Because many cities is not a solution and great army doesn't always help you.

It is my first post:mischief: I am nervous!:eek:

you don't need wonders to get great people!
use specialists, and enjoy super early specialists.

I've added the next part of the guide to cover the Projects. Also threw in what I have found to be the ideal research path for the Space Race, since the Projects section, in part, covers the Space Race.

I play Huge maps on Monarch, and find it absolutely mandatory to have wonders. Because aside from their direct benefits they provide Great People and those are key for me in 1000-1750 frame, helping me get key technology, start a very important (for me at least) Golden Age! Because many cities is not a solution and great army doesn't always help you.

It is my first post:mischief: I am nervous!:eek:


There are very few problems that many (good) cities and a great army won't solve :)

Now the hard question: which of these traits are more important for determining whether you build stonehenge or not:
- industrious trait
- start with stone
- imperialistic
- charismatic
- expansive
- organized
- lots of forests


Stonehenge is hard to justify for non Industrious / Charismatic / Religious (=starts with mysticism) civs.

Industrious civs can build it cheap and its worthwhile because its a cheap way of getting border expansions and you deny it to someone else.

Charismatic will want to build monuments everywhere - so its really worthwhile to them. +1 free happy in all cities until calendar! (which I would often then delay for a while).

Religious civs may want it for the great prophet. If you start with Mysticism you have a good chance of founding hinduism. Your later great prophet can be used either to build a shrine or lightbulb theology, both of which are worthwhile. Since you start with mysticism you can build it early without researching outside of your main tech path.

Even then its not always going to fit. Oracle will give you a great prophet too and may be more useful since you won't need the border expansion so much (as your religion spreads this will happen for you).

For everyone else I doubt you will build enough monuments to warrant it. It generally gets built in your capital which means your capital isn't building something else more valuable. The monuments can be cheaply chopped in most cities and whipped in others. Generally I only bother with monuments in production cities. Cities I will be using for specialists and cottages will usually get their border expansion by chopping or whipping a library instead.

what would be interresting would be "classic" date when wonders are built by the AI...

exemple: if you can build the oracle in 17 turns and it's 480 BC on emperor, forget it...

I'd like some wonder advice too. When I first started about 2 months ago, I was on Noble level (vanilla) and could build early wonders so I went for them. If I wasn't that +2 cultural civ trait (forget its name) I would build stonehenge, and then grab the pyramids for representation early (since I normallly had only 3 big cities by then and the research boost is nice too).

Now I'm on Prince (warlords) and my strategy has changed, I go for the early Oracle in my second city (normally with copper so a production city). If I'm financial I can normally get civil srvice, even on Prince, with some cottages and cash from huts. Otherwise I get code of laws or iron working. Then I go for the great library but am normally beaten to it by the AI, probably because I go meditation->priesthood rather than poly for literature. I'm always first to alphabet. Then I'm wonderless for the rest of the game except I seem to always build the eiffel tower even though I'm not going for cultural by then, but it helps with the domination style land grabbing, a bit. I get the space elevator of course for the space race backup (well primary I suppose) plan, which seems to be my only chance at Prince at the moment (although my last game and first win I could have gone for domination if I had backstabbed my buddy Roosevelt but I like to play fair-ish).

So what early/mid-game wonders should I be going for? I'm normally building infrastucture (forges, libraries, factories, health and happy i.e. markets and grocers) plus a navy to stop intercontinental shenanigans when they happen.

It just seems like with the Oracle ther's a lot of catching up to do in the first quarter of the game and don't build any wonders (world wonders anyway) until the modern era. What good ones would improve my play for various leaders/win types?

I can normally win the liberalism race on Prince but by then I seem to lack some crucial techs for invading others (i.e. I haven't got feudalism and am facing longbows, and no-one wants to trade, ok so I build cats and maces but AIs love to be on a hill and city garison promos means a lot of losses and my stack just peters out, so I have to sue for peace - normally getting a so-so tech or cash out of it).

So any advice chaps/chapesses? I tend to cottage mainly but am warming towards high food since in my first win on Prince I captured Madrid on floodplains and it was GP heaven, shame it was a triple holy city so that meant priests - which only came from the Oracle city anyway, wasn't a good site for Oxford or Wall Street - only two cottages - but that was OK, built the NE and should have built globe theatre I suppose but I think I went for the hermitage instead, a sort of nothing build really, I wasn't going to get a cultural victory anyway).

My win was a bit of a fluke anyway, Izzy declared war early and comitted suicide and then Ragnar attacked but only pillaged when he could have finished me off, I had to do suicide pike followed by a knight to finish off each cavalry (which he didn't stack, duh). Luckily I bribed Roosevelt to attack with liberalism, he was more advanced than me at that stage.

So any comments or suggestions are welcome.

Hey ParadigmShifter,

I have a few thoughts for you.

I'm fond of the Great Library as well. You're correct, you're losing out on it because you're pursuing the cheaper Meditation rather than Polytheism tech early on. If you want the GL, grab Polytheism early.

I find the mid-game wonders are kind of uninspiring. I'll often grab Nationalism if I win the Liberalism race, more often than Astronomy these days, and then go after the Taj for a Golden Age--provided I have marble and a good production city with nothing better to do. Other than that, I tend to ignore most of the mid-game wonders.

The only exceptions are if I'm playing as a Spiritual leader and have stone, I'll pursue both the Spiral Minaret and the University of Sankore, but the latter is a Warlords wonder and it sounds like you're playing Civ IV vanilla.

Frankly, I find that in the mid-game a lot of very useful infrastructure buildings become available, such as universities, grocers, banks, and drydocks, and they tend to do you more good in the long run than wonders. Banks and universities are also required for two of the best national wonders (Wall Street and Oxford, respectively), so they tend to be a high priority not only for their own very valuable benefits. In addition, with Macemen, Pikemen, and then gunpowder units appearing, you have to keep a steady stream of hammers going towards your military.

So don't worry too much about missing out on mid-game wonders is my message in a nutshell.

Cheers, so I'm not missing out on much except I should go for poly earlier to make the GL more of a goer. Might make the Oracle harder to get, I don't seem to start with mysticism much (still playing random leaders - I am playing warlords now BTW) I tend to ignore divine right so rarely build the wonders enabled by them, and don't tend to build many religious buildings since I only get Confucianism in most games, and then Taoism on the way to lib via philo.

I tell a lie... I didi build Colossus iin my first win on ptince, helped a bit with the cash flow and it was only 6 turns in my capital to build, and I had a better production city to crank out units (it had HE and later West point too). I rarely bother with other early wondrs though and don't build stonehenge (monument in second city to pop borders, after that I will be able to build a library instead or spread confusionism, it obsoletes too quick anyway and I normally need calendar for those bananas or dyes etc., since I tend to ignore monarchy for a while and go for civil service instead).

Hey and I feel honoured that Sisiutil responds to my post your open games and walkthroughs are really good, aelf's too of course). It's a great game even more addictive than Advance Wars was for strategy fixes. Thanks!

So where should I build the globe theatre and when. I don't tend to build it early since I've switched to hereditary rule (no pyramids anymore so no repro), and often afterwards slavery is petering out since I want to work my extra improved tiles. I only use nationalism in emergencies really (although I tend to get it from lib since it leads to democracy anyway). In my last game I went for PP from lib since I had lots of towns and villages.

I'm slowly weaning myself away from my Oracle addiction. While Mysticism is often a must, I tend to trade for Polytheism and Priesthood now once I have Alphabet. There are just too many other vital techs to be had early on; the path to the Oracle is a bit of a diversion, frankly.

I'm not as big a fan of the Globe Theatre as a lot of other people, for the reasons you mention, and also because Drama is a low priority for me. I tend to build it in my Ironworks city just to make sure my late game wonder factory doesn't suffer from any unhappy citizens.

Ratrangerm, just one correction:

"Industrious civs need 50 percent less hammers to build Wonders."

That's not quite right. Industrious civs -add- 50% to their hammers when building Wonders. As a result, they need 2/3 as many hammers.

Additional wrinkle: remember that the game always rounds down halves. So, in practice you'll produce Wonders 2/3 as fast _at best_.

Example: let's say you have a city producing 5 hammers. You want to build Stonehenge, which costs 120 hammers. For a normal civ, this will take 24 turns. An industrious civ will produce 7 hammers/turn, since 5 + 50% rounds down to 7. That will give you Stonehenge in 18 turns, with some hammers left over to the next build.

This is not to say that Industrious sucks. It's a pretty good trait! But half-price Wonders would make it totally overpowered.


Waldo

Ratrangerm, just one correction:

"Industrious civs need 50 percent less hammers to build Wonders."

That's not quite right. Industrious civs -add- 50% to their hammers when building Wonders. As a result, they need 2/3 as many hammers.

Additional wrinkle: remember that the game always rounds down halves. So, in practice you'll produce Wonders 2/3 as fast _at best_.

Example: let's say you have a city producing 5 hammers. You want to build Stonehenge, which costs 120 hammers. For a normal civ, this will take 24 turns. An industrious civ will produce 7 hammers/turn, since 5 + 50% rounds down to 7. That will give you Stonehenge in 18 turns, with some hammers left over to the next build.

This is not to say that Industrious sucks. It's a pretty good trait! But half-price Wonders would make it totally overpowered.


Waldo

Speaking of Industrious, no discussion of Wonders is complete without the Industrious Virtual Wonder Hack.

It's simple: if you're Industrious, and you have a city with nothing better to do, have it work on a Wonder that you know you can't possibly get. Like, start building the Pyramids in 500 BC, centuries after everyone else has Masonry.

Very probably, you'll work the Pyramids for a few turns and then get the "Paris can no longer build the Pyramids" message.

Here's the hack: you produced 50% more hammers, right? So you'll get 50% more gold.

IOW, it's a way to produce cash for a few turns at a 50% bonus. It's not a game-breaker, but it's a nice little hack that can occasionally provide some extra cash.


Waldo

A proposed expansion to the Great Lighthouse entry.

"Trade routes can vary greatly in value. If you are on an isolated island or continent, you'll only have trade routes with yourself. These only generate +1 or at most +2 commerce. In this case, it's really not worth building the Great Lighthouse.

"On the other hand, if you are in contact with many other civilizations, and have Open Borders agreements with more than one of them, this Wonder rises in value. By the midgame, trade routes can often produce +3 to +5 commerce. Thus, adding two more can give 6 or 10 commerce -- which the simple addition of a Harbor can boost another 50%, to 9 to 15. If you're at 70% research, that's 7-10 beakers and another 3-5 gold per turn in each coastal city. In this case, the Great Lighthouse is a very good value indeed!"

"The Great Lighthouse recieves a boost from Astronomy (which allows trans-ocean trade routes), so if you build it, make Astronomy a priority. It is rendered almost useless by Mercantilism, which closes off foreign trade. If you are planning to run a specialist economy, or are Philosophical, Mercantilism is attractive, so that makes the Lighthouse a bit less interesting. On the other hand, Mercantilism's effect only appears in the midgame, when this wonder is nearly obsolete anyway."


Waldo

And yes, I know that subsequent trade routes decrease in value. Still -- I've seen the GL deliver an extra 10 commerce in the midgame. It's pretty sweet. But you need to leverage it.


Waldo

for the great lighthouse, don't forget the ToA!!!

all these shiny little route getting doubled!!!!

Now that I've become familiar with the new Wonders, I am starting to update the guide.

Added the Wonders that were added in Warlords, and updated the guide on Vanilla Wonders to note changes made in BTS.

Anyone may feel free to note other changes to Wonders in BTS, or from Vanilla to Warlords, and I'll make them.

If one of your cities produces a Great Engineer, you can use it to finish the production of older era Wonders in one turn, or to go toward half the production cost of Wonders available in later eras.

This isn't quite correct. A Great Engineer contributes a set number of hammers to a wonder, depending on map size, game speed (and perhaps other variables). This is enough to finish most early wonders in one shot. For later wonders, it might be enough for 3/4, 2/3/, 1/2 or even less.

I'd want to give a comment on Versailles. As it is best suited when built in a far away place, it might be better to let the AI built it (and you conquer it). Of course you do not get much control over where it is built, but it saves you the production (and you don't need to research Divine Right).

A proposed expansion to the Great Lighthouse entry.

"Trade routes can vary greatly in value. If you are on an isolated island or continent, you'll only have trade routes with yourself. These only generate +1 or at most +2 commerce. In this case, it's really not worth building the Great Lighthouse.

"On the other hand, if you are in contact with many other civilizations, and have Open Borders agreements with more than one of them, this Wonder rises in value. By the midgame, trade routes can often produce +3 to +5 commerce. Thus, adding two more can give 6 or 10 commerce -- which the simple addition of a Harbor can boost another 50%, to 9 to 15. If you're at 70% research, that's 7-10 beakers and another 3-5 gold per turn in each coastal city. In this case, the Great Lighthouse is a very good value indeed!"
Waldo

Thats not quite how trade routes work. They have a base value that seems to be bases on distance and size of trading city. Then all the bonuses are additive.

So to get a city to make 9 commerce would take the following.

Base is 3. To get to 9 you would need 200% of bonuses. Thats not hard to get. So you have a city with 3 base and a 200% bonus netting 9 commerce. You build a harbor there. Now you have a 3 base and 250% bonus. Giving you a new value of 10.5.

There are tons of additive bonuses in the game:
connected to capital
foreign trade
overseas trade
population
years of peace
harbor
customs house

Because of this the bonus of ToA gets diluted down but the bonus of GLH gets magnified.

The hidden benefit of the ToA is that it gives the city its built in a better chance of getting higher base trade routes. It appears that every turn the game calculates how much potential commerce each city can get from each other city via trade routes. Then starts at the top of the list and hands the routes out. If you can move up on the potential list by building more bonus buildings or getting more population your base trade routes will be better.

Everytime an A.I. cities gets bigger it can move up as well and steal routes from you, or make yours even better.

I have made a few changes to the guide based on people's suggestions.

Also, I have added the section regarding National Wonders.

I'll be getting to the BTS Wonders as time permits.

Nice thread.. I used to be a wonder monkey that tried to build every wonder there was... Now I play mostly on emperor difficulty level and I build very few world wonders..Though the thread seems to mostly focus on the positives of building wonders, here are reasons why I don't build many of them.

Firstly, there is two common negatives for all wonders. They all might be built by someone else before you finish, and thus you have wasted hammers to create cash. I haven't calculated the conversion rates, and building unfinished wonders to get cash might be useful if you're after cash, but I find that I'm often limited by my hammers so converting hammers to money is not usually what I'm looking for. Thus, if I can get a similar gain by not building the wonder, going for that is much safer as the AI can't screw it up for me to the same extent.

Secondly, they all provide great person points you might not want. If you're careful about only building wonders with GA points that fit you then this is no problem, but to manage to get wonders built one often has to do it somewhere with decent production to get it built in time, and that is often not where you might want it.

And here are some of my wonder specific reasons for not building them (I have ignored late wonders as I haven't really thought too much about them. I like the early years a lot and haven't played that many games that ended up as space victories in BTS.)

STONEHENGE - I can build several obelisks for the same cost. For some cities the initial tiles to work might be next to it, so not all cities need to rush to expand borders. In these cities border expansion can often wait for temple or library. Additionally building it on high difficulties is hard as all can start building it really early, and it seems someone always do it early. I never go for this anymore on harder difficulties.

PARTHENON - I don't want early GP to be artists unless I'm going for culture victory which I have only tried a two times. I want to have control of which GPs I get first as they are the cheapest to get. Thus I dislike this wonder and never build it unless going for culture victory.

GREAT LIGHTHOUSE - This wonder sounds great to me. I dislike pangea maps so usually at at least half of my cities are coastal. But this early in the game I'm trying to get an optimal expand fast start on harder difficulties, which leaves me no room for building this. If on easy difficulty or I happen to end up with sailing early and a city where I can get it fast, I'd might give it a shot though. That seldom happens though.

PYRAMIDS - I love representation, but the pyramids are just way too costly to build this early in the game when I'm trying to expand quickly. Additionally it is very hard to get on hard difficulty as the AI have usually completed it before I feel I have time to use any production on it. Nowadays I go for early monarchy instead to whip my population in place instead. That strategy is never ruined by the AI and give me units for defense in addition.

ORACLE - I seldom go for early religion. Because you need to be lucky to get any as the AI needs less bulbs for it, because it hinders my early game due to not getting bronze working for chopping and worker techs early enough, and because I often get stupid AIs attacking me early due to they disliking me for having another religion. Thus I never get to build this before the AI has completed it long time ago. I think actually managing to slingshot oracle on hard difficulty will cost you more in hindering your initial expansion than you gain by getting a tech.

COLOSSUS - Apart from water tiles with resources, I don't find water tiles much interesting. Actually getting out enough workers to improve your lands should leave you with much better tiles. Also I dislike getting merchant great persons early. The actual tiles with sea resources in them is not enough to warrant building such an expensive wonder in my opinion.

THE HANGING GARDENS - I really like this wonder. I like great engineers too, so won't pollute my GP pool. However, the AIs seems to like mathematics a lot so I usually don't manage to build it in time, thus I stop trying in order to do something more useful with my hammers than getting cash.

GREAT LIBRARY - Great for a science city that is going to get a lot of bonuses on top of the research generated by the extra scientists. But playing on hard difficulties where it is hard to beat the AIs to wonders, I usually try to go for liberalism early and get universities and oxford. Which leaves me researching literature way too late to get it.

HAGIA SOPHIA - You can produce quite a few workers for the same cost. And at this point I usually have enough workers to improve lands at normal speed, as I've tried to expand quickly early.

CHICHEN ITZA - I'd rather make units to defend cities that will beat down population in hereditery rule and be able to go on the offense if needed. If I can just sit in my city and watch the AI ruin all my improvements I'm lost anyays.

ANGKOR WAT - I'm not that interested in priests, so don't go for this.

NOTRE DAME - I usually have cities on multiple continents so I have to have enough other stuff to get happiness anyways. Thus don't want to invest hammers here.

SISTINE CHAPEL - Great for cultural victory which I rarely go for. So not using it.

SPIRAL MINARET - Often streamlining to liberalism and then very likely to go for free religion to improve AI relations with people which other state religions. Thus not that useful.

VERSAILLES - Never seen how much I could gain from this, but I have seldom built forbidden palace at this time, and that I'm sure I can build.

TAJ MAHAL - Never go for early nationalism so will never be able to build it. Don't seem that great though. Especially when not going for culture victory.

WORLD WONDERS ADDED IN WARLORDS

THE GREAT WALL - With stone, and with raging barbarians and/or on a map where I have lots of place to expand so I will get a lot of barbs hitting me, this wonder is great. Also, I don't really like to use slider to get spy points, so by getting this wonder, getting an early great spy or two, I can really kickstart getting some spy points without using the slider. But it comes very early so AI will build it early too, thus I seldom go for it without stone and/or lotsa chopping possibilities.

TEMPLE OF ARTEMIS - This sounds like a great combination with great lighthouse. But again it requires early religions and prioritization to build it in front of AI. In addition it pollutes early GP pool with merchant points which I dislike. I want early GPs to be a single prophet if I have founded a religion, and otherwise scientists and/or engineers.

UNIVERSITY OF SANKORE - This is an interesting wonder that one may be able to get on fairly high difficulties if one is streamlining towards universities/oxford/liberalism as I often do. If I'm first or close to first to paper, I go for this one.

Costs: maybe make clear these are costs for Normal speed, and that multipliers apply for other speeds?
Some corrections for BtS:

PENTAGON
Great Person Points Per Turn: Two Great Engineer (BtS: Great Spy)

KREMLIN
Great Person Points Per Turn: Two Great Artist (BtS: Great Spy)

Good start, I think this'll be a useful guide.

Couple comments of my own:

Stonehenge: Normally I'd take a pass on this (indeed on all early wonders) if I'm doing an early rush, but one exception is if I have easy access to Stone and I'm not Creative. See NC XXXV, a lot of players built Stonehenge to get early border pops on conquered cities.

The Colossus: I tend to agree that it expense and early obsolescence makes it unattractive in most cases. However, if I know that I'm going to be building most of my cities on the coast I may go for it. Especially if I'm playing as Willem -- the Dutch UU and UB provide a strong impetus to a coastal strategy and being Financial means the Colossus might have additional potential.

There have been some posts in here worrying over polluted GP pools by building merchant wonders in the early game. I have come to love having my second GP be a great merchant however if I have managed to expand first and here is why.
Trade Missions.
Once the AIs tech Monarchy, which they prioritize at higher levels and grab quite quickly, they use HR garrisons and build up huge cities. The value of a trade mission is scaled by the size of the city you go to and the distance from your capital. The value is just reaching it's maximum if you pick the right city.
Around this era a great scientist bulb is worth mathematics or a settled scientist since my first was an academy in my future bureau-cap cottage spam city, but my slider is low from expansion and I don't have markets yet so having my slider high in deficit research is very good for my economy (+12.5% commerce if I have just libraries in every city).
I will run the biggest trade mission I can and then tech and 100% until I have widespread markets and courthouses. The total number of beakers gained from that trade route, spread over the next many turns, is often one and a half times the face value in gold because so much of it is running through my academy.
Of course this doesn't mean I try to get a great merchant second to pull myself ahead, I'd rather have the secondary academy city or the settled scientist or the shrined confusionism or even the bulb waiting for philosophy, it just means if I had the chance to build GLH and exploit some early costal cities I don't complain about pollution.

Ratrangerm, just one correction:

"Industrious civs need 50 percent less hammers to build Wonders."

That's not quite right. Industrious civs -add- 50% to their hammers when building Wonders. As a result, they need 2/3 as many hammers.

That's correct, but still not a full picture. Most wonders, you'll already have a +100% multiplier (Pyramids with stone, for example). In that case, Industrious bumps you to +150% production, which is only a 25% bump.

(Here's how to do the math. For Pyramids with stone, each hammer you work is 2 hammers put into the mids. For mids with Ind and stone, each hammer you work is 2.5 into the mids. The extra 0.5 is 25% of 2).

Got more multipliers, like Forge and Organized Religion? Ind's bonus becomes less meaningful.

I find that Ind is useful for 2 situations:

Early game wonders where you have the resource. Here, everyone probably has the tech, so it really is a race to produce the building, and a 25% bump helps you do that. (If you don't have the resource, you'll probably still lose though).
Later wonders where you DON'T have the resource. Later wonders, you'll usually only go for if you get the tech first, so it's not really a production race. That means you can go for wonders without having the resource, but it's painfully slow. Ind makes it less painful.


Later wonders where you have the resource? 20-25% production bump is nice, but nothing to get excited about.

That's correct, but still not a full picture. Most wonders, you'll already have a +100% multiplier (Pyramids with stone, for example). In that case, Industrious bumps you to +150% production, which is only a 25% bump.

(Here's how to do the math. For Pyramids with stone, each hammer you work is 2 hammers put into the mids. For mids with Ind and stone, each hammer you work is 2.5 into the mids. The extra 0.5 is 25% of 2).

Got more multipliers, like Forge and Organized Religion? Ind's bonus becomes less meaningful.

I find that Ind is useful for 2 situations:

Early game wonders where you have the resource. Here, everyone probably has the tech, so it really is a race to produce the building, and a 25% bump helps you do that. (If you don't have the resource, you'll probably still lose though).
Later wonders where you DON'T have the resource. Later wonders, you'll usually only go for if you get the tech first, so it's not really a production race. That means you can go for wonders without having the resource, but it's painfully slow. Ind makes it less painful.


Later wonders where you have the resource? 20-25% production bump is nice, but nothing to get excited about.

Those two reasons, and for failgold. Getting an extra .5 wealth per hammer "free" is nothing to complain about no matter what point in the game you're at.

I does kinda depend when you get the payoff. Hammers tied up in non-complete wonders are completely useless until someone completes the wonder. Sometimes you just want the commerce now, so you can get to currency earlier, or get your infrastructure unlocked earlier, or whatever. It comes down to a trade-off between something now and more later.

In the games I play, I almost always play a pure or partial EE. There's only one wonder that ends up being truly necessary: the great wall.

Thanks for this useful guide and especially for making it so easy to read. Unclear abbreviations and mangled English were absent, and I know that takes extra work!