Let's discuss the Shwedagon Paya Wonder

[L4zXX0r]

I would rate most of the new wonders from BtS among the best, but i am not sure about the Shwedagon Paya. From the BtS-Info-Center:
Shwedagon Paya [Meditation, Aesthetics]: Grants access to all religion civics. Its home city is more likely to generate Great Prophets. Constructed twice as quickly with Gold.

It requires a lot of hammers (same as Pyramids). I can see some strategies for this wonder, but are they worth the investment?

1. run free religion extremely early: this is probably the best you can do with the Sh.P., it is the only mid to late game civic from the religious column, +10% science can be very strong and it leaves you out of religious troubles with your neighbours.

2. ignore the religious tech tree (polytheism, monotheism, theology, divine right and maybe even priesthood). get meditation immediatly and found buddhism. You can already build monasteries and spread your religion, thats enough for the beginning. You probably will want priesthood too for temples, but its cheap. This strategy allows a focused research on war techs or economic techs andd saves you many beakers if you don't care for the nice wonders on the religious path.

My problems with this wonder are:
-Aesthetics comes to late. And i would rather build the other two wonders (Partenenon and Zeus-Statue) available with it.
-Too expensive. Without gold and/or industrial i won't build it
-The religious civics (apart from free religion) are all available quite early with normal gameplay.
-The wonder is on the path to liberalism. I choose this beeline anyway, so when i have built the wonder free religion is normally not far away.
-The civics alone are useless without religion, so you can't really ignore the religion spread. Probably you want to found one yourself. So your religion choices are limited to buddhism, confucianism or taoism, because you need those techs anyway.
- The pyramids are by far stronger from the two civic-wonders.
- going free religion early leaves other strong religious strategies out, this means no Organized religion, no theocracy, no Spiral Minarett or University of sankore and no Apostolic palace
- Great prophet point are not very interesting if you don't care for religions.

So what are your experiences?

PS: Besides game mechanics it has a very cool wonder video, especially the music. And with the protests going on in Burma/Myanmar at the moment it is strange to see this wonder on TV so often.

Yes, you could ignore the religion tree almost completely, though, I still always like the oracle. Honestly, I don't ever really build this wonder. I suppose if you wanted to get around all the hostile religions early, and get that science boost, cool. Remember, in doing that, you have to forget about the spiral minaret, university of sankore and angkor wat, being useful. I suppose in a science type of game, it might be advantageous. It's something I'd have to check. Personally, I like aesthetics for Zeus and the Parthenon anyways.

 

[Diamondeye]

I only build it if I have gold, or if there is really many religions in my lands, preferably either zero or multiple founded by me.

Or for the GPP... It's not that expensive, and, well, I have a tendancy of wonderwhoring a bit...

 

[kakitadairu]

Its crap. You have to beeline for Aesthetics to get the wonder built before you get the religious civics normally.

Here I think is the only scenario for building it:

You beeline for Music/ Free Artist/ Free Golden Age with an Industrious leader. Hit Aesthetics, start building Shwedagon Paya, MAYBE Parthenon concurrently. Hit Literature, start building Great Library. Hit Music, finish Shwedagon and Great Library, get the free switch to Pacifism to pop out a Great Scientist, build National Epic, switch to Free Religion or keep Pacifism at the end of the Golden Age to catch up on the Liberalism race.

I don't know, this wonder needs a boost. Maybe you get an Anarchy free Religion/ Religious Civic switch with it?

I can see *maybe* building it under No Tech Trading.

Cheers,

Dai

 

[Diamondeye]

Its crap. You have to beeline for Aesthetics to get the wonder built before you get the religious civics normally.

Here I think is the only scenario for building it:

You beeline for Music/ Free Artist/ Free Golden Age with an Industrious leader. Hit Aesthetics, start building Shwedagon Paya, MAYBE Parthenon concurrently. Hit Literature, start building Great Library. Hit Music, finish Shwedagon and Great Library, get the free switch to Pacifism to pop out a Great Scientist, build National Epic, switch to Free Religion or keep Pacifism at the end of the Golden Age to catch up on the Liberalism race.

I don't know, this wonder needs a boost. Maybe you get an Anarchy free Religion/ Religious Civic switch with it?

I can see *maybe* building it under No Tech Trading.

Cheers,

Dai

Plus, Parthenon, Pacifism and Golden Age all multiplies ...