Must have wonders?

[jakedamus]

Are Alhambra, The Forbidden City and Big Ben must have wonders? Having bonus policies seems pretty good to me.

 

[CaiusDrewart]

I'm not sure about Alhambra. I find military policies much less helpful than economic ones. I often only really need one military policy (the unit maintenance reduction).

 

[AmtrakQuebec]

The AI always seems to go for Alhambra and Big Ben, especially on the higher levels. Usually I just try to get the Forbidden City since it doesn't seem to be as highly sought after.

 

[Promethian]

Potala Palace gives a diplo slot which is better than you think. Machiavellianism is one of the most powerful policies in the game.

 

[Lucius_]

I've played 3 games and have built the Forbidden City wonder in every game so far. I also like wonders that give amenities, like the lake wonder and the Colosseum.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

Must get tier:
The +1 slot wonders [Big Ben* > Forbidden City > Potala Palace > Alhambra] (* - If you properly bank gold before finishing it)

Go out of your way tier (Generally in this order):
Great Pyramids
Bolshoi Theatre
Oxford University

Cool to get tier (General order):
Stonehenge (early and religion-based game only)
Terracotta Army
Venetian Arsenal
Hanging Gardens

Always useful, but can live without tier (general order):
Amenities (Estadio Do Maracana > Colosseum > Huey Teocalli)
Colossus
Great Lighthouse
Eiffel Tower

Conditionally awesome tier (depends on your city):
Ruhr Valley (w/ lots of hills)
Petra (w/ lots of desert/desert hills not floodplains.) [Worse with fewer desert tiles or if you plan on using lots of districts on desert]
Chichen Itza (w/ huge jungle) [Worse with fewer jungle tiles or if you plan to clear the jungle for districts]
Oracle (if intending a big city with many districts)
Great Zimbabwe (if you have 4+ bonus resources and are okay with most of your trade going through that city)

Rather useless tier (Not a lot of bang for the buck, but generally in order):
Great Library (Unless I'm cheating like the AI, I can't get this built before I already have all the ancient and classical techs)


Finally, there are two win conditions with multiple wonders associated with them: Religious and Cultural. Wonders being the production target for these makes sense since the production focus for domination is units and the focus for tech is just ICS with campuses). Below are the Religous and Cultural lists.

Religious:
Hagia Sophia
Mont St. Michel
Mahabodhi Temple (Not cost effective at all though since hammers >just spending faith)

Cultural (No real order since they're so card based.
Cristo Redentor
Broadway
Hermitage
Sydney Opera House

I don't know enough about amenities to truly say anything about the amenity wonders (I've built both in separate games). I don't understand amenities enough to judge these that well. Anyway... good night and good luck!

 

[Lucius_]

For amenity wonders, you need a fairly large empire for them to be worthwhile, 10+ cities.

Personally I think Petra is garbage without lots of desert hills. A 2 1 2 tile isn't very impressive. If you could farm desert tiles, that would be another story, but you can't improve it all unless it's a hill, in which case it's a pretty sweet tile. Not worth it imo. Built it in my Rome game, was so excited, then found out I can't farm all that flat desert I had.

 

[Promethian]

Eiffel Tower should definitely be mentioned for cultural victory. Appeal translates directly to tourism for national parks and and seaside resorts.

 

[Xenotitan]

For amenity wonders, you need a fairly large empire for them to be worthwhile, 10+ cities.

Personally I think Petra is garbage without lots of desert hills. A 2 1 2 tile isn't very impressive. If you could farm desert tiles, that would be another story, but you can't improve it all unless it's a hill, in which case it's a pretty sweet tile. Not worth it imo. Built it in my Rome game, was so excited, then found out I can't farm all that flat desert I had.

I think all of the unique improvements can be built on desert and tundra, so if you have a civ like that or the city state ally that lets you build colossal heads it might be worth it. Still very situational.

 

[Timally]

I think all of the unique improvements can be built on desert and tundra, so if you have a civ like that or the city state ally that lets you build colossal heads it might be worth it. Still very situational.

There's also a city state that gives a tile improvement for faith. Just thinking how awesome that improvement, Lavra and Russia could be..especially since there are two other city states that let you buy walls and buildings with faith.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

Eiffel Tower should definitely be mentioned for cultural victory. Appeal translates directly to tourism for national parks and and seaside resorts.

I put it under a general tier because appeal also helps cities overall (housing, etc.).

 

[The Highwayman]

I'm not well versed enough in all of their abilities to label must have, but so far I've built the Forbidden City in all my games. The extra WC policy helps no matter the civ/desired victory condition. Others I've built in most games are the Colossus, Colosseum, and Great Lighthouse due to their decent bonuses and availability (at least on Emperor).

Big Ben and Eiffel Tower look very strong but I haven't gotten around to building them yet. And Ruhr Valley is fantastic for production as it helped me hammer out the space parts for my Roman science victory in reasonable time.

 

[joncnunn]

That's not a single world wonder in Civ VI that you'd run the risk of losing the game if you didn't self build it; so there's really no "must haves".

As to ones that are most desirable:
Any world wonder that increases trade route capacity would top the list due to the power of internal trade routes.
Next would be any world wonder that increase housing capacity (note that except for WW problems, cities tend to have more housing capacity problems than amenity problems)
Third would be Forbidden City due to the extra WC spot.

 

[isau]

For amenity wonders, you need a fairly large empire for them to be worthwhile, 10+ cities.

Personally I think Petra is garbage without lots of desert hills. A 2 1 2 tile isn't very impressive. If you could farm desert tiles, that would be another story, but you can't improve it all unless it's a hill, in which case it's a pretty sweet tile. Not worth it imo. Built it in my Rome game, was so excited, then found out I can't farm all that flat desert I had.

But you can put a unique improvement on desert, like a Sphinx or Stepwell. Granted, those improvements that can be built on them are still better on hills (which is why I modded my game to lower food from hills to Civ 5s values which were better balanced).

 

[CaiusDrewart]

Civ IV had a couple early game wonders that could radically transform your game--getting them was a night and day difference. I'm thinking about the Great Lighthouse, Oracle, and Pyramids.

I don't think Civ VI has anything like that. There's no god tier wonders in this game.

With that said, I think Eiffel Tower and Cristo Redentor make a pretty big difference in a Culture Victory game. Definitely don't build those if you're going for any other victory condition. Ruhr Valley makes a big difference in a Space Race game. It might help in a Culture game, too, by letting you get those two aforementioned wonders more easily. Pyramids is probably the most generally helpful wonder.

I think Broadway, Hermitage, and Sydney Opera House are extremely weak, especially considering that they're absurdly expensive. The Great Library is near-useless, boosting all ancient and classical techs is pathetic. If it granted a % science boost instead, like Oxford, that would be good.

Big Ben and Forbidden City are way better than Potala Palace and Alhambra, I think. Once you get past the classical era or so, economic slots are much more helpful than diplomatic or military policies. When I build Potala Palace I usually find myself with nothing good to put in the slot.

 

[lamaros]

I think Broadway, Hermitage, and Sydney Opera House are extremely weak, especially considering that they're absurdly expensive. The Great Library is near-useless, boosting all ancient and classical techs is pathetic. If it granted a % science boost instead, like Oxford, that would be good.

Big Ben and Forbidden City are way better than Potala Palace and Alhambra, I think. Once you get past the classical era or so, economic slots are much more helpful than diplomatic or military policies. When I build Potala Palace I usually find myself with nothing good to put in the slot.

Great Library is just such a strange spot, you've already researched everything by the time you get close it it. It needs to be much much earlier in the tree, and much cheaper to build.

I also agree that the cultural building you mention are poor. This is mostly because the culture game at the moment is all about national parks, seaside resorts, and archeologists. Perhaps when the inevitable great artist/musician buffs come through they will be more worthwhile.

 

[CaiusDrewart]

Great Library is just such a strange spot, you've already researched everything by the time you get close it it. It needs to be much much earlier in the tree, and much cheaper to build.

I also agree that the cultural building you mention are poor. This is mostly because the culture game at the moment is all about national parks, seaside resorts, and archeologists. Perhaps when the inevitable great artist/musician buffs come through they will be more worthwhile.

I like it where it is in the tech tree--it was kind of silly to have it unlock with Writing in Civ V. Writing was invented circa 3000 BC. The Great Library was about 300 BC! That's a huge gap. That's a bigger chronological gap than putting the Oracle in the Information Era! Recorded History (which starts roughly in the 5th century BC) is much closer. Maybe just have it grant a free tech of the player's choice? I bet players could design fun strategies around it then. I like wonders like that.

 

[AmtrakQuebec]

For me, the Great Zimbabwe is BOSS !!!!

I always look for a spot with cattle now and a bunch of resources. If you have it, all your food, production and money problems disappear... absolutely killer combination.

The only caveat is that you need to assign a spy to protect your Commercial hub in that city ASAP because the AI will literally be spamming the city with spies to siphon funds EVERY FREAKIN TURN !!!

yup

 

[Onii-chan]

The Forbidden City is probably the most mandatory since it's always amazing and seemingly easy to build. The AI for some reason rarely gets it. The Big Ben is about as good as well but almost twice as expensive in terms of production and the AI really seems to like that one instead so I wouldn't count on getting that one on higher difficulties too often

Other than those... I think the Great Zimbabwe can be absolutely incredible in the right city. If you have a lot of bonus resources and trade routes, it'll provide you with an absolutely obscene amount of gold. Just remember to put a spy on 24/7 counterspy duty in the city's commercial hub afterwards or you'll be robbed to death lol

I also think the Eiffel Tower can be super strong if you're going for a cultural victory due to how many more viable locations it unlocks for National Parks and Seaside Resorts => tons of tourism

The Pyramids are always a nice all-round boost if you can get them. Similar with the Hanging Gardens though I don't it's anywhere near as good as the Temple of Artemis was in Civ V because here you get housing capped so fast anyway and the growth penalty for that is much bigger than the growth increase the Gardens give you. However, it's nice for growing new cities up to their first cap quickly at least

Ruhr Valley can give tons of production with enough mines, very helpful for space race projects later on which require lots of production => good for science victories

Aaaand also the Venetian Arsenal is crazy on island maps. It's currently bugged (I think) so it actually applies to all your cities rather than just the one it's built in. It effectively turns your empire into a naval version of Scythia


The only wonders which I really dislike right now are the Great Library (because it's impossible to make use of the boosts properly for various reasons, however the writing slots are nice of course, but it just feels poorly designed overall), and the Stonehenge. I seriously don't think it's ever worth building Stonehenge on higher difficulties. For one, the AI loves it, and going for it is a huge risk of early production. If you fail, well then you've wasted tons of valuable hammers. And also, you *still* need a Holy Site later on to build missionaries and apostles (and to generate faith in general), so you can't spread or evangelize your religion without one anyway. So if you're going to need an early Holy Site regardless, just get a religion from that instead of wasting hammers on an otherwise useless wonder. It's not like founding a religion is that hard anyway if you just know what you're doing (I.E: hitting the civics boost, using Holy Site Prayers, patronaging the prophet with faith/gold towards the end etc)