What size pop/shields is a good time to start your 1st wonder?
There is no possible single right answer to this question, because it depends on so many factors:
- Which Wonder?
- Pyramids is great for fast core-growth for the entire game, but very expensive (and not much use on very small landmasses). Colossus is cheaper, and great for trade/research, but must be in a coastal town — which tend to be low on shields. Either way, you'd better start (pre)building these as early as possible, to get maximum benefit from them
- In the first Succession Game I played (ABLES-SG, linked below), the first Settler we built was sent to found a coastal-town near our Capital, specifically to build Colossus: IIRC, we built 2 Curraghs to explore N/S, then started on the Wonder (then the next player unilaterally switched it to something else, but that's another story...)
- Difficulty level? @Nathiri already covered this
- At Emperor+, it may/will be more cost-effective to build units to capture the Wonders you want, rather than building them yourself. Pyramids = 400 shields for you, but only 320 shields for an Emperor-AI. But 400 shields = 20 Archers = 13 Swords/Horses; how many 400-shield Wonders could you capture with 13 Swords/Horses?
- Map-size/type
- Land per Civ increases slightly with map-size, so the larger the map, the longer the expansion phase lasts, and the longer it will be before the AI-Civs start putting shields into Wonders rather than Settlers, which gives you a little more breathing space as well
- Conversely, if you're on an Archi-map, GLight could be very useful to you — especially if you're not a SEA-Civ, and/or the map is Large/Huge — so you'd want to get started on it ASAP
- Terrain near your starting point — specifically, freshwater sources
- If few/none of your towns are going to top Pop6 without an Aqueduct, then Wonder-building should probably not be a major priority for any of your core-towns — unless you're going to city-pox your territory, and build ToA for a 100K win
- Resource availability (especially Luxes, if you're going to run a Republic)
- You will need to keep your Wonder-town(s) happy as it/they grow(s) bigger
- What other Civs are out there?
- If you're surrounded by AGRI-Civs, then you'll likely need to spend shields on Settlers (and military units), not Wonders!
- If there are lots of SCI-Civs on the board, then they may/will get a headstart on Wonder-techs when they pass into a new Age
- Long-term game aims
- Will you eventually build Metros? Then you'll need to make sure you place towns accordingly, and not build Wonders in 'space-filler' towns scheduled for Industrial-Age demolition post-Sanitation/Hospitals
All of the above notwithstanding, as a
general rule, above Regent (and unless I was specifically going for a 20K Culture-win — which I never have), I would usually not start (pre)building Wonders until I'd already finished placing my 1st-ring towns (and had started on the 2nd-ring), and/or had a working Settler-pump (Pop>4 + 5FPT + Granary) that would get that 1st/2nd ring completed within the next 5-10/30-40 turns. Because once I commit a town to a(n Ancient) Wonder-build, I've effectively taken it out of commission for
at least the next 20-30 turns, and likely longer — so my other towns will need to (be big enough to) take up that slack, to counter the AI-Civs' production advantages. And even then, the Wonder would likely need to be (pre)built in whichever eligible town can finish it quickest — which will likely be my Capital in the early game. That means I wouldn't be able to use the Palace as my shield-bank, so I'd use my most expensive building/unit instead, switching up as new techs unlock more expensive projects.
So if I want Pyramids, but am neither Industrious nor the Inca, I'll need Masonry ASAP; until I get it, I'll likely have a Granary/Temple available [60s, Pottery/C.Burial]; even if I didn't start with
any of these 3 techs, after the first 20-30 turns, I would expect to have gained at least
one of them, either from a goody-hut, or trading. (During those first 20-30 turns, my Capital will likely be building 2-3 Warriors, and my first Settler, not a Wonder!). If I want one of the later Ancient Wonders, and I'm going for the Republic (slingshot) anyway, I'll soon have a Courthouse [80s, CoL], and MoM [200s, Philo] available as prebuilds. But even if I
don't want the GLib [400s, Literacy], GWall [300s, Construction], HGard [300s, Monarchy], or ToA [500s, Polytheism], I can still use them as a prebuild for SunTzu [600s, Feudalism]. And since I generally never build Colosseums [120s, Construction], these make good pre-pre-builds for just about everything else...
