Does it matter where you build Wonders?

[MBJODET]

I usually just put them in the city with the most hammers so they'll get built faster.

But I was perusing this board and saw something talking about 'was this city the best place to put this wonder' and, well, it made me wonder.

There are a lot of subtleties to this game aren't there?

-M

 

[jimbob27]

It depends on the wonder. Ones that have a nationwide effect, such as stonehenge, then it doesn't matter a huge amount. Certain wonders only affect the city they are built in, such as the great library, so their placement is critical. Most of the national wonders only affect they city they are in, so you need to choose carefully where to put them.

Theres also the consideration of the culture, and great-person points they generate. If you're going for a cultural victory, then you'll want to stack all your wonders up in 2-3 cities. If you want to generate a lot of random GP's, then again, you want to stack them up in the same cities, so your total GP points are increased. Of course... lots of people prefer to use specialists to generate their GP points as you can then choose which type of GP you get.... but then, that's a whole seperate topic.

Checking if their effects just count in the city they're built in, or whether they're nationwide, is probably the most important.

 

[Sisiutil]

To pick up on something Jimbob said, I used to take the same approach as the OP: build the wonder where it will finish fastest.

However, every wonder generates Great People points, and GPs are of significant tactical use in the game. By placing the wonders carefully, in cities with other wonders and/or specialists that produce the same types of Great People, you can better (or completely) control what types of GPs you get. This can be a huge advantage, allowing you to pull off certain advantageous gambits like "slingshots".

For example, Stonehenge and the Oracle are two of the most popular early wonders. Both produce GP points towards a Great Prophet. By NOT building a wonder that produces other types of GP in the same city (and not running any specialists there other than priests), you are guaranteed a Great Prophet, possibly several of them. Now if you build the Great Library in the same city, you're muddying the waters. The GL produces GP points towards a Great Scientist, as do its two free scientists. You might get a Great Prophet, you might get a Great Scientist; it's a crap shoot.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

Well as Sisitul said All Wonders have a City Only effect of
GPP
AND
Culture

A few others have other City Focused Effects
-Great Library* It Only Affects the city its in so its important to have it with National Epic usually
-ToArtemis: (Warlords)... +100% Trade and a Free Priest in that city* Another 'only affects this city'

-Versailles..Location in your is vitally important as it cuts city distances... the Only purpose of Versailles

Minor effects

-Angkor Wat... allows you to run 3 Priest specialists
-Hollywood, Rock+Roll+Broadway+Eiffel Tower give +50% culture in the city they are in


All of the Other World Wonders really only give the GPP/Culture effect, so putting them in the highest Hammer city is usually the way to go. (unless you need pure GPP...mostly important early game anyways)

 

[Sisiutil]

Placement of some wonders, especially National Wonders, is also important to how you plan to win.

For example, suppose you're pursuing a cultural victory. As was mentioned above, you then want to build several culture-producing wonders in three cities, which will eventually achieve Legendary status.

One of those cities should contain the Globe Theatre. For a cultural win, this should be your GP farm and therefore should contain the National Epic as well. You want to run as many artist specialists here as possible, and you want it to produce as many Great Artists (for the Great Work-produced 4000 culture points) as possible. For most other victories, you'd pair the NE with Oxford for Great Scientists, but not for cultural.

In addition, you're best off NOT building Heroic Epic, West Point, and/or the Red Cross in one of your three culture-heavy cities, even though they also produce culture. Why? The biggest danger when pursuing a cultural win is that you will fall behind in military production and get attacked. So you need to have at least one city--the Heroic Epic city--constantly producing military units. It can't do that if it's busy with cultural builds.

Anyway, that's just one example. The more I play this game, and the higher the difficulty level, the more time I take with every single decision.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

well National Wonders are another Matter, almost ALL of them have a 'This city only' or at least 'location important' Impact...the only exception is Mt. Rushmore... and Scotland Yard (spies are cheap)

 

[ThePope]

well National Wonders are another Matter, almost ALL of them have a 'This city only' or at least 'location important' Impact...the only exception is Mt. Rushmore... and Scotland Yard (spies are cheap)

Actually you can only build spies in the city with Scotlan Yard so it is not an exception, although its location is not as important as that of National Epic or Ironworks.

 

[Welnic]

Actually you can only build spies in the city with Scotlan Yard so it is not an exception, although its location is not as important as that of National Epic or Ironworks.

He was saying that you can build it anywhere since any city would have enough production to build spies, especially since you can only have four at once.

 

[Sisiutil]

well National Wonders are another Matter, almost ALL of them have a 'This city only' or at least 'location important' Impact...the only exception is Mt. Rushmore... and Scotland Yard (spies are cheap)

True. What I've found is that it's just as important to factor in where not to put them, especially if you already have one other National Wonder in a city and the 2nd one will, of course, preclude building any more there. Putting Scotland Yard or Mount Rushmore in a city with the Heroic or National Epics, for example, is almost always a waste.