Mausoleum of Maussollos

[Charou]

I am having mixed feelings about this new wonder.
+50% golden age duration for a (??) hammers. It means 4 turns of GA on normal speed.
Is it worth it ? Can you build a strategy on it ?
( see this thread for ¨happy GA¨ strat http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=230182)

Making it shine a bit means you HAVE too build Taj Mahal.
But then, how many GPs are too be spent on additionnal golden ages ?
On higher difficulties GPs´ lightbulbs are critical to compete technologically.
BTS new features are also quite GP hungry (corporations !).
And how many random golden ages can you get in a game (1 at most I think) ?
although those don´t come into the game plan.

Having loads of spendable GPs (via free ones given by Music, Economics etc ...) means you have a good tech rate and that enhancing Golden ages won´t be game breaking.
Pulling off more than 3 GA in a epic game on monarch and above sounds difficult.

So i am rather skeptical, but
on the other hand, I recckon it may be powerful in one case : when the AI builds it, because they use GPs for GA quite often. (not always with good timing though).

In the hand of a human player, do you think it can be useful ?
or denying it to the AI is its only asset ?

 

[magicalsushi]

Ah, I hadn't read about this one. Ugh, I think you're right - that's an awful wonder. I'm not a fan of GAs. They're too short, and you have to put too much effort into getting the most out of them - your freedom is restricted because it's wasteful to do things like civics changes during a GA. Sure, this wonder makes them longer, but in my view it barely brings them up to the standard that they should have been in the first place.

I'm with you on this, it's a waste of hammers. It will certainly benefit the AI more than the player, if they use their current playstyle - sure, it's a mistake that they like GAs so much, but it will reduce the silliness of that mistake for the AI who manages to build it. But not for the ones who don't. I'm not keen on this one.

 

[Gaius Octavius]

Golden Ages increase your hammer output in cities, right? I could see certain situations were building it might be profitable, i.e. if you intend to get back the hammers you put into it and then some. It's sort of like the Hanging Gardens whip strategy, where you use those extra +1 population to build things, thereby recouping your expense.

Let us also remember that now Golden Ages can be triggered by other events, so hopefully it won't be worthless.

 

[bonafide11]

Pretty much the only time I ever achieve Golden Ages are when I build the Taj Mahal. So now I can build two wonders that'll extend my Golden Age by a few turns. That almost sounds worth it. I suppose this Wonder will make using GP on Golden Ages more useful.

 

[sumit1207]

I read somewhere that non-spiritual players can switch civics/religion without anarchy during great ages, so that should make them much more useful. And there are random events that trigger great ages as well, though probably very rarely.

 

[SkippyT]

Pretty much the only time I ever achieve Golden Ages are when I build the Taj Mahal. So now I can build two wonders that'll extend my Golden Age by a few turns. That almost sounds worth it. I suppose this Wonder will make using GP on Golden Ages more useful.

Seconded.
All options are better than spending two great people for a short period of more money and hammers. I'd prefer letting my great people join cities in stead of that.

Seems like a really bad wonder

 

[DrewBledsoe]

Its interesting, because I modded all GA on marathon to last 24 turns rather than the default 16 about a year ago. This has generally benefitted the ai and not me, even though 24 turns makes them quite an interesting option.

 

[Virulent]

I never really saw the point of golden ages. I could always find better uses for my GP and better things to spend my hammers than the Taj Mahal (the AI always seems to build it really quick anyways, it seems to be set as a high priority for them to build).

Since golden ages does have a hammer bonus it might be useful when you are in a building rush for a space race victory but I can find much better uses for my hammers than to build the Mausoleum.

 

[BYC]

Making Golden Ages better would certainly be nice, but if not, I'm hoping the GPP and boost this gives would make up for it.

 

[Arwon]

Don't forget, GAs can now be started by random events.

 

[civzombie]

When I saw this wonder, the first niche I thought of was for those games when I am just going to get tons of great priests.

It happens sometimes when you have lots of great priest points for whatever reason, and you are likely to get a bunch of great priests. These great priests become less valuable after the religions are founded and that would be a situation where I am going to consider burning em to start golden ages. I cant see myself burning a GS/GE/GM/greatspy for golden ages, except if I really need the hammers for a war or something.

As someone else said, if you get the taj too, then at the minimum this wonder is like another half a taj.

So it has its niche uses, but it won't be helpful in all (or even most?) games. To me, that is the perfect role for a wonder. If you want the wonder every game, or every game when using a certain leader, it becomes a default strategy and those are less interesting to me.

 

[Dom Pedro II]

When I saw this wonder, the first niche I thought of was for those games when I am just going to get tons of great priests.

It happens sometimes when you have lots of great priest points for whatever reason, and you are likely to get a bunch of great priests. These great priests become less valuable after the religions are founded and that would be a situation where I am going to consider burning em to start golden ages. I cant see myself burning a GS/GE/GM/greatspy for golden ages, except if I really need the hammers for a war or something.

As someone else said, if you get the taj too, then at the minimum this wonder is like another half a taj.

So it has its niche uses, but it won't be helpful in all (or even most?) games. To me, that is the perfect role for a wonder. If you want the wonder every game, or every game when using a certain leader, it becomes a default strategy and those are less interesting to me.

The question though is: if it's not useful all the time, will its usefulness in a game be apparent before it's been built? In other words... you say that having a ton of great prophets will be the instance where this would be most useful, but at what point in the game would you know that you'll have an abundance of those? It's a rather early wonder. Ultimately we'll have to wait and see.

 

[mice]

I've got a couple of questions about golden ages;

What exactly do they give our empire?

Can you control which of your GP get burned up if you have more than 2 ?

 

[Phoenix1595]

I think this is an ok wonder, but I actually have GAs in my game (I use GPs that I don't need, like prophets, to start them up). I typically only go through 2-3 GAs a game though. What this wonder should have allowed, along with the extended GA, is a) either more powerful GAs (read: more perks), or b) a decrease in the number of GPs needed to start a GA (since it increases everytime you have a GA).

I believe that the MM was added to make GAs more alluring, but as this thread indicates, it is not alluring enough to many players.

 

[Charou]

The question though is: if it's not useful all the time, will its usefulness in a game be apparent before it's been built? In other words... you say that having a ton of great prophets will be the instance where this would be most useful, but at what point in the game would you know that you'll have an abundance of those? It's a rather early wonder. Ultimately we'll have to wait and see.

I don´t see myself beelining for calendar in order to build it.
Whereas some wonder obsolete, this one takes some time to be active (GAs come later).
This would mean that random GAs would generally pop in the early game.
as well as for game balance reasons.

What this wonder should have allowed, along with the extended GA, is a) either more powerful GAs (read: more perks), or b) a decrease in the number of GPs needed to start a GA (since it increases everytime you have a GA).

Or.... +50% beakers for great persons lightbulbs. That would be sweet.

 

[magicalsushi]

People keep mentioning that they only burn Great Prophets to start Golden Ages, but my understanding was that you needed to burn at least two different types of Great People to start a golden age (first 2, then 3, then 4, etc, and each time they must all be of different types). Am I wrong about this? If so, GAs almost sound worthwhile...

Almost.

 

[bonafide11]

Well, from what I can understand in the post regarding modding, the first Golden Ages in BTS only requires one Great Person. This will add some value to this wonder.