Here is a list of wonders that I make priorities, keeping in mind that the wonders different players favor will vary widely depending on their play style and tactics.
Priority Expiring Wonders
Stonehenge -- obelisk, +1 culture in every city, expires @ Calendar.
Great Library -- +2 scientists is a big deal at a time when many of your cities can't dedicate the pop to specialists, especially if you build this in your great people focus city. Perhaps most importantly, the +6 GP points/turn from 2 scientists in addition to the +2 GP from the wonder (total 8 GP points/turn) can help you quickly to get great scientists who can found academies in your largest cities, especially in the presence of philosophical/pacifist/Parthenon/national epic synergisms. Getting the great library with several great scientists can therefore generate a massive bonus that will speed your research throughout the entire remainder of the game, long after the GL’s primary effects have expired. After the GL, the oxford university is the only good generator of great scientist points until after the middle ages.
Parthenon -- +50% GP birth rate in all cities. Vital for philosophical civs, but unfortunately doesn't last forever.
Non-Expiring Wonders
Hanging Gardens - +1 pop, +1 health in all cities. This is a huge early wonder that can catapult your civ ahead, especially if you have many small or modest-sized cities. Adding an extra pop and health point to every city boosts your economy, your research, your productivity, etc.
Notre Dame - +1 happiness for all cities on continent
Versailles - reduces maintenance in nearby cities
Statue of Liberty -- a free specialist in every city. Fabulous for philosophical civs. Probably my # 1 wonder in the game.
Pentagon - +2 experience points for units trained in all cities
Three Gorges Dam - power for all cities on continent located near a river
Eiffel Tower - (free broadcast tower in every city) gives a big culture boost
Wonders by GP type (all world wonders +2 GP points, all national wonders +1)
Great Scientist
Great Library (marble) (+2 scientists)
Oxford University (stone) (+100% research, 3 citizens as scientists)
Space Elevator
Red Cross
Scotland Yard
Capital: Stonehenge, pyramids, hanging gardens, great library, ironworks (?)
Wonder city 2: parthenon, notre dame, national epic
Military city
Great Prophet:
Stonehenge (stone): obelisk in each city
Angkor Wat (stone): +1 production from priests in all cities, allows 3 priests. This makes priest specialists (up to +2 hammers, +1 gold) the most productive specialists, beating out engineers (+2 hammers, no other bonuses) -- until the wonder expires
Oracle (marble) (1 free tech)
Chichen Itza (stone): +25% defense in all cities
Spiral minaret (stone). +1 gold from all state religion buildings. Nice, although a relatively small bonus.
Religious holy wonder: minus 1 production, spreads religion, 1 gold from each, allows 3 priests
Great Engineer
Hanging gardens (stone) (+1 population, +1 health in all cities)
Pentagon (+2 experience to military units in all cities)
Three Gorges Dam
Ironworks (allows 3 citizens as engineers)
West Point (stone) (+4 experience per unit)
Pyramids (stone) (allows all government civics) – a big boost in the early game
Hagia Sophia (marble) (+50% worker build speed)
Great Merchant
Colossus (copper) (+1 gold in all city water tiles)
Statue of Liberty (+1 free specialist in all cities on the continent)
Wall Street
Forbidden Palace (acts as a 2nd capital decreasing distance maintenance)
Versailles (marble)
Great Lighthouse (+2 trade routes in coastal cities)
Eiffel Tower (free broadcast tower in every city)
United Nations
Great Artist
Parthenon (marble) (+50% GP birth rate in all cities)
Notre Dame (+1 happiness in all cities)
National epic (stone) (+100% GP birth rate)
Hollywood (+1 happiness)
Rock n’ Roll (+1 happiness)
Broadway (+1 happiness)
Heroic Epic (marble) (+100% military unit production)
Hermitage (marble)
Globe Theater (no unhappiness in this city, allows 3 artists)
Taj Mahal
Mt. Rushmore (stone)
Kremlin (stone)
Sistine chapel (marble)
Most important early resources:
Stone, marble, iron
Put Parthenon, notre dame, statue of liberty in a separate wonder city
National epic in capital
GREAT PEOPLE
In maximizing great people points, you can get some great synergy between traits, civics, wonders, and improvements. If you want a lot of great people, get as many of these as possible.
Note that all bonuses are additive, not multiplicative. For example, 2 100% bonuses on top of a 100% base produce a 300% rate (100% base +100% x2), not 400% (they only add their bonus to the BASE rate, not to the final rate after other adjustments). Also, all fractions in the game are rounded DOWN (i.e. a 25% bonus of 7 is rounded down to 1, a 25% bonus of 8 is necessary for +2)
Traits:
Philosophical trait : +100% GP generation civ-wide
Civics:
labor - caste system: unlimited scientists, merchants, artists in all cities
economy - mercantilism: +1 free specialist per city; or (in games with many rivers) state property for the watermill food bonus, allowing higher POP and thus more specialists
religion - pacifism: +100% GP birth rate in cities with state religion
National wonders:
national epic - +100% GP in city where built (only)
World Wonders:
Parthenon: +50% GP generation civ-wide, expires with chemistry
Statue of Liberty: +1 free specialist in all cities
great library: +2 free scientists in city where built, but expires.
A civ with max upgrades (not including great library) would have:
- a 300% great people rate (100% base + 100% philosophical + 100% pacifism) + 50% from Parthenon (before expires) + 100% more in city with national wonder
- 2 free specialists in all cities (mercantilism statue of liberty). At 300% return on a 3 GP base per specialist x 2 specialists, this would provide 18 GP points *per turn* even in your least developed cities with no wonders.
-unlimited ability to allocate scientists, artists, and merchants in all cities.
Note again that the wonder bonuses expire when YOU get the tech in question, not your neighbors...therefore a philosophical civ with the Parthenon may want to push back getting chemistry as late as possible.
Of course some great people types are more valuable than others. Great engineers allow you to rush wonders which can provide key benefits in a close game. And great scientists can allow you to build an academy (+50% research) in every city. Great merchants, artists, and prophets, while still valuable, have effects that are generally somewhat more modest in terms of long-term game play. Since the chance of getting a great person of different types depends on the wonders and specialists in each city, I like having separate cities focus on great engineers and scientists without mixing with the other types as much as possible (you don't want to have your city with engineering wonders drowned out by large numbers of merchant, artist, or priest specialists pushing the GP probability towards other types). I don't have a strong preference between merchants, artists, and prophets, and so will build wonders generating all 3 in the same city.
Bonuses allowing you to turn citizens into engineers are generated only by:
Forge (allows 1 engineer)
Factory (allows 2 engineers)
Ironworks (allows 3 engineers)
Engineer GP points are generated by:
West Point (+1 GP)
Hanging Gardens (+2)
Pentagon (+2)
Pyramids (+2)
Three Gorges Dam (+2)
The military city is the most natural choice for an engineer GP city (forge + factory + ironworks + west point + pentagon).
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As the cost for great people increase throughout the game, diminishing returns are eventually reached. Later in the game, the cost of great people goes up and up, while the benefit of great people often declines, since the earlier you get great people, the longer they will benefit your civilization. However, your civilization should also increase in its capacity to generate great people over time, civics are chosen, as wonders are built and citizens are assigned as specialists. With appropriate tactics, many great people can still be generated even in the late game.
Every great person can cause either an instant benefit, provide a tech bonus, or add a long-term bonus to cities. The benefits must be carefully considered. In *most* cases, I prefer to use great people in a manner that augments the long-term productivity of my cities, although there are exceptional cases where great people are best used to rush a tech or a wonder.
Two types of great people present no-brainers for their use:
1. Great prophets. Before using great prophets in any other way, make sure that you have created the religion-specific wonder in any founding religious city under your control. If you have made any attempt at all to spread the religion, or of you are conquering the founding city of a religion that is widely accepted, this can produce massive financial benefits that dwarf virtually any other use of great people.
2. Great scientists. Use them to create academies in all of your top science cities. Which would you rather have -- an extra +6 or so science per turn in the city of your choice, or a 50% increase in science in a city that is already generating 50, 75, or 200 beakers per turn? Although the increase acts only on the base number of commerce points applied to research (before other modifiers are applied), a great scientist can result in massive research output for cities, especially in conjunction with other science improvements (library/university/observatory/Oxford University/etc).
For other great people, I usually prefer to join them to a city, with occasional exceptions as previously acknowledged.
Great artists. If you are going for a cultural victory, great artists are your friend. A very nice strategy for cultural victory on Monarch level, using great artists either by joining to a city or as "culture bombs" to titrate legendary culture among three cities is presented by walkerjks here:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=138647
If you are not going for a cultural victory, great artists are by far the weakest of all great people. I find that in most cases it is preferable to join great artists to border cities or captured cities instead of invoking the "culture bomb." Great artists produce +12 to +15 culture per turn, which is the equivalent of many cultural buildings (library = +2 culture, theater = +3, etc) and will quickly expand the city's borders -- in addition to any cultural multipliers the city may have (cathedrals, hermitage, civics, etc). In this way, you still continue to receive the commerce benefits of the great artist throughout the game, speeding your research and filling your coffers.
Great merchant. The great merchant is the ONLY great person that offers a food bonus (+1 food, +6 commerce appears typical). I prefer to join great merchants to high-commerce cities that focus on great people creation (the city with the national epic is often a great choice), since more food allows you to allocate more specialists, further increasing great people output.
Great engineers. As for great prophets, the surplus productivity is welcome. These often go in my capital or most productive city or cities. A city with ironworks makes a great choice for great engineer placement in the late game.
OPTIONS FOR EARLY EXPANSION
There are several good early expansion options. The decision as to which is best for you depends both on map choice and on your playing style.
CHOP-RUSHING
Chop rushing is a great way to jump ahead in the early game. The first mention I know of was in this thread by AlexFrog:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=137292
I prefer a somewhat modified version of the strategy. The strategy involves founding initial cities in areas with a large number of trees within their "fat cross" area. The player researches bronze working immediately while building a worker in the capital city before building any other units or buildings. Once the worker is done (12-15 turns) and bronze working is researched, the worker immediately goes to work chopping trees around the capital. Each tree chopped results in 20 hammers, which can rocket a level 1 city that may have only 1, 2, or 3 hammers far ahead.
The most logical initial use of "chop-rushing" is for settlers and workers, since your cities are normally stagnant (do not grow) while these units are being produced, and because these units are vital to the growth and productivity of your civilization. I save trees to chop-rush settlers, workers, or wonders, since the construction of buildings or military units allows your cities to grow during the production phase, while production of the former two does not, and the third category (wonders) is a race. Chop-rushing typically allows me to plant 2-3 times as many cities as my closest AI competitors on noble level.
Of course, settlers must never be sent out undefended, so I like to first build at least one (possibly two) warriors, sending at least one out to explore and pop goody huts (in addition to the starting warrior) while the second will act as your settler escort. I periodically build warriors during the rapid expansion phase to ensure that my cities and settlers are adequately defended.
Because of maintenance costs increasing with both distance and city number (and I will place cities at long distances from my capital when necessary to secure important resources), it is impractical to build a civilization by the exclusive virtue of chop-rushing. There must be a balance. Once I get three or four cities, I let one or two grow and develop -- building a granary or military units to increase in size and to defend the borders, while the others chop-rush. I also assign some workers to build improvements very early -- cottages in particular, in addition to improvements required by special resources -- in order to ensure that city commerce, on average, is in excess of upkeep costs, allowing continued rapid research and continued growth. As a rough rule of thumb, on noble level, if my research percentage falls below 70%, that is a warning sign to me that I need to better develop the city economic base by building more cottages and letting cities grow to a larger size before expanding.
Chop-rushing can also be a terrific way to get wonders, especially when you have special resources that speed wonder building. For example, Stonehenge costs 120 hammers, but if you have stone, every forest chopped will give double (not 20, but 40) hammers. Therefore, you only need to chop three trees to build Stonehenge in a city with stone -- as opposed to the many turns it would take to build it without chop-rushing. This is a great way to get key wonders as a non-industrious civ, and the ability of any civilization to do this really waters down the value of the industrious trait.
Edit: the patch slightly weakens chop-rushing. Chopping income has dropped from thirty to twenty hammers, with that number being further reduced for chops further from the city (outside the city radius?) Mathematics adds +50% (back to the original 30), but it comes in the end of the first age at a time that is not as useful as an immediate chop-rush would be. Also, unlike Civ3, cutting down trees doesn’t increase food harvest, so you have to immediately place farms or cottages or do something else to develop the land in other ways. Chopping offers a quick up-front bonus but can dent your long-term production if you overdo it. Weigh the pros and cons carefully in each situation.
In a recent test game in which I preserved the forests in the cities (for the health benefits and to maintain the forest productivity), I found that by the mid-middle ages, my tech rate had dropped virtually to zero and my workers began to strike and units were automatically disbanded because expenses were greater than income. Retaining the forests as opposed to chopping and planting cottages widely didn’t provide the economic revenue to support the rapid city expansion that I prefer, even with measured expansion letting many of the cities grow to mid-size. Therefore I continue to favor chopping trees – whether in an early settler rush, or to complete wonders – also to free up the land for farms (faster growth) or cottage improvements (improve economy and tech speed).
EXPANDING YOUR CAPITAL
As attractive as it may seem, chop rushing faces major limitations, especially after being significantly tuned down in the recent patch. Chopping trees can push cities located near flood plains into unhealthiness and decline. Chops offer a one-time boost after which the city returns to its prior production. Depending on your situation, allowing the capital to develop before sending out settlers can be a better option. For example, if you can expand your capital in 8 turns and get a square that offers a combined 3 food and/or hammers, you will get a bonus of +1 food or hammer (2 of the food go to support the expanded population) for every subsequent turn throughout the game. For an average level 1 city with 3 resources in the center square and 3 on the first worked square (4 surplus food/hammers for settlers/workers), it takes 25 turns (4x25=100) to build a 100 resource settler and 15 turns (4x15) to build a 60-resource worker. Just one surplus resource, after paying food costs, by expanding to level 2 will drop this down to 20 turns for the settler (5 resources x 20 turns) and 12 turns for the worker. Expanding to level 3 to work another 3-resource tile, which you can generally do in another 8 turns after the first expansion with good city placement, will give you 6 surplus resources, dropping settler creation time to 17 turns and worker creation down to 10 turns.
Let’s do a comparison of a city that immediately builds 4 settlers, vs. one that spends 16 turns building warriors to grow twice, and switches production to settlers before the 2nd warrior is completed:
Build order: 4 Settlers 1 ½ warriors, 4 settlers
Turns to 1st settler 25 16 (to grow twice), then 17 for settler = 33
2nd settler 50 50
3rd settler 75 67
4th settler 100 84
Final capital size 1 3
As you can see, the city that expands to level 3 first catches up with the city that immediately built only settlers by the time the 2nd settler is completed. The fact that the settler-only city completed its first settler 9 turn earlier does not make up for this, as the 9 turns allow for barely 1 cycle of growth as opposed to the 2 that the first city has achieved.
The expand-first city ends up far ahead because at the end, it is better developed and more productive than the city that pumped out settlers immediately. The expand-first model also has the advantage of producing warriors to defend your units, as unprotected settlers are not likely to survive.
If you are well-situated and can develop those resources further, the model shifts even more in favor of allowing your city to increase in size. For example, if you can irrigate 2 flood plains up to +4 food each in your size 3 city and have one special resource you can get 2 food or hammers from, your total surplus will be 10 (3 from center tile, 2 per tile from 2 floodplains, and 3 from specialty resource) per turn. You can then build settlers in just 10 turns. At that point, you are expanding FASTER than you could with chop-rushing. Between chopping and moving, trees take 3-4 turns to chop for just 20 hammers and are limited, while your expanded city is indefinitely producing a surplus of 10/turn.
In general, most cities in the early game do not require more than 3-4 farm tiles. Exceptions may be made for cities on barren land, such as plains or hills. A few judicious farms are usually all that you need in order to jump-start your growth. If you overdo the farming, you can easily push the city into unhappiness, at which point cottages are a better alternative.
The decision of when to develop your capital vs. when to expand depends on your city setup. If tiles around your city are not very fertile (i.e. plains), you may wish to get out a settler sooner rather than later. If however your main city is well-placed and has one or two special resources within its boundaries that you can access with early techs, it is often wise to spend a few turns developing these resources to create a more productive capital.
TECHNOLOGY
Great variability comes in here. Depending on your civilization traits and technologies, your level, and your play style, you may have different technological priorities.
Some players favor chop-rushing for early expansion, going straight for bronze working. Then I go for pottery (to build cottages ASAP) and from there to alphabet (to trade techs). After alphabet, I trade with the AI as much as possible. I go for mathematics (to get hanging gardens) and then try to grab a religion -- Confucianism or, if I miss that, one of the others.
In many cases, investment in techs such as agriculture, animal domestication, and hunting can be more valuable than bronze working chop-rushing.
If you are playing as a civ with early religious technologies, you may wish to shoot straight for an early religion. I prefer the path that leads to Hinduism/Judaism since if you are beaten to Hinduism, Judaism is right around the corner, while Buddhism is a dead end (at least for a while) and the AI seems to go for it quickly. Monotheism also has the benefit of offering the organized religion civic, which at +25% building construction (including wonders!) can prove to be an enormous benefit to your civilization's development. This, as well as the early spread of religion from your cities (with happiness etc), can make an early religion very, very worthwhile. From there, you can go for bronze-working and chop rush, or you can go straight for alphabet, trade for bronze working (which is typically readily available once alphabet is discovered), and chop rush.
Going for the religious techs (polytheism->monotheism) early has great advantages even for a non-spiritual civ, if you can get there quickly. The religious techs offer key early-era wonders, including Stonehenge and the Parthenon, and perhaps the most important ancient-era civic, organized religion, which can further enhance your speed in constructing wonders and other buildings. If you don’t go for these techs very quickly, you will probably lose the wonder race. As you can’t trade for techs until you have alphabet, and many maps feature limited access to potential trading partners, the only reliable way to get these techs is to research them yourself. If you are playing as a philosophical civ, getting the early wonders is especially critical.
Either way has advantages and drawbacks, but both playing styles can be viable. Of course you can mix and match these: shoot for early religion and then quickly add bronze working (but miss out on some early chop-rushing), or research bronze working and then pick up the religious techs in time to get access to the wonders (but you will probably lose the early religion race). There undoubtedly others as well, but the above two are my favorites.
Here are some of the key techs I focus on acquiring, making modification depending on map type and difficulty level:
0. Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, Hunting: these techs are vital to be able to hook up your bonus resources. Farming in particular is very important.
1. Mysticism (65 beakers). Stonehenge, and prerequisite for other religious techs.
2. Polytheism (130 beakers). Hinduism and Parthenon (key for philosophical civs).
3. Bronze working (156 beakers). Chop rushing. ‘nuf said.
4. Wheel (78 beakers). Workers and resources won’t do you much good until you can build roads. This can be moved down below monotheism depending on whether you have already gotten a religion and how tight you feel the race for Judaism will be.
5. Pottery (104 beakers). Your workers can now start building cottages, and allows granary. Because of how long cottages take to develop, it is important to get cottages started early. Also to defray the heavy upkeep costs of a large empire.
6. Masonry (104 beakers). Prerequisite for Monotheism. Allows building mines and quarries. While researching this you will hopefully be sending a settler and a worker to hook up stone (stonehenge, pyramids, hanging gardens) and marble (Parthenon) resources.
7. Monotheism (156 beakers). Judaism and organized religion. The moment you are ready to begin building Stonehenge in your capital (or any other building), switch to organized religion to provide a +25% hammer bonus for wonders and buildings.
8. Writing (156 beakers) and alphabet (390 beakers). Allows tech trades, allowing the player to pick up any missed techs.
9. Mathematics (325 beakers) – workers produce +50% hammers from tree chops (up to 30). Also enables hanging garden, a key wonder for rapid population expansion. Very important for both counts.
10. Metal casting (585 beakers). Forges add +25% productivity to any city where they are built. When you have stone and/or marble, organized religion civic, and forges, your cities can quickly construct buildings and wonders. Unfortunately, this tech quite expensive.
11. Literature (260 beakers). Heroic epic, national epic, great library, and libraries. All important structures.
12. Music (780 beakers). Free great artist to the first discoverer. Also allows Notre Dame and cathedrals, vital happiness buildings.
13. Drama (390) and philosophy (1040 beakers). Philosophy offers Taoism to the first discoverer, and pacifism is a helpful civic for philosophical civs. Angkor Wat is nice (+1 production from priests in all cities) if you can get it.
14. Paper (780), Education (2340 – allows universities/oxford), Liberalism (1820). Liberalism is a high priority both because it offers a free technology (you can pick the most expensive one available) and because of the free speech civic. The +2 gold from towns education offers is nice as long as enough of your cottages have developed into towns to warrant the expense of this tech path.
15. printing press (2080), requires paper. +1 commerce in towns and villages. Another economic bonus, but the expense is so high that other techs may be a higher priority. Replaceable parts (2340) offers +1 hammer for watermills and windmills. This is really the point in the game where watermills become worthwhile.
16. nationalism (2340), constitution (2600), democracy (3640). Nationalism and constitution have little to recommend them, except as prerequisites for democracy. Democracy is a huge advance to both economics and production because it allows universal suffrage (+1 production boost to towns) and emancipation (doubles rate of cottages -> towns).
17. Divine Right (1560) islam, spiral minaret, Versailles. Another opportunity to pick up a religion. Spiral minaret provides major economic boost (+1 gold per state religion building in all cities). It is however very expensive.
Currency (520 beakers): +1 trade route per city, and enables gold trading. Both of these can produce a major economic boost. I usually wait and trade for this, but getting it early may be warranted if your upkeep costs are becoming difficult to manage or your tech rate is dropping.
Others:
Iron working: Reveals iron. Being able to clear jungles is necessary to be able to access some resources and to increase health. Usually I trade for this tech after alphabet, but there are certainly exceptions requiring early iron working (if you have a bad starting location in a jungle harming productivity).
Iron working is critical to military also. As soon as you get this and iron is revealed, it is vital to claim and develop that iron promptly. Make sure to devote one city to military to pump out archers (before iron to garrison all your cities) and swordsmen (after iron) for defense and offense.
Archery: a must if you have aggressive neighbors. You may be able to hold off until after alphabet and trade for this depending on your setup, but if you are playing against human players, you need to get this ASAP.
Other key techs
Mathematics. Hanging Gardens -- + 1 POP and +1 health in all your cities is huge, especially when you have a lot of small and moderate-size cities. The hanging gardens can really explode your productivity when you have a large empire from a chop-rush settler rush.
Music (free great artist)
Military Tradition (cavalry rule the middle ages)
Divine Right (Versailles/Islam)
Metallurgy (watermill)
Democracy (emancipation & universal suffrage).
Communism (state property)
Then to any other techs that improve the benefits of your improvements (i.e. electricity).
I also try to pick up the techs that offer free great people or free techs. These techs obviously represent a priority, as only the first discoverer gets the bonus.