Rate the Wonders - part I: Ancient/Classical Wonders

sonicandfffan said:

RESULTS

Total so far: 16 votes. Feel free to continue rating beyond this. I have the results in an excel file so it won't be too hard to add more to the total.

Ancient Era

7.13 - Great Library: 1 Free Technology and provides a free Library in the city which it was built. Contains 2 slots for great works of writing.
5.06 - Mausoleum of Halicarnassus: +2 Gold for each source of Marble or Stone worked by this City and 100 Gold for each great person expended
6 - Pyramids (requires Liberty): Tile improvement construction speed increased by 25% and 2 Workers appear near the city
3.31 - Statue of Zeus (requires Honor): All units gain +15% combat strength when attacking cities
6 - Stonehenge: +5 Faith
6.06 - Temple of Artemis: +10% Growth in all cities and +15% Production of range units


Classical Era

6.18 - Colossus: Additional trade route and cargo ship appears in city. Any trade route made to the city generates +2 extra gold for the city owner and +1 extra gold for the trade route owner. Must be built on coast.
4.75 - Great Lighthouse: All military naval units receive +1 Movement and +1 Sight, a free lighthouse is built in the same city. Must be built on coast.
4.38 - Great Wall: Enemy land units must spend 1 extra movement point when inside your territory. Provides a free wall in the city it was built. Made obsolete by dynamite.
8.19 - Hanging Gardens (requires Tradition): +6 Food and provides a free garden in the city where the wonder is built
6.75 - Oracle: 1 Free Social Policy
5.13 - Parthenon : Contains a prebuilt Great Work of Art in the Great Work Slot
8.63 - Petra : +1 Production, and +1 Food for each desert tile worked by this city. +6 Culture when Archaeology is discovered. Gains an additional trade route slot. Caravan appears in city.
3.75 - Terracotta Army : Creates a copy of each type of military unit you currently own and places it near the city where Terracotta Army was built.

Click to expand...

New topic: Rate the Wonders - part II: Medieval/Renaissance Wonders

Credit to kaspergm for the format from his rate the beliefs topics. Now let's rate the world wonders. Adding a numerical value to things helps new players (and experienced players) decide how to prioritise their game and I think doing this for several aspects of the gameplay will provide useful resources for this forum. The goal will be to do this for other aspects of the game as well and then make a nice big topic which has the results of all these topics in as a handy reference for new players.

I'd ask you to put your vote before the name of each belief, like this:
5 - Great Library: 1 Free Technology and provides a free Library in the city which it was built. Contains 2 slots for great works of writing.

Since there are many more wonders than beliefs, I have expanded the voting range from 0 to 10 where 5 is average. Give votes between 0 and 10, where 0 is worst and 10 is best, like this:

10 = Pretty much required for any game
9 = Excellent
8 = Extremely good
7 = Very good
6 = Above par
5 = Average
4 = Below par
3 = Poor
2 = Very Poor
1 = Worse than useless
0 = Never build ever.

When voting, take into account both the strength of the wonder, its cost to build and how situational it is in its applicability. To give an example of this, a wonder like Petra is very strong but also very specific (and therefore not universal), in that if you don't have any Desert near your starting location, it's going to be quite worthless. Also of course, how well it suites your playing style or personal likes or dislikes also should influence your vote. Also keep in mind that something useful for a cultural victory might not be as useful for a domination victory. How you weight the different things is subjective obviously. I'll try to make some statistics when people have put in some votes to see how things distribute. Here are the list of wonders:

Ancient Era

_ - Great Library: 1 Free Technology and provides a free Library in the city which it was built. Contains 2 slots for great works of writing.
_ - Mausoleum of Halicarnassus: +2 Gold for each source of Marble or Stone worked by this City and 100 Gold for each great person expended
_ - Pyramids (requires Liberty): Tile improvement construction speed increased by 25% and 2 Workers appear near the city
_ - Statue of Zeus (requires Honor): All units gain +15% combat strength when attacking cities
_ - Stonehenge: +5 Faith
_ - Temple of Artemis: +10% Growth in all cities and +15% Production of range units


Classical Era

_ - Colossus: Additional trade route and cargo ship appears in city. Any trade route made to the city generates +2 extra gold for the city owner and +1 extra gold for the trade route owner. Must be built on coast.
_ - Great Lighthouse: All military naval units receive +1 Movement and +1 Sight, a free lighthouse is built in the same city. Must be built on coast.
_ - Great Wall: Enemy land units must spend 1 extra movement point when inside your territory. Provides a free wall in the city it was built. Made obsolete by dynamite.
_ - Hanging Gardens (requires Tradition): +6 Food and provides a free garden in the city where the wonder is built
_ - Oracle: 1 Free Social Policy
_ - Parthenon : Contains a prebuilt Great Work of Art in the Great Work Slot
_ - Petra : +1 Production, and +1 Food for each desert tile worked by this city. +6 Culture when Archaeology is discovered. Gains an additional trade route slot. Caravan appears in city.
_ - Terracotta Army : Creates a copy of each type of military unit you currently own and places it near the city where Terracotta Army was built.

Honestly it depends on what civ you are. Those like England or Spain or Venice really really want the Great Lighthouse, while the Huns could care less. Rome also wants the Great Lighthouse, but for entirely different reasons: because it has a free Lighthouse, so you can build other Lighthouses faster, and similarly Rome also wants the Great Library, Great Wall, and I think the Ganging Gardens if it still provides a Garden. Venice wants the Mausoleum regardless of if there's even any Stone in the vicinity, because you really want Great Merchant points. France needs the Great Library because wonder theming bonuses are critical, while Babylon and Korea want the Great Library because ALL THE SCIENCE.

Every civ has different priorities for which wonder it once, and nearly all of them are near the top of the list for someone. Zulu has the Statue of Zeus and Terracotta Army at the top of the list. Morocco desires Petra above all. Poland might as well go for the Oracle (and the Great Library since that's the easiest way to get to Philosophy). Byzantium needs to haul over to Stonehenge, assuming the Celts or Ethiopia don't get to it first. The Pyramids or the Temple of Artemis entirely depends on your plan for cities- if you're going for pumping out the Settlers pronto, you definitely want, but if you're going to wait, likely to pass. The Mayans or Netherlands are a good example of civs who definitely gain most from expanding early, and Rome as well but let's face it, what wonders DON'T you want as Rome? Or Egypt for that matter?

But if you want an average, I guess I'd say that Parthenon takes a bit too long to be useful, and at the point you'd go for the Oracle, a critical social policy may not be in sight. The Mausoleum can be a bit sad too since starting near enough stone and marble to make it worthwhile is rarer than simply starting on the coast or desert. Honestly, most early-game wonders are very desirable, because they pick up and have the most powerful effects at their time. I am still a fan of the Great Library start to jump to Philosophy for the NC and general science burst, or Drama and Poetry if I'm going for culture early on, or both if I really really want Theology badly.

The odds of success of all these are extremely difficulty level dependent.
On Diety, few of these will rate as anything other than a 0 as there is not a realistic shot at actually completing the wonder and fail gold isn't worth it in Civ V.

I've never done one of these, so...

Ancient Era

8 (tempting)- Great Library: 1 Free Technology and provides a free Library in the city which it was built. Contains 2 slots for great works of writing.
5 (depends on if you have stone)- Mausoleum of Halicarnassus: +2 Gold for each source of Marble or Stone worked by this City and 100 Gold for each great person expended
6 (helpful early on)- Pyramids (requires Liberty): Tile improvement construction speed increased by 25% and 2 Workers appear near the city
3 (meh)_ - Statue of Zeus (requires Honor): All units gain +15% combat strength when attacking cities
3 (other ways to get faith) - Stonehenge: +5 Faith
5 (if no other available or growth oriented) - Temple of Artemis: +10% Growth in all cities and +15% Production of range units


Classical Era

5 (higher if I have fishies)- Colossus: Additional trade route and cargo ship appears in city. Any trade route made to the city generates +2 extra gold for the city owner and +1 extra gold for the trade route owner. Must be built on coast.
4 (higher if I am on a naval map) - Great Lighthouse: All military naval units receive +1 Movement and +1 Sight, a free lighthouse is built in the same city. Must be built on coast.
2 (no point except to keep others from getting) Great Wall: Enemy land units must spend 1 extra movement point when inside your territory. Provides a free wall in the city it was built. Made obsolete by dynamite.
7 (love the growth) - Hanging Gardens (requires Tradition): +10 Food in the city where the wonder is built
5 (higher if going for culture) - Oracle: 1 Free Social Policy
2 (so what?) - Parthenon : Contains a prebuilt Great Work of Art in the Great Work Slot
10 (if I've got the tiles) - Petra : +1 Production, and +1 Food for each desert tile worked by this city. +6 Culture when Archaeology is discovered. Gains an additional trade route slot. Caravan appears in city.
4 (maybe higher if I have troops to copy... still haven't made that work well)- Terracotta Army :

Ancient Era

8 - Great Library: 1 Free Technology and provides a free Library in the city which it was built. Contains 2 slots for great works of writing.
5 - Mausoleum of Halicarnassus: +2 Gold for each source of Marble or Stone worked by this City and 100 Gold for each great person expended
7 - Pyramids (requires Liberty): Tile improvement construction speed increased by 25% and 2 Workers appear near the city
6 - Statue of Zeus (requires Honor): All units gain +15% combat strength when attacking cities
6 - Stonehenge: +5 Faith
5 - Temple of Artemis: +10% Growth in all cities and +15% Production of range units


Classical Era

6 - Colossus: Additional trade route and cargo ship appears in city. Any trade route made to the city generates +2 extra gold for the city owner and +1 extra gold for the trade route owner. Must be built on coast.
4 - Great Lighthouse: All military naval units receive +1 Movement and +1 Sight, a free lighthouse is built in the same city. Must be built on coast.
4 - Great Wall: Enemy land units must spend 1 extra movement point when inside your territory. Provides a free wall in the city it was built. Made obsolete by dynamite.
8 - Hanging Gardens (requires Tradition): +10 Food in the city where the wonder is built
7 - Oracle: 1 Free Social Policy
7 - Parthenon : Contains a prebuilt Great Work of Art in the Great Work Slot
9 - Petra : +1 Production, and +1 Food for each desert tile worked by this city. +6 Culture when Archaeology is discovered. Gains an additional trade route slot. Caravan appears in city.
5 - Terracotta Army : Creates a copy of each type of military unit you currently own and places it near the city where Terracotta Army was built.

Hanging Gardens is only +6 food, not +10. Might want to change that.

Ancient Era

7 - Great Library: 1 Free Technology and provides a free Library in the city which it was built. Contains 2 slots for great works of writing.
4 - Mausoleum of Halicarnassus: +2 Gold for each source of Marble or Stone worked by this City and 100 Gold for each great person expended
6 - Pyramids (requires Liberty): Tile improvement construction speed increased by 25% and 2 Workers appear near the city
3 - Statue of Zeus (requires Honor): All units gain +15% combat strength when attacking cities
7 - Stonehenge: +5 Faith
6 - Temple of Artemis: +10% Growth in all cities and +15% Production of range units


Classical Era

8 - Colossus: Additional trade route and cargo ship appears in city. Any trade route made to the city generates +2 extra gold for the city owner and +1 extra gold for the trade route owner. Must be built on coast.
5 - Great Lighthouse: All military naval units receive +1 Movement and +1 Sight, a free lighthouse is built in the same city. Must be built on coast.
2 - Great Wall: Enemy land units must spend 1 extra movement point when inside your territory. Provides a free wall in the city it was built. Made obsolete by dynamite.
9 - Hanging Gardens (requires Tradition): +6 Food in the city where the wonder is built
6 - Oracle: 1 Free Social Policy
7 - Parthenon : Contains a prebuilt Great Work of Art in the Great Work Slot
5 - Petra : +1 Production, and +1 Food for each desert tile worked by this city. +6 Culture when Archaeology is discovered. Gains an additional trade route slot. Caravan appears in city.
3 - Terracotta Army : Creates a copy of each type of military unit you currently own and places it near the city where Terracotta Army was built.

I rated them liberally as there aren't many times where some of these wonders are an option.

I find it interesting there really aren't any early wonders that are "must build", being more situational on average. There's always an "if" statement in the reason to build them.

7 - Great Library: 1 Free Technology and provides a free Library in the city which it was built. Contains 2 slots for great works of writing.
3 - Mausoleum of Halicarnassus: +2 Gold for each source of Marble or Stone worked by this City and 100 Gold for each great person expended
2 - Pyramids (requires Liberty): Tile improvement construction speed increased by 25% and 2 Workers appear near the city
4 - Statue of Zeus (requires Honor): All units gain +15% combat strength when attacking cities
5 - Stonehenge: +5 Faith
5 - Temple of Artemis: +10% Growth in all cities and +15% Production of range units

8 - Colossus: Additional trade route and cargo ship appears in city. Any trade route made to the city generates +2 extra gold for the city owner and +1 extra gold for the trade route owner. Must be built on coast.
4 - Great Lighthouse: All military naval units receive +1 Movement and +1 Sight, a free lighthouse is built in the same city. Must be built on coast.
5 - Great Wall: Enemy land units must spend 1 extra movement point when inside your territory. Provides a free wall in the city it was built. Made obsolete by dynamite.
9 - Hanging Gardens (requires Tradition): +10 Food in the city where the wonder is built
8 - Oracle: 1 Free Social Policy
7 - Parthenon : Contains a prebuilt Great Work of Art in the Great Work Slot
8 - Petra : +1 Production, and +1 Food for each desert tile worked by this city. +6 Culture when Archaeology is discovered. Gains an additional trade route slot. Caravan appears in city.
4 - Terracotta Army : Creates a copy of each type of military unit you currently own and places it near the city where Terracotta Army was built.

Ancient Era

8 - Great Library: 1 Free Technology and provides a free Library in the city which it was built. Contains 2 slots for great works of writing.
5 - Mausoleum of Halicarnassus: +2 Gold for each source of Marble or Stone worked by this City and 100 Gold for each great person expended
7 - Pyramids (requires Liberty): Tile improvement construction speed increased by 25% and 2 Workers appear near the city
5 - Statue of Zeus (requires Honor): All units gain +15% combat strength when attacking cities
4 - Stonehenge: +5 Faith
6 - Temple of Artemis: +10% Growth in all cities and +15% Production of range units


Classical Era

5 - Colossus: Additional trade route and cargo ship appears in city. Any trade route made to the city generates +2 extra gold for the city owner and +1 extra gold for the trade route owner. Must be built on coast.
5 - Great Lighthouse: All military naval units receive +1 Movement and +1 Sight, a free lighthouse is built in the same city. Must be built on coast.
4 - Great Wall: Enemy land units must spend 1 extra movement point when inside your territory. Provides a free wall in the city it was built. Made obsolete by dynamite.
8 - Hanging Gardens (requires Tradition): +10 Food in the city where the wonder is built
6 - Oracle: 1 Free Social Policy
7 - Parthenon : Contains a prebuilt Great Work of Art in the Great Work Slot
7 - Petra : +1 Production, and +1 Food for each desert tile worked by this city. +6 Culture when Archaeology is discovered. Gains an additional trade route slot. Caravan appears in city.
5 - Terracotta Army : Creates a copy of each type of military unit you currently own and places it near the city where Terracotta Army was built.

This is all according to my general playstyle. Changes depending on the situation.

OmniPotent42 said:

Hanging Gardens is only +6 food, not +10. Might want to change that.

Click to expand...

hm you're right. Thanks.

I checked this list against the civilopedia (and spent quite a bit of time arranging the wonders by era), that must have slipped through, I think it used to be +10 at one point. Updated the OP

sonicandfffan said:

hm you're right. Thanks.

I checked this list against the civilopedia (and spent quite a bit of time arranging the wonders by era), that must have slipped through, I think it used to be +10 at one point. Updated the OP

Click to expand...

Yep, it was +10 in vanilla and I don't think it gave a garden then.

Ancient Era

9 - Great Library: 1 Free Technology and provides a free Library in the city which it was built. Contains 2 slots for great works of writing.
One of the best wonders in the game got even better. I think that if you want a strong culture game, this is almost a must-have due to the early possible theming.
4 - Mausoleum of Halicarnassus: +2 Gold for each source of Marble or Stone worked by this City and 100 Gold for each great person expended
If you have Stone/Marble around and otherwise poor money prospects, this becomes a lot better, but on average it's not particulary great.
4 - Pyramids (requires Liberty): Tile improvement construction speed increased by 25% and 2 Workers appear near the city
I always found this one to be better in Tradition playthroughs simply to compensate for Liberty's faster-work policy. Now, however, it's not nearly as good.
4 - Statue of Zeus (requires Honor): All units gain +15% combat strength when attacking cities
It's great for warmongers, but if not...let it be ignored.
6 - Stonehenge: +5 Faith
The +5 faith may not SEEM like much, but it all but guarantees you'll get a religion going once you build it. A great crutch for those civs without religious bonuses.
7 - Temple of Artemis: +10% Growth in all cities and +15% Production of range units
If only it didn't unlock on the first tier of techs already. It's very hard to actually get it in my experience, but it can make empires grow sickenly fast.


Classical Era

7 - Colossus: Additional trade route and cargo ship appears in city. Any trade route made to the city generates +2 extra gold for the city owner and +1 extra gold for the trade route owner. Must be built on coast.
Would've ranked a tad higher if it was on a better tech path. As it is, it's usually not worth it to go away from a planned route on the tree just to grab it, while the AI loves to snag it up. But if you can get it, it's really great.
5 - Great Lighthouse: All military naval units receive +1 Movement and +1 Sight, a free lighthouse is built in the same city. Must be built on coast.
On naval maps, this pulls you even with ENGLAND. That says something. Otherwise though, easy pass.
3 - Great Wall: Enemy land units must spend 1 extra movement point when inside your territory. Provides a free wall in the city it was built. Made obsolete by dynamite.
It's nice if you want to turtle, but...
9 - Hanging Gardens (requires Tradition): +6 Food and provides a free garden in the city where the wonder is built
In small, focussed empires, this thing is beast. The free garden is an unexpected bonus if you don't have a river/lake as well, but that +6 food can really cause your city to explode in no time.
8 - Oracle: 1 Free Social Policy
Still a top tier wonder. The fact that policy costs don't increase as much slightly lower its value, but if you can snag it up, don't hestitate.
2 - Parthenon : Contains a prebuilt Great Work of Art in the Great Work Slot
The AI overvalues this one, while it does get your great works off earlier then any (And its the only way to get a classic-era great work of art for certain thematic bonuses), it really isn't great otherwise.
9 - Petra : +1 Production, and +1 Food for each desert tile worked by this city. +6 Culture when Archaeology is discovered. Gains an additional trade route slot. Caravan appears in city.
This thing makes or breaks desert-based games. If you miss it, might as well reroll, it's THAT important. The extra trade route is some beautiful gravy, and the 6 culture points...well they're there, you usually won't even notice them. But the way it influences desert hills in particular is spectacular.
2 - Terracotta Army : Creates a copy of each type of military unit you currently own and places it near the city where Terracotta Army was built.
By the time you can build the Terracotta Army, odds are you didnt quite get to build a huge army yet. Odds are also that if you did, you wont have money to pay further maintainance. A real trap, this one.

Ancient Era

7 - Great Library: 1 Free Technology and provides a free Library in the city which it was built. Contains 2 slots for great works of writing.
7 - Mausoleum of Halicarnassus: +2 Gold for each source of Marble or Stone worked by this City and 100 Gold for each great person expended
5 - Pyramids (requires Liberty): Tile improvement construction speed increased by 25% and 2 Workers appear near the city
1 - Statue of Zeus (requires Honor): All units gain +15% combat strength when attacking cities
6 - Stonehenge: +5 Faith
9 - Temple of Artemis: +10% Growth in all cities and +15% Production of range units

The Great Library is, well, great if you can get it and can spare the production, but I'm not so sure it's always better to take that over a standard library and a unit or two. The Mausoleum is way underrated; even without any quarries around that extra 100 Gold every time you use a great person can really give you a boost. The Pyramids and Stonehenge are really situational - for the Pyramids, although the +25% improvement construction speed is nice, you might be better off just building some extra workers, while Stonehenge is vital if you're going for a religion but not much use otherwise. The Statue of Zeus is useless, but the Temple of Artemis is vital for tall empires and not too shabby for wide, either.


Classical Era

4 - Colossus: Additional trade route and cargo ship appears in city. Any trade route made to the city generates +2 extra gold for the city owner and +1 extra gold for the trade route owner. Must be built on coast.
9 - Great Lighthouse: All military naval units receive +1 Movement and +1 Sight, a free lighthouse is built in the same city. Must be built on coast.
7 - Great Wall: Enemy land units must spend 1 extra movement point when inside your territory. Provides a free wall in the city it was built. Made obsolete by dynamite.
9 - Hanging Gardens (requires Tradition): +6 Food and provides a free garden in the city where the wonder is built
6 - Oracle: 1 Free Social Policy
1 - Parthenon : Contains a prebuilt Great Work of Art in the Great Work Slot
8 - Petra : +1 Production, and +1 Food for each desert tile worked by this city. +6 Culture when Archaeology is discovered. Gains an additional trade route slot. Caravan appears in city.
3 - Terracotta Army : Creates a copy of each type of military unit you currently own and places it near the city where Terracotta Army was built.

I love the Great Lighthouse; if not for the Temple of Artemis and the Hanging Gardens, it might be the best Ancient/Classical era wonder (I gotta say, one of my all-time favorite things to do in Civ 5 is build the Great Lighthouse while playing as England...) The Great Wall is handy too (essential if you're turtling), but it's not a top-priority Wonder. The Hanging Gardens are wonderful (ha. ha. ha.) when combined with the Landed Elite policy and built in your capital; together, they'll make it explode population-wise. The Oracle and the Colossus are really situational; the Oracle is one of those "I'll build it if the AI isn't" wonders, while the Colossus is good for the gold boost it gives you (and the free Cargo Ship) but given the chance I would choose the Great Lighthouse over it for a wonder to build in a coastal city. Petra is (no surprise here) essential if you've got a lot of desert tiles about. The Terracotta Army is really not that useful; I think you're way better off building the units "manually", especially if you have a Barracks/Heroic Epic in one of your cities. The Parthenon is completely pointless - the tiny amount of Tourism you get from it really doesn't help you that much.

SS-18 ICBM said:

I find it interesting there really aren't any early wonders that are "must build", being more situational on average. There's always an "if" statement in the reason to build them.

Click to expand...

I think thats just good design. A must build wonder in the early game would be silly because everyone would just make the same opener and rush for it, limiting your early game options.

I copy pasted the list and added my rating and comments in bold underlined text (yes I am lazy )

Ancient Era

_ - Great Library: 1 Free Technology and provides a free Library in the city which it was built. Contains 2 slots for great works of writing. --8 Purely because I am a science freek but the free tech is crucial as well.
_ - Mausoleum of Halicarnassus: +2 Gold for each source of Marble or Stone worked by this City and 100 Gold for each great person expended --5 Useful in some situations quite useless as well
_ - Pyramids (requires Liberty): Tile improvement construction speed increased by 25% and 2 Workers appear near the city --0 Purely because I never choose liberty so I cant even built any more.
_ - Statue of Zeus (requires Honor): All units gain +15% combat strength when attacking cities --0 Even when I go into a domination game and open honour I have never build it. The bonus is irrelevant to me and I can build other things with those hammers.
_ - Stonehenge: +5 Faith --7 A good wonder because it can lead to an early religion, however it is build too early and it is a risk.
_ - Temple of Artemis: +10% Growth in all cities and +15% Production of range units
-- 10. That one is outright broken. The tool tip I have heard also that is wrong and I believe this estimate to be correct.Even with all the growth bonuses from religion you cant reach the boost this one gives you for some reason and I tried this around 20 times to be sure. Usually the first wonder I build when playing lower difficulties or Egypt. I believe it should be removed from MP games or tweaked, but since its a DLC it will not.

Classical Era

_ - Colossus: Additional trade route and cargo ship appears in city. Any trade route made to the city generates +2 extra gold for the city owner and +1 extra gold for the trade route owner. Must be built on coast.--7 Really good but not essential. Provided time and hammers are available I build it.
_ - Great Lighthouse: All military naval units receive +1 Movement and +1 Sight, a free lighthouse is built in the same city. Must be built on coast.--6 Usually I ignore it unless I play a maritime civ or its a sea map (doh!) Competition for it is quite stiff so I dont usually get to build it even if I want it.
_ - Great Wall: Enemy land units must spend 1 extra movement point when inside your territory. Provides a free wall in the city it was built. Made obsolete by dynamite.--4 In prior civs I build it all the time, in 5 I never felt I need it with the way the AI handles war (more so in G&Ks), the fact that it goes obsolete is something I dont like and avoid it.
_ - Hanging Gardens (requires Tradition): +6 Food and provides a free garden in the city where the wonder is built.--8 An almost stand in for ToA with more reasonable yield. A hospital before hospitals
_ - Oracle: 1 Free Social Policy --6 I usually build it if I have the time, a SP is good to have, but it should give another bonus IMHO as well.
_ - Parthenon : Contains a prebuilt Great Work of Art in the Great Work Slot.--10 because I am biased and I wanted it to be in Civ since the first iteration of the game. Not bad though gamewise.
_ - Petra : +1 Production, and +1 Food for each desert tile worked by this city. +6 Culture when Archaeology is discovered. Gains an additional trade route slot. Caravan appears in city.--8 Transforms a useless desert into plains and its hills into production powerhouses. What is there not to like?
_ - Terracotta Army : Creates a copy of each type of military unit you currently own and places it near the city where Terrac otta Army was built.
--5 Very good for war but I am not sold.

7 - Great Library: 1 Free Technology and provides a free Library in the city which it was built. Contains 2 slots for great works of writing.
4 - Mausoleum of Halicarnassus: +2 Gold for each source of Marble or Stone worked by this City and 100 Gold for each great person expended
6 - Pyramids (requires Liberty): Tile improvement construction speed increased by 25% and 2 Workers appear near the city
1 - Statue of Zeus (requires Honor): All units gain +15% combat strength when attacking cities
8 - Stonehenge: +5 Faith
5 - Temple of Artemis: +10% Growth in all cities and +15% Production of range units


7 - Colossus: Additional trade route and cargo ship appears in city. Any trade route made to the city generates +2 extra gold for the city owner and +1 extra gold for the trade route owner. Must be built on coast.
1 - Great Lighthouse: All military naval units receive +1 Movement and +1 Sight, a free lighthouse is built in the same city. Must be built on coast.
1 - Great Wall: Enemy land units must spend 1 extra movement point when inside your territory. Provides a free wall in the city it was built. Made obsolete by dynamite.
8 - Hanging Gardens (requires Tradition): +6 Food in the city where the wonder is built
6 - Oracle: 1 Free Social Policy
3 - Parthenon : Contains a prebuilt Great Work of Art in the Great Work Slot
7 - Petra : +1 Production, and +1 Food for each desert tile worked by this city. +6 Culture when Archaeology is discovered. Gains an additional trade route slot. Caravan appears in city.
3 - Terracotta Army : Creates a copy of each type of military unit you currently own and places it near the city where Terracotta Army was built.

Ancient Era

9- Great Library: 1 Free Technology and provides a free Library in the city which it was built. Contains 2 slots for great works of writing.
8- Mausoleum of Halicarnassus: +2 Gold for each source of Marble or Stone worked by this City and 100 Gold for each great person expended
7- Pyramids (requires Liberty): Tile improvement construction speed increased by 25% and 2 Workers appear near the city
8- Statue of Zeus (requires Honor): All units gain +15% combat strength when attacking cities
6 - Stonehenge: +5 Faith
7 - Temple of Artemis: +10% Growth in all cities and +15% Production of range units


Classical Era

8 - Colossus: Additional trade route and cargo ship appears in city. Any trade route made to the city generates +2 extra gold for the city owner and +1 extra gold for the trade route owner. Must be built on coast.
6 - Great Lighthouse: All military naval units receive +1 Movement and +1 Sight, a free lighthouse is built in the same city. Must be built on coast.
6 - Great Wall: Enemy land units must spend 1 extra movement point when inside your territory. Provides a free wall in the city it was built. Made obsolete by dynamite.
7 - Hanging Gardens (requires Tradition): +6 Food and provides a free garden in the city where the wonder is built
7 - Oracle: 1 Free Social Policy
9 - Parthenon : Contains a prebuilt Great Work of Art in the Great Work Slot
10 - Petra : +1 Production, and +1 Food for each desert tile worked by this city. +6 Culture when Archaeology is discovered. Gains an additional trade route slot. Caravan appears in city.
8 - Terracotta Army : Creates a copy of each type of military unit you currently own and places it near the city where Terracotta Army was built.

8- Great Library: 1 Free Technology and provides a free Library in the city which it was built. Contains 2 slots for great works of writing.
GL is great for getting early philosophy to get NC before you expand.
4- Mausoleum of Halicarnassus: +2 Gold for each source of Marble or Stone worked by this City and 100 Gold for each great person expended
Sometimes very good, but usually not very good.
10- Pyramids (requires Liberty): Tile improvement construction speed increased by 25% and 2 Workers appear near the city
This is my favorite wonder. The workers help you a lot early game, and on quick speed, liberty + pyramids allows you to build one turn roads and chop forests in one turn. I have won a game because of the 25% faster tile improvements.
2 - Statue of Zeus (requires Honor): (lost text somehow)
The bonus is small and it requires honor. I can usually take down cities without it.
5- Stonehenge: +5 Faith
Sometimes this really helps me. The faith is great and the great engineer point is surprisingly useful.
6 - Temple of Artemis: +10% Growth in all cities and +15% Production of range units
If I plan on growing a lot, I might consider this. The ranged bonus is a great side effect.

There are some useful ancient wonders, but I rarely build anything other than pyramids or GL. I always build pyramids if I can and I have liberty, and I build GL if I can get it and I need an early NC.

Classical Era

6- Colossus: Additional trade route and cargo ship appears in city. Any trade route made to the city generates +2 extra gold for the city owner and +1 extra gold for the trade route owner. Must be built on coast.
If you have good sea trade route destinations, this is really good, but otherwise it is not so great.
5- Great Lighthouse: All military naval units receive +1 Movement and +1 Sight, a free lighthouse is built in the same city. Must be built on coast.
This really helps on archipelago maps, and the free lighthouse is nice, but overall it is nothing special.
9 - Great Wall: Enemy land units must spend 1 extra movement point when inside your territory. Provides a free wall in the city it was built. Made obsolete by dynamite.
Resistance to being conquered is great, and you do bot want your enemy to get this.
8- Hanging Gardens (requires Tradition): +6 Food and provides a free garden in the city where the wonder is built
In the right situation, this is one of my favorite wonders. The food really helps early growth and you can get a garden earlier than normal.
7 - Oracle: 1 Free Social Policy
If you really need the social policy, then this is a great wonder, but there are some occasions where it is not very useful.
7- Parthenon : Contains a prebuilt Great Work of Art in the Great Work Slot
This wonder really helps your early culture. The +4 culture and the +2 from the great work make it like the old Terracotta Army. It also has the added bonus of the +2 tourism.
10- Petra : +1 Production, and +1 Food for each desert tile worked by this city. +6 Culture when Archaeology is discovered. Gains an additional trade route slot. Caravan appears in city.
This can make some great cities. Now with the extra trade route, you should build it whenever possible.
3- Terracotta Army : Creates a copy of each type of military unit you currently own and places it near the city where Terracotta Army was built.
This wonder takes military production and adds the risk of not trying your units. I do not ever build this wonder.

Overall classical wonders are very good. They are the best of any era in my opinion.

These ratings are based on both single player and multiplayer. Certain wonders would be ranked differently if it were just single player (pyramids are a good example).

Too lazy to think of numbers but two wonders I think received big boosts in BNW and are very, very powerful:

Mausoleum of Halicarnassus - It's easy to roll a start with a lot of stone in the area and that early gold is crucial and can really help you snowball. (If you are going for a religion combine that with the Faith from Quarries, and then the Stone Works and you have an insane city). Also, with the new Great Artists, Writers, Musicians you are getting more bang for your buck with that +100 gold

The Colossus - Extra trade route plain and simple a huge factor. Great for Diplomacy victories

Just started a new game as the Celts, really appreciate the temple of artemis.