The bug exploited: Overflow from whipping is not halved when applied to a wonder. (Bug report here)
The setup:
You want to build a wonder. Your town is not a very good producer, but has a fair growth rate, so you would prefer to whip the wonder to completion. However, whipping a wonder is expensive, since the amount of hammers you get per population point is halved for wonders (i.e. +22 hammers instead of the normal +44 hammers for Epic). This means that you must hand-build quite a long way, or grow very high, or both, before you can afford to whip the remainder.
Now, I'm telling you that you don't have to grow all the way to do that whipping, in fact whenever you want to you can whip 2 pop for +43 hammers on the wonder build, and then continue on building as before. In other words, it is possible to partially whip wonders, you don't have to whip all at once. Sounds good, doesn't it? What if I throw in an extra Work boat in the deal, for free?
Here's the trick. Whenever you want to rush those two pop, put a fresh Work boat first in the queue, before the wonder you're building. The Work boat costs 45 hammers, and each population point gives +44 hammers, so it will take 2 pop to rush it. This will also generate an overflow of +43 hammers,
that will flow into the wonder, in full! So the effect is that you will have whipped 2 pop for +43 hammers on the wonder build, and you get a free Work boat as well!
We're actually abusing two bugs here. The other, which I would argue is a bug simply because it enables this situation, is that whipping on Epic gives +44 hammers and not the more logical +45.
There are of course variations of this theme that work in other situations, and in conjuction with other whipping anomalies. You could build a number of things so that they each have 1P left to completion. Then whenever you want to whip, move one of them to the front of the queue, whip, and get the overflow for the wonder. This is a lot more work than the Work boat trick, but on the other hand it will give you +43 hammers to the wonder for only 1 pop lost!
Another variation is if you're not coastal, and thus don't have access to Work boats, you could instead rush an Axeman or Spearman. That will be slightly less efficient though, since they cost a bit more leaving less overflow for the wonder.
When you start getting production bonuses, like a forge, the numbers will change but the techniques still apply. Combining this with the well-known whipping bug, whipping that Work boat (45 hammers) at a 25% bonus on Epic speed, you would get the same +43 hammers towards the wonder but at the cost of only one pop!
The setup:
- Epic level.
- Slavery in place to enable whipping.
- A (coastal) town capable of much more growth than production.
- A wonder.
You want to build a wonder. Your town is not a very good producer, but has a fair growth rate, so you would prefer to whip the wonder to completion. However, whipping a wonder is expensive, since the amount of hammers you get per population point is halved for wonders (i.e. +22 hammers instead of the normal +44 hammers for Epic). This means that you must hand-build quite a long way, or grow very high, or both, before you can afford to whip the remainder.
Now, I'm telling you that you don't have to grow all the way to do that whipping, in fact whenever you want to you can whip 2 pop for +43 hammers on the wonder build, and then continue on building as before. In other words, it is possible to partially whip wonders, you don't have to whip all at once. Sounds good, doesn't it? What if I throw in an extra Work boat in the deal, for free?
Here's the trick. Whenever you want to rush those two pop, put a fresh Work boat first in the queue, before the wonder you're building. The Work boat costs 45 hammers, and each population point gives +44 hammers, so it will take 2 pop to rush it. This will also generate an overflow of +43 hammers,
that will flow into the wonder, in full! So the effect is that you will have whipped 2 pop for +43 hammers on the wonder build, and you get a free Work boat as well!
We're actually abusing two bugs here. The other, which I would argue is a bug simply because it enables this situation, is that whipping on Epic gives +44 hammers and not the more logical +45.
There are of course variations of this theme that work in other situations, and in conjuction with other whipping anomalies. You could build a number of things so that they each have 1P left to completion. Then whenever you want to whip, move one of them to the front of the queue, whip, and get the overflow for the wonder. This is a lot more work than the Work boat trick, but on the other hand it will give you +43 hammers to the wonder for only 1 pop lost!
Another variation is if you're not coastal, and thus don't have access to Work boats, you could instead rush an Axeman or Spearman. That will be slightly less efficient though, since they cost a bit more leaving less overflow for the wonder.
When you start getting production bonuses, like a forge, the numbers will change but the techniques still apply. Combining this with the well-known whipping bug, whipping that Work boat (45 hammers) at a 25% bonus on Epic speed, you would get the same +43 hammers towards the wonder but at the cost of only one pop!
and Y Hammers to the production... and the SAME amount no matter what you are building.) You could even make it give 20 instead of... until say Code of Laws so that it won't be abused like Chopping is.
Now that's a legal system 
