England: Great Lighthouse vs. Colossus?

[SicklyAlbatross]

Sun never sets + great lighthouse + exploration opener. Overkill or playing to your strengths?

In my current game I built the great lighthouse and to be honest the +1 sight and movement isn't particularly jawdropping, but I haven't reached the renaissance yet so I'm still in the kiddy pool.

Looking back an extra sea trade route would have been massive and I had the naval superiority to protect it.

 

[Roxlimn]

I see the chief issue (assuming you're chasing down wonders in the first place) is tech progression. Assuming you have Iron Working and Great Lighthouse open at the same time, I would greatly prefer Colossus. That extra trade route pays off all game long.

 

[SicklyAlbatross]

I see the chief issue (assuming you're chasing down wonders in the first place) is tech progression. Assuming you have Iron Working and Great Lighthouse open at the same time, I would greatly prefer Colossus. That extra trade route pays off all game long.

That's a good point and something I forgot about, looking back I delayed iron working for ages, but I opened optics early'ish for the regular, but greatly improved lighthouses.

 

[Fragamemnon]

largely map size and map type dependent. On bigger maps with islands to find and colonize exploration and speed are huge, on regular continents/Pangaea Colossus is going to perform much better.

 

[Calouste]

That's a good point and something I forgot about, looking back I delayed iron working for ages, but I opened optics early'ish for the regular, but greatly improved lighthouses.

The problem with the Great Lighthouse is that it delays getting the effect of the regular Lighthouse. So not only does it cost 110 hammers more, it also costs 1 hammer and 1 food for every sea resource for every turn that you need to produce those 110 hammers. So if you have a location with 4 sea resources, the extra sight and movement might cost you 150 hammers and 40 food.

 

[adwcta]

Yeah, Colossus is better on any non-islands map. Think of it as providing 5 gold and 8-16 food per turn (like 2.5x hanging gardens!!!). As England, you already move faster, so Great Lighthouse's relative advantage is that much % less good.

 

[_megafone_]

Colossus is way better on any map, but Iron Working is a huge commitment that early. I'd decide answering the following two questions:

1) Do you have a lot of sea resources in your cap, like 3-4 Fish/Whales or whatever? If yes, go Great Lighthouse (as you'd love a regular Lighthouse early anyway, so might as well build the Wonder while it's available).
2) Do you have a bunch of Iron ready and an AI you'd like to attack nearby? If yes, go Colossus and get a Swordsman rush going - that also puts the extra gold into good use too.

 

[Roxlimn]

Coalouste's point is solid. There were times where I played England or Ottoman where I just intentionally bypassed Great Lighthouse since I was going to get the benefit from Exploration anyway, so I just built a regular Lighthouse to get the bonus +1 food/+1 hammer a lot sooner - definitely a concern if you've got something like 4 or 5 sea resources near the capital.

I don't see a reason to ever bypass Colossus if it's open and you have a shot. It's super effective.

 

[Falconiano]

Colossus by far in BNW. The GPT increase is terrific.

 

[SicklyAlbatross]

I finished that game off and by the end of it I'd say the great lighthouse was decent, but not overwhelming. I ended up getting DOW'd twice in the renaissance thanks to my aggressive expansion and those three bonuses together allowed me to protect a huge amount of space with just a handful of ships.

The Colossus would have been nice but as England I never placed any importance in melee troops. The superior navy and ranged troops was enough to dominate any war I found myself in, with just a couple of horsemen to take a city. I never played as England in G&K but I could see myself building the Colossus if I had to tech ironworking to reveal iron on the map, but with the BNW change IW was a very low priority.