Wonders Strategy Article: The Great Lighthouse

[madscientist]

The Powerhouse of the coastal civilization!

Wonders abilities

Cost: 200
+6
+2 GM Points

2 Free Trade routes on coastal cities
Obsoletes with Corporation (although you get 1 trade route back from the tech)
NO resource improvement in speed
Requires Masonry and a lighthouse (thus sailing)
+2 Great Merchant Points

Abilities/Strategies

1) Two free trade routes per coastal city, thus Currency times 2! An extremely powerful wonder if you have alot of coastal cities, other AIs, and remain PEACEFUL as trade route yields improve alot during peacetime.

2) REX is encouraged at least to 4 cities to exploit fully those extra trade routes. The more the better.

3) Look for off-shore land as those trade routes get a nice boost even if domestic.

4) The earliest source for Great Merchant. Hold off other specialists until Caste, then spam Merchant and you have a slew of Great Merchants for lucrative trade missions or Bulbing useful techs like Currency/Metal Casting/Machinery. It's not unusual to be running at 100% science slider for a longtime once the GM economy starts up!

5) Look to get Compass for harbors sooner than later.

Wonder Synergy.

There are two that come to my mind. The colossus (extra coastal tile commerce) and to a lesser extent the temple of Artimitis (100% trade routes yield in that city) both producing GM points. However, beware that the ToA wonder throws a free priest specilaist into your GP pool!

Oracle also works here to pop Metal Casting for fast crack at the Colossus.

Leader Synergy

1) As with all wonders, any IND leaders helps built it faster

2) Roosevelt has the strongest synergy as he starts with fishing, builds the prerequisite lighthouse twice as fast because he ORG, and the Great Lighthouse itself is built faster because of the IND trait (and no competition from AIs that have a special resource like stone or marble).

3) Any leader starting with a combo of fishing and mysticism/mining get's a good head start on the wonder (see Lord P in the ALC 26).

4) Hannibal has a special edge here because his UB provides a free trade route and is the only leader that can theoretically get 8 trade routes in coastal cities (if you can delay Corporation that long).

5) Ragnar/Willem/Joao all have costale city related UUs/UBs which benefit here!

Limitations.

1) An in-land start makes getting the wonder in time rather difficult as the AIs favor it fairly heavily.

2) It is one of the most map-dependant Wonders out there.

3) An isolated continent makes the trade route yield rather weak until Astronomy.

OK, what's everyone elses opinion here!

 

[Ignorant Teacher]

It's really the best wonder for water heavy maps!

I may be wrong, but I think the sustained peace only refers to the civ you have a TR with. That means you can be permanently at war with an AI and still get the sustained peace bonus from the other.

 

[StrategeryBush]

It seems to be a wonder that the AIs like. How hard do you have to beeline to get it? How early does it typically dissapear?

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

The most important thing to illustrate about the Lighthouse is that the benefit you get scales with the number of coastal cities. In other words REX, and specifically REX along the coast and island hopping. So IMP and EXP presumably belong in the trait list as well.

If you want the benefit of those trade routes early, you almost have to expand - if there are only three cities in your network, then you get only one extra route per city, not two.

It's probably worth noting that the prerequisite techs you need are taking you away from Writing, which is the tech you need to open up the foreign trade routes. You also aren't getting closer to any of the stronger units you need to make sure that no-one takes it from you.

The early bulbs available via a merchant are Currency, Metal Casting, Code of Laws, and (if you work very hard at it) Civil Service. Metal casting goes well with the coast cities theme (even better with the island cities theme), and Bureaucracy multiplies trade route yield in the capital.

You can construct a lighthouse while researching Masonry, but not while researching Sailing. So all other things being equal, tech Sailing first.

 

[Stewie0416]

At what time should you build the GLH? Playing on Prince, you can pretty much grab it immediately if you really try but should you REX first, grab some land along the coast and then build GLH to reap the benefits immediately or try to grab it ASAP and stall your civilizations growth.

I guess what I'm saying is that if you are REXing in a sea-heavy map then is it better to stall new cities for this wonder? I try to get 1 city out thats very food heavy so i can use that as a settler pump. Is this a good idea? And what are the effects of delaying GLH to spam out settlers on higher levels?

 

[bhavv]

I build it after 3 settlers from my capital, but you need to chop it then or you'll lose it to the AI

Always whip the lighthouse for spillover into the wonder.

On most games, you can only realistically build it after one or two settlers from your capital. the safest thing to do is build it at three cities, which wont pay off immediately, but then Rex after it is done.

If you are playing as Hannibal on an Archipelago map, this and the collossus go in your capital, and pick up Compass as quickly as possible and spam Cothons and Courthouses in every city.

I actually settle every GM there are well and run Beurocracy

It also synergises well with Mehmed as well for both EXP and ORG bonuses towards your Granary > Lighthouse > Harbor > Courthouse > Wealth / Research. Then you build a forge and library when the city is large enough and leave it there running Research / Wealth untill factories.

Also try Mehmed of Carthage on Archipelago for an immensely overpowered synergy with this wonder.

With Hannibal, I often try to build the stonehenge as well for both border pops and charismatic, but building both of these is really hard to pull of, pray for lots of forests to chop.

I think I will try Mehmed of Carthage now, but no +2 per city then.

 

[slobberinbear]

The Great Lighthouse is, to me, very map-dependent like other maritime wonders. When it's good, though, it's really good, and lasts for a long, long time.

Realistically, to build this sucker you're going to need to chop some wood. So you need Mining, Masonry, Bronze Working, Fishing, and Sailing to even consider building it, plus a lighthouse in the GL city. To justify building it, you therefore should have a little seafood so the basic lighthouse has a purpose.

So we're looking at a coastal city with 1+ seafood resources, 3+ hills for mining, wood to chop, and all the prerequisite techs and the lighthouse. The best situation for construction is a forested seafood start -- with some overseas neighbors to trade with, preferably.

If you want this wonder, you need to go for it at higher difficulty levels. Grab the techs, build the lighthouse, and start chopping, or you will get beat.

 

[bhavv]

Heres a test game with a good map with a great start location for TGL if anone wants to play it:


Settings and Civ picks (Locked modified aspects, no huts, barbs or vassals allowed):

Spoiler :

Start Location:

Spoiler :

Full island explored (spoiler):

Spoiler :

TGL Built:

Spoiler :

Can Mehmed compete with the Seafaring civs? They have the upper hand on this map, but you have ORG / EXP, so go forth and REX, REX, REX.

 

[Powerslave]

Mehmed? Really? I don't see any special synergy there at all. Mehmed gets slightly faster lighthouses, harbors, and such, but what good is that once they're built? Financial is much better, especially on water-heavy maps. Even the Feitoria (+1 commerce on all water tiles) would be better than Mehmed's meager bonuses. If you want someone who's good at rexing, look at Shaka/Zulu or Charlemagne/HRE. They both get significant reductions to their maintenance.

Mehmed is saddled with rather lackluster traits, though his UB and UU arguably make up for them.

 

[r_rolo1]

I can't see any synergy between the Collosus and the Great lighthouse. You don't need to have a coastal city to work Collosus-boosted tiles and you don't need to work coastal tiles just because your city is coastal.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Mehmed? Really? I don't see any special synergy there at all. Mehmed gets slightly faster lighthouses, harbors, and such, but what good is that once they're built? Financial is much better, especially on water-heavy maps. Even the Feitoria (+1 commerce on all water tiles) would be better than Mehmed's meager bonuses. If you want someone who's good at rexing, look at Shaka/Zulu or Charlemagne/HRE. They both get significant reductions to their maintenance.

Mehmed is saddled with rather lackluster traits, though his UB and UU arguably make up for them.

You are underestimating the base advantages of EXP/ORG quite profoundly. Charlie also has weak starting techs for a GLH start and his UB doesn't come into play until later...it won't buy you extra cities when the spots are still unsettled the way ORG will. ORG/IMP is actually one of the best expansion trait combos in the game, but that largely goes ignored because the only leader that has it has a top notch, ridiculous UU that can be even stronger than the cheap settlers.

Saying the feitoria is better and that mehmed has meager bonuses is painful just to read. Unless you're avoiding your best tiles to work water tiles on purpose the feitoria will *never* even remotely compare to just the civic upkeep aspect of ORG. Mehmed's UB is actually somewhat relevant to GLH city spam, since you'll probably need the .

The FIN trait itself is good for water maps because coast tiles with a lighthouse aren't complete junk. If you have a lot of and at least 1 food resource coastal cities start paying back AMAZINGLY quickly then, even more so with GLH. But mehmed remains a good GLH leader.

 

[bhavv]

Mehmed? Really? I don't see any special synergy there at all. Mehmed gets slightly faster lighthouses, harbors, and such, but what good is that once they're built? Financial is much better, especially on water-heavy maps. Even the Feitoria (+1 commerce on all water tiles) would be better than Mehmed's meager bonuses. If you want someone who's good at rexing, look at Shaka/Zulu or Charlemagne/HRE. They both get significant reductions to their maintenance.

Mehmed is saddled with rather lackluster traits, though his UB and UU arguably make up for them.

Already explained a few posts up:

It also synergises well with Mehmed as well for both EXP and ORG bonuses towards your Granary > Lighthouse > Harbor > Courthouse > Wealth / Research. Then you build a forge and library when the city is large enough and leave it there running Research / Wealth untill factories.

When playing Archipelago maps, you will be building Granary / Lighthouse / Courthouse / Harbor in every single city.

ORG + EXP makes everyone of these cheaper, and ORG also makes Rexing a lot easier.

Mehmed is one of the top tier leaders for rexing, maybe just second to Darius, his advantage is all the cheaper buildings you get.

Whereas when you play as Hannibal, you get FIN, CHA happiness and Cothons, but building up every city takes a very very long time.

TGL synergises based on map, not based on Civ. Any leader on an Archipelago map will see huge gains from it.

The Feitora is my least favorable UB for the seafaring civs, I would much rather have the Cothon or Dyke, plus unless you use unrestricted leaders, Joao isnt even FIN, and the Feitora comes far too late to be of any significance while you are actually rexing.

I can't see any synergy between the Collosus and the Great lighthouse. You don't need to have a coastal city to work Collosus-boosted tiles and you don't need to work coastal tiles just because your city is coastal.

+4 GM points per turn. Place National Epic in this city, settle the GM's, later build Wall Street and found Sids Sushi in this city, then see how large you can get it =D.

 

[r_rolo1]

Collosus and the great lighthouse aren't the only GM points wonders in game And if you're going only to base in those 4 GPP to get GMs, you will not get much of them

 

[bhavv]

Collosus and the great lighthouse aren't the only GM points wonders in game And if you're going only to base in those 4 GPP to get GMs, you will not get much of them

But they are the first ones, then you have Statue of Lib and Eifell Tower. The points add up on top of your normal GP points.

This is my capital in the game I linked above so far:

Spoiler :

And the Rex:

Spoiler :

Military usually sucks on this tactic, just be sure to give into AI demands. Ragnar attacked Elizabeth, so I should hopefully be safe untill I have Frigates and Janissaries.

You settle around as much seafood as possilble. With 16 coastal cities working lots of seafood and also normal coast tiles, the GLH and Collosus synergise very well.

You either know how to play Archipelago games, or you dont

GLH + Collosus were chopped with all the forests, and GLib was hurried with a GE.

Metal Casting was obtained from Oracle in another city. 16 cities, not actually built a single Courthouse yet, but about 5 harbors. Just a usual Archipelago REX game.

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

I can't see any synergy between the Collosus and the Great lighthouse. You don't need to have a coastal city to work Collosus-boosted tiles and you don't need to work coastal tiles just because your city is coastal.

I disagree a little bit - it's not that wrong: true, these two wonders don't augment each other directly (compare with Lighthouse and Artemis), But they do fit well into a single clear coherent plan.

 

[mirthadir]

General notes:

1. In theory, I believe you can capture lighthouses. Thus you should be able to build TGL without sailing. Could be wrong here and have never event attempted to try it. I'm assuming this is best HC smashing moderate distance caps.

Strategies:
6. I'm of the opinion that a GLH strategy makes for good early astro bulbing, particularly on maps where you are isolated from a reasonable number of AIs by water. Bulbing the GM into either currency or metal casting is a decent shot (with gold, etc. / furs, etc. this can let you skip monarchy/building garrison troops or leverage some idioticly high happy caps under rep if you get the mids somehow); thus you may want to invert the normal optics route and leave MC until the GM pops (if he does). With the bonus trade routes the value of the early astro bulb run gets much higher.
7. A terminal game war machine does not require corporation. Yes losing infantry, tanks, MArty, etc. sucks. But their function can be duplicated relatively well. An early shot to airpower or a large production advantage will let you abuse fighters/bombers on the AI, arty can then be used for further softening, rifles/cav to actually take the city, and MGs/ATs for defense. The only downshot is marines, but by and large pinch cav work well against normal marines. Also running nukes/commandos can let you one turn kill AIs.
8. With a good setup, particularly a good cap chaining run, the additional alternate fire power you can buy with the cash is more than producing infantry or even tanks. Speaking of which, TGL also helps with a Kremlin/Rushbuy based economy. For a large enough empire with enough trade partners may find that your GLH run through the MGB combo is enough to fund multiple tac nukes.

As far as leaders:

pretty much everyone has some synergy with GLH:

All the English get the redcoat which makes delaying corporation less painful; UB also makes ICCS/Rushbuy/CorpE more powerful.

Cha leaders need less happiness and thus can more easily turbocharge the economy.

Philo leaders will get you more quickly to astro and perhaps allow you the much coveted SciMeth lib slingshot.

Korea, America, Mali, Zulu, and HRE all have UBs that make more, smaller coastal cities with higher more effective.

Indian fast workers are great for more quickly ramping up production and deforesting for wonders.

Org allows you to more quickly drop in the CH and turn any clunker coastal city into a net gain ciity.

Spain's UB is great for the delay corporation until forever game.

Cre makes coastal cities much faster to block the interior during REX.

 

[Grashopa]

The lighthouse is sick even on an inland start - if you can chop into it at a second coastal city, do it. You can always cram 4 or 5 cities along the coast even if you are on a pangaea map. Before harbor you are getting 8-12 per turn per city and that starts from day 1. Thats 100 extra beakers for your next city before it even grows to 2 pop. And you don't need workers to support these cities. The impact on the early game is huge. I don't care about grabbing the gold over there and pushing borders close to a neighbor like say Shaka when I can hang back and spam the coastline while getting a tech lead.

And conquering coastal cities early ADs is great - they will immediately pay for themselves even if drained of population or culturally challenged. Anyone mention the vikings

My question is would you ever NOT build it on an island map. And would you move a couple tiles on a pangaea map in order to get yourself a coastal start?

 

[ppciv4]

yes the GL is great, just too expensive and a bit too risky.
we need to pray our workboat will discover other nations(not Japan--), and build enough defence while chopping it.

 

[Grey Fox]

The Great Lighthouse is one of my favorite Wonders.
And I love the Lighthouse + Artemis + Collosus combo. Not easy to get and you often sacrifice a bit of expansion by trying for them all, but it can really be worth it.

Does people generally prefer the trade mission with Great Merchants?
If I get them early I generally prefer to settle them. The +1 food is awesome and help with growth and regrowth after whip. And the +6 gold is really nice. And once you start getting a few the food + gold really starts to shine. And eventually getting Wall Street in this city is a given.

How much gold can you get early from a trade mission? I can get about 2100 from a decent mid-early game trade. Usually I use that for upgrades.

 

[futurehermit]

GLH is a very strong wonder--nice writeup. Mehmed is an excellent leader for it. As has been mentioned, all the cheap buildings are huge. Mehmed is my favourite leader, hands down. Cheap granary/lighthouse/harbour/courthouse is huge. One of my other fav leaders is Roosevelt. As has been mentioned, no one can get this wonder faster than him.

It really is a benefit if you can get some island cities going with this wonder. However, in situations where the first 4+ cities you build will be coastal, this wonder is going to pay heavy dividends.