National Wonders

[HughFran]

Hi all,

Quick question on National Wonders - if you have say 3 cities and you build a National Wonder (National College for example) and then you build a fourth city, will the NW stop functioning until the relevant building is built in the fourth city or will it still continue to operate? I know it says that the cost goes up the more cities you have but I've never fully understood what the 'cost' is. Can somebody clarify this?

 

[kixkal]

I don't think once you've actually built the national wonder it will "stop working" (pretty sure it doesn't). However, it does stop the construction if you found a new city (or conquer) without the prerequisite building and you'll have to build it in order to follow with the National Wonder.
The cost increase is the amount of hammers required to build the NW. The more cities the more hammers.

 

[Kriogen]

Does not stop working. When you have it, you have it.

If you get a new city while building NW, construction is 'paused'. You don't lose already invested hammers. When you finish lets say library (for NC) in than new city, you can continue to build.

 

[HughFran]

Ah okay, thanks for clearing that up. I've been putting myself at a disadvantage this whole time then!!

 

[shaglio]

Also, if you capture a city and raze it, that city is considered to be part of your empire while it is burning down (as if you had annexed it). So it will stop any National Wonder construction if the city doesn't have the required building (or you sold the building to make quick cash while it's being razed).

 

[Dushku]

If you get a new city while building NW, construction is 'paused'.

The term "get" here is vague when a distinction is meaningful. Puppeted cities will increase the cost of a national wonder, but the national wonder's requisite buildings do not apply to puppets. So if you're building a national wonder, conquer a city, and puppet it, it will take longer to build the national wonder. It's construction will not be paused.

If you FOUND a new city, then you cannot continue to build the national wonder until that new city has the requisite building too.

 

[reddishrecue]

Thats right, you have to build something else other than a national wonder when a new city is founded or when a puppet city that doesnt have the building required to complete the national wonder is annexed.

 

[beetle]

Puppeted cities will increase the cost of a national wonder...

I am pretty sure that is not correct.

If you FOUND a new city, then you cannot continue to build the national wonder until that new city has the requisite building too.

Also, if you annex or raze a city then you cannot continue to build the national wonder unless the city has the requisite building.

 

[claudiupb]

I am pretty sure that is not correct.

They do, I tested it with IGE. 30 hammers were added.

 

[LeeS]

When building a National Wonder, or about to start building a National Wonder:

• Do not found any new cities unless you have enough gold in your treasury to buy the National Wonder's required building in that new city. You need to be able to buy the building on the same term you found the new city in order to ensure no unnecessary construction-delays of the National Wonder. But it is still better in terms of the construction of the National Wonder to not found the city until after the National Wonder is completed.
• Do not capture or annex enemy cities if you are already in a war, or a war is forced upon you. Weaken enemy cities by pillaging around them and by killing off enemy units that come out of the cities to fight you, but don't actually capture the enemy city.
• Do finish building a settler and send it off to wherever you intended to have it settle, just don't actually create the new city until the National Wonder is completed. This saves you the need to rush-buy any buildings, and saves you some production cost/time on the National Wonder. But keep a close eye on the surrounding territory so that an AI doesn't spam-grab the area out from under you by building a city in a spot that will make your intended new-city position useless. This means you need a protector sharing the same tile as the settler, as well as one or two other "spotter" units on nearby hill tiles.
• Don't start a war. Wars lead to you capturing enemy cities. Capturing enemy cities increases the cost in production of the National Wonder.
• If an adversary declares a war on you while you are constructing a National Wonder, fight a defensive war if necessary, and an attritive war if possible, but not what I would call an aggressive war.
• If negotiating a peace treaty to end a war, never take on cities as part of the agreement unless you intend to/can immediately sell or give them away. But if you are doing well enough in the war for the AI to offer cities as part of a peace-deal, it might be better to refuse the peace deal until after you complete the National Wonder, or to negotiate something not involving the acceptance of new cities into your empire.

1. Defensive War
   • where you keep your units close to home and eat up enemy units as they approach your units/cities. Making use of terrain and choke-points to cause the AI enemy to burn up units attacking highly-defensible positions.
2. Attritive War
   • where you have essentially defeated an AI's units on the field of battle and are able to pillage and wreak havoc on the AI's land, pillaging tiles and capturing workers, and shooting at enemy cities with your ranged units as opportunity permits, but not actually capturing any cities. Withdrawing units out of range of enemy cities as necessary to allow them to heal, flipping back to a Defensive War when necessary, and then returning to the Attritive War's strategy of pillage and havoc as soon as possible.
   • The fun part about flipping to a Defensive War and withdrawing your units from the enemy AI's territory until you heal up your units or can gather-together enough reinforcements to go back to the Attritive pillage-and-capture-civilians method is that the AI will often immediately dispatch additional worker-victims from its cities to repair pillaged tiles as soon as you withdraw away from the AI cities. You can often catch another "free" worker or two when you flip back to pillage/steal/ranged-attack-enemy-cities.
3. Aggressive War
   • All-out no-holds-barred conflict where the priority is to take as many enemy cities as is possible in the least amount of time.

 

[beetle]

They do, I tested it with IGE. 30 hammers were added.

Thanks! I love days that I learn something!

 

[joncnunn]

Given how few turns are needed for national wonders (on standard speed), while I'm in strong agreement with not settling or taking a city until it completes, I don't see the harm at all in starting an offensive war, clearing out his units, and red lining the city with your ranged units so you can capture it the turn after the national wonder completes.

On a related note, if you have enough points for a policy and can take a city that same turn, you may want to choose your policy before taking the city because that will also increase the cost of the policies, often just enough to to where you can no longer pick a policy this turn but must wait one or two more turns.

 

[LeeS]

Given how few turns are needing for national wonders (on standard speed), while I'm in strong agreement with not settling or taking a city until it completes, I don't see the harm at all in starting an offensive war, clearing out his units, and red lining the city with your ranged units so you can capture it the turn after the national wonder completes.

I think what you would call an offensive war waged in the way you describe it I would call 'attritive'. But I still prefer not to make DoWs myself because I find myself to be too much of an Attila, often unable to resist the juicy prize waiting there to be taken.

Which is why I threw in:

• Don't start a war. Wars lead to you capturing enemy cities. Capturing enemy cities increases the cost in production of the National Wonder.

 

[Dushku]

On a related note, if you have enough points for a policy and can take a city that same turn, you may want to choose your policy before taking the city because that will also increase the cost of the policies, often just enough to to where you can no longer pick a policy this turn but must wait one or two more turns.

Same with bulbing a scientist. I once had a turn where I bulbed a scientist, took over a city, and then my game crashed. When I reloaded, I took over the city, bulbed my scientist, and then was perplexed as to why I didn't fully learn the tech I just had with the same scientist performing the same action. I figured it out eventually.

 

[stormtrooper412]

• Don't start a war. Wars lead to you capturing enemy cities. Capturing enemy cities increases the cost in production of the National Wonder.

In my case, nope

 

[reddishrecue]

In my case, nope

If you have too many units costing you production then war could be plan c while plan a or b can be making new cities or eliminating units by gifting them to city states or simply deleting them.