5 Tips that nobody asked for: Build the Victory Wonder quicker!

[Ryika]

I assume most people already have their own game-plans and ideas on how to build their Mind-Flowers, Exodus Gates, Emancipation Gates and - bleh! - Beacons relatively efficiently, but here are some advanced tips that nobody ever asked for but could help YOU win a tiny-winy bit faster just by managing that "Almost won!"-Phase a bit more efficiently - starting with the most obvious thing and becoming less obvious down the line.

1 - Build Manufactories

Like I said, the most obvious thing first - I assume most people already know about this, but for those who don't: Well, today's your lucky day, because I assume there will be a lot more new knowledge below.

But anyway - Manufactories don't have that much use during the actual game, mainly because they drain your health really, really fast. But when all that's left is building the Victory Wonder, well, then they're a powerful tool. Even going down into deep negative health is usually easily worth it. Once you're close to being able to start building that Victory Wonder, bring all your Workers (hopefully you have a lot of them!) in position and then try to time it so the Manufactories finish exactly at the time that you get that last tech.

2 - Build it... in a City that is not the Capital!

This is assuming you have actually built Magrails. It's relatively well known, but for those who don't know: The bonus for Magrails (+20% Production) only counts for Cities that get connected to the capital - making it impossible to obtain for the capital itself. (You can however get 10% from the Tier 1 Virtue Synergy Bonus) That means that a City in a really good Spot can be a SO much better City to actually build the Victory Wonder.

This is of course very situational though. Given the fact that the Capital is the first City that can start growing and that it has the Headquarters to give it somewhat of a headstart it can simply push to high population faster than any other City (if you don't use it to build a dozen Colonists). But if you found an early city in a spot with Grassland and 2 Titanium, while your capital has none? Well, there you go - that's the city that should build the wonder.

This is actually the one thing in this list that needs a lot of long-term planning - decide early, adjust your trading network accordingly (= get as many Trade Routes to that city as you can) and make sure that city can grow as unhindered as possible.

3 - Get the "Scalable Infrastructure"-Virtue

Scalable Infrastructure gives +15% Production towards Wonders - yes, that includes the Victory Wonders! It only costs you 2 Virtues in Industry, so it's very accessible, even if you didn't go Industry during the game.

Like Manufactories this isn't really something that you'd want during the game (usually), but after you've gotten everything you wanted and start clicking random Virtues just to make that Virtue-Button goes away and you can click the "Next Turn"-Button? Well, that's when you should pick them!

4 - Make sure your other Cities work low-production Tiles

This is actually obvious... and really not at all obvious at the same time. The reason you want to do this is because of how Trade Yields are generated. Roughly said: The bigger the difference between both cities becomes, the higher the amount of yield the more productive City gets. So if all your other cities work as many non-production tiles as possible, then your Wonder-building city will earn a lot of extra Production. Depending on the overall production that is available for your cities this can lower the overall timer for the victory wonder by a few turns - or not do anything.

Also, make sure those Engineer Slots aren't worked and, if you don't have any Food-Only Tiles, put those Pops in Specialist Slots that you have available. If you're like me, then you've probably avoided getting Specialist Buildings, but you'll still have some. The Thorium Reactor happily takes care of 2 Citizens.

5 - Sell Production Buildings!

...in Cities that don't build the Victory Wonder, obviously. This has the same reason as the Tile-Management. The less Production they get, the more Production that other City gets. This INCLUDES Trade Depots by the way - you don't need to keep it to maintain your Trade Routes. Your City only needs to have had it once and it can maintain + renew Trade Routes for the rest of the game.

I realize that was almost the same tip as Number 4, so here's half a Bonus-Tip to make up for that: If you're below -20 health when all Manufactories are in place.. starve your other Cities. Yes, kill your Citizens for the greater good. Each Health below -20 has a -1% Production Modifier, so each Pop that dies in a City that doesn't contribute anything anymore actually yields Production for the one important City. Sounds gruesome, but truly a Great Leader must know that many lives have to be sacrificed completely unnecessarily just so reach Transcendence a few days earlier.

Anyway. So there we go - 5 Tips that nobody asked for. I hope you learned something! If not... well, congrats to already being awesome!

 

[4N4C0ND4]

Too bad the orbital fabricator is too far to include that in any decent timed victory

 

[joncnunn]

I'm thinking that Beyond Earth (or more precisely a patch released the same week that BE comes up that effects both base game and BE) will do the following:

1, Auto delete a trade unit if when its time to renew you are over the limit.

2. Add a cap on both production & food from cargo routes: Which will be reached extremely quickly for the city with most production.

 

[4N4C0ND4]

1, Auto delete a trade unit if when its time to renew you are over the limit.

Does it mean that currently, if you build a trade depot, establish a trade road then sell the depot, you still keep the road?
It's definitely not game breaking but a bit weird still

This tips make me wonder if PAC is not the best sponsor in the current state to have the best victory time: % wonder production and faster worker speed are just neat for rushing the gates/flower with the factories!

 

[Ryika]

Yes, like I wrote - have the trade depot for a turn, sell it and trade routes still work as if the trade depot was there for the rest of the game. You even get additional trade routes for population after the depot is gone - it's basically a trigger that gets set to active and then stays active forever.

Not that it's really that useful during the game. Because why would you ever want to sell a building that yields +2 Production? But for that one situation in the end it's actually relatively useful to know that.

I highly doubt that PAC is anywhere near as good as Africa though. The Wonder Bonus is neat, but it really doesn't come into play until the very end. Africa is so strong because that free relic adds free Culture AND frees up production in the early game where it's needed the most. I assume PAC is probably a solid third place, slightly behind KP and slightly before Polystralia. Those are just assumptions though, I didn't do too much testing with them.

 

[GAGA Extrem]

The PAC bonus is probably equal to 2-4 rounds. The extra culture from AU is (at least imho) more powerful because your get your second city up much earlier (and that is a HUGE snowball effect!).

edit: Yeah, I'd agree with that ranking. The extra city speed is pretty good for KP. Depending on your trade route availability (Miasma blocking access to the outposts) their ability can be pretty sweet.

 

[I_pity_the_fool]

So what determines the yields of internal trade routes?

 

[Ryika]

The exact mechanics are unknown, but it's mostly determined by the difference between the yields of both cities, with some bonus for total yields produced and some diminishing returns added on top of that.

 

[HorseshoeHermit]

o_O

The less Production they get, the more Production that other City gets.

smh

This sorcery...

 

[Mutineer]

it is very simple, if your trade partner do not produce, your industry produce more! Supply and demand. and seens you are taxin your industry in your city, that city get all benefits

 

[Gritf]

When I'm about to build a wonder, I click on the economy tab (click right where the display of your energy income is) and it shows the economy per city screen). That way I can see which city has the highest production yield at the moment and what are they building, so it helps me decide in which city I will start building the next wonder.

 

[Halbbruder]

1. Agreed. Goes without saying, but to add to that tip, get the industry virtue that increases production of manufactories by 2.

2. I could consider this tip, but depends on the situation I'm in. Your tip assumes that your empire is in a way both tall and wide (say 6 x 15 pop) and there's a city that's not your capital that has both production potential and is relatively easy to defend.

3. I too generally forget about this virtue in my Polystralia industry build until close to the end, but yeah it's a good tip.

4. production trade routes do help in wonder construction, but I wouldn't jeopardize the productivity of my empire while building it. Again, depends on situation.

5. Selling production buildings to boost the production yield from trade routes does sound counter-intuitive but in terms of internal trade routes, I guess it's ok.


I must ask though: does production yield from an internal trade route change during the trade or is it fixed until reset? If latter, then with tips 4 and 5, you would have to stall the trade routes until you've reduced all production in the trading city.

 

[Minor Annoyance]

I must ask though: does production yield from an internal trade route change during the trade or is it fixed until reset? If latter, then with tips 4 and 5, you would have to stall the trade routes until you've reduced all production in the trading city.

It does change while active.

 

[Minor Annoyance]

I still can't decide if this way of calculating trade encourages specialized, or if it's just ridiculous. I don't want to think about it anymore. I'll see how it goes in the new game.

 

[michaeljhuman]

We refer to the disparity as the raping of cities. It feels unethical, but also historical. The stronger city just takes, and takes without giving much back It can be as high as +10 production to the larger city I think?