EDIT: ^^cross posting with the above one
Just looking to get a sense of when people out there would build Pyramids, and why.
2 AM here, and I was going to bed. Luckily tomorrow I'm in Holiday.
I struggle with this decision, so I'm hoping to get some expert opinions on this.
I'm not an expert compared to some other players, but I play Civ IV since vanilla, and this is the wonder I built the most. So I dare dropping my modest 2
.
Please consider this is not an expert mathematical analysis, just a bunch of silly IMOs.
What conditions make it a stronger or weaker choice?
If you ask me: (a) peace or war; (b) playing toward SE or toward CE.
With peace and SE obviously in favor of the 'mids.
I never tried to play the police state early, maybe someone could call me wrong on the war issue.
Obvious ones would be things like Stone makes it stronger; starting boxed in by a nearby Gandhi makes it a weaker choice... but there are lots of other factors that I'd think might be significant. Should a PHI leader be an often-decisive factor, or is it just something worth weighing in borderline cases?
Uhm... hard to say. Phi-what? Gandhi Phi-Spi (with a fast worker building mines!) surely, but more for the Spi IMO. Switching helps. It is not just about representation. But yes, Phi is a + more than the majority of the other traits IMO.
What sort of openings do you use when you're getting it (tech path, pre-Pyramids builds, post-Pyramids "catch-up in land" builds)?
Mining is on the way, and masonry is needed.
Then I take the few techs I need, and after I usually beeline alphabet from AH.
- The Great Library synergies very well in a space race victory
- Parthenon + Sistine Chapel in a cultural victory, Artists = raw 4
6
+50%
from Parthenon (you can add here also Taj Mahal, and, no matter what they say, Great Library as well). But Parthenon and
Sistine are way stronger than Great Library here.
What's a "good" build time for Pyramids?
For me, turn 60-80. In culture games, early it is better it is (for 1000years culture); in space ship, this doesn't matter.
Any sample games where building pyramids was debatable, and arguments in favor of or against it in those particular games.
Sorry, I didn't understand the question.
If you ask what is the deal with them, I say 500
in the early game. I mean, you have to catch that production "loss" later, so you better leverage the power of your expansive wonder somehow (in my case mostly early representation, US before Democracy if/when I have a bunch of gold from TT, and maybe the possibility to run police state if attacked: especially with spiritual it is nice).
The early GE is nice, if you build say the Sistine Chapel with it, you get back almost all your hammers. Well, 100+ turns later of course.
If you leverage it well, it is never useless and pays for itself in the majority of the cases. Sure, there are exceptions. But also when it was a bad call, it is never a bad/useless wonder if you use your brain on the power it as. University of Sansoke (whatever it is spelled) for example is useless without
buildings. The Pyramids are never in such situation. If I play aggressive don't build them, but I'm HAPPY to capture them.
If you ask me, it is the most powerful wonder*, because it gives "freedom" and you have something nobody has. I mean if I race vs. Gandhi or Mansa in Tech, I'll rather be the one who has the weapon to run Representation.
*
(except somehow for the Diplomatic 2, but this is another story, since they enable a victory)
Personally I'm most interested in the more common settings: no Huts / no Events, Standard sized map, Normal/Epic speed, Emperor/Immortal/Deity difficulty.
The standard settings I play too. I might play Epic/Marathon, doesn't really change, except that it is a tiny bit easier to build them.
I hope that this might help somehow to have a different point of view.
And I hope all this makes sense in English.