Wonders- Love 'em or leave 'em

[hippo]

There is a thought that building wonders, in game levels warrior and harder, is a waste of time.
The thought is that instead of building wonders, instead build up your forces, then use your army to attack and claim wonders from another civilization.
What are your thoughts?

 

[vapaach]

There is a thought that building wonders, in game levels warrior and harder, is a waste of time.
The thought is that instead of building wonders, instead build up your forces, then use your army to attack and claim wonders from another civilization.
What are your thoughts?

This might sometimes actually work, but the wonders give the enemy also an advantage against you. For example:
Hanging gardens of babylon=
more people=
more hammers,science and gold=
more techs,unit rushing and faster building units,buildings and wonders.Get it? And i think i don`t even have to mention Leonardo`s workshop or the manhattan project.

 

[vinstafresh]

The AI usually builds Leo's workshop as soon as they get Invention. They upgrade their knight to ... uhm. knights... I'm more scared of Germans than a civ who builds Leo's workshop.

I build East India Company, Magna Carta, Leo's Workshop (for tanks and modern infantry) and I would trade a builder for the Hanging Gardens or the Troy wonder if I have a gold city. I snap up other wonders when I have factories in my cities.

The wonders don't have a lot of impact imo. The first to discover bonuses are a lot better imo.

 

[CrimsonEdge]

I mainly go for Leo's Workshop. Easily the best wonder in the game. Keshik spam turning into knights or, even better, tanks is a game winner. Hell, archers turning into rifles is a game winner as well. If nobody messed with you due to you having a large number of archers, no one else will mess with you for having a large number of rifles.

Besides that, I don't really feel the need to build any other wonder. Sometimes I'll build the Oracle early on, but usually not.

 

[bardolph]

One 100-hammer Wonder = 10 Legion Units = 3 Legion Armies + 1 Legion Unit.

If the wonder can do more for you than 3 Legion Armies can, then by all means build the wonder.

 

[simone007]

But dont you think that building wonders in CivRev is unfairly long compared to Civ? I cant understand how you can afford spending so many turns building a Wonder in such a short game. Can someone tell me where I am wrong?

 

[bardolph]

It depends. If you are satisfied with your army size and you've already built all of the required buildings for a city's specialty, then I don't see why you wouldn't want to build a wonder next.

The high price of wonders makes it difficult for a single civ to hog them all, so you are pretty much guaranteed to have a wonder to build even if you miss the race to your original target.

Certain wonders are definitely worth the hammer investment. I build the Library of Alexandria once as the French (playing on Emperor), and easily got six or seven techs out of it before it went obsolete.

Also, CivRev makes it easier to obtain free wonders, either by spawning Great Builders or even just by choosing Egypt.

 

[simone007]

Thanks bardolph, effectively sometimes a city has nothing to do, and you can even assign it to build a Wonder

... either by spawning Great Builders or even just by choosing Egypt.

LOL

 

[Sirp]

Wonders really aren't that expensive. Many of them are a similar price to the more expensive buildings.

If you want to build an ancient wonder or two, you'll probably have to give up on warmongering though.

I love the wonders that improve trade and/or gold production. i.e. Colossus (very useful if you get it early enough), Trade Fair, and the East India Company.

 

[Bosey]

Please take this question for what it is: the wonderings of a complete newbie

Is there value in building The Great Library? If so, how to time it correctly, and should it only be done with certain civs, such as Chinese?

 

[bardolph]

Please take this question for what it is: the wonderings of a complete newbie

Is there value in building The Great Library? If so, how to time it correctly, and should it only be done with certain civs, such as Chinese?

The Great Library has more value at higher difficulty levels. At lower levels, you are likely to have such a tremendous tech lead that the Library doesn't help much.

Also, the GL loses value when one or more civs are knocked out of the game. If you intend to pursue an early domination victory, don't bother with the GL.

The GL is a great choice if you spawn a Great Builder early on. However, it's hard to muster the hammers for it when you're busy constructing your basic infrastructure and national defense.

Keep in mind that it is obsoleted by the University, so once you hit the Industrial Age, it's probably too late to consider building this wonder.

 

[CrimsonEdge]

A good number of the wonders in Civ Rev aren't very good when looked at from a number crunching perspective. There's usually very little benefit to building one compared to building some defenses.

However, if you build your cities in intelligent places, you can often have a city that is safely tucked behind your other cities that can devote all of its time to building wonders. This is especially effective if you've got a city that chokes off the only way into the rest of your civ.

It doesn't happen often, but when you can do this, I recommend it. Most enemies won't send massive amounts of ships to your shores, and if they do then you should have some horses wondering around you cities. You should still have defenses in your wonder cities, just not as many as your main city.

I've done this with a bunch of civs and it's worked just fine. Japan, Mongols, Aztecs, Zulu, Arabs... none of these are really great at culturemongering, yet, I was able to go for the culture victory if I so wanted in any of the games I've done this with.

However, whenever I have a position where I am surrounded, or pinned between two players, I usually never build a wonder on the main land. Ever.

 

[Bosey]

Thanks for the answers!

 

[MKElderGod]

Wonders yeild game breaking benefits. If your the Romans wonders are a must. Other wise build only wonders that fit with your civ example magna carta for the french.

 

[Kikimalaka]

I almost always build Leo and Magna Carta.
The Samurai Castle is good if you are going for an early rush domination game.
In an epic late century game, the military-industrial complex is a nice option.

 

[ctmarco3]

I think depending on the victory type some Wonders are a huge help. They can allow you to significantly increase gold or science or culture! How can that not be a good thing!??!
I mean unless your a warmonger. lol

 

[MKElderGod]

I think depending on the victory type some Wonders are a huge help. They can allow you to significantly increase gold or science or culture! How can that not be a good thing!??!
I mean unless your a warmonger. lol

Warmongers have wonders too, oracle, sam castle, leo workshop, pyramids for fundamentalism.

 

[ctmarco3]

Warmongers have wonders too, oracle, sam castle, leo workshop, pyramids for fundamentalism.

Sure I just meant that they may have more of a preference to take over another civs wonders more so than build their own.

 

[bardolph]

Most of my wonders are popped by great builders. If I get one, I just look at the list of available wonders, and choose whatever's appropriate. Otherwise, I usually build no more than two wonders per game. If I have a city that's already built everything I want and my military's strong, I'll happily invest in a wonder. I've noticed that the AI simply loves the Hanging Gardens. I can't imagine why anyone would build Stonehenge, unless they happened to grab the relic that gives them free temples.

Rome may change my wonder strategy substantially, but I haven't had the chance to play as them yet.

 

[Kev]

I usually disregard the early wonders - especially on Deity. They obsolete so quickly, and there are so many other things that are more important to build.

My early to mid-game usually focuses around big-time cash-generating cities (3-4 if I can get them going within a total of 10 cities). From the mid-game on, it's possible to rush-buy a number of key wonders. The Trade Fair is great in a big gold city as it pays for the rushing very quickly. Love to rush buy Leo's as well. I have also been rushing Oxford recently with great effects. The technology you get is very advanced and can be leveraged very well. Last game I got Networking and then I rush-built the Internet straight away. Took about all my funds, but it broke the game and I basically could buy the whole world.

Later, when I have some good production cities running at full steam, I might build some wonders "normally", but I think it's more efficient to target the key mid-game ones and rush them out.