The Engineer
Chieftain
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2006
- Messages
- 10
Well, it is still a wonder though, it just has no movie when you build it. ^_^
Has anyone ever played a game without building any wonders?
- Thread starter Bast
- Start date
futurehermit
Deity
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2006
- Messages
- 5,724
In my non-SE-focused games, I try and approach wonders like this:
-If I have stone, I will decide which stone-based wonders I want to build
-If I have marble, I will decide which marble-based wonders I want to build
-If I have copper, ...
-etc.
In other words, avoid going into the game with a preset strategy and then judging from the map and resources available, plan your wonders accordingly. For example, if you have the availability to start with 3 coastal cities (including capital) and have copper available, go for collossus. Stone too? Lucky devil, go for great lighthouse as well.
-If I have stone, I will decide which stone-based wonders I want to build
-If I have marble, I will decide which marble-based wonders I want to build
-If I have copper, ...
-etc.
In other words, avoid going into the game with a preset strategy and then judging from the map and resources available, plan your wonders accordingly. For example, if you have the availability to start with 3 coastal cities (including capital) and have copper available, go for collossus. Stone too? Lucky devil, go for great lighthouse as well.
drkodos
Emperor
I rarely build any Wonders anymore.
The-Hawk
Old Original Geezer
"Has anyone ever played a game without building any wonders?"
Absolutely. Some of my deity and immortal games are without world wonders, they are too hard to build. I think it hinges three things: level, victory condition, and your victory style (speed vs. milking score).
- RE: Levels. At higher levels, wonders are very hard. If I'm going to try for one, it needs to be crucial to success.
- RE: Victory Condition. I may try for Pyramids in a culture attempt (to allow me to switch to Univ Suffrage without teching all the way to Democracy). For Space, I'll try for Great Lib. Military attempts, maybe none (well, certainly Oracle at lower levels).
- RE: Milking vs. speed. If you are playing for high score, then wonders are great. They directly increase your score, and you have time to putz around and build them while you build population. However, if you want to go for fast finishes, I think wonders can seriously slow you down. They take lots of time to build. More important, those hammers could be spent building other things. E.g. if you want a fast conquest, the time you are spending building Pyramids would be better spent churning out some early axemen and having at your nearest neighbor. Let the AI's build the wonders for you!
Don't get me wrong, I have way more games with a wonder or two than not. Even for conquest wins. But my gut feel is people build way more wonders than they should (when going for fast finishes).
Absolutely. Some of my deity and immortal games are without world wonders, they are too hard to build. I think it hinges three things: level, victory condition, and your victory style (speed vs. milking score).
- RE: Levels. At higher levels, wonders are very hard. If I'm going to try for one, it needs to be crucial to success.
- RE: Victory Condition. I may try for Pyramids in a culture attempt (to allow me to switch to Univ Suffrage without teching all the way to Democracy). For Space, I'll try for Great Lib. Military attempts, maybe none (well, certainly Oracle at lower levels).
- RE: Milking vs. speed. If you are playing for high score, then wonders are great. They directly increase your score, and you have time to putz around and build them while you build population. However, if you want to go for fast finishes, I think wonders can seriously slow you down. They take lots of time to build. More important, those hammers could be spent building other things. E.g. if you want a fast conquest, the time you are spending building Pyramids would be better spent churning out some early axemen and having at your nearest neighbor. Let the AI's build the wonders for you!
Don't get me wrong, I have way more games with a wonder or two than not. Even for conquest wins. But my gut feel is people build way more wonders than they should (when going for fast finishes).
futurehermit
Deity
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2006
- Messages
- 5,724
Yeah, wonders certainly slow you down, especially when going for military victories. I think the problem most newer players have (I did it as well when I started) is just going for wonders kinda haphazardly. If you're going to build some, you should have a strategy in mind (e.g., pyramids + GL + SoL when going for SE spacerace) and then go for them. But, yes, when going military victory, it is usually best to let the AI build your wonders for you 
p.s., it's kinda too bad that in higher levels it is so hard/disadvantageous to build wonders
p.s., it's kinda too bad that in higher levels it is so hard/disadvantageous to build wonders
Mr. Civtastic
Prince
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2006
- Messages
- 488
This is great advice.
With the nerf to chopping, I only go for wonders that I have the resource to half the hammer cost. Exceptions being stonehenge and maybe Oracle because they dont cost that much (120 and 150) and chopping at that stage of the game can still be effective for the small wonders.
Otherwise, Ive had not good success trying to build wonders on Monarch and up, and even sometimes on Prince. Building wonders, I think in most cases, you assume that someone else is building that wonder...exception being if you are the first to the tech and you went around looking at other civs and no one has it. And even then...the ai will use great engineers as far as I can tell, and Industrious civs are always a threat.
sylvanllewelyn
Perma-newb
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2006
- Messages
- 2,021
I'm not a fan of wonders, but I build stonehenge if I start with stone, oracle and/or great library if I start with marble. Pyramids are for capturing.
I sometimes feel that stonehenge is very underrated: when you go aggressive and capture large cities, you want to whip most of the population for that courthouse, because even if you have the calendar resources to make all those superior AI cities happy, the maintenance cost will drag down your research anyway. Nothing else is more important than courthouses.
I sometimes feel that stonehenge is very underrated: when you go aggressive and capture large cities, you want to whip most of the population for that courthouse, because even if you have the calendar resources to make all those superior AI cities happy, the maintenance cost will drag down your research anyway. Nothing else is more important than courthouses.
Uncle E
Long time Prince player
Aloha Guys,
Just signed up after spending a few weeks reading all of the helpful threads and articles ... I have to say that it really helps alot!
I took some advice about not building so many wonders as I'm quite guilty of it normally. I started a noble (warlords) game w/ the incas and noticed that stonehenge went completely unbuilt by the AI until I could build it in 6 turns (which I did) ... other wonders like the Great Wall were promptly built by the AI ... I was just curious if anyone knew what wonders the AI prioritizes at this level?
Just signed up after spending a few weeks reading all of the helpful threads and articles ... I have to say that it really helps alot!
I took some advice about not building so many wonders as I'm quite guilty of it normally. I started a noble (warlords) game w/ the incas and noticed that stonehenge went completely unbuilt by the AI until I could build it in 6 turns (which I did) ... other wonders like the Great Wall were promptly built by the AI ... I was just curious if anyone knew what wonders the AI prioritizes at this level?
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