Is the Petra basically a "luxury wonder"?

[cazaderonus]

Petra overrated ? WTF ?

A desert with just ONE oasis and even no hills makes Petra worth it as all tiles around the oasis will benefit from petra\irrigation\admi farm bonuses. So for ONE oasis that can lead to a whooping 7F/7H bonus.

Once found a location with 2 oasis, 3/4 mountains and even lake victoria in range. Turned out to be a complete mayhem. Only sad part is i rolled that map for the chieftain challenge which bored me to death after 100 turn.

 

[Myth and Legend]

It's worth it for sure, but I damn hate losing it while being halfway into Mathematics to Denmark who rolled 1 desert tile near their capital..

 

[Solutionfinder]

I would say it is a "luxury wonder" because you simply cannot afford it. I mean you have to sacrifice philosophy for currency which is not ideal (and later you miss Petra anyway, most of the time) but if you do manage to get it done, it`s like a blessing if you have good environment which would be sheep (that`s 4 4 after fertilizer + stables), oasis (4 1 1 ) and iron on hill tiles (that is a massive hammer output, ....with additional +1 ). You can later include coal and aluminium but when deciding whether to go for it or not it`s impossible to know that unless you start in modern era.

Also as some have already mentioned it, even lux resources such as marble and incense become bearable if not on flood plains. Even if you lack hills but have resources such as stones or iron on flat desert, Petra makes it worth same as hill tiles with stoneworks and forge.

So yeah it`s always good to have Petra but never a priority, at least for me personally.

 

[reddishrecue]

Hmm,, idk petra could become a must have when starting out on deserts so be careful not to. Luxuries themselves have unique improvements to camps from plantations.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Luxury isn't the right term. Situational is the term I'd use. It can be really powerful, but more often it isn't even buildable.

 

[CraigMak]

Petra can be one of the strongest wonders in the game. If you have a bunch of desert hills it is absolutely epic and turns your terrain into god mode. Plus an extra caravan. Just WOW! Petra is amazing but rushing currency before philosophy is not advised. For this reason it can be an awkward wonder to obtain.

Sacrifice science for epic production. Although, If you can manage to get HG and Petra which is what I usually do with an amazing desert start you will be unstoppable.

 

[sunbeam]

Sacrifice science for epic production. Although, If you can manage to get HG and Petra which is what I usually do with an amazing desert start you will be unstoppable.

About the hanging gardens... is it possible that the Temple of Artemis is better if you don't need a garden?

 

[reddishrecue]

It could be because it doesn't require the tradition opener.

 

[Athenaeum]

I dont think its fair that you guys are counting the food gained from the extra trade route slot from Petra.

You don't need to build the Petra to get that food, you can simply build another caravan. Unless you've already maxed out your trade routes, but even if you've done that, your internal trade routes might already be at their full capacity anyways.

 

[Acken]

What are you talking about ? Petra adds an aditional route. It IS 4 free food out of Petra.

 

[CraigMak]

I dont think its fair that you guys are counting the food gained from the extra trade route slot from Petra.

You don't need to build the Petra to get that food, you can simply build another caravan. Unless you've already maxed out your trade routes, but even if you've done that, your internal trade routes might already be at their full capacity anyways.

It is an EXTRA trade route meaning that you get to have 1 more than everyone else in the world. This is in fact EXTRA food. Petra is epic and worth building even if you have only a couple of desert tiles due to the extra trade route.

 

[CraigMak]

About the hanging gardens... is it possible that the Temple of Artemis is better if you don't need a garden?

Well, if you have 60 food going into your cap then artemis will yield 6 food so in that case it is better than HG whenever you have more than 60 food in your cap.

Then there's all your other cities which also obtain the bonus.

Although I like that HG gives you more food so that you can work hills if you want. Artemis only gives you lots more food if you already have plenty of food.

Of course then there's also the ranged unit production bonus. That's pretty good in itself since ranged is all most people make anyways.

All in all artemis is on par with HG in my book although works quite differently.

 

[cazaderonus]

Petra can be one of the strongest wonders in the game. If you have a bunch of desert hills it is absolutely epic and turns your terrain into god mode. Plus an extra caravan. Just WOW! Petra is amazing but rushing currency before philosophy is not advised. For this reason it can be an awkward wonder to obtain.

Sacrifice science for epic production. Although, If you can manage to get HG and Petra which is what I usually do with an amazing desert start you will be unstoppable.

Last 3 games i played were obvious petra starting locations. Got petra every time at turn 60/65 beelining currency after potery and mining. And was able to catch AI in science pretty effectively after currency.

Just using 1/2 caravans (had the chance once to grab fishing from a hut) purely for science until you get to writing\philosophy avoids creating a huge gap. And in the time you grow your cities while beelining petra, the building of libraries will be a lot more efficient than a "usual" writing\philosophy start. For example, took 2/3 turns in my capital to get library after petra every time, under 10 turns for the other 2 first funded cities and most of the time you should be able to rushbuy a library if one city is subpar in hammers as production focus in the capital for Petra should give you nice income.

Point being that on those last 3 games, i completed my 4 city NC at turn 85/90 while having an uber powerfull capital thanks to Petra.

 

[Myth and Legend]

Last 3 games i played were obvious petra starting locations. Got petra every time at turn 60/65 beelining currency after potery and mining. And was able to catch AI in science pretty effectively after currency.

Just using 1/2 caravans (had the chance once to grab fishing from a hut) purely for science until you get to writing\philosophy avoids creating a huge gap. And in the time you grow your cities while beelining petra, the building of libraries will be a lot more efficient than a "usual" writing\philosophy start. For example, took 2/3 turns in my capital to get library after petra every time, under 10 turns for the other 2 first funded cities and most of the time you should be able to rushbuy a library if one city is subpar in hammers as production focus in the capital for Petra should give you nice income.

Point being that on those last 3 games, i completed my 4 city NC at turn 85/90 while having an uber powerfull capital thanks to Petra.

Is that on Deity?

I really struggle going 4 city prior to NC on Deity.

 

[cazaderonus]

yup, deity only.

But obviously, this is true when you get decent dirt. And i've only recently started to be way more agressive with settlers, worker stealing and dealing with early unhappiness. Never suspected even a year back how much those 10 first turn can be decisive and strategic.

To practice this petra start, i'd say the DCL#28 with russia is a very sweet one. It's so obviously OP lol

 

[stormtrooper412]

Yeah, that's how most of us opened the DCL6. It was even worth delaying the NC for HG

 

[cazaderonus]

DCL#6, only saw those DCL recently so i'll check it out. I still need to finish the russian one before though ^^

 

[BBMorti]

Petra is the strongest wonder in the game, depending on the situation. There is no way around it

 

[Mesix]

One thing which annoys me about Petra is that the AI will build it with one flat desert tile next to it's capital. The AI should be programmed to use it properly (i.e. seek out a proper city location with a settler if planning to build Petra).

 

[LordBalkoth]

I've seen the AI build it with nothing but a single Flood Plains tile (I mean, it still gets a bonus Caravan and 6 culture later on but it literally doesn't get a single food or production yield bonus).