Do you ever build Angkor Wat?

[Buccaneer]

No, because as Lyoncet said, your core cities should already be expanding culturally at a fast clip and gold should not be a problem to buy that one or two 100g tiles. Besides, placement of your other (few) cities should already be right near the desired luxuries. There are better than things to use resources on, esp. on higher difficulties when one is not wonder spamming.

 

[smallfish]

No, because as Lyoncet said, your core cities should already be expanding culturally at a fast clip and gold should not be a problem to buy that one or two 100g tiles. Besides, placement of your other (few) cities should already be right near the desired luxuries. There are better than things to use resources on, esp. on higher difficulties when one is not wonder spamming.

But what if this happens?

Spoiler :

 

[Lance of Llanwy]

I think every religious bulding which requires a belief shuld have one wonder associated with it. Terracotta Army could use an improvement as it is just old Stonehenge, but later and more expensive, and the Hagia Sophia is very situational because it also increases the cost of all further prophets.
So my suggestions to improve some wonders would be:

Terracotta Army: Additional free Pagoda (or Monastery)
Hagia Sophia: Free Cathedral instead of free Temple
Angkor Wat: Free Monastery (or Pagoda)

Granted, the Monastery can either be pretty weak or very strong depending on the presence of Wine and Incense, but at the very least youll get +2 and out of it. Giving a free Monastry to Terracotta Army and a free Pagoda for Angkor Wat would be better for balance but make less sense flavor wise.

I don't think Hagia Sophia is meant to be something you build if you already have a bunch of faith(that's the Grand Mosque's job). I think it's intended as a way to back-door yourself into founding a religion when you've spent the early-game doing other things(i.e. it's most powerful in situations where you wouldn't pop a prophet otherwise).
It'd make sense for it to award a Cathedral instead of a temple though(or even any other faith building). The cathedral would sharpen its secondary focus(culture) nicely.
Angkor Wat though? Even with a pagoda, it doesn't seem that great. The wonder itself needs to be more powerful, even if they just slap some faith on it, but even then, it comes at a bad time. There are better wonders unlocked on the same tech path, better wonders for the same beakers on other paths, and there are some powerful ones up the tech tree a little(Himeji Castle and Sistine Chapel, off the top of my head) further than it. You're usually going to have a better wonder to invest in, if you're investing in a wonder at all.

 

[elprofesor]

The question is what kind of empire Angkor Wat is supposed to help... Tall empires (because they won't settle new cities to claim new resources), or wide empires (because they won't invest much in culture)? In both cases, it is weak, or at least not really useful.

Off the top of my head:
-If AW is supposed to help tall empires, maybe it should also grant 2 extra culture for hexes on the third ring of any city (or maybe only the city that built it);
-If AW is supposed to help wide empires, maybe it should also grant "free" cultural expansions, say 6 free hexes for every already settled city, and any city settled afterwards; and +1 culture per city (liberty style). That would constitute a good wonder for wide empires, IMHO;
-Maybe a culture (or gold?) lump sum everytime one of your cities acquires a tile via culture? Say, everytime one of your cities acquires a hex, you gain as much culture as that city has hexes under its influence.
-A faith or culture bonus to jungles?

I don't know, city borders bonuses are usually somewhat weak by themselves...

 

[n00bxqb]

If I'm building tall, I'm building University > Oxford University before I even think about building Angkor Wat.

If I'm building wide, I'll usually build it in my capital as it helps get new cities established.

 

[Big J Money]

Weird, I was wondering this same thing today. It has to be to help new cities. Expanding in 8 turns instead of 10 can be useful for border cities, for example, if it means getting a lux 2 turns sooner. But it does seem pretty situational. The discount on purchasing seems like icing, unless you're America.

 

[chazzycat]

it's nice as the Inca because the good terrace sites are low priorities for the auto-expanding mechanism.

 

[Bechhold]

Only if I have nothing else to build.

 

[slobberinbear]

It's good for Iroquois, to buy/expand onto those pesky forest tiles that the game doesn't ordinarily like. Plus Hiawatha usually has plenty of hammers to throw around. Not sure he has a real good shot of getting it at Emperor+ though if he prioritizes Metal Casting.

 

[_invy_]

I don't build it, doesn't seem interesting, I just buy the tiles I need.

 

[Smokeybear]

If it doesn't get nabbed quickly, or if I'm ahead in techs, I'll grab it just so that my empire expands that much faster. It may not be a worldbeater, but getting more tiles more quickly is never a bad thing.

 

[chazzycat]

I don't build it, doesn't seem interesting, I just buy the tiles I need.

doesn't it reduce the cost of gold purchasing tiles as well?

 

[apocalypse105]

The problem with angor wat is that it comes to late to become important..

If the angor wat was available at philosophy wich makes sence because it is a temple... I would built it because it can help you a lot in the long run.

Instead of building the national college I would try to built the angor wat and then settle new cities and get crazy borders...

at the time I hit education my core 4 (3) cities are allready placed


The tradiition opener is the strongest in the game because it comes EARLY thats why angor wat needs to come earlier

 

[homerj]

It's a pretty situational wonder.

If you get stuck on a large island, it lets you spread borders with fewer cities. Good to stop the AI from trying to settle on it. You can save having to put down a couple of extra cities that have the sole purpose of taking up space.

 

[zyx]

IIRC in vanilla AW was buildable as soon as you unlocked theology. Education is way too late.

Maybe AW is useful for emipres/players, that ignore culture at all - building no monuments, amphitheaters, etc. I'd like to know what the devs had in mind when deciding to go with Education.

Maybe they tested GnK from Renaissance era and wanted to expand quickly. ;-)

 

[ense7en]

Nope, i think i've maybe built it once or twice in 800+ hours of playing.

Just not that useful, and far more important things to build around that time.