What a Wonder -full World!
I took some time to map all the 144 Wonders (except SciFi Space Elevator) in their accurate locations, accurate within 1 tile. This is mostly for the future reference (many players like myself simply obsessed with building Wonders in their accurate locations). But I also hope to generate some conversation about the respective wonder cities and their representation both in game in the current and future scenario maps. Most of those wonder-cities are already given their proper place in game, so the neglect of few exceptions is even more glaring.
1. Case for Geneve, home to 3 Wonders. Our new map has enough space to represent one Swiss city (Geneve of Bern). Geneve does not block Celtic capital in 3000 BC but it does block Lyon in 600 and 1700. To make things more standard across the different scenarios I would suggest simply label Clermont as Lyon when French arrive and keep both Geneve and former Celtic capital in later scenarios. Lack of Swiss civilization should not stop us from giving this important city it's place in Europe. It should be contested by France, Holy Rome and Italy but otherwise never flip to either of them on the rebirth.
2. Brussels. I
have already made a comprehensive case for this capital of EU to be given it's proper place on the map. Similar to Geneve it should be contested but never flip to any of the existing European civs. Paris should not be the closest city for Prussia/Germany to take like with the smaller map, our map is big enough for more nuanced wars, and Belgium was the battle ground of Europe on more than one occasion.
3. Capital of Punjab Lahore (Lavapuri) has a Cattle on its tile. I know the Cattle is supposed to support Delhi, but Lahore is too important to be labeling a resource. At the very least the starting point of Harappa (which is 1W) should also be named Lahore when Indians get their hands on it.
4. Not sure why Mayapan is representing historical Chechen Itza, which has a corn on it. We should simply swap the the Corn with the city and let the current city names stay as they are. Both for the game and in scenarios.
5. Las Lajas is only a minor basilica in a pretty obscure part of Colombia-Ecuador border (on Gold). I often wondered why did we decided to represent Northern South America with this particular Wonder, which is, beautiful but is a minor basilica and not the most impressive thing to represent Gran Colombia. I am ok with the effect but the name could be change to something colonial like the most famous landmark in Colombia the San Felipe de Barajas Castle in the wonderful city of Cartagena, or Bolivar related like Plaza de Bolivar, or religious, like Monumento a la Virgen de la Paz (the tallest statue in South America, standing at 153.3 ft (46.72 m) tall, while Brazilian Cristo is 30 m).
6. I know that Amber Room was created in Germany but Prussia starting with it in 1700 scenario does not reflect the fact that it became a famous icon of Russian Empire. Let's move it to St. Petersburg.
7. Chinese Hangzhou is very important, but I suggest giving the tile 1S from it the very same name Hangzhou and replacing it with Nanjing (Moling) in 600 AD and 1700 AD scenarios. Nanjing is/was arguably more important as a capital of 9 different dynasties and a home of the Porcelain Tower Wonder. This way Chinese player can still fit all 3 important cities: Nanjing (1NW from the current Hangzhou), Shanghai (1 NE and home of the Wonder), and the new/another Hangzhou 1S from it's current location. Our big map can support all those cities.
8. We badly need another Sub-Saharan Wonder, so perhaps we can repurpose one of the Mali wonders into Great Zimbabwe. It meets the first criteria by UNESCO World Heritage Site selection:
(i) to represent a masterpiece of human creative genius
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