Districts vs Wonders

[oPunchDrunko]

I'm having a hard time deciding when to build districts or wonders. I play on Prince and the AI really goes after wonders. I know that on higher difficulties that the wonder whoring is worse.

Anyway, I don't know when I should go for a wonder or build a district. I know that some wonders help towards a specific goal, but so do districts.

Do you guys have any advice for this?

 

[Disgustipated]

It's difficult to get in the mindset to let wonders go. Because on Prince in Civ4 I could build a lot of them, not as many in this game. It's best to pick and choose which ones you want. I generally sacrifice all the early game ones. Though occasionally I go for Pyramids and Petra in the right desert conditions. Colosseum I will pick up, but not in the early game. On Prince or King it's usually available later on. Just don't put it off too long.

Some wonders such as Forbidden City, Big Ben, Potala Palace I consider very powerful and I strive to build them every game (and it's doable up until King difficulty). I sometimes go for Alhambra as well. Other mid game wonders I don't value so highly, though I usually build Venetian Arsenal since it's easy to get.

If you are going for culture victory picking up Cristo Redentor and Eiffel Tower are extremely important. Hermitage is a nice boost as well (ideally put this in your city with an Art Museum and Reyna with the Curator promotion).

I would say early on districts are more important, they will win you the game, not wonders. Wonders are just nice to haves.

 

[Sagax]

Which wonders do you tend to build or really want to build, and what’s your usual victory type that you go for? Chances are, a lot of them can be ignored altogether.

Wonders that don’t help your victory condition in any significant way are a waste of hammers and a trap for AIs that try to build them.

 

[oPunchDrunko]

Which wonders do you tend to build or really want to build, and what’s your usual victory type that you go for? Chances are, a lot of them can be ignored altogether.

Wonders that don’t help your victory condition in any significant way are a waste of hammers and a trap for AIs that try to build them.

Well, that varies. I like to have random civs and only pick one victory condition to go for. For example, if I choose to do a culture victory, I don’t choose the Civ. I use random civs. I very well could end up rolling Mongolia and have to try for that culture victory. That’s what’s fun for me: Making the best out of a random situation.

So the wonders I choose to go for completely depend on the map/ victory condition.

 

[Archon_Wing]

You generally need a good reason to build a wonder and of course you may actually fail on the wonder.So usually anything else is safer.

As for wonders to build, I'll quote myself

T0: Colosseum (solves amenities)

T1: Pyramids (better builders), and Big Ben (double gold), Forbidden City (+1 wildcard), Kilwa Kisiwani (Large bonuses from the right CS's, Oxford (tech boost)

T2: Temple of Artemis (Great, but huge opportunity cost), St Basil's (Multipurpose cultural and production wonder), Great Library (Big Science/culture boost), Oracle (great people gambits), Bolshoi Theater (Culture boost), Effel Tower (Resort Spam, also must have for Australia/Mapuche)

Situationally Strong: Mt St.Michel (Mass relics!) Venetian Arsenal (some water maps), Casa de Contratación (Spread out empires), Apadana (Mostly China), Amundsen-Scott (late, but strong if you can actually build it.)

One city wonders (Petra, Chichen, Great Zimbabwe, Broadway, etc) can be good but the thing is the game still prefers city count so individual cities are just not as impactful as they were in previous games. I mean yes, you can have an amazing city for those wonders but it's not something you can always rely upon.

I'd also add maybe Jebel Barkal if you have no iron.

Honestly, if you're starting out and can't figure it out , I would only build the t0/t1 wonders. The ones I listed at t2 are good, but need to be part of a strategy and should be attempted only if you're already doing well. Attempting and failing them will be bad. I'd stay away from the situational/One City ones until you learn more. The rest of the wonders are not worth it in probably 90% of cases and you should pretend they don't exist as a number will just set you back.

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

You can't win the game without districts. You want as many districts as you can get, as quickly as you can get them.

You'll typically win the game faster if you build no Wonders. Even the ones that look like they help towards a specific goal are rarely worth the investment, and you likely need a fair amount of experience to assess the exceptional situation where they are worth it.

If you're having fun, and "winning" as often or as easily as you want, build as many Wonders as you're interested in.

If you're finding the game frustrating because you find it challenging to win, stop building any and all Wonders until you are able to win. Then add them in for fun and spice in future games once you've got the hang of it.