Has anybody ever got Forbidden palace on emporer or above?

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Jun 25, 2012
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I don't think I've ever got this wonder on emporer difficulty. Does the AI beeline it? It would be a nice one to have, but it seems like the AI get it way before I even research the tech.
 
I've built it on Emperor plenty of times, just not on Immortal or Deity. Yes the AI loves to beeline to that wonder. The only time I'm really concerned about having it is if I plan to conquer the world. In this case I'd rather the AI build it so I can use those hammers to build more units to go take it away from them.
 
I agree with the OP. Forbidden Palace is like catnip for AI. Which I find odd because the AI usually has no issues with happiness all game.

Petra is another wonder that is difficult to get ahead of the AI. Especially with Egypt or Arabia playing.
 
I'd get it as an "extra wonder" so a city gets the reformation bonus in a cultural victory aim, but sure, it gels pretty easily while beelining industrialism for the spy/gatling/big ben/coal/factories/city state bonuses. Otherwise I probably wouldn't prioritize the wonder itself.
 
On Immortal I only aim for it if I know I'll be able to generate a Great Engineer around that point in the game AND I'm going very wide/conquest happy. In those few games I pull it off, though, it's totally worth the opportunity cost. I think it's also tied to whether or not I went Stonehenge since that way you have a few extra GE points floating around so you can rush a few more wonders out.
 
Emperor? Yes. Immortal/Deity? Only if you beeline Banking and have a Great Engineer ready. Otherwise, the AI is going to beat you to it, like they will for most early/midgame wonders.
 
I once managed to get notre dame on immortal, so I wasn't too sad that I couldn't get forbidden palace.
 
It boils down to the techs that AIs like to beeline. Eg. Maya likes Theology so it tends to get HS+GMD, India likes Chivalry so Alhambra, IW/Steel UU civs -> Physics so ND (although ND still seems safe enough). Most AIs enter renaissance via Banking which is the prerequisite for FP. If you really want it then you have to reach there much faster than them which means more science more RAs blablabla.
 
I don't know if the AI actually beelines it through its tech choices, but if the Forbidden Palace is available as a build option, the AI heavily favors it due to the lopsided Wonder Flavor values.

In Vanilla, compare:

Notre Dame
20 Happiness
20 Wonder

Forbidden Palace
250 Happiness
10 Culture
100 Expansion
100 Wonder

Eiffel Tower
30 Happiness
30 Wonder


So it has about 10 times the weight that other wonders would typically have resulting in extreme interest by the AI's.
 
I don't know if the AI actually beelines it through its tech choices, but if the Forbidden Palace is available as a build option, the AI heavily favors it due to the lopsided Wonder Flavor values.

In Vanilla, compare:

Notre Dame
20 Happiness
20 Wonder

Forbidden Palace
250 Happiness
10 Culture
100 Expansion
100 Wonder

Eiffel Tower
30 Happiness
30 Wonder


So it has about 10 times the weight that other wonders would typically have resulting in extreme interest by the AI's.

That's interesting. I already knew that the AI favored certain Wonders (Vanilla AI was totally obsessed with the Great Wall for example) but I guess that's specifically why they do. Interesting that it has such a high value compared to the other two happiness wonders. I guess maybe because it theoretically can scale much better than the others, but still, that's pretty lopsided nonetheless.
 
Forbidden Palace? Meh.

To answer the question, no, I haven't gotten it on Emperor or above. But about the wonder itself: Why? IMO, it's by FAR the worst wonder in the game. It's only useful if you have TONS of people, and you'll need a huge population for it to just be as good as Notre Dame (and that's ignoring ND's +4 Faith).

It's just such a situational wonder and rarely seems worth the hammers.
 
Does taking the city that has the forbidden palace count? I play Immortal or Deity, so usually no.

The reason is pretty simple, on land based maps, the AI loooooooooves going to banking first. So unless you beeline it, it's unlikely. It's certainly a nice wonder if you plan on going wide, but it goes quick.

It's not "Great Library on Deity" impossible to get, but if you plan on even having a chance, you may have to tie up any wonder spammer AIs with a War sometime in medieval.
 
Forbidden Palace? Meh.

To answer the question, no, I haven't gotten it on Emperor or above. But about the wonder itself: Why? IMO, it's by FAR the worst wonder in the game. It's only useful if you have TONS of people, and you'll need a huge population for it to just be as good as Notre Dame (and that's ignoring ND's +4 Faith).

It's just such a situational wonder and rarely seems worth the hammers.

Worst wonder? When you get a decent 8-10+ cities going wide, it can be a good 15-20 happy, even the Eiffel Tower has a hard time competing with it.

The winner for most useless wonder is probably and still to Angkor Wat. Even the AI seem to skimp over it taunting you to waste hammers to build it.
 
Worst wonder? When you get a decent 8-10+ cities going wide, it can be a good 15-20 happy, even the Eiffel Tower has a hard time competing with it.

The winner for most useless wonder is probably and still to Angkor Wat. Even the AI seem to skimp over it taunting you to waste hammers to build it.

I guess so. I still don't like it because, as the OP notes, it's nearly impossible to get. But I rarely have more than 4 non-puppeted cities (if I go wide, I usually go wide with puppets), so I guess that's why it's never been that great for me.
 
It's rare to me to build it on Emperor. Usually it is already gone or I'm not a warmonger. It's a lot more typical to conquer the city that has it along the way if I'm going wide anyway. It's definitely one of the wonders that the AI loves, like the Great Library, Temple of Artemis, Temple of Zeus, Alhambra, etc. Banking isn't often a tech I go right for.
 
Worst wonder? When you get a decent 8-10+ cities going wide, it can be a good 15-20 happy, even the Eiffel Tower has a hard time competing with it.

The winner for most useless wonder is probably and still to Angkor Wat. Even the AI seem to skimp over it taunting you to waste hammers to build it.

Is it just me? or does Angkor Wat have a hidden effect of decreasing tile purchase rate of the city that is built in by 75% (all the other cities get 25%) I popped this wonder in a distant Natural Wonder City as Spain with a great engineer because I was going to take Reformation soon and take the 33% culture bonus, and that city with Angkor Wat and a monument was popping borders everywhere, which was super nice since I shared that continent with the Aztecs and Ottomans and all the borders we shared were marshes on my culture border.



It's situational, but not worthless, it could be the worst wonder, but it does have some use.
 
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