Great Engineers

[Pim]

Hey people, last night i was playing ciV, on King, and i started wondering about some wonders and the use of GE's to build them.
As first, i used the liberty tree's free GP to get an GE and build the porcelain tower as soon as i hitted Education, so i would get the wonder for free (GE becomes GS).
The Hagia Sofia, also, gives a free GP of choice. So i builded it, and used it for the Notre Dame(i needed the happiness, but was in doubt wether not to get the hanging gardens of babylon(which was older and cheaper but the +10 food is just awesome).
So questions are:
it the liberty - porcelein - free great scientist a good combo/idea?
Do people tend to build the Hagia Sofia for the free GE(i dont think briljant wonders are left over at this time(maybe big ben(except cultural ones), taking in account if you use the liberty SP of not?
What is the opinion on the hanging gardens of the notre dame?

thanks.

 

[Pim]

or is Liberty finisher -> HS -> PT -> free GS a good idea?

 

[jtb1127]

If given the choice between the Hanging Gardens or Notre Dame, I would definitely go with Notre Dame. Happiness is always the biggest problem I have in Civ V and Notres Dame's happiness bonus is great. At this point in time I wouldn't be interested in building the Hanging Gardends because it sounds like I'm in the renaissance (what year or era is it?) and the Hanging Gardens food bonus would only be necessary in the Ancient or Classical eras when my cities are struggling to grow further.
When it comes to the Social Policy paths you have suggested, it is rather difficult for me to tell you which is better. Both routes seems great and it would take a more "experienced" civ V player to weigh the pros and cons of the two.

 

[Zenstrive]

I usually build Pyramid for GE points,
finish liberty tree for GE,
use GE to finish Hagia Sophia,
then get GE from Hagia Sophia to finish Angkor Wat (I call it the GE Wonders combo)
if I got GE again, I use it to finish Notre Dame.

 

[Pim]

thanks, I see the point about the notre dame and agree. The GE wonders combo looks nice, i will definitly try it, looks nice although a big change in my starting tactic.

 

[Teagen]

Liberty>Hagia Sophia>Notre Dame has become the norm for me, usually I squeeze 1 self-built wonder in while finishing liberty tree. Ankar Wat is nice but GP just take so darn long to make the normal way...even with the 25% boost it feels like an eternity!!!

 

[Zenstrive]

Anyway, the combination of hanging gardens and ankor wat and granary and aqueduct and notre dame give me a city with 31 population! Now that's a nice surprise.

i played on prince though...

 

[strhopper]

I like to build stone henge for early ge points. Also build hanging gardens then pick the policy that give 100% gp tile improvement bonus. With the hanging gardens and manufactory tiles I have a very productive high population city

 

[chazzycat]

all depends on your situation. Hanging gardens can be great in the right circumstance - for instance if you are building a super-capital with high food, NC, monarchy, etc. Winning the game with 1 city is a very realistic option and if you want to that route, HG is much more important than Notre Dame.

There's also the option to use all the extra food to work a bunch of hills, greatly boosting production in that city, which also doesn't require a happiness surplus. That is great for pumping out an army to destroy someone, or buiding more wonders, or whatever.

Notre Dame is really good as well...I'm just playing devil's advocate here. Assuming no Monarchy and no suitable production site, Notre Dame is probably better. And if you expanded a lot early, Notre Dame is probably going to be flat out better regardless.

Liberty>Hagia Sophia>Porcelain Tower, or something similar seems to be emerging as a very popular strategy. Hard buiding Sophia is also a possibility in many games, the AI doesn't seem to prioritize it very highly. Any way getting the Porcelain tower built ASAP is important so you might as well rush HS if you can. Building stonehenge or Pyramids early can net an extra GE around this time too, or a bit later depending on your tech pace, but still a good idea if possible.

 

[Pim]

I tried it, and it was nice, really nice. Got me a very good science lead (with babylon) and the ND kept me and my empire happy. Thanks

 

[TheHarshax]

My start style has stagnated quite a bit with the changes to some of the wonders. The Great Library and Hanging Gardens are a must have for my style, and I've been close to rage-quitting when another civ beats me to them.

On prince, I can typically achieve these wonders, in this order:
Pyramids (If I needed masonry for marble or stone resources)
Great Library or Stonehenge (rarely both)
Hanging Gardens
Hagia Sophia, Angkot Wat, or Chitzen Itza

and I still manage to build Notre Dame before anyone else.

I build a granary at some point in between these, and use my policy selection to pop free workers or settler, depending on my surroundings.

 

[Martin Alvito]

I am generally hard building Hagia Sophia (the AI is slow about it) and using the resulting pair of GEs (that and Liberty) on the Porcelain Tower and Notre Dame - usually in that order.

The GL and the Hanging Gardens are occasional Deity builds. The GL is pretty much an automatic at lower difficulties. The Hanging Gardens is very nice, but often not worth disrupting getting Hagia or the Oracle. If I can get it late, I tend to put it in a second settlement wave city that otherwise would have difficulty growing.