Wonder Whoring On Emperor+

[Jdoug312]

After listening to an ancient world based podcast, I started a game with Egypt. 6 cities, tradition on huge, tectonic, Emperor. 14 civs/28 city states. I took the pantheon that gives you faith and tourism for wonders.

I prioritized the +3 production in capital, invested when I could, wells were built early, etc, but I missed out on Stonehenge (2 turns from completion), Pyramids (3 turns from completion), Great Library (tech not unlocked when it was built, Oracle (same as GL) and Hagia Sophia despite making a serious effort to build them. I took councils to speed up my science after missing out on Stonehenge and Pyramids, libraries after missing out on GL. Great engineers didn't come online at opportune times so I built 2 manufactories in my capital. I DID manage to build Petra with a GE in my desert city and the wonder that let's you choose a reformation belief early.

I was the last civ to found despite investing in shrines when I could and building shrines first in all but one of my cities (took monument first in one) but I'm really happy with my religion and have the 1P/2 followers belief.

The plan is to keep building my cities and capital up in the hopes of being able to snag some wonders later in the game despite missing out on the early ones. I took artistry because I never focus on tourism and I wanted to do something different from my usual "plot to take over the world" approach. Stacking Golden Age and GP bonuses.

With the context out of the way, what are your tips for successfully building wonders on Emperor and above? I only remembered way later that it would've been a good idea to chop forests/jungle while building a wonder.

 

[CppMaster]

Honestly, I don't even try until Renaissance era when I'm above average in tech. It's unlikely that I'd get wonders earlier and infrastructure is too important to miss.

 

[tu_79]

Did you abuse your chariots? They give production on kills, so you can go Authority, gather a few chariots, and then aim for wonders. Sure you will miss Stonehenge, but Pyramids should be doable, and since you probably will get some slaves from your early rushing, the extra worker speed is helpful.

 

[chicorbeef]

I think you're just going for the wrong wonders. Stonehenge is good and is possible but getting it is luck/start based (unless you're America) and I'm guessing you just had a poor production start (did you go Monument first? Getting the Tradition opener ASAP is very helpful).
I never go for Great Library, that's just one wonder I never build. Pyramids is possible but you need to go straight for it and not detract from it. A couple of good Chariot kills can speed your wonder up at on opportune moment.
Hanging Gardens should be the main wonder you shoot for imo.

 

[CrazyG]

If you missed stonehenge, you were just really behind for a long time after that. You need a strong start and a little bit of luck to build stonehenge, ideally a gold or production ruin.

Great Library is absurdly hard to build, many AI civs like to rush writing as fast as possible. Rush Hanging Gardens instead (not that its all that easy).

 

[Jdoug312]

I built 3 chariots early on to keep the barbs at bay and to stave off a possible attack and then focused on wonders and building. Built a couple more later, but I've avoided wars and barb camps have been scarce.

After researching animal husbandry I saw that there were 0 horses in my territory so I delayed the horseman tech for a long time (missing out on hanging gardens as a result).

Even with raging barbarians on, there were only 3 camps that popped up near my territory. I felt like Petra was going to get ninja'd from me any turn, but between the GE and a couple of chariot kills, I managed to get it. I don't farm camps, I kill the units, kill the fort and move right in to clear it from the map.

I definitely had a food heavy start. I'll upload pictures in a bit.

 

[CppMaster]

I built 3 chariots early on to keep the barbs at bay and to stave off a possible attack and then focused on wonders and building. Built a couple more later, but I've avoided wars and barb camps have been scarce.

After researching animal husbandry I saw that there were 0 horses in my territory so I delayed the horseman tech for a long time (missing out on hanging gardens as a result).

Even with raging barbarians on, there were only 3 camps that popped up near my territory. I felt like Petra was going to get ninja'd from me any turn, but between the GE and a couple of chariot kills, I managed to get it. I don't farm camps, I kill the units, kill the fort and move right in to clear it from the map.

I definitely had a food heavy start. I'll upload pictures in a bit.

You prefer to play without strategic balance?
For production yields you shouldn't really clear camps, just kill units. If that's not enough then kill AI units.

 

[Jdoug312]

You prefer to play without strategic balance?
For production yields you shouldn't really clear camps, just kill units. If that's not enough then kill AI units.

Yeah I try to make the game as immersive as possible, so I favor the huge maps, no strategic balance, raging barbs, the extra events, research agreements and tech trading (but no tech brokering).

Not killing the camps at the first opportunity feels gimmicky to me, but I totally get that not leaving them around to be refilled is suboptimal play. It's these sorts of things that I imagine will keep me from ever progressing to deity. Emperor is a really good difficulty for me, at least as a warmonger. I have times where I feel like I'm steamrolling but as the eras advance the AI make strong plays of their own and are super competitive. Right now, as tradition and non-warmongering progress, king miiight be a little better suited to me. But I keep playing on Emperor learning from my mistakes when I can.

 

[CppMaster]

Yeah I try to make the game as immersive as possible, so I favor the huge maps, no strategic balance, raging barbs, the extra events, research agreements and tech trading (but no tech brokering).

Not killing the camps at the first opportunity feels gimmicky to me, but I totally get that not leaving them around to be refilled is suboptimal play. It's these sorts of things that I imagine will keep me from ever progressing to deity. Emperor is a really good difficulty for me, at least as a warmonger. I have times where I feel like I'm steamrolling but as the eras advance the AI make strong plays of their own and are super competitive. Right now, as tradition and non-warmongering progress, king miiight be a little better suited to me. But I keep playing on Emperor learning from my mistakes when I can.

You could also try King difficulty, but with choices considered by AI reduced from 2 to 1, so AI keeps King bonuses, but always try to choose optimally. I play with that on Emperor and I'm satisfied.

 

[grmagne]

Yeah I try to make the game as immersive as possible, so I favor the huge maps, no strategic balance, raging barbs, the extra events, research agreements and tech trading (but no tech brokering).

Not killing the camps at the first opportunity feels gimmicky to me, but I totally get that not leaving them around to be refilled is suboptimal play. It's these sorts of things that I imagine will keep me from ever progressing to deity. Emperor is a really good difficulty for me, at least as a warmonger. I have times where I feel like I'm steamrolling but as the eras advance the AI make strong plays of their own and are super competitive. Right now, as tradition and non-warmongering progress, king miiight be a little better suited to me. But I keep playing on Emperor learning from my mistakes when I can.

Everything you describe is exactly how I play as well, right down to the non-farmed raging barbarians

Emperor has definitely become harder. I've been playing VP Emperor for 3 years now and I swear I'm winning less frequently now than ever before. But when I tried King it was too easy. So I've just accepted the fact that I'll play Emperor but with few Wonders.

The Wonders Expanded option is worth considering if you're playing with 14 civs. I play without that mod if there are 8 civs (too many wonders in that case) but I add the Wonders mod with 12+ civs because it roughly keeps the civ:wonder ratio intact.

 

[tu_79]

You could also try King difficulty, but with choices considered by AI reduced from 2 to 1, so AI keeps King bonuses, but always try to choose optimally. I play with that on Emperor and I'm satisfied.

Excuse me, but if you want to play it immersively, remember that you are Egypt, you should be all set for capturing slaves and make them work to death, which is represented by the production you gain on kills. It's not gimmick, it's just how Egypt behaves.