"Must Have" Wonders?

[Cyberblade]

There are 2 world wonders i MUST get in my 5-10 city civ.
They are The Great Lighthouse, and The Great Library.

 

[GoodGame]

It all depends on many factors, but the Oracle is usually a good choice in every game, and so is the Hanging Gardens. The Natural Park is a great wonder for a late, heavily forested city. I pretty much only guarantee that I'll build Oxford every time.

For example, for some civs, Stonehenge is a great bargain, but for other civs, its a waste of hammers, unless very cheap.

Just curious which wonders, both world and national, that people consider "must have".

I'm learning the basics still, and so my difficulty level doesn't require me to build wonders... I'm trying to understand the game so I can look at each wonder and say "yeah that will help me" or "waste of time". There's a few that interest me, but I've not considered all options yet.

 

[the_orly_owl]

I really like the Christo Redentor. Really handy if I have to go to war and need units quick - just switch to nation and draft them.

 

[L4zXX0r]

I build wonders depending on a few factors. For example, what is my victory method? Does it mesh well with my leader/civ?

That being said, the Pyramids is the best overall Wonder. It's an early game wonder. It helps produce great engineers (which help build more wonders). It also gives you access to more civics (duh). Finally, it never goes obsolete (unless you count discovering all the techs for the civics...)

Apostolic Palace. This might be the second Best Wonder. You can pretty much end any war against you. You can make people fight wars for you. You can force embargos... Basically, if you can spread your religion far and wide, you unofficially RULE the world. It's good to be pope.

 

[Shoot the Moon]

The only true MUST have is the Palace.

The only others for me are Heroic and National Epic. Some of the world wonders like Oracle, Great Library, Great Wall, Hanging Gardens, Versailles/Forbidden Palace I would consider building, but none are "MUST have"

 

[Eikka]

Oracle is good, pyramids too, but i usually build Stonehenge and spam settlers.

 

[con]

when im playing raging barbs, it's the Wall, all the barbs that spawn near my border go to my neighbor and weaken him for my invasion
but in a normal game , the pyramids are great



yay, my first post , lurking for a loooong time, decided to take a more active role

 

[Quildavyr]

Oracle!Then i get feudalism.

 

[modzso]

Playing Hannibal:
Great Lighthouse, Colossus for synergy with the UB. Usually miss ToA

Otherwise:
Oracle, University of Sankore, Spiral Minaret (if going CoL)
Pentagon, Space Elevator (if space victory)

 

[Shoot the Moon]

yay, my first post , lurking for a loooong time, decided to take a more active role

Welcome to posting!

 

[SlipperyJim]

Mmmm ... lessee ... no "must have" Wonders for me. Many of them are nice to have (Pyramids, Stonehenge, Oracle, Hanging Gardens, and a few others), but none of them will break the game for me.

Actually, I spoke too soon. If you're going for a Space victory, then you really should get the Space Elevator. That one's kinda critical.

Otherwise, Wonders are very situational for me. If there is a Wonder that would complement my current strategy, then I'll probably try to build it. If I miss it, I'll go conquer from the poor fool who built it. (On my way to capture Izzy's Apostolic Palace now....) If the Wonder isn't particularly important to me in that game, I'll usually pass.

However, if I happen to have the production-doubling resource for a particular Wonder -- and I also have a productive city that doesn't need to build anything right now -- then I'll often take a pass at it. If I lose the race, I'll still get a nice pile of gold for my efforts.

 

[Inky]

All the early game Wonders are situational. If it seems like a good deal to try for them, I'll go for it. If I can't build them quickly enough, I'm tying up a major city for too long when it could be building other stuff to expand my empire, with too high a risk that the AI will get them.

If I have a Great Engineer at the right time, I'll look at available Wonders and select one. It is almost always worth doing for any early game wonder, which the GE can build completely anywhere.


The modern Wonders, even middle ages, those are the key ones. Apostolistic Palace and the UN are must-try-for if you want to control their diplomatic power. Having a guaranteed shot at election is worth a lot.

Three Gorges Dam is pretty helpful on any large continent. Making sure no AI gets it is a pretty good reason to get it as well. Unfortunately, it is pretty hard to get it on normal speed before you've built coal plants everywhere of importance, so you don't need it so much for power as for a slight reduction in pollution. But it can be a great help for newly conquered power-less cities, especially if you use Mining Inc to boost production.

If I want a modern war I want the Pentagon. The extra experience is nice, and again, I want to deny my enemy.

Statue of Liberty is always worth shooting for. It pays pretty well, especially on larger maps.


If I have a dominant state religion, I'll try for Spiral Minaret and University of Sankore to take advantage of that, as well as of course getting the Apostolistic Palace. It can be hard to get both in a competitive game.


Pyramids and Great Library are an obvious great combo, but if I don't have stone or lots of forests or both then they aren't exactly must-haves. Instead, building an army to take them is better

 

[Öjevind Lång]

I've recently discovered the Moai Statues... they seem ridiculously powerful to me. I think it should be a world wonder, but there you go.

If they are ridiculously powerful, then if the were a World Wonder they might give the owner too huge an advantage.

 

[Loki cdn]

The only two essentials for me are the Pentagon and Three Rivers Gorges. Since I usually apply the Conan principle.