Hanging Gardens = Hammers?

[vormuir]

The Hanging Gardens gives you +1 population in every city.

Since most of us are running Slavery a lot in the early game, that means a population point that can be whipped away into hammer. (Especially if one or more cities is near the happiness cap.)

Each pop point gives 30 hammers. Since the Gardens cost 300 hammers, you're unlikely to get your hammers back. However, it's double speed with stone -- which means, if you have stone, it's really only 150 hammers. That, you could probably recoup -- it just means whipping one pop point each from 5 cities, or from 4 if you're running OR or have forges built.

More likely you'd just take a whip or two from cities near the happiness cap, as a sort of fringe benefit of snagging the wonder.

Not a big deal, but I don't recall anyone mentioning doing this.


Waldo

 

[Aptenodytes]

That makes a lot of sense.

 

[jerVL/kg]

Each pop point gives 30 hammers. Since the Gardens cost 300 hammers, you're unlikely to get your hammers back. However, it's double speed with stone -- which means, if you have stone, it's really only 150 hammers. That, you could probably recoup -- it just means whipping one pop point each from 5 cities, or from 4 if you're running OR or have forges built.

More likely you'd just take a whip or two from cities near the happiness cap, as a sort of fringe benefit of snagging the wonder.

Why whip the population away? Why not just keep them?

The Hanging Gardens comes right about the time when happiness is less of an issue, thanks to civics (HR), buildings (theatres & colloseums), and resources (calendar) discovered right around this time. It's also a time for expansion beyond your core cities, thanks to Currency & CoL...and swordsmen/catapults, perhaps. With all this new stuff, what better than a (relatively) cheap wonder which acts like Insta-Grow for your empire?

You can look at the extra population like extra hammers to whip away...or as an extra mine worked, an extra cottage developing, etc. It's health-free people, too, as you get +1 per city, permanently. On top of it all, the wonder itself generates Great Engineer points...very rare.

Show me another Wonder that can do all that.

 

[DigitalBoy]

Even if you whip away the population and don't see a positive return on hammers, the wonder also gives +1 health. That's gotta be worth something, right?

 

[economiser]

The Hanging Gardens is one of my favorite Wonders! Not only does it give you the aforementioned free slaves, it also gives you Great Engineer points.

If you are industrious or have stone (or both!) you should definitely try to get this wonder out.

Also, it opportunely comes about right around the time you should be getting catapults. Hello instant army of doom!

 

[tycoonist]

also the AI tends to neglect aqueducts and therefore the Hanging Garden can be "hanging" around (bad pun) for quite a while waiting to be built.

 

[cabert]

the hammers value of the HG has already been stated (this thread).
Now I don't spit on it anymore, although I still put only a low priority on it, because 300 hammers = nearly 10 catapults (it becomes a higher priority if I get 10+ cities )