Which National Wonders Do You Build in Your Capital?

[CivMcNut]

I keep finding myself having heavy debates about which national wonders to build in my capital. I normally run Bueracracy as soon as I get Civil Service so my capital becomes a really important city. My usual thing is to thow oxford university in there because my capital is almost always my #1 science city as I usually favor cottaging it as soon as possible on most maps.

I often wonder if I would do better to thow the heroic epic in there instead because it becomes available sooner, and I am usually fighting someone all the time.

I have used Moa Statues sometimes for my capital if it's a coastal city with lots of water tiles.

Many national wonders don't become available until later in the game, are some of those worth going for? Something like ironworks with Bueracracy can really turn a capital into a late game wonder spamming machine.

I was wanting to get some opinions on which two wonders go best in the capital from other people's experiences. I guess there are many factors like which way you are trying to win and all that, but it seems to me like whatever national wonders you pick for your capital city are really important.

 

[Izuul]

I put the HE there fairly often. Oxford if i actually build it (not very often). Maybe the Hermitage on the rare occasion that i go for culture. I've had the NE in my capitol in some more unusual circumstances too.

In a fair amount of games i would say that i don't build any of them in my cap, and the HE and NE are often the only ones i build at all.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

HE and NE are my most common also, although the latter I only tend to put there if I built great library in capitol or it's just my best food city in a culture game.

 

[VSarius]

Depends on the location but HE/West Point, NE/Oxford, maybe Ironworks, rarely anything else.
Generally though I prefer to change my capitol over to a commerce focused site, so NE/Oxford is by far the most common.

 

[elmurcis]

Capital usually will be NE+ Moai/HE or Globe. If NE+Moai, than 2nd strongest city gets Globe+HE. Anything else comes much later so... will take best place of other cities

 

[Tall German Joe]

HE / NE for me also, although usually its neither because I try to keep my capital working as many cottages as possible. NE is only if I can't build TGL anywhere else. I rarely ever build oxford anymore because it comes so late, but if I did (was philo w/ stone) I would put that in my capital. Moai in your capital is generally a bad idea unless you have a heavily-coasted capital and yet can only expand inland.

 

[Sisiutil]

Forbidden Palace, of course!

Kidding.

My capital is usually my best research city, so I usually build Oxford there.

I usually cottage the heck out of the capital to take advantage of Bureaucracy's financial boost; the production boost is handy for building all the commerce/science multipliers quickly.

That being said, I'm a little surprised by some of the answers above. I usually build the NE in my GP farm, which is improved with farms, not cottages. The HE goes in my best early production city and builds units almost exclusively for the rest of the game. Putting either one in a heavily-cottaged city seems non-optimal to me. But as always, I am open to being corrected (says the guy who's been married for 20 years).

 

[CivMcNut]

I'm already getting a lot of votes for National Epic. That's one I haven't even been building in recent games. I guess that is a mistake. Many times I am not running very many specialists in my capitals as I am letting them all work cottage tiles, and without early World Wonders my capitals have been pretty poor at producing great people. Maybe I need to rethink that strategy.

I like the Heroic Epic idea, slap that together and you can be building troops every other turn even on Epic speed in your capital. Perhaps I should be trying to research literature earlier on too. Getting West Point with that would be a wicked combo, but a lot of my games I have trouble getting a unit promoted enough to build that.

Can using a great general to promote a troop fix that problem? I always take my great generals and settle them throughout my top hammer producing towns to generate two promotion troops in many cities.

So I don't have a bad idea with the Oxford?

 

[Tatran]

In most games : National Epic + Oxford University

 

[TheMeInTeam]

That being said, I'm a little surprised by some of the answers above. I usually build the NE in my GP farm, which is improved with farms, not cottages. The HE goes in my best early production city and builds units almost exclusively for the rest of the game. Putting either one in a heavily-cottaged city seems non-optimal to me. But as always, I am open to being corrected (says the guy who's been married for 20 years).

Capitol is often the best production or city available, and thus gets one of these. More likely, it is the only viable Great Library location that makes me put national epic there. Capitol gets a huge lift as HE city if it isn't a viable cottage location (palace can always be moved later if you care, which usually you wont if going early HE ---> lots of cities captured).

I don't use a lot of national wonders regardless. Oxford blows unless going for space, wall street and later are too late; moai is situational and is mostly = building wealth with stone. Hermitage is of course built in virtually every game, but only in those.

HE and NE are the most common national wonders, followed by globe which is amusingly powerful and a great investment with marble.

 

[Lennier]

The CW is that although there is synergy between WP and HE, building WP in the HE city takes HE out of unit building for too long.

I'm a wonder-addict, so I often build my NE in my capitol, but if I have a proper specialist-enabled GP farm (vs. wonder-GPP GP farm), I'll build the NE there. Other than that, it depends on the map.

Using your first GG to create a supermedic will give the unit enough promotions (or close to) to unlock WP if the unit already has a promotion. (I think; might need two promotions plus GG to get to level 6.)

 

[Izuul]

NE in the capitol...

-Had to build TGL there for lack of any other place to build it (not ideal but happens, especially on like Deity where there's little time to waste)

-Running some kind of wonder/settled specialist economy. That's really rare for me, but i have done it.

-The capitol is high on food and low on commerce. Sometimes you can move the cap to another location in this situation, but sometimes you can find other sources of commerce like the GLH and your capitol can just become a production center or a GP farm depending on the hammer potential and such.

 

[Seraiel]

Oxford in (the burocratic) Capital if going for space.

If going for domination: HE, except I have an exceptional city like if the capital of the 1st conquered CIV isn't a better GP Farm.

NE, if going for space again in the city having the most food, if going for domination, build the Globe there, except the map is so small that you conquer all CIVs with less effort than building the theaters and the Globe itself would cost.

National Park if I find a good spot in the jungle and aim for late-game so space again.

Westpoint is way to expensive to put it in the HE city (or imo to even build it at all) and I don't tend to build any other National Wonders at all atm. , except the WS, if I have either a Shrine and / or go until Sushi.

Of course: Build the Hermitage in Cultural games.

Sera

 

[Doshin]

It is usually inefficient to build the Heroic Epic in one's capital. The wonder gives a 100% boost to hammers spent on military units. This applies to the base hammers, not the post-bureaucracy total:

Spoiler :

The Heroic Epic belongs in your best hammer city, and since most players set up a commerce/Academy capital, another city can usually get better base hammers.

The National Epic should go in the best Great Person farm. Ideally this isn't your capital, but often it is (as the best, most developed early city, often surrounded by Forests).

Moai in the capital is great, as long as there are a decent number of seafood tiles.

Forget about West Point. If anything, it should be built in the Iron Works city with access to Stone, and even then it is a so-so build.

Hermitage for culture, unless another city is lagging (and one usually is).

---

I typically get Oxford in the capital (in tech heavy games) and the National Epic (usu. with TGL). Moai Statues (seafood start), Wall Street, and Globe Theater are other possible builds if the game tends in that direction.

 

[Izuul]

Sometimes the capitol is still the best hammer city though since it's usually heavy on resources and hills. I try to build the HE elsewhere when possible, but I'm not against building it in the capitol at all.

 

[oranje willem]

It is usually inefficient to build the Heroic Epic in one's capital. The wonder gives a 100% boost to hammers spent on military units. This applies to the base hammers, not the post-bureaucracy total:

I'm pretty sure that bureaucracy is applied before other multipliers kick in.

 

[lymond]

HE in Bureau cap IMO is usually redundant. Same as putting IW in HE city if game goes that far. Exception would be just all out war game in which your secondary cities are low production food whip cities, that is, nothing really worth HE, and you don't care much about science.

Otherwise, a good Bureau cap with sufficient base hammers can serve as another military city on its own without HE. Too many eggs in one basket.

As for West Point, I never build it. If you are building that rather high hammer late NW in your HE city, then that city is not building units. I guess a GE rush could be warranted if you have no other better use for the GE.

I usually put Oxford in Bureau cottage cap if I build Ox at all. NE possibly if I have to build TGL in cap, but I usually hate having NE in my Bureau cottage beauty. It really does not marry will with that combo, but sometimes it's just what you have to do, especially on high levels.

NE + Globe is so counter-intuitive. Same with HE+Globe or NE/Maoi. No reason to combine those NWs. In fact, ideally, with the exception of culture games, I think it is best to avoid NW combos.

 

[lymond]

Doshin - Interesting demo on Bureau HE. I never knew that..wow. I rarely ever build HE in cap anyway. Then "redundant" is not the right word I should have used, but rather "not optimal".

 

[Sisiutil]

I usually prefer to put West Point and the Heroic Epic in different cities (neither the capital)--reason being, I prefer the HE to pump out units as much as possible. Building WP for a few dozen turns is a distraction. By the time WP is available, I usually have another good production city. Great Generals compensate by giving me XPs in the HE city and a Military Academy in the WP city.

As for combining Ironworks with the HE or WP--I usually don't, because my IW city is often a late-game wonder factory, while the HE and WP cities should be focusing on units.

 

[Izuul]

You aren't losing hammers with bureau cap + HE, you just aren't gaining additional hammers. Both bonuses are applied. My biggest issue with HE in cap is that building units sometimes competes with building the handful of buildings I actually build there.