AWD (All the Wonders Disorder)

Magma the Great

Chieftain
Joined
Dec 7, 2014
Messages
19
Hello I am Magma, and I'm a wonderholic.
Whenever I play a game of Civ I go crazy with the wonders, neglecting to make any other progress. I usually have a second city founded by turn 30-45 (If ever). And after I've gotten to a lull in the wonders I start going crazy making all the buildings! I never stop!
I have a feeling that if I took a more balanced strategy I'd be doing better, but... THEY'RE SO OP!!!
How do I break this wonder addiction? I really want to focus more on expansion, but... THE WONDERS!!!
Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks!
 
To break yourself of the habit, play on immortal at least. You won't have the opportunity to build any wonders. It forces you to pare your game down to the essentials.
 
I hear you.

I am trying to break myself of this habit even on Prince, and it's easy enough at first, but the problem is when I've built almost everything the city can build at the moment and the wonder is still sitting there unbuilt fifty turns after I unlocked the tech for it. So I start building it. And of course, THAT'S when some jerk AI completes it.
 
I had this same problem early on in Civ 5 but as a small token step forward I approach it a different way now that has helped me ignore wonders.

I just focus on wonders for whatever victory condition. I'm going for. I dont care if it's the hanging gardens, if it doesn't fit my victory condition it's not for me.

I do that or just focus on wonders that compliment my civ the absolute best like:
Aztec w/ jungle start and hanging gardens and temple of Artemis

The Zulu with statue of zues, Alhambra, and brandenburg gate.

Ethiopia or Shoshone with defenders of faith, great wall, red fort, and himeji castle

Babylon and ALL the buildings that give a great person or great scientist bonus.

England with the great lighthouse and exploration social policy.

These little mini games help me ignore other wonders.
but if you truly want to kick the habit. Go into the game with CLEAR goals and objectives. Fill your city build ques with absolute necessities to achieve those goals and disregard wonders that don't cleary help with those objectives.

By the way if you juse play domination you can have all the wonders anyway!
 
1. building wonders isn't the only way to have them. they'll be spread out, though.
2. very few wonders actually pay off. They're all good, but the opportunity cost is often too high.
3. on higher difficulty the AI will build way more wonders than you can.

I got addicted to this as well, especially watching the screen and listening to the intro when the wonder is done. Force yourself to not build it if it's not critical, i.e. not Stonehenge/Petra/Porcelain/Sistine/Hubble
 
Thanks for the help everyone! I will try to follow this advice... "Wait, that wonder does what!?" (Queues up a fifty turn wonder)
 
...but... THEY'RE SO OP!!!

Take a look at this more critically. Are they really OP? Are they OP compared to what else you could be doing with the hammers? Are they OP compared to the better Wonders?

The Great Library is like getting two libraries, so very nice, and not something you could otherwise do in a single city, but the hammer cost is like three libraries. It is not really a good deal, and not OP. Even worse is that the opportunity cost hurts your game and makes it more difficult for you to develop strategies that work at more difficult levels.

Now compare GL to wonders that are worth bothering with, say Henge and Mids. Stonehenge outperforms both shrine and temple in faith:hammer ratio. The culture and GE points are gravy, so it has little downside (assuming you get it). The Pyramids is even better! It cost about the same as three workers, and you get two +50% workers in addition to other buffs, so clearly worth the hammers. Plus it is reliable to pursue even at Deity, so no harm there.

Isn't it weak praise though that the best early wonders are only mediocre? In previous civ iterations, wonders could make or break your game. Not so much with V.
 
Are we talking Civ 5, vanilla and G&K, or BNW? Another ambiguous thread.

In G&K, there are still some very powerful wonders that are buildable at Emperor, and sometimes Immortal.

For science or conquest, GL should be built at all costs. It gives you Philosophy early, which should allow The Oracle. This gives you early science specialist slots which should net you 3-4 bonus great scientists as the game plays out. These can be game changers.

In G&K, Leaning Tower is a must for generating great people. Bee lining to printing press and blowing a GE to get this wonder is optimal for any victory condition.

In science games, Porcelain Tower is very important, but not doable at Immortal.

Sistine should be rushed in culture games.

These are the only wonders that are really high priority in G&K, IMO. But spamming engineering wonders early on isn't a bad strategy is possible.
 
I used to be a wonderholic myself so what I did is adopt different policies since I knew that other civilizations can often conquer cities that have a lot of wonders. I was thinking that I was building wonders for someone else.
 
Early wonders can be really detrimental to your Civ's necessary infrastructure. You need to pick and choose the wonders that will actually help you in your desired victory condition.
 
How do I break this wonder addiction? I really want to focus more on expansion, but... THE WONDERS!!!
The term "wonder addiction" simply doesn't exist. Silence that inner voice of yours that tells you otherwise.
Anyway the cure is simple...
Spoiler :
just add even more wonders with the mods :satan:
 
Great Library, if you can build it, is more or less of a slingshot used to grab 1 more critical wonder (for me, usually either the Colossus or Great Lighthouse): the instant completion of Optics/Iron Working is typically enough to guarantee an early-enough start to winning that particular race (although you're going to want at least a hill or 2, or a few forests on King/Emperor to be safe).
 
just play a game on Deity. You'd only be able to get Machu Picchu and the ones unlocked in policies that other players didn't touch.

However, beware of one thing. If you go tradition with Egypt and you're on an archipelago map with a desert and some Marble nearby, oooh boy
 
Best cure for Wonderholicism, is 2-3 warmonger AI's for neighbors; to light a fire under your mule !!
 
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