Early Wonders

Priorities? What would be some useful chains? If we get great lighthouse then we have to get temple of a. However that would change our tech plan so we could get harbors

Oracle is obviously a #1 priority. But wouldn't team 5 have an easy shot at it?
I personaly am a lover of large triangualr tombs that give insane bonuses. Of course I typicly play sp economy on single player so..

Thoughts? And a side note. Is anyone here a micro manager? We need one. I am not a math man im affraid

Duke Blackstone said:

Priorities? What would be some useful chains?

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We probably shouldn't be aiming for chains of wonders, or even individual wonders really. The best strategy is to see what happens as we go. If we find stone, the Pyramids might be attractive. If we find marble, perhaps the Oracle or Great Library. But certainly we should take the benefits of each wonder as they stand and not rely on getting "chains" of wonders. This invests too much of our time into wonder-building at the expense of expansion, which doesn't leave us in a good position. (Especially in the fairly likely event that one or more of our "chain" of wonders is snapped up by other teams.)

Duke Blackstone said:

If we get great lighthouse then we have to get temple of a. However that would change our tech plan so we could get harbors

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Whoah... why would we have to get the Temple of Artemis if we got the Great Lighthouse? The Great Lighthouse is awesome on its own, and there's no need to try for a double-whammy. (Besides, I find that the Temple of Artemis really doesn't give all that much of a boost, and it's incredibly expensive without marble.)

Also, there's no need to change our tech plan to get Harbors early with the Great Lighthouse. The Great Lighthouse is a wonder that's good enough on its own merits that you don't need to change your whole game plan to try to squeeze a little bit more out of it.

Duke Blackstone said:

Oracle is obviously a #1 priority. But wouldn't team 5 have an easy shot at it?

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Not really. There's no guarantee that Team 5 will even research the early religions anyway - we don't know their gameplan. Of course, it's a possibility, but we can't say for sure at this stage. All that we know is that the opportunity is there for them.

Certainly, we're not planning on researching to Priesthood until we have at least 6 other early techs, so we may be a bit late for the Oracle. But still, it'd be worth making a shot for it if we think we'll have a chance.

Duke Blackstone said:

Is anyone here a micro manager? We need one. I am not a math man im affraid

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*Puts hand up*

I suspect that most of the higher level players (and probably some of the lower-level players too) are micromanagers, so we'll have no shortages there.

I'll often choose to build wonders on a whim based on what I research, if I find stone/marble, and if I feel it'll help me in my general situation on the map. Not really something I plan ahead of time, we'll see what we are dealt.

No industrious leaders this map, keep that in mind. We have a fair shot at any wonder we feel could help us.

Have to admit I'm a little guilty of wonder spamming in some of my games.

Definately we should see how things evolve and then decide which wonders we want. In many cases Oracle would be quite attractive. Team 5 has definately advantage. They are exactly 2 techs ahead at the start up, because they've the techs that you definately want/need to have before starting to build oracle. If they've starting position with Marble or Gold/gems/Silver, we won't have a chance.

That doesn't mean that we shouldn't try to get it. They aren't focusing all their efforts to build up Oracle. They want same things as us before starting to build it i.e. some early expansion (1-2 other cities), something to improve the food resources, probably something to defend their territory (BW, AH+Wheel or Hunting+Archery) and some prerequisite techs to make building the Oracle worthwhile. All these combined means that their starting date usually isn't earlier than ours assuming we're focusing on getting it.

Right, and if we pre-chop some forests then we could theoretically build the Oracle only one or two turns after researching Priesthood ourselves. Certainly if we keep in mind a focus on the Oracle, we should have a fair chance of getting it, especially with the relatively even ground (no Industrious civs).

EDIT: Actually, we'd need to factor in time for researching Writing after finishing Priesthood (as a prerequisite to COL), so there would be no point in being hugely rushed in building it.

Actually, if we were going to build the Oracle, I would rather take Metal Casting. The reason for this is so we don't have to research Writing, but Pottery. And our pre-game plan revolves around getting early pottery anyway.

Metal casting is good alternative. However I would prioritize Code of Laws because of our cheap courthouses. Researching Writing after Prieshood doesn't take many turns (maybe 5-7 turns) and if we're going to research Pottery before BW it is hard to prechop enough forests to get Oracle right after the priesthood is researched. Would you prioritize some other tech before Writing? e.g. Sailing to get cheap lighthouse up and possibility to Great Lighthouse? Or are you afraid that if we won't be able to build the Oracle as soon as possible we won't get it?

plako said:

Metal casting is good alternative. However I would prioritize Code of Laws because of our cheap courthouses. Researching Writing after Prieshood doesn't take many turns (maybe 5-7 turns) and if we're going to research Pottery before BW it is hard to prechop enough forests to get Oracle right after the priesthood is researched.

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Yeah, I think going for Code of Laws is more attractive than Metal Casting. The only thing we really get with Metal Casting is Forges, which are a bit unnecessary very early in the game. (The Colossus might be useful depending on how much water we have.) Of course, we could probably get Metal Casting a few turns earlier than we could get Code of Laws due to having to research Writing. Still, I think Code of Laws would be a better choice.

plako said:

Would you prioritize some other tech before Writing? e.g. Sailing to get cheap lighthouse up and possibility to Great Lighthouse?

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If we're going for Code of Laws then we really shouldn't delay Writing for anything. Sailing can come afterwards.

Code of Laws makes a lot of sense being organized, but are we sure we want to take a shot at the Oracle? We should probably play a bit into the opening turns first... finding stone/marble nearby could easily effect decisions.

Joshua368 said:

Code of Laws makes a lot of sense being organized, but are we sure we want to take a shot at the Oracle? We should probably play a bit into the opening turns first... finding stone/marble nearby could easily effect decisions.

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True. Often I find though that the Oracle comes so early and is so cheap that marble isn't a necessity. At least 3/4 of the time that I build the Oracle in my games (which isn't actually that often recently), I'll build it without access to marble.

But you're right, let's see what the opening hands us before deciding for sure on anything.