Question about Wonders

I've been playing quite a bit since buying the game but by no means am good at it. So please excuse this question if it seems kinda dumb. Isn't it a no brainer to buy every wonder you can? I mean why wouldn't you? They all seem to help. Any comments would help me decide if I am doing wrong or not. Thanks

Can't buy wonders, so I assume you mean build. No, it doesn't make sense to build every wonder you can. If you build wonders, you aren't building other things, and its the other things that win games. On lower difficulty levels it is possible to build pretty much every wonder, which is fun, but doesn't improve your game. But, if you enjoy it, go for it.

If you could build every wonder in the game for your civ, beating the game would be ridiculously easy. This is why.. as you go up in difficulties.. it gets harder and harder to build all the wonders. The AI gets bonuses not only to production levels, but to technology. Meaning that not only will they be building them in less turns than you, they are also usually starting the build sooner, further compounding the difficulty of you getting it done first. As you move up in levels you realize this along the way and start zeroing in on a couple/few wonders that are the most powerful for your given strategy and figure out how to get the technologies before the AI so you have a chance to build them.

But yes, if you had every wonder in the game, your civ would be unstoppable. Which... for most of us would be boring.

lcm1947 said:

I've been playing quite a bit since buying the game but by no means am good at it. So please excuse this question if it seems kinda dumb. Isn't it a no brainer to buy every wonder you can?

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It may seem like it, but....

lcm1947 said:

I mean why wouldn't you? They all seem to help. Any comments would help me decide if I am doing wrong or not. Thanks

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Emphasis mine.

World Wonders will not win a game of Civilization by themselves, especially on multiplayer. World Wonders help achieve victories, but they aren't nearly as important as a decent military nor can they be as reliably built as standard City Improvements.

The thing is that World Wonders require lots of production that could have been used to build military units. Military units can capture a city with a World Wonder, but a World Wonder cannot defend against military units by itself.

On easier difficulties, it is more than possible to build every World Wonder and still maintain an adequate military for defense.

However, spamming every single World Wonder in Regent/King difficulty or higher is suicide because you won't be able to produce enough military units to defend your cities.

Well that explains it then. I am on medium level as far as game difficulty so it must be that is the reason I can build a bunch of them. I will be doing next higher level next game so the comments will help me not continue to try building them all. You guys are just a wealth of information - thanks!

I prefer Emperor. You can still build wonders but you have to be choosy and you won't get everyone you want.

heck, even on prince you dont get every wonder you want.

Fastrada said:

heck, even on prince you dont get every wonder you want.

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Hrmmm.... maybe not every game, but a lot of games on Prince I can. Unless of course you want EVERY wonder lol.

The scoring system tends to obscure this a bit, since building wonders (and going wide) will ratchet your score up to ridiculous levels, but that rarely translates into winning the game.

But yeah, on higher levels, you're better off spending your production on military units, finding the AI players who've built those wonders and helping yourself to their cities

The better players on this forum havbe been right quite a bit for me. They say it's easy to get all the wonders you just let the AI build them then go take em off them... you know what they were right

Building more than one or two just wastes hammers. Of course you may be without many of them for quite a while but eventually you should be able to own them all.

Edit: There are a couple I always like to get if I can. The leaning tower of Pisa = GE which generally gives me the Porcelain Tower for GS in quick succession and Hubble. I consider Hubble the only must have in the game as it's worth 2 very advanced techs most games.

Ahhh. Get them through wars. Good idea and since that's what I enjoy a great way to go for me. Thanks guys.

lcm1947 said:

Ahhh. Get them through wars. Good idea and since that's what I enjoy a great way to go for me. Thanks guys.

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Yeah, just know that the longer an opponent has one of them, the more benefit they'll have gotten out of it.

And a number of wondors are far less valuable if conquered after first use (e.g., Oracle, GL, Pisa, PT, Pyramids, etc.)