West Point

[banana man]

Hi,

I have just finished constuction west point but wasnt sure if it gives me +4 experience for units built in all cities or just where westpoint is? Can someone let me know.

Thanks

 

[Polobo]

Just the city you build it in. The Pentagon provides +2 experience to all cities (?same continent?)

 

[banana man]

poop, after all the hassle i went to to build it... including starting a war just to get a unit of level 5 experience

 

[Pikkis]

Just the city you build it in. The Pentagon provides +2 experience to all cities (?same continent?)

The experience point bonus effects in all cities of the empire, continent doesn't matter.

All National Wonders basically work just in the city they're built at, though Forbidden Palace reduces maintenance costs in all cities nearer its city than the capital.

 

[Polobo]

poop, after all the hassle i went to to build it... including starting a war just to get a unit of level 5 experience

It really isn't that bad a wonder. Usually you are going to (should) have specialized military cities anyway, and west point is the equivalent of 2 settled great generals.

Combine WP with Red Cross, a couple generals/pentagon and theocracy/vassalge and you've got double promoted medic 1 march units being produced at a consistent rate (you could even pop down a military academy if you've got the extra general).

It is quite expensive and I wouldn't consider it a must build but if you've got a heavy domestic hammer city that you want to hybrid/convert into a military city WP is an excellent option to place there. You could also burn a Great Engineer on it. Going to war to build it, however, seems dubious unless you plan on domination/conquest later anyway.

 

[PaulusIII]

West Point + Heroic Epic with barracks, theocracy and vassalage means level 4 units at double speed, and not even counting possible leader bonuses. Pretty nice wonder to have, if used well.

 

[Polobo]

There are a couple of recent threads (not to mention older ones) discussing the merits of combining West Point and Heroic Epic. The biggest issue is that, aside from using a great engineer (I guess you could rush-buy it since US becomes available around that time), you are committing A LOT of hammers that are not being affected by the Heroic Epic. Whether this is a good trade-off is situational, but you can get the same effect by using 2 MIs.

 

[Pikkis]

There are a couple of recent threads (not to mention older ones) discussing the merits of combining West Point and Heroic Epic. The biggest issue is that, aside from using a great engineer (I guess you could rush-buy it since US becomes available around that time), you are committing A LOT of hammers that are not being affected by the Heroic Epic. Whether this is a good trade-off is situational, but you can get the same effect by using 2 MIs.

It's partly about how much you value Great Spies too. If you absolutely don't want any of them, settling 2 GMIs becomes better choice than it would in other cases be. But if you want to have them, West Point gives you one additional raw Great People point and, more importantly, increases (in most cases, significantly) the likeliness of a Great Spy being born.

 

[Jabba]

I always combine West Point and Heroic Epic as a matter of course. I've never considered the foregone unit production a problem. If all your city ever did after building heroic epic was pump out military units, your army would quickly become too large.

 

[Ur_Vile_Wedge]

*chokes at the thought of an army being too large*

When your maintenance starts giving you problems, it's Sid's way of telling you you should be invading your "friends"