Chichen Itza

[Doctor Doom]

This has to be one of my favorite wonders for Brazil or Persia. I just love getting those never ending golden ages. Unfortunately its a very high priority wonder for the AI. Is it worth it to build on emperor+ and what turn is it safe to start building it?

 

[direblade99]

I never go for it unless I have a liberty great engineer, but since I almost never go liberty, that's an issue. In many cases on emperor and immortal it's gone only a couple turns after it becomes available to the human player, at least in my experience.

 

[Memoryjar]

Liberty too. But after, I'm late cause I need to hard build aqueduct.

For my experience, you need to finish it before T 90-100 in Immortal. With Tradition you need a god start, Babylon or Maya.

Scout capital and big cities (7 to 9 pops) on the map, Chichen Itza picture is easy to find. If an AI went far into Liberty, I never try it. Fortunately, AI seems to dislike Liberty.

 

[budweiser]

It usually doesnt fit my game style, so I let it go.

 

[JeSuisNapoleon]

Its certainly gettable on Emperor, dont know about above.
as mentioned above, using an engineer is probably the best way.

if I am not going for a CV, then i don't mind letting my neighbor build it for me

 

[FinsT]

On top of using the engineer, forests can also help. If your capital has some, may be keep a few forest tiles until you're about to get Itza. Then work 'em forests, best if your workers would finish cutting some forests 1 turn after you started to build Itza. If one of your other cities have lots of forests, may be send several workers there in advance and cut like mad, perhaps it'd be even faster (with an engineer or even without) than to build it in the capital without any forests. Given few turns needed to cut forests, may be 2nd round of cutting 'em could also be done before some AI build Itza.

I had mightily great time cutting forests for a wonder - in my case, it was a great lighthouse i was willing to build ahead of an AI, and it worked awesome. Without cutting forests, i'd be having less than half of the great lighthouse built before AI would finish it. 5 or 6 forest tiles cut (don't remember precisely), and i was well ahead of an AI finishing the thing.

 

[droberts97470]

This is the first I've heard of cutting forests for a particular reason. What does it do for you?

 

[Croc104]

This is the first I've heard of cutting forests for a particular reason. What does it do for you?

Chopping a forest gives 20 (possibly different amounts on different difficulties?!) production to the nearest city. So if you have a city producing 10 hammers per turn, chopping a forest essentially gives you two turn's worth of production on top of what you gain per turn.

The ultimate advantage being a reduced amount of turns it will take to build your current building project. Be it a unit, building or wonder.

 

[chazzycat]

I agree it's pretty important for Persia or Brazil, but otherwise I rarely have room to fit into my build (it goes pretty quick at immortal). It's high on the list of non-essential wonders though, I would definitely try to capture it if nearby.

 

[Doctor Doom]

I agree it's pretty important for Persia or Brazil, but otherwise I rarely have room to fit into my build (it goes pretty quick at immortal). It's high on the list of non-essential wonders though, I would definitely try to capture it if nearby.

I don't think Chichen Itza is that great of a wonder on anything but Persia or Brazil. I normally go down liberty as Persia and plop out 3 cities (other than the capital) mass produce some catapults and immortals and then go crazy on my neighbours. Seriously though, what's with this warmonger penalty?

 

[chazzycat]

yeah it does put a crimp on wonder snatching that's for sure. sometimes you can get away with it, depending on how much the AIs hate warmongering. founding world congress so you can propose arts funding first also helps (everyone loves arts funding). it is rare that i would conquer a capital in an otherwise peaceful game though. The penalties as they are right now seem to favor a black or white approach, where you either stay peaceful (maybe with some non-conquering wars) or go all-out warmonger.

 

[Magma_Dragoon]

AI loves CI too much to get it reliably, but I can usually grab the city that has it in time for my second natural golden age and the Taj, which I time to start about the time the WC passes the world's fair for maximum culture output.

 

[FinsT]

Chopping a forest gives 20 (possibly different amounts on different difficulties?!) production to the nearest city. ...

Yes and yes - possibly different amounts indeed; i played King and it was +40 production per forest tile cut, if memory doesn't fail me. Still, even with 20, lots of forest tiles and a fair bunch of workers can be alot of production boost i guess.

 

[Browd]

The number of hammers from forest chopping varies by game speed and the distance of the tile from the city center:

• At Standard speed, chopping earns you 20 hammers from forests on tiles in rings 1 and 2 of a city, 15 hammers in ring 3, 10 hammers in ring 4, and 5 hammers in ring 5.
  
  
• At Quick, forest chopping in rings 1 and 2 yields 13 hammers (2/3 of Standard), while ring 3 is 10 hammers, ring 4 is 6 hammers and ring 5 is 3 hammers.
  
  
• At Epic, forest chopping in rings 1 and 2 yields 30 hammers (1.5 x Standard), while ring 3 is 22 hammers, ring 4 is 15 hammers and ring 5 is 7 hammers.
  
  
• Finally, at Marathon, forest chopping in rings 1 and 2 yields 60 hammers (3 x Standard), while ring 3 is 45 hammers, ring 4 is 30 hammers and ring 5 is 15 hammers.

 

[Magma_Dragoon]

The number of hammers from forest chopping varies by game speed and the distance of the tile from the city center:

• At Standard speed, chopping earns you 20 hammers from forests on tiles in rings 1 and 2 of a city, 15 hammers in ring 3, 10 hammers in ring 4, and 5 hammers in ring 5.
  
  
• At Quick, forest chopping in rings 1 and 2 yields 13 hammers (2/3 of Standard), while ring 3 is 10 hammers, ring 4 is 6 hammers and ring 5 is 3 hammers.
  
  
• At Epic, forest chopping in rings 1 and 2 yields 30 hammers (1.5 x Standard), while ring 3 is 22 hammers, ring 4 is 15 hammers and ring 5 is 7 hammers.
  
  
• Finally, at Marathon, forest chopping in rings 1 and 2 yields 60 hammers (3 x Standard), while ring 3 is 45 hammers, ring 4 is 30 hammers and ring 5 is 15 hammers.

These values are halved if the forest is outside your culture borders

 

[YourHarry]

These values are halved if the forest is outside your culture borders

Are the values halved? I recall that a forest 2 tiles away from the city outside the boundary gives me 13 production. Must test... or if someone can educate me.

 

[Browd]

Actually, the out-of-territory discount is only 1/3, but the values are rounded in some cases.

At Standard, the yield from chopping outside city culture borders is 13 hammers in ring 2, 10 hammers in ring 3, 6 hammers in ring 4, and 3 hammers in ring 5.

 

[klaskeren]

deity, no, immortal, maybe, anything below, yes