AI always builds Wonders before me (Difficulty: Monarch)

[Starke Von Oben]

Never really gave Civ3 much thought (keen Civ2 player), but finally decided to give it a shot and rather enjoyed it.

I'm playing at Monarch level, and the computer is always ahead of me with regards technology. In addition, I am unable to build any wonder as the computer always seems to beat me to it. I notice cutting down forests does nothing towards building wonders - do you just have to 'wait it out'? Are there any tips for increasing wonder production?

 

[CommandoBob]

Part of your answer can be found in the thread Why does AI get so far ahead of me in Tech in Monarch level?.

The other part is using Prebuilds. For example, you want to build Sun Tzu's Art of War and get free barracks in all cities on your continent/land mass. It is not available to build until you learn Feudalism. So you could wait until you learn that tech and then start building it. Or, you could have one city start building a new Palace while you are still researching Feudalism and then change the Palace build to Sun Tzu's once you learn Feudalism.

The article The 4 rules of Wonder addiction is worth reading, too.

 

[Starke Von Oben]

Ah thank you very much, that's improved my game - not so 'technologically backward'

 

[Puppeteer]

Wonder builds cannot be rushed by forest chops, cash or whip. And you can't short-rush it by rushing the most expensive improvement you can and then switching. If any shields in the build box are from chops or other rushes you can't change the build to a wonder, and if you're building a wonder the forest chop shields disappear into oblivion.

Aside from prebuilds and getting the needed techs, you also prefer to have a very productive city build the wonder. Low-corruption (or specifically low-waste), high population and improved land that provides plenty of shields.

Of course you could also use that production to build up your military, and military *can* be rushed by forest chops and rushing. And military can take that city from the AI after they build it.

 

[Celo]

Forgive me if my English is bad, and the translator leave a few things written wrong
n. what you can say is: If you can't build Wonders before the IA, take them. Simple as that. If you are able to do more than 50% of them (wonders), you definitely are playing in a difficulty below what you can.

I play on Monarch and usually get 2 to 4 build wonders, trying to prioritize the best, until Voyage of Darwin, which I almost always do, and that's the moment that take the technological leadership of the game. After that, almost never I lose Wonders.