Does anyone build Wonders?

[lorno47]

I almost always go scout -> monument -> Stonehenge or great lib with aristocracy no matter who I am playing. Got it every time so far. I will probably just make a handful after that of the ones I think I need depending on how the game is going.

The national wonders are really for small Civs to buff them up, it seems. Easy to hit the requirements when you only have a handful of powerhouse cities.

 

[Monsterzuma]

Too risky and the effects are underwhelming. I'd take the average +4 happiness building over most wonder effects any day of the week, and that's before taking the risk factor in account.

Of course, if we consider the Big Bloody Pile of Axes a wonder, I build that one a LOT.

 

[GreyIago]

Too risky and the effects are underwhelming. I'd take the average +4 happiness building over most wonder effects any day of the week, and that's before taking the risk factor in account.

Of course, if we consider the Big Bloody Pile of Axes a wonder, I build that one a LOT.

I prefer wonders over buildings. Wonders don't charge maintenance.

 

[Mercade]

Play Egypt, with that policy that speeds up Wonders, it works wonders.

Wonders should be playable for all Civs

National wonders, however, seem terrible. A prereq building in every city? I'm not doing that.

Agreed. Having a 100% city requirement is just too restrictive for anything but early game or if you enjoy playing a very small empire.

Btw, in terms of this 100% city requirement for a national wonder, does this include puppet cities? You have no control over what they build so that would mean it's practically impossible to get a national wonder after you start conquering cities.

 

[SuperJay]

I can't swear to this, but I'm pretty sure puppet cities don't count. You have to actually control what they produce.

However, if you have National Epic built and then you acquire a new city without a Barracks, I think the National Epic mysteriously evaporates. At least that's what happened to me last night - I started seeing it show up again in the production menu in my cities long after I'd built it the first time. Granted, it was only 10 turns, but c'mon.... again??

 

[DalekDavros]

I've been experimenting (around Emperor, so far) with staying at just one city until I get Patronage unlocked (and saving up culture so that I can buy 3-5 SPs right then). This typically puts you behind temporarily on score, but means that you can usually get the Heroic Epic and National College up when you still have only one city. Then ally with a maritime CS or two while REXing and your new cities will grow really quickly until you catch up with the AIs and surpass them. With the early happiness boost from having only one city, you can hopefully time it so that the first Golden Age comes in right around the time that your happiness is dipping towards zero and then quickly get some lux resources online before the happiness bucket starts collecting again.

Good Wonders:
Great Library (for Civil Service, ideally)
Great Lighthouse (on Archipelago)
Stonehenge
Oracle (best part is that it doesn't increase cost for next SP)

I can't swear to this, but I'm pretty sure puppet cities don't count.

I can confirm this.

However, if you have National Epic built and then you acquire a new city without a Barracks, I think the National Epic mysteriously evaporates. At least that's what happened to me last night - I started seeing it show up again in the production menu in my cities long after I'd built it the first time. Granted, it was only 10 turns, but c'mon.... again??

The National Epic is the one that requires Monuments. I've never had the Heroic Epic disappear when founding new cities; perhaps you're just confusing the two?

 

[Diadem82]

The thing about wonders is that they do not cost maintenance. Sure they are very expensive on the hammers, but they give nice bonusses, GP points, and do not cost you anything. The latter is a big boon.

You can build units, but that costs money. You can build buildings, but that costs money too. So I build wonders

 

[shinkicker]

I love getting a Great Engineer when other Civs are working on some huge Wonder. Pop the GE in your Wonder-building city and voila, a bunch of hammers for free and you can usually get the Wonder done in a turn or two, tops.

 

[PawelS]

I think it's regular buildings that cost too many hammers, wonders should be expensive.

 

[Ihmemies]

Wonders don't seem to be really neccessary for victory, except Apollo / United Nations. But I suppose that was the case in CIV4 too. I haven't bothered to build that many wonders, mainly because lack of a proper wonder production city.

 

[MaXimillionZero]

My current strategy that's won me 3 games so far on King (not tried higher yet) relies on wonder-whoring with my non-puppet cities (only 1/2 in addition to my capital), with a lot of puppets gained whenever somebody goes to war with me.

A lot of the wonder benefits are huge, and the culture and great person gains make them even stronger. Angkor Wat makes cultural cities grow borders at an insane rate, Statue of liberty combined with the right policies from freedom and rationalism makes specialists ridiculously powerful, forbidden palace and planned economy completely remove unhappiness from # of cities (need to try that with India).

I find that the build time and maintenance of most normal buildings makes them quite pointless when you could be building wonders instead. I generally only build the very cheap ones, and some production/gold/tech boosters.