Angkor Wat: Uber Monastery from HELL!!!

[yturk39]

I used to never build this wonder, but now I have to say, I'm really digging it.

1) All priest specialists in your Civ get +1 hammers; nearly as good as an Engineer.

2) If you really want a priest GP, being able to build four in that city from that wonder alone makes it a virtual shoe-in. It's like having a holy city shrine without the mess that comes from being the one guy making money off the spread of your state religion.

3) All those priests with their hammers and gold...when you put them to work building wealth or research...either way works well. If you pop a Great Prophet and settle him, HE gets the hammer bonus too! It's gift that keeps on giving!


'Anyone else recently re-discover a wonder they'd rarely go for before, and think, "Wait a minute...this is pretty damn cool!!"

???

 

[lymond]

Actually, Ankor priests would be better than Engineers. The downside being that you generate more Great Prophets which become near worthless later on except for Golden Ages or settling. However, if it is not in your NE city and that NE city is setup right, then you wont produce many anyway. It's a decent wonder but I still rarely build it.

edit: more than likely I have better use for my hammers around the time Ankor comes available.

 

[Optical]

It's a solid wonder, but not my favourite - Great Library takes that any day

 

[Grassland Farm]

My recent love over a wonder is the Pyramid-Egypt combo.

Pyramid allow you to switch to Representation, and you get priests specialists with Mysticism only.

I had many luck in one game, floodplains and stone near my capital. I teched REALLY fast in the early game.

 

[Optical]

Pyramids are my second choice - followed by Mausoleum or the Oracle, maybe.

 

[rugbyLEAGUEfan]

I also will build Angkor Wat if I have gone down the bulbing route to get Philosophy and Taoism , especially if religions are scarce on the landmass for temples. Considering I would have used at least one scientist to get there and would be wanting another for an academy , getting your shrine up without it can be painfully slow .

 

[The7Sins]

My favorite would be the Parthenon especially with a Philosophical leader. All those lovely extra GP points (drools). Combine that with the Nats Epic and Park and yuo have a very nice GP pump. Add in Caste System for Merchants and you never have to worry about money again. Let the war machine commence!!

 

[rugbyLEAGUEfan]

Just to be picky , Parthenon is actually less effective for PHI leaders ,due to the way the multipliers work . Since PHI leaders already have a %100 multiplier to GPP and the extra %50 from the Parthenon is in addition to this , it is relatively less value .

Same goes for the National Epic ( though of course you still want to build this) and the overrated Forum combined with a random PHI leader

 

[The7Sins]

Just to be picky , Parthenon is actually less effective for PHI leaders ,due to the way the multipliers work . Since PHI leaders already have a %100 multiplier to GPP and the extra %50 from the Parthenon is in addition to this , it is relatively less value .

Same goes for the National Epic ( though of course you still want to build this) and the overrated Forum combined with a random PHI leader

But the overall amount of GP points is till more than a non Philo leader. Thus what I want is overall points not how much more effective Parthenon is for some than others.
Besides I do the above with any leader Philo or not if I plan to warmonger.

 

[rugbyLEAGUEfan]

But the overall amount of GP points is till more than a non Philo leader. Thus what I want is overall points not how much more effective Parthenon is for some than others.
Besides I do the above with any leader Philo or not if I plan to warmonger.

Well to be fair you did say " especially with a PHI leader " . Im just pointing out that it is a misconception that Parthenon and PHI leaders go perfectly together .

To justify teching Aesthetics and building it you need a very effective SE up and running . You need an even better one to build it if PHI.

 

[mynystry]

If I don't have to expand so quickly then I like to go for Stonehenge, free monuments in all cities gives you almost the extra trait "creative" and the early great prophet you get will become very probably the founder of a new religion, for me christianism and therefore apostolic palace O.o!!

Other wonders I love is Pyramids, but it is very expensive to get, only if you have stone (or you are industrious) and if you have a city with good production to focus on it without affecting your early expansion. The effects of the Pyramids are awesome, you can get Representation that early in the game, Happinnes and Science + Great Engineer GP points, yeah!

If I see marble around I would try to get oracle, parthenon, great library and even sistine chapel. If I see stone around and I have a religion then I would try to get University of Sankore and Spiral Minaret, although a rarely research divine right cos I am usually rushing for Liberalism

Modern wonders that I like are Pentagon, which allows you to build units with two promotions in every city without the need of running obsolete civics. And even if some disagree I think Three Gorges Dam is pretty damn cool, specially if you control a large continent.

I would go for Angkor Wat only if I have stone and I need a great prophet desperately to found the shrine. Otherwise I think it is too many hammers

 

[obsolete]

1) All priest specialists in your Civ get +1 hammers; nearly as good as an Engineer.

No, the priest actually becomes better than the engineer here. Take a look again.

If you pop a Great Prophet and settle him, HE gets the hammer bonus too!

No, he doesn't. Take a look again.

'Anyone else recently re-discover a wonder they'd rarely go for before,

No.

 

[yturk39]

You're right...the settled Great Prophets are normal. That sucks. I guess it isn't too big a deal for me, because I like settled Great Prophets the way they are anyway.

The Engineer thing, though...is that right? Is the 1 gold per turn better than the beakers an Engineer generates?

I guess in a way it is...gold is more flexible. You can use it to pump up research, espionage, culture, or just let it accumulate. You can use it to upgrade units, or take advantage of random events / mitigate random disasters. Beakers? They're just beakers. They might help you get to techs that make you more flexible in the future, but gold will AWALYS be more versatile. Good call.

I guess I'm just enjoying Angkor Wat this game because I'm playing as Saladin, and I'm finding a nice synergy between Angkor's abilities and Saladin's kick-butt Madrassas.

I mean, with this combo who needs Caste System? I'm saving gold just staying with Tribalism.

 

[obsolete]

Is the 1 gold per turn better than the beakers an Engineer generates?

No. Engineers don't give beakers (unless rep). Take a look again.

 

[Optical]

In other words, yes, one gold is better than no beakers

Madrassas would work nicely with it, indeed . Those are some real uber-specialists you get with Angkor.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

If you pop a Great Prophet and settle him, HE gets the hammer bonus too!

No, he doesn't. Take a look again.

Hmmm, it sure took a lot of messages before someone spotted that misconception. I guess it is one of those "you really wish it were true" kinds of concepts.

'Anyone else recently re-discover a wonder they'd rarely go for before,

No.

Aaaaahahaha! Typical obsolete awesomeness at its best!


Angkor Wat is usually one of those "probably better to capture" than build Wonders. I might only build it in a game where my capital is spamming Wonders for the addtional Great People Points and thus I actually appreciate both the whole +2 GPP as well as the Great Prophet Points (for settling more Great Prophets). Again, hats off to obsolete for that strategy.


Besides, wouldn't you rather capture a Holy Shrine that an AI completed for you simply because you allowed them to build a Wonder (Angkor Wat) that gave them the opportunity and motivation to hire several Priests and thus generate Great Prophets?

 

[Peregrine]

This last game I built Angkhor and, sure enough, the priests slots produced more than the engineer slots. After the SoL, almost every city had one instead of the engineers that I usually place.

Thanx for the tip.

 

[Grassland Farm]

In the (very) early game, Priest are fine specialists (You can always use some hammers, and you can run 100% science thanks to the extra gold)
However, engies become crucial when you need to hurry THE wonders with the great engineers (Sistine for cultural, Pentagon for overpromotion, Sankore for mad beakers...)

 

[Shorlin]

I played an archipelago map the other day and had forgotten how overpowered the great light house is, if you can get temple of artemis as well it is ridiculous.
Colossus on archipelago with a financial leader is totally ridiculous as well.

 

[yturk39]

Man...you guys are merciless... Well, I DID start this post by saying I hardly ever build this wonder.

Thanks for the corrections! I still think the Wat's pretty slick...