Should I unlock Liberty JUST to build the Pyramids? (Emperor)

Reason I ask is well, I'm doing several playthroughs.

The problem with the early game Great Wonders is they severely handicap my infrastructure early on. On the other hand, I'm having to build a small army of workers since I don't have any 25% tile improvement boost.

Since the Great Pyramids is 555 or so hammers (I'm playing on Marathon) this is less than the build cost for 2 workers, but you get 2 free workers, an extra culture point, plus a great engineer point.

My 2nd city does have a marble deposit, but I'm going to have to buy a worker early and a couple tiles to work it.

I'm playing as United States so the Manifest Destiny helps with the cost of buying individual tiles.

So far the only Ancient Wonders I've planned on building is the Oracle and Hanging Gardens.

Not really sure if I should give it a go, I think the Pyramids doesn't get built by another civilization until just over 200 turns into the game.

The additional Culture point from unlocking Liberty + The Great Pyramids itself, makes for +2 extra culture per turn, the Great Engineer does come in handy even if he doesn't come til around midgame.

The only reason I'm apprehensive about it, is it may keep me from getting Hanging Gardens, or like I stated earlier, handicap my early game infrastructure to the point that I'm well behind other civilizations by midgame. The other saving grace is since I do like to spam World Wonders to some extent, I got the +2 faith per World Wonder for my Religion ability, and the only thing I need to do to keep my 2nd city from being converted is surround the 6 tiles around my city with Warriors and it'll never get converted.

Would like some input on this, I'm at 220 or so in, and the Pyramids have already been built, however I could load up an old save and redo it to see what happens.

The other problem with it, is it may keep me from maxing out tradition early. Oh and I always unlock Honor as like the 2nd thing I do in the game, I find the income/culture/knowing where my Camel Trains might get struck, simply unlocking Honor just for that and that alone makes it well worth an early social policy.

edit: I'm planning on making about 4 or 5 cities this game, 6 max. BTW I have never done a 100% complete playthrough of the game, the farthest I've gotten is the 1500's or so before I wanted to try some new stuff I learned.

you need liberty unlocked and free worker unlocked + pyramid to have 1 turn repair on normal speed.

it is good from warmongering.

Delaying the tradition finisher is usually not worth it, the Aqueducts are just to strong. But if there's no other Civ that's gone Liberty (happens quite often), then.. well... guess it might be an alternative if you want to go for a science-based game. You could take them as an alternative to Patronage, but if you're not going to use them while warmongering (the AI really can't handle units that heal every single turn ^^), then it's probably a huge waste.

Because overall, I don't really know why you need "a small army of workers". Even with Tradition, 1 per City is usually enough, maybe an additional worker to jump around if needed, but that's it. Maybe you're just using them too ineffective, try to keep the distances the worker has to walk low and only improve tiles that you're actually going to work soon.

Also, you can get a lot of workers by being active on the map - you can steam one from a City State, steal one (maybe two) from another Civ) and you can often find them in barbarian camps.

I used to always open liberty second(Tradition first) for the Pyramids. Since I've been doing a wholy Tradition thing I've noticed the Pyramids never seems to get built by the AI as the AI seems to always focus on Piety and other policy tress, although there are some exceptions.

Pyramids isn't good enough to open Liberty if that was your only use for it; it's more of a bonus when you're already planning that route; the same applies for many of the tree specific wonders.

(The two exceptions to this rule are:

1. When going for Cultural Victory, opening Exploration just for the Louvre [with later plans to finish Aesthetics]; especially true if playing France.

2. If it looks like Greece or another Civ that loves getting city state allies is in the game, opening Patronage just for Forbidden Palace as wonder-denial. (Note that if you were planning on going for Diplomatic victory yourself, chances are you'd get take a few more polices in this tree)

I often open Commerce just to build Big Ben. AI rarely picks Commerce, and the Big Ben is too good to pass up, especially when you can build it in 5 turns in the late game.

With regard to opening Liberty just to build the Pyramids, I might do it if no one has built the Pyramids yet by medieval, which sometimes happens, but other times it goes early in my experience. I'd first check if any other civs have picked Liberty and if their capitals are building the Pyramids.

IMHO, no Pyramids. Worker steal is the way to go. And if you're lucky maybe you can go conquer the Pyramids, wherever they end up.

That's a good question. .. the pyramids can give you those extra workers if you want them and the great engineer points for more wonders. You can also steal your workers from city states or from irresponsible civilizations that leave their workers unguarded. .. Personally, I recently have preferred to steal workers. ...

just got steal the pyramids