lastchance's Wonder Summary

These are all guesses, and not to be taken as canon, just a nice reference point to sum up as much as possible as effeciently as possible, (for my benefit).

Ranked in order of how good they are per era (ex. Great Lighthouse is better than Parthenon).

Specialized = Really good in some games, really bad in others. (highest variance wonders)

A = Must build wonder/consistently abusive
B = Consistently useful/very strong in some starts
C = Strong in some situations
D = Strong in a very small number of situations
F = never build

Religious Wonders:

Shrine
Culture: 4
Great People Points: 1
Requires: Holy City, Great Prophet
+1 gold per city with the shrine's religion
Spreads the shrine's religion
Can turn 3 citizens into Priest
If you have a holy City and a great prophet, build a shrine. B

Ancient Era:

Pyramids
Cost: 450 (Double Speed w/ Stone)
Culture: 6
Great People Points: 2
Requires: Masonry
Enables all government civics.
Representation is really, really good. The +3 happy in 5 largest cities is a godsend on the higher levels, and the free specialists are needed early game.

Oracle
Cost: 150 (Double Speed w/ Marble)
Culture: 8
Great People Points: 2
Requires: Priesthood
1 Free Technology
Tech is very good early. Your production gets culture, GPP, and that extra tech that could take 15+ turns to research early. Metal Casting/Civil Service/Code of Laws is a great way to make use of this cheap tech boost. B (specialized)

Great Lighthouse
Cost: 200
Culture: 6
Great People Points: 2
Requires: Masonry, lighthouse, coastal city
Expires: Corporation
+2 trade routes in all coastal cities
Massive trade boost if you have cities on the coast (and you should). Huge amounts of extra commerce give you a major leg up on your economy. Very good. B

Colossus
Cost: 250 (Double Speed w/ Copper)
Culture: 6
Great People Points: 2
Requires: Metal Casting, forge, coastal city
Expires: Astronomy
+1 gold in all water tiles
The early game is all about tech (if you're not in a war). If worked well (with Lighthouse), this could give you a nice early tech boost. However, Metal Casting will take a while to research, and so this particular wonder will be on the backburner for a while, when you have other major tech to research (Code of Laws, Mathematics, etc). C (specialized)

Stonehenge
Cost: 120 (Double Speed w/ Stone)
Culture: 8
Great People Points: 2
Requires: Mysticism
Expires: Calendar
Free Obelisk in every city.
It is cheap, and it expires quickly, but the extra culture boost is nice early game for the early landgrab. If you have Mysticism though, Religion is a more efficient way to get the culture boost, with benefit from the extra happiness and culture. Still, with stone/Industrious civs, this is choppable. B. (specialized)

Parthenon
Cost: 400 (Double Speed w/ Marble)
Culture: 10
Great People Points: 2
Requires: Polytheism
Expires: Chemistry
GPP is important, but it's a late game boost, and you can't fall behind on research and libraries early. C

Classical Era:

The Hanging Gardens
Cost: 300 (Double Speed w/ Stone)
Culture: 6
Great People Points: 2
Requires: Mathematics, aqueduct
Extra population boost. Every new city you found goes to size 2... Would have been more useful earlier, and you have to worry about happiness, but I think it's a very good wonder that almost always will have use. B.

Spiral Minaret
Cost: 550 (Double Speed w/ Stone)
Culture: 8
Great People Points: 2
Requires: Divine Right
Expires: Computers
+1 gold from all state religion buildings
Depends on the number of Temples, Monastaries, and Academies one has built. Either game-changing or worthless. C. (specialized)

Taj Mahal
Cost: 700 (Double Speed w/ Marble)
Culture: 10
Great People Points: 2
Requires: Nationalism
Starts a Golden Age
Golden Age doesn't seem all that powerful, but if you can abuse the production and commerce boost to get a key tech, or overrun an enemy civ, build it. C. (specialized)

Great Library
Cost: 350 (Double Speed w/ Marble)
Culture: 8
Great People Points: 2
Requires: Literature, library
Expires: Scientific Method
+2 Free Scientists
I like it. It's worth building, it's cheap, the extra tech is always important. It's not game changing. C

Angkor Wat
Cost: 500 (Double Speed w/ Stone)
Culture: 8
Great People Points: 2
Requires: Philosophy
Expires: Computers
+1 hammer from Priest in all cities.
Can turn 3 citizens into Priest
+1 extra production for priests makes them engineers with commerce. The +3 priests is nice, too. Nothing game-changing though. C.

Versailles
Cost: 800 (Double Speed w/ Marble)
Culture: 10
Great People Points: 2
Requires: Divine Right
If expanding in the far out world, jumping continents, like in Terra, and you already have your Forbidden Palace built, this is useful. With Forbidden Palace, however, I do not expect to be building this wonder too much. D. (specialized)

Sistine Chapel
Cost: 600 (Double Speed w/ Marble)
Culture: 10
Great People Points: 2
Requires: Theology
+2 culture per specialist in all cities
If you really want the Culture win, you need to build this, but I think this is weak. It is a wonder that allows you to win when you are ahead, but does not help you when you are behind or even, and in the midgame, you don't have the game in hand yet. With this wonder, you are playing for a far off win. With other wonders that do the same thing (apollo, Space Elevator, UN) around this time, you are playing for the advantage now with tech/production boost (not getting in wars really helps that, and so does getting the production and trade necessary to go Apollo). D.

Notre Dame
Cost: 650 (Double Speed w/ Stone)
Culture: 10
Great People Points: 2
Requires: Music
+1 happy to all cities on the continent Notre Dame is built.
Happiness is one of the biggest worries in this game, but this is incredibly underwhelming. D

Hagia Sophia
Cost: 550 (Double Speed w/ Marble)
Culture: 8
Great People Points: 2
Requires: Engineering
Expires: Steam Power
Workers build improvements 50% faster.
Just not that useful. F

Chichen Itza
Cost: 500 (Double Speed w/ Stone)
Culture: 6
Great People Points: 2
Requires: Code of Laws
Expires: Rifling
+25% defense in all your cities
This is terrible. You don't need +25% city defense in core cities, and if you're working on this wonder, you're not building walls which provide more defense in cities that might actually need it, as well as a strong army that can repel raiders as well as bunker up in your cities. F

Industrial Era:

Statue of Liberty
Cost: 1500 (Double Speed w/ Copper)
Culture: 6
Great People Points: 2
Requires: Democracy, forge
Very nice. Extra specialists for the win. I cannot think of a situation where you will not want free specialists, especially in that lull between the Middle Ages and the Industrial Revolution. Should be useful in 90+% of games. A.

Kremlin
Cost: 1000 (Double Speed w/ Stone)
Culture: NA
Great People Points: 2
Requires: Communism
Expires: Fiber Optics
-50% hurry production cost
I haven't played enough late games to know how good and how useful the hurry up production is, but from my latest game, I think it's downright abusive. Should give you a huge leg up on the Space Race or building Factories to churn out tanks if you have the cash. A (specialized)

Eiffel Tower
Cost: 1250 (Double Speed w/ Iron)
Culture: 6
Great People Points: 2
Requires: Radio, forge
Free Broadcast Tower in every city
Free ____ in every city is almost always a good sign. I have to think it applies here. Big Happiness boost at this point in the game. The new Mike's Chapel. A.

Pentagon
Cost: 1250
Culture: NA
Great People Points: 2
Requires: Assembly Line
New units receive +2 experience points in all cities
Extra rax benefit? For the warmonger late, this looks excellent. Every bit of XP can help in a war, and once you get tanks, flight, and battleships, it's time to fight. A.

Broadway, Hollywood, Rock + Roll
Cost: 800 (1000 for Hollywood)
Great People Points: 2
Requires: Electricity, Mass Media, Radio
+50% Culture
Provides Hit Singles
Culture + Happiness. Pretty strong, and throw in Eiffel Tower, and the happiness gains will allow you to max out pop without much worry for the happiness. C (specialized)

Modern Era:

Three Gorges Dam
Cost: 1750
Culture: NA
Great People Points: 2
Requires: Plastic
Provides power for all cities on this continent
The Hoover Dam of Civ IV. Toned down a lot, but you only need to build it once, and there's no health negative. B

United Nations
Cost: 1000
Culture: NA
Great People Points: 2
Requires: Mass Media, at least 3 teams, diplomatic victory enabled
Triggers global elections
Guarantees eligibility for diplomatic votes
Very specialized, only useful if you plan for the Diplo Victory, but obviously needed for that build. C (specialized)

Space Elevator
Cost: 2000 (Double Speed w/ Aluminum)
Culture: NA
Great People Points: 2
Requires: Robotics, space race victory enabled
+50% spaceship production in all cities.
If going for the Space Race win, this pretty much has to be built. Good to rush-build since you can't rush build SS parts. C (specialized)

Key Note: Late-game wonders are generally a lot more must-build than early-game wonders, because in the early game, you have a lot more to do than build wonders. You need tech, military, or infrastructure, and all of those can distract you from building a good wonder, but in the late game, you will have enough cities with enough production and enough tech to go after the best wonders of that era (Statue, Eiffel Tower, IMHO).

Sistine Chapel is very handy for cultural victories - it produces 10 culture/turn itself, and the +2 per specialist adds up when running loads of them in your 3 main cities.

By that time, won't you have the game won anyway? And wouldn't something like Banks or Universities be more useful during that time?

Eiffel Tower
Cost: 1250 (Double Speed w/ Iron)
Culture: 6
Great People Points: 2
Requires: Radio, forge
Free Broadcast Tower in every city
Free ____ in every city is almost always a good sign. I have to think it applies here. Big Happiness boost at this point in the game. A.

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This is my main miff. It's actual helpfulness pales since you don't get the +50% cultural bonus from the Broadcast Towers. Much like with Stonehenge taking away the Obelisk's cultural bonuses.

This may seem like crap to you, considering you gave the Sistine Chapel a horrible review, but giving up on 50% culture in every city while your opponent grabs it, may just cost you a couple tiles and even a city. It's more a lazy-man wonder, giving you the happiness benefits right away at a reduced cost. However you give up other benefits for the reduced cost. Something which shouldn't really bother you this late in the game. Since every city should have Forges and Factories by now.

Pentagon
Cost: 1250
Culture: NA
Great People Points: 2
Requires: Assembly Line
New units receive +2 experience points in all cities
Extra rax benefit? For the warmonger late, this looks good. C (specialized)

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Probably the most useful late game wonder, next to the Statue of Liberty. Combined with the use of The Heroic Epic, Barracks. It alone will give one city the ability to create 10 XP units without the use of Feudalism or Theocracy.

Combine it with Barracks, Feudalism and Theocracy, and you'll get 10 XP units in every city. This wonder is crucial to Builders too! Because a Level 3 Infantry is more well equipped to defend a city than a level 2.

Sistine Chapel
Cost: 600 (Double Speed w/ Marble)
Culture: 10
Great People Points: 2
Requires: Theology
+2 culture per specialist in all cities
Why you would ever need +2 culture per specialist in all cities is beyond me. Culture is best used in certain areas that can maximize it, border towns. F

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I have an impossible time wondering how you could give the Hagia Sophia and the Chichen Itza both better reviews. Especially considering that they are what is widely accepted as, "The Most Useless Wonders."

+2 culture per specialist adds up. It 'really' adds up. Especially when thrown together with the civic Mercantilism. Which instantly gives your civilization the same benefit as Creative Trait leaders in every city on the same continent.

You also talk about specialization in many other wonders. Why did you neglect to state that the Sistine Chapel is almost a requirement for a Cultural Victory?

I'd rate it a B. On par with the other Cultural Victory required wonders like Broadway, Hollywood, or Rock n Roll. At the very least I'd give it a C, but even then... the +2 culture also counts towards Great Leader-Specialists...

Dairuka said:

This is my main miff. It's actual helpfulness pales since you don't get the +50% cultural bonus from the Broadcast Towers. Much like with Stonehenge taking away the Obelisk's cultural bonuses.

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What? This just can't be right? So Eiffel Tower gives you broadcast towers that won't give any culture boost?

Normal BTs: +50% culture and 1 happiness per 10% culture rate
BTs from wonder: Just the happiness.

If this is true you definetly don't want to go for Eiffel Tower when chasing cultural victory. And if you're not, you propably won't have the cultural slider that high to give you any mentionable happiness... So yeah it seems to be a lost cause.

Or then I've totally misread everything like I usually do

Broadcast Towers give you +1 happiness for every Music Hit, Movie, and Musical resource, which are supplied by Rock n' Roll, Broadway, and Hollywood wonders.

I'm not 100% sure if they fixed it in 1.09, but pre-1.09 Stonehenge, and Eiffel Tower removed the Cultural Bonuses given by Obelisks, and Broadcast Towers.

Could it be a random bug? I mean if that was true, then there would be no real reason to build stonehenge. And still there's been discussion on this forum about how great of a wonder stonehenge is...

I worded it wrong Sexton.

With Stonehenge, when the Calendar goes Obselete - The bonus from the obelisks is doubled, as all obselete wonders and buildings do.

However, if you get your +1 from stonehenge, when it goes obselete, cities without stonehenge in it, will no longer receive the cultural bonus.

In contrast. With Broadcast towers. Only the city with Eiffel Tower, will receive a cultural bonus. None of the other cities, excluding cities that had already built Broadcast towers, will receive the 50% cultural bonus. They will only receive the bonus set in place by the Eiffel Tower Wonder.

Dairuka said:

However, if you get your +1 from stonehenge, when it goes obselete, cities without stonehenge in it, will no longer receive the cultural bonus.

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Oh yes ofcourse... silly me

However I think in the case of Stonehenge it's understandable because the obelisks received by the wonder symbolize the cultural development of the whole civ during that age and when that age is over so is the cultural bonus where as single obelisks represent the culture of that single city.
But broadcast towers IMO are representations of the structures themselves and thus them just disappering is kinda silly.

And considering this is a minor detail the game as a whole must be really great if we need to go as deep as this to find bad things

I buy the Sistine Chapel argument, to an extent. Culture is certainly more useful than City Defense and Worker improvement rate. But Culture in the middle of your civ does very little besides go for the culture win, while other wonders will allow you to get more tech and produce more, allowing you to win military conflicts.

Eiffel Tower may not give you +50% Culture in all cities, but the other effects make Eiffel Tower is good, very good.

Broadcast Towers cost 175. Eiffel Tower costs 1250. One Eiffel Tower = 7 Broadcast Towers. You should have more than 7 cities by this stage in the game, so that's decent by itself.

But you have to look at the other stuff. Eiffel Tower halves (!) build time with Iron. At this stage in the game, you should have iron. That means Eiffel Tower is the cost of about 3.5 Broadcast Towers. Also, since Mass Media is after Radio, you can get Eiffel Tower before Broadcast Towers, letting your happiness boost kick in that much earlier, allowing your cities to grow rampantly, plus you can have your forge kick in stuff by then.

Pentagon is also very useful in certain spots, but the builder is not going to use Vassalage, and probably won't use Theocracy. I'll bump it up to a B, because military at that stage is very important.

Heroic Epic + Barracks + Pentagon = Builder's Home-Defense City. Because the units built there will give 10 XP.

Pentagon deserves an A and if you don't agree, I'll conquer you with my level 3 Mobile Armor's. =P

The kremlin is AAA++++++++++++.
When you have towns reaping in cash and buying production in every city every second turn you will know what i mean. I really mean kremlin is the best wonder in the game.

Oh and in multiplayer a lot of these wonders change value.
the +25 % def wonder is exellent in a short ladder game of 130 turns. The hanging gardens is insain in team games.

The sistine chapel + caste system civic can push your border and give you defensive bonus.

But most of the guide is very good for singleplayer games. Apart from the grading of kremlin.

oh and the great libary isnt just good its very good. +8 great leader points and 6 or 12 science depending on government is very good. Also with philosophical thats 16 great leader points per turn..

I have just checked, with 1.09 the Broadcast towers made by the Eiffel Tower DO GIVE the +50% culture.

SPQR300 said:

I have just checked, with 1.09 the Broadcast towers made by the Eiffel Tower DO GIVE the +50% culture.

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I'm going to try this out the next game I play.

If it does, then Eiffel Tower certainly deserves the good review that LastChance gave it.

The thing that irked me about it pre-1.09 was that it was just better in the long run to build them seperately.

What's the big deal with the Pyramids?

In Civ 2 / Civ 3 You could have any government. It was awesome. But, I can't see that _just_ the government civics is really worth it. If you look at the hammer cost, you can have the Great Library for the less hammers.

Most of the government civics tend to only help if you have a lot of cities.

Edit: BTW: Eiffel Tower does give the culture bonus. I checked several of my cities and they all showed Broadcast towers. Even the newly captured ones. And the newly captures ones are giving the 50% bonus from Buildings

Representation is awesome.

Add it with The Great Library, and you get +12 beakers, rather than the +6 you'd get from The Great Library alone.

Really? Even early on? I'm not really using many specialists until much later. Should I be? I seem to be able to get more out of working hamlets with at least my first ~10 population

You'll notice that early on. Every 3 beakers means you'll wait around 1 less turn for the earlier techs.

As you start getting Great Leaders, and start shoving them into your cities as Great Specialists, you'll find yourself in a nice tech lead.

If you're very good at micromanaging, you can also maximize the effect of this by going Representation + Caste System + Mercantilism. Then you can go through each of your cities, learning of when Health/Happiness Issues are about to plague it, then avoid growth by turning it into a Specialist Factory.

Which of course; nets you yet another nice boost in your quest to lead the early game Technology Race.

With all the Great Specialists, Free Specialists, and Specialists. You'll probably be earning an extra 30-50 beakers per turn. Which is usually double what you'd be getting by the time you're ready to research Engineering, Philosophy or Civil Service.

Dairuka said:

Pentagon deserves an A...

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I definitely agree on this one. It's not that +2XP in itself is that big of a deal, it's the freedom this gives you in choosing Civics, even for a builder. With Pentagon, any barracks town pumps out units with two promos without even needing Vassalage/Theocracy. And if you managed to get the Lvl5 unit for West Point, that town (which should have Heroic Epic, of course) will produce units with 3 promos. Getting well-promoted units like that with no civic investment is a very big deal and will make even a builder that much safer against sneak attacks.

lastchance said:

Great Lighthouse
Cost: 200 (Double Speed w/ Stone)

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Emm, great lighthouse is not accelerated by any resource ...