Leonardos, or Michaelangelos

[starlifter]

For lower levels, and newer players at say about King or less, hands down: Leonardos. MC solves happiness problems at higher levels with minimum cost and effort, and at Deity, you must keep a careful eye on happiness, or even size 1 cities can be in anarchy from the moment you found them (even if you have a defender in it, in Monarchy). MC lets your new cities get a start, and allow the older (bigger) ones to continue growing. But a low levels, you "effectively" have a MC built in from the start.... so Leos is the way to go in that event.

 

[ArmOrAttAk]

Yep, if you like playing easier levels then you probably chose leos. Didn't ask what level you play just which wonder you wanted.
I have here Prima's Official CivilizationII Strategy guide. It says for Leonardo's Workshop:
"It is impossible to convey the true value and importance of this wonder. Leonardo's Workshop is, hands down, the most desirable wonder in the game."
Funny, although I usually build it just because I can, there are others more desirable than just mike's. JS Bachs as stated is one, and is probably the easiest wonder to get the whole game. I've only ever seen the french, and zulu's attempt to build it. You can leave Theology until nothing else is offered then build Bachs casually in a size 2 city. Pyramids is another, Hoover Dam, Magellans Expidition, United Nations, dare I say GREAT LIBRARY. Those I choose above Leo's maybe even Adam Smiths.
I have played and won plenty of games diety without Leo's. No big deal to disband old units buy the rest in frontier cities on turn 1 of new military tech. The other cities can build them slower, and my outdated units are still advanced compared to the AI

 

[gonzo_for_civ]

What kind of strategy guide is that?? Leonardo's is most definately not the most valuable. In deity, especially, hapiness wonders RULE!! Also, adam smith's will save you so much money you can easily rush buy more units!

 

[starlifter]

I have here Prima's Official CivilizationII Strategy guide. It says for Leonardo's Workshop

The Prima Guide is good for beginning and intermediate players, as well as reference for all Civ II players. However, it was written in 1996 and most of the strategies are really basic to intermediate, based on how people play Civ II today... players evolved much more advanced strategies in some areas of play....

and the big thing to keep in mind is that there are lots of subtle errors in it, just as example on pg 306, 308, 309 there are several things that might give problems is you take what it says without checking.

97% of it is good.... lol, the hard part is figuring out what is not.
Some of Prima's errors were not their fault... Civ II changed in it's final version, and changed even more as the patches came out. Patch 1.07, for instance, changes Fundamentalism science to a 50% cap on the slider, even though the slider moves all the way to 80%.

 

[Narz]

I got to go with Mike's Chapel.

A - its forever
B - Saves massive amounts of loot otherwise spent on luxeries (or in Fundamentalism you get it directly back each turn)
C - I almost always go for Sun Tzu's War Acad and with Leonardo's Workshop all my vetren musketeers would turn to non-vetren rifleman, actually a downgrade believe it or not.

Still, Leo's is always nice to have, but if its in an AI non-capitol it can always be bribed to your side.

- Narz

 

[unknown_spirit]

At least if you miss out on Mike's, you can always build Cathedrals in every city. It ain't ideal, but they do the same job. Leo's, apart from being a must-have wonder, has no building that does the same job, so without a doubt, LEO'S ALL THE WAY!