Which Wonders do you build?

[goodolarchie]

One thing I've noticed on these forums is that Wonders seem to be grey area at high level play, not because they're hard to get but what you sacrifice to get them. For instance I used to always build the pyramids if I had stone before playing at Monarch/Emperor. Now I rarely ever do, in fact the first wonder I consider going for is GLH if I have a skinny continent. So which wonders do you generally build, regardless of your civ? I'll list mine in this format..

Difficulty: Emperor
Speed: Epic
Preferred Map: Fractal

"Always" Wonders:
Oracle
Hanging Gardens
Oxford
Taj Mahal
3GD
HE/NE
Forbidden Palace
Wall Street
Statue/Liberty
Cristo Redentor
Globe Theater

"Sometimes" Wonders (and when?):
GLH (skinny continent/ind leader)
Pyramids (early stone, extra trees, ind)
Parthenon (phi leader and SE)
Kremlin (cottage econ and US civic)
West Point (goes with HE)
Ironworks (medium pop prod city)
Colossus (fin leader)
Notre Dame (if I need the )

 

[Berkobob]

Surprised you didnt have Great Library in your list of wonders?? It is pretty powerful in a GP farm or a Bureau capital. Great for crawling to Currency/CoL if you grabbed a ton of land

Almost never used to build Wonders but have been building more since moving up to Emperor.

Difficulty: Emperor --> Immortal (in process of moving up)
Speed: Normal
Preferred Map: RandomScriptMap (generates from a wide selection of map types)

"Always" Wonders:
NE
HE
Oxford
Moai
(no world wonders)

"Sometimes" Wonders (and when?):
Glib (wont build if warring in classical era)
Ironworks (sometimes no good spots & need all cities pumping military/ships at that point)
GLH (Isolated/small landmass/heavy early seafood sites)
Pyramids (stone + ind or phi & not wonderspamming)
Parthenon (If I have marble + have blocked sufficient land)
Taj (Most games I go for cannons ASAP)
Wall Street (rarely use corps or capture a good shrine)
Globe (if not invading with mounted units)
Gwall (if I suspect I am alone with one civ)

Also failbuild wonders pretty frequently but only if I have a bonus, especially if I dont have any useful buildings to add in developed cities.

 

[Gocho]

Difficulty Emperor, about 80/20

Always build:

The important national wonders assuming an appropriate city
Glib (95% or so)

Often build:
GLH, whenever I can run about 75% costal it becomes a priority
Taj due to tending to take nat from lib
TGD I tend towards larger cities in late game wins so health is an issue, might be moving away from this one in an attempt to win slow games faster
SoL Most of my games are cottage heavy so Democracy gets teched sooner rather then later and well it is a great wonder

 

[Amao]

Difficulty Noble:

Always build:
None if early horse rush proven successful;
Otherwise, academy.

 

[Groogaroo]

Hmmm...

Difficulty - Emporer

Always build:
None

Sometimes build:
Great Library
National Wonders
Acadamy

Use to be a an early wonder hog on Monarch but since moving up to Emporer I just never seem to get round to building anything not even great Library, normally because I'm beat to it though! This is probably more down to struggling at this level rather than actually planning to avoid wonders. I've even had games where I've skipped national wonders, even Nat epic & oxford uni in one game!

 

[King Pluto]

Prince/Monarch

Always build:

• National Epic
• Oxford
• Heroic Epic
• Ironworks (if it gets that far)
• Moai Statues

Definitely build unless something pressing comes up:

• Great Library
• Taj (usually by this point I can spare a good production city and have some marble)

Situational:

• Great Lighthouse (coastal)
• Oracle (only if it hasn't been taken, I don't usually go this way tech-wise)
• Pyramids (stone on hand/Ind)
• Stonehenge (not creative/stone on hand)
• Great Wall (stone/early feeling that I'll have barb problems)
• Parthenon (marble/if I can spare a city for some chops)
• Statue of Zeus (denial)

 

[Shurdus]

Only GLib if marble is there, sometimes Taj Mahal if I have marble and I can grab a monopoly on nationalism. If mailnly coastal I will try to go GLH if I need not haste to block land.

Other wonders are highly situational. Only Oxford comes to mind in the 'always' column.

Edit; Oh, and immortal, normal speed, fractal.

 

[lilnev]

Immortal (Agg AI), normal speed, large fractal, playing for domination.

Always National Wonders:
HE, NE, Globe, Moai, Forbidden Palace, Oxford, IW, Wall St if I get Mining Inc, Rushmore. In about that order on average, assuming I'm winning or at least still fighting late enough for it to matter.

Seldom National Wonders:
West Point, Hermitage, National Park

Never National Wonder:
Red Cross

World Wonders, there's none I always go for.
Hanging Gardens is probably the most common, because I prioritize Math (power chopping, it can often be traded for IW, pre-req for Construction and Currency) and because it's one of the surest ways to get a GE for Mining Inc.
Oracle if I've got great early tech (Gold/Gems, and not many needed worker techs). The hammer cost is not so high as the tech detour to Priesthood.
Pyramids only if I have Stone, and not always then -- depends on good production potential, urgency of settlers to claim key sites, SE-friendly terrain (more good food resources, fewer wide green expanses), and availability of other happiness sources.
GLib sometimes, though often I either crash my economy REXing or else launch a catapult war, rather than going to Aesth-Lit.
GLH once in a while, though it's my least favorite Wonder to try for -- it's so unpredictable how early it will go (I've seen 2000 BC and 600 AD), there is no accelerating resource, and Sailing and Masonry take a long time to do very little.

 

[Iranon]

I build the Great Library and one of Oracle (probably for Metal Casting) and the Great Lighthouse in most games. I used to be an absolute wonder whore on any level but am starting to cut down on it a bit in favour of an army.

Since there's more hot AI-on-AI action on high levels, sneaking up from behind and taking advantage of the weaker party while they're fending off someone else's advances is too tempting to pass up.
Emperor is probably too low for that though since you probably have to do the heavy lifting yourself (and it's not low enough that the AIs are total push-overs), so build away.

 

[trc]

Hmmm... Maybe I need to rethink since no one mentions.

Other than the HE, I almost always build Stonehenge in the second city. The reason is I never get the early religions, but usually get Taoism or Confucianism, and not long after pop a GP from the Stonehenge city, which is nice for funding the army of maces/siege I'm about to start building . The free monuments don't hurt either, especially if planning to build at least 4 more cities (120 hammers vs 30 per city), less if I'm industrious. Also important if I'm not creative and get the auto +2 drama, as it might be a while before these cities see any border expansion.

Or is it just crazy talk, and I need to ween myself from a(nother) bad habit?

 

[Bei1052]

Outside of specific national wonders, there really isn't an "always build wonder".

 

[pollock]

Wonders? What are wonders? But seriously i build whatever can when have a monopoly on the tech the resource to hurry it up and not going to war soon. On immortal/deity this isn't often

 

[§L¥ Gµ¥]

Emp -
Always:
none
Nice to haves :
henge, wall, 'myds [if I've got a ton of cities with the corn-pigs combo], parthenon & GLib [with 'myds only]

Otherwise, PLAY THE MAP!

 

[The Rook]

Deity/Normal/Fractal

I'm probably close to the extreme end of conservative when it comes to wonder building. Sometimes I finish games without constructing a single World Wonder, though I still like to abuse National Wonders. If I lack the resource for a WW and don't have the Industrious trait, I nearly always reject the attempt from the outset. At least with the resource or Industrious you get a good gold multiplier for failing.

 

[trc]

Deity/Normal/Fractal

I'm probably close to the extreme end of conservative when it comes to wonder building. Sometimes I finish games without constructing a single World Wonder, though I still like to abuse National Wonders. If I lack the resource for a WW and don't have the Industrious trait, I nearly always reject the attempt from the outset. At least with the resource or Industrious you get a good gold multiplier for failing.

I would think at the higher levels HE becomes more important for the production edge. What am I missing here.

 

[Rittmeyer]

I would think at the higher levels HE becomes more important for the production edge. What am I missing here.

you are missing the fact that HE is not a world wonder, but a national wonder ( he said he builds those).

 

[trc]

you are missing the fact that HE is not a world wonder, but a national wonder ( he said he builds those).

Gotcha. Thanks.

 

[The Rook]

Edit: Rittmeyer answered before I could.

 

[Gliese 581]

I build the great library in the majority of my games, no other wonder is close in frequency though I consider the GLH and Pyramids both to be more powerful given the right circumstances, you sacrifice alot with those early wonders though. I usually don't get the GL unless I'm industrous and/or have marble however. It seems I get marble all the time nowadays..

 

[Trev]

stonehenge, pyramids, great wall, often not much after those as focussed then on good army, can get away without it early on.