Monarch Wonderspam Strategy

[axident]

If there is interest, I will post the latest and probably last of my Louis wonderspam games so curious people who have yet to try this strategy can see how one might (nearly) monopolize all the wonders in the game and win big after working through that early backlog of wonders. I took screenshots of pretty much everything, including my losing seemingly all of my early warriors due to barbarian animals.

 

[r_rolo1]

Post it . Info is power ( not land.... well, maybe a little )

 

[axident]

Post it . Info is power ( not land.... well, maybe a little )

Actually I got a few random events in the game including a tech boost where it said "knowledge is power" Okay I'll post it if there is at least 1 more person who wants to see it. I'm talking hundreds if not thousands of screenshots that I need to go through. This is not a trivial task...

 

[Sswsp1]

Post it.

 

[axident]

Okay here goes. I won't be as in-depth as Sisiutil, since I don't have that kind of time and already played out half the game anyway. I'm also not a perfect player, so feel free to criticize me as this thread can make me a better player too! I messed up chiefly with the delay of Hagia Sofia, and also I missed some hammers by not timing Mathematics and my chopping quite right.

Wonderspam strategy summary:

1. Who needs GP farms if you can build a ton of wonders and have them spit out great people like no tomorrow? Sure you lose control over what kind of GP you get, but you also get all the nice effects of the wonders!

2. If you are going to wonderspam, you should use an Industrious leader. The +50% bonus production for wonders, and cheap forges and factories are key. The other trait can be something else useful, of course. I like Creative, for cheap theaters, colosseums, libraries, and free +2 culture per city.

3. Not all wonders are created equal, so if you find yourself with a wonder backlog, you should prioritize. Hopefully this thread will spark some discussion about priorities. This is especially important early on when you don't have many high-production cities to choose from.

4. I will be throwing in random bits of my strategies on everything from chopping (where and when) to how I choose city locations.

As of this post, I have not yet finished my game and don't know if I'll beat my personal best score--which last time got cut short when I reached Domination. EDIT: Actually I looked again and I don't think I disabled Domination. Rats.

 

[axident]

 

[The Bowman]

I 'wonder', why did you go through the custom map set-up?

 

[axident]

I 'wonder', why did you go through the custom map set-up?

I wanted low sea level on a bloody map like Inland Sea. I did not use worldbuilder or otherwise cheat if that's what you are implying. All options are default. I wanted to turn off Domination but forgot to. 9 AIs, all random (as per default). (I also play on low graphics and can't go higher than standard size map without significant slowdown, so my solution is to play low sea level.)

By the way if anyone wants them I have some saves from this game.

 

[axident]

Anyway, you can see from the start that there are 3 key tiles: gold, cow, and pig.

First tech: Animal Husbandry. If there weren't so many trees I think I'd go Hunting-AH-Mining-BW. (Hunting is a prereq for AH and gives you a slightly cheaper price for AH.) This would give me exactly enough time to pasture some, and then mine the gold and then chop. But I decided to play it safe and go AH first, figuring that I'd get hunting later. Faster BW also lets you see copper sooner, though in this game that would prove to be useless as I didn't rush anyone.

I start off on a worker because those tiles are just too juicy.

 

[axident]

 

[axident]

As you can see, I sent my warrior off, walking on hills to maximize the visual radius that he could see. I found some gold in a village. Then I met Portugal's Joao, who apparently sent his archer west as I sent my warrior east.

Importantly, I found marble nearby. Stone is more important than marble, but it's good to have anyway so that I can minimize the amount of chopping necessary for the Oracle to guarantee that I get it.

However, as a rule, try to NOT chop during wonders and only chop/poprush non-wonders. Those chop/poprushed hammers do NOT get the +50% bonus. (Edit: Dave says the chopped ones do. Uncle JJ says that wonders get less hammers but also get the +bonus from forges etc.) Industrious gets +50% production for "normal" hammers that are building wonders but not for anything else. The same principle applies if running OR--try not to chop or poprush buildings, but feel free to chop units such as missionaries.

I could not resist worker-napping Joao's worker that showed up as I was walking near his capital.

Unfortunately his archer found my capital soon after, and started going straight for my capital, which was undefended since my first build was a worker...

Notice in the city screen that I went for the cows first. This is because the worker could step out and immediately start building the cow pasture, then go up to the pigs and gold later, without wasting any turns. I HATE it when a worker spends both moves going just 1 space, just because that space has a hill or forest on it. Also, cows give better mixes of hammers and food, whereas pigs just give tons of food.

 

[axident]

Thankfully my city was on a plains hill and I went for cows and not pigs first, as my first warrior thwarted the enemy archer, which set up camp around my perimeter. This was problematic because it meant that he might disrupt my workers' chopping or improvement-making. I didn't think I could steal and escort another worker again so I made peace with Joao. I also discovered mining.

 

[axident]

 

[axident]

I stopped spamming warriors the moment my city grew to size 2, and switched to settler production.

Workers ran out of things to road/improve since I don't have bronze working yet. I send one to the edge of my borders to pop in and out of a hut, which gave me gold.

Misclicked on warrior and had to reload, he discovered stone later on before being eaten by a lion (while in forested hilltop giving +75% defense, go figure).

I started to chop the settler once I got bronze working.

I went for Masonry next because I wanted to get that quarry up soon, plus I would need the Great Wall soon.

I switched to warrior production for a while to let the city grow to size 3. Also because I needed more scouting units!

 

[axident]

 

[axident]

When the city hit size 3, I went back to settler production. The gold impacted my tech rate substantially at this point, so I flirted with the idea of deviating from the Oracle tech route but eventually decided to go Mysticism and play it by ear.

The 2nd city was still trying to squirt out a worker. I didn't have any worries from Joao, whom I weakened, and barbarian soldiers had yet to show up, plus I was going to build the Great Wall soon with some chopping help.

But first I went after Stonehenge. Yes, despite being Creative, Stonehenge allows you to bypass the construction of the 3 monuments necessary for Statue of Zeus. Not to mention it gives great prophet points.

Eithiopia turned out to be my other neighbor.

Popped a hut for Hostile Villagers. It was only one barb warrior that came out, not two or three or four, but that was all the AI needed to kill my warrior. Ack.

So to summarize, I went worker, warrior (in a hurry as Portugal came knocking), warrior-settler-warrior-settler. If my warriors had not died, I would have explored the western flank more by now in a spiral outwards.

 

[axident]

 

[axident]

After Polytheism, I was thinking about getting Priesthood, but that was pointless. I reached a point where I was teching beyond my capacity to build... my capital with some chop help had just finished Stonehenge and was still building the Great Wall.

So I gambled on my gold powering me to Monotheism first. Even if I didn't win Judaism, I love OR because it gives another +25% building/wonder production bonus which helps when pursuing a wonderspam strategy.

Incans showed up. Bad news. Other Industriousleaders = competition for wonders.

My worker (and the one I stole from Portugal) neglected the other cities in favor of chopping Stonehenge and the Great Wall. I didn't have stone so I was worried about losing these wonders to someone who did have stone.

Boudica shows up. Good news, since she's obviously far away from me if she took this long to find me. I hope she starts trouble and gets a bunch of people involved in costly wars!

Meanwhile I am using my warriors as beacons of light to lead my settlers slowly but steadily to the stone. The first settler popped out without chopping, the 2nd and 3rd had chopping help. I heavily recommend chopping settlers because they suck up food and slow down city growth.. although in this case my capital was doing great with just three tiles.

Got Monotheism and founded Judaism, which quickly spread to my capital via the river. I love rivers; they act like roads, plus resources next to them count as being connected to the river.

Meanwhile I was STILL building the crummy Great Wall, without stone, so I had ample time to research Priesthood. Meanwhile I sent my old 2 workers to help my newly-spawned worker at Orleans to hurry up with that marble tile.

I finish researching Priesthood right as my Great Wall goes up and my marble quarry is done and roaded. Writing is scheduled to take 5 turns, Oracle takes 6 turns to build. Almost perfect timing to get Code of Laws!

My workers then scatter for different targets: wheat and stone. Early on, turns really matter so I don't like having multiple workers working on any one thing, as that means wasted movement points. For instance, if I have 2 workers and 2 forests to chop, I give them each their own forests to chop rather than have every worker in the stack waste his or her movement points just getting there to chop. There are exceptions, such as with the marble that I was racing to connect, but those exceptions are rare.

My warrior meets a barb archer. He's in a forest but dies anyway. Sheesh, I haven't been in a real war yet, and I'm losing half my army anyway.

My 3rd city finally finishes its worker as well.

In the meantime, my expansion seems to have slowed down my tech rate just enough where the Oracle might finish before I get Writing, which is a no-go. I keep tabs on its progress and try to sync them up.

After building the gold and wheat, I scramble workers over to the stone just like I did with the marble. Portugal's capital is exerting cultural influence on my border, so I designate Lyons as my Pyramid city. It doesn't take long before the stone is hooked up and Lyons starts getting a +100% production boost.

I know many people like building the Pyramids in their capital cities, but I need massive culture to thwart that Portugese culture. Furthermore, I want the free priest from Temple of Artemis to be at my capital, which is my wonderfarm and hence my GP farm. That free priest will give me a very welcome +3 GP. My capital doesn't have the production to build both the Pyramids and the Temple, not if I want to finish both before someone else gets them.

In the meantime I meet Lincoln. My graphics card doesn't seem to handle Lincoln well so I get those white-eyes things with him.

As you can see, the Oracle is scheduled to finish just a tad faster than Writing, so I spend one turn building the Temple of Artemis before switching back to the Oracle.

Founded Confucianism, but it's in the wrong city! I thought Lyons might make a good Heroic Epic city later on since it has plenty of food and hills and a river, but noooo the game gave it to Lyons and not my ocean city, which would have Wall St + Moai statues if I had my way.

 

[dot]

lurker's comment:

for posting all this, axident.​

 

[DaveMcW]

However, as a rule, try to NOT chop during wonders and only chop/poprush non-wonders. Those chop/poprushed hammers do NOT get the +50% bonus. Industrious gets +50% production for "normal" hammers that are building wonders but not for anything else. The same principle applies if running OR--try not to chop or poprush buildings, but feel free to chop units such as missionaries.

Forests definitely get a bonus in every situation. But they only give 20 base hammers pre-mathematics.