dalamb
Deity
I'm planning to play an IND leader soon and give in to my inner wonder-spamming builder somewhat, but only somewhat: I'm planning to pick a strategy and victory condition, and fiercely resist building anything not on that path. I found the strategy article on Knowing When to Build Wonders and madscientist's summary, plus several on specific other wonders, but decided I needed to group things by strategy. Here's what I found so far; I plan to edit in response to comments. Since I only play at Noble or below, I've tried to base everything here on other people's strategy articles rather than my own opinions where possible, but wound up posting a few of my own where I didn't have a link handy to something else.
Most wonders are just as beneficial if you conquer them instead of building them, though for pre-Astronomy wonders you're counting on them being on your own continent. Any wonder becomes more attractive if you have the appropriate accelerator -- or less attractive without. For example, some people consider that building the Pyramids or the Taj Mahal depends more on having stone or marble than on the victory condition.
National Wonders are in blue; World Wonders are in red.
Widely Useful
Several wonders are suitable for many or most victory conditions and economies.
Useful for Long Games
Some wonders are useful only for games that advance far along the tech tree and into the late game, but not useful otherwise. In particular, many conquest and domination games are finished before they become available or have enough time to pay off the investment.
Victory Conditions
Conquest: Heroic Epic; possibly West Point and Pentagon if pursuing late-game conquest. The Globe Theatre in a high-food city gives you a powerhouse for whipping and drafting troops. Also wonders that reduce war weariness (Mount Rushmore; possibly Statue of Zeus to deny it to the AI though it might be attractive to let the AI spend the hammers on it instead of something more directly beneficial). In the late game, those that generate happiness resources might reduce help mitigate war weariness also (Broadway, Hollywood, Rock'n'Roll). The Kremlin can be useful for whipping military units in late-game warfare.
People don't seem to like the Red Cross (Medic I promotion) and usually don't expect to fight within their own borders, reducing the value of the GG-generation aspect of the Great Wall.
Cultural (mainly via jesusin): Hermitage, National Epic. His Wonder segment says "incomplete" so I'm guessing you might possibly go for:
Diplomacy: You obviously benefit from building the Apostolic Palace or United Nations since you get a chance to be leader. For a UN victory some of the 'long game' wonders might be appropriate depending on what you need to do to secure the approval of enough AIs.
Domination: Since warring is the usual way to gain domination, the Conquest wonders help. Also those that help run a big empire: Forbidden Palace, Versailles. However, there's also a rare Cultural Domination approach (take over cities only via culture flipping) that requires certain culture buildings instead; see Sulla's "Passive-Aggressive Hatty" for an example.
Space Race Since this VC requires researching most of the tech tree, those that accelerate progress in science or generate GS points might help: Great Library, Oxford University, University of Sankore. Red Cross gives one GS GPP but isn't worth the investment for the six required hospitals and its own
cost. Space Elevator seems attractive at first, but people have calculated that the investment and diversion to Robotics aren't worthwhile.
Economies
Economies are hybrids of different strategies, often specialized by cities; certain wonders help with certain aspects of the economy.
Cottages: I can't think of any.
Espionage: Those generating Great Spy points: Forbidden Palace, Great Wall, Kremlin, West Point.
Religious: Those that give benefits per state religion building: Sistine Chapel
culture, Spiral Minaret gold, University of Sankore science. Ankor Wat, Apostolic Palace hammers: per priest specialist). Those others that generate Great Prophet points: Chichen Itza, Moai Statues, Oracle, Stonehenge. Wall Street in a shrine city.
Specialists: Anything that gives free specialists of a type you already want: Great Library (scientist), National Park (any, per Forest Preserve), Statue of Liberty (one, of any type you can already run, in every city), Temple of Artemis (prophet). Possibly Pyramids for early Representation. If you expect to start several Golden Ages, the Mausoleum of Mausollos gives them a 50% boost
Trade Routes: The Great Lighthouse (+2 trade routes in each coastal city). Possibly Temple of Artemis, though people consider it weak and advise leaving it to an AI, in which case you send your own trade missions there. Perhaps buildings likely to generate Great Merchants (if you want to bulb trade-related techs or send them on trade missions): Colossos, Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty, United Nations, Versailles (though unlikely to be built in a city where you already have GM GPP buildings, unless you capture one), Wall Street.
Most wonders are just as beneficial if you conquer them instead of building them, though for pre-Astronomy wonders you're counting on them being on your own continent. Any wonder becomes more attractive if you have the appropriate accelerator -- or less attractive without. For example, some people consider that building the Pyramids or the Taj Mahal depends more on having stone or marble than on the victory condition.
National Wonders are in blue; World Wonders are in red.
Widely Useful
Several wonders are suitable for many or most victory conditions and economies.
- The Great Library advances your research in the mid-game; even conquest/domination victories could benefit by getting to critical military technologies faster.
- Heroic Epic: even peaceful strategies require defenders -- as long as you manage to get a 4th level unit somehow.
- The Mausoleum extends your golden ages by 50%, which can be a huge boost. However, many people prefer to capture it and don't try to build it without marble.
- National Epic: If you expect to get any Great People at all, getting them faster should help.
- The Oracle gives a free technology.
- The Taj Mahal gives a free golden age, good for production, GPP generation, and free civic changes.
Useful for Long Games
Some wonders are useful only for games that advance far along the tech tree and into the late game, but not useful otherwise. In particular, many conquest and domination games are finished before they become available or have enough time to pay off the investment.
- The Internet project helps a lot when your technology is behind several AIs late in the game.
- Oxford University speeds research if you expect to continue tech'ing past Education.
Victory Conditions
Conquest: Heroic Epic; possibly West Point and Pentagon if pursuing late-game conquest. The Globe Theatre in a high-food city gives you a powerhouse for whipping and drafting troops. Also wonders that reduce war weariness (Mount Rushmore; possibly Statue of Zeus to deny it to the AI though it might be attractive to let the AI spend the hammers on it instead of something more directly beneficial). In the late game, those that generate happiness resources might reduce help mitigate war weariness also (Broadway, Hollywood, Rock'n'Roll). The Kremlin can be useful for whipping military units in late-game warfare.
People don't seem to like the Red Cross (Medic I promotion) and usually don't expect to fight within their own borders, reducing the value of the GG-generation aspect of the Great Wall.
Cultural (mainly via jesusin): Hermitage, National Epic. His Wonder segment says "incomplete" so I'm guessing you might possibly go for:
- Globe Theatre, for the 3 artist specialist slots; however, this is a less attractive investment if you're running Caste System.
- Sistine Chapel, which also gives +2
per specialist. - Taj Mahal, for the Golden Age (+100% GPP) and the +2
- Maybe Statue of Liberty for the free specialists in every city, but because of the GP pool pollution (Great Merchant) maybe in a city producing very few other GPP.
- some other wonders that generate GAhttp://www.garath.net/Sullla/pahatty_1.html points (though most are post-Nationalism, so come after jesusin's strategy requires shutting down research): Broadway, Hollywood, Mausoleum of Maussollos (though increasing Golden Age duration maybe more important), Notre Dame, Rock'n'Roll,
Diplomacy: You obviously benefit from building the Apostolic Palace or United Nations since you get a chance to be leader. For a UN victory some of the 'long game' wonders might be appropriate depending on what you need to do to secure the approval of enough AIs.
Domination: Since warring is the usual way to gain domination, the Conquest wonders help. Also those that help run a big empire: Forbidden Palace, Versailles. However, there's also a rare Cultural Domination approach (take over cities only via culture flipping) that requires certain culture buildings instead; see Sulla's "Passive-Aggressive Hatty" for an example.
Space Race Since this VC requires researching most of the tech tree, those that accelerate progress in science or generate GS points might help: Great Library, Oxford University, University of Sankore. Red Cross gives one GS GPP but isn't worth the investment for the six required hospitals and its own
cost. Space Elevator seems attractive at first, but people have calculated that the investment and diversion to Robotics aren't worthwhile. Economies
Economies are hybrids of different strategies, often specialized by cities; certain wonders help with certain aspects of the economy.
Cottages: I can't think of any.
Espionage: Those generating Great Spy points: Forbidden Palace, Great Wall, Kremlin, West Point.
Religious: Those that give benefits per state religion building: Sistine Chapel
culture, Spiral Minaret gold, University of Sankore science. Ankor Wat, Apostolic Palace hammers: per priest specialist). Those others that generate Great Prophet points: Chichen Itza, Moai Statues, Oracle, Stonehenge. Wall Street in a shrine city.Specialists: Anything that gives free specialists of a type you already want: Great Library (scientist), National Park (any, per Forest Preserve), Statue of Liberty (one, of any type you can already run, in every city), Temple of Artemis (prophet). Possibly Pyramids for early Representation. If you expect to start several Golden Ages, the Mausoleum of Mausollos gives them a 50% boost
Trade Routes: The Great Lighthouse (+2 trade routes in each coastal city). Possibly Temple of Artemis, though people consider it weak and advise leaving it to an AI, in which case you send your own trade missions there. Perhaps buildings likely to generate Great Merchants (if you want to bulb trade-related techs or send them on trade missions): Colossos, Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty, United Nations, Versailles (though unlikely to be built in a city where you already have GM GPP buildings, unless you capture one), Wall Street.
