Your Thoughts On Wonders?

[eotinb]

Since only a couple of people have mentioned the Hanging Gardens, I want to bring it up again. There is really nothing to dislike about this wonder -- +1 health in all cities, +1 population in all cities, never expires, and Great Engineer points. and it's not too expensive (300 hammers, sped with stone). Population = power, always has in civ games. The only potential problem with the Gardens is if you have quite a few cities at their maximum happiness, but even then the free person is just waiting for more happy faces to come in through another resource or (more likely) a building.

I also wanted to second KAuss's point on the Spiral Minaret. Shrine + Spiral Minaret + Wall Street is a very nice combo.

And The Colossus is a great wonder for a financial civ with more than a few coastal cities.

Finally, I have heard from a reliable source (Sirian) that the AI gets no production bonus on wonders at the higher difficulty levels. I haven't tested this myself, but I see no reason to doubt what he said. Something to note in any future article.

To other posters: instead of just what wonders are good, which are a waste of time. Which can easily be avoided.

 

[Entrinzikyl]

Instead of Stonehenge, I prefer starting an early religion and either spreading that with missionaries or letting it go on it's own. The religion gives the culture boost + money for the shrine that I get after the Oracle.

When going for a cultural victory, I like to get the Sistine Chapel. The +2 culture for specialists is great for my three culture cities, which already have upwards of 5 artists in them.

Also wanted to second what someone was saying about the Hanging Gardens. For some reason I usually find my cities in health crises, so it's a real help.

 

[KAuss]

Having a religion gives you culture? Don't you still have to build a temple or monastery? Those things cost way more than an oblisk and they come so late land grab is well wasted...

Stonehenge is not really for land grab as much as it is used for border control... If you get two cities out fast enough, you'll bock off a whole piece of land all to yourself without open borders for later game... Obviously this is map dependent, but it happens way too often...

So Stonehenge is way up there in the list of things to build for me at least... I'd rank it higher than Oracle since it takes a lot less time to build... It generally cost way too much to generate a fat cross in your cities without Stonehenge... Without creative trait obviously...

 

[LordKestrel]

Since only a couple of people have mentioned the Hanging Gardens, I want to bring it up again. There is really nothing to dislike about this wonder -- +1 health in all cities, +1 population in all cities, never expires, and Great Engineer points. and it's not too expensive (300 hammers, sped with stone). Population = power, always has in civ games. The only potential problem with the Gardens is if you have quite a few cities at their maximum happiness, but even then the free person is just waiting for more happy faces to come in through another resource or (more likely) a building.

I built that in my last game, and noticed all my cities rise up a pop point. However, when I founded a new city, it was still size 1, and a few turns later, it was still size 1. I don't think it affects new towns, only existing ones. Still handy, but the +1 is of limited usefulness depending on the number of towns you have when you build it.

 

[Heroes]

Having a religion gives you culture? Don't you still have to build a temple or monastery? Those things cost way more than an oblisk and they come so late land grab is well wasted...

Having your STATE religion in a city gives it +1 culture per turn. This is my favorite way to expand border when being not creative.

 

[Salarakas]

I just played an epic archipelago map with a financial civ. My starting island turned out to be a long and thin one and I got something like 8 cities there, all of which were coastal. I must say, having the Colossus was absolutely amazing.

Colossus + financial civ + archipelago = huuuuuuuge amount of coins.

 

[petey]

I have to chime in in favour of Stonehenge as well. The border expansion is great and additionally, it starts giving you early Great Prophet points. It's generally not too hard to found at least one religion, so that gives you a shrine almost right off the bat. Then it expires rather quickly, so you lose those Great Prophet points and you don't have to worry about a Prophet being generated in the mid to late game when they're pretty much useless.

 

[Willburn]

I think it would be wise to look at wonders from a few perspectives. Single player vs the computer and multiplayer vs others. And more importantly team game wonders.

A lot of the wonders change values in what is (at the moment) the standard form of ladder play vs others - 130 turns and 2 city elimination. Getting the great libary means getting a free scientist that boosts your score for end of 130 turns. Getting the stonehedge can be great in team games. Same with hanging gardens.

My main point is a really good article about wonders should look at wonders from both a single players perspective and also from a multiplayers perspective...this version of civilization is for me the first that truly is sucessfull in multiplayer.

 

[DrJambo]

Interesting thoughts.

One nice combo is using a Philosophical civ under the Representation civic and having built the Parthenon, Sistine Chapel and Statue of Liberty. If you can squeeze in the Pyramids first then this can quicken the transition to Representation and also provide a few Great Engineers for the other Wonders.

The nice thing about this combo is it's also good for warmongering as your newly conquered cities with their free specialist will expand borders quicker.

 

[Amenhotep IV]

Stonehenge .... And, of course, this gets you going towards your first great prophet, who you'll need to build that holy shrine.

... or rather to beat the AI to Theology for free to get at least one religion when you play on Immortal+

 

[Breunor]

I think the idea is that you would build the Elevator when you have "spare" cities and a tight Space Race so that the very last pieces, which you're waiting on the tech for, will complete before your rivals. But I agree that it's not as useful a Wonder as it would appear to be on paper.

I really like it. As you said Clever, it can really speed things up especially if you get a great engineer, or if you have one city that it a powerful producer and you want to build different parts of the space-ship throughout the empire.

In my last game, the Incas built The Apollo Prgram 40 turns before me. But I got the elevator in my capital, Aluminum, and had 8 cities building parts soon. I beat him by three parts even though he had 4 or five done before I built my first one.

Breunor

 

[Breunor]

Another really neat feature in CIV IV is the impact of stone and marble. If I am on a map with a lot of other Civ's I won't bother building one of the wonders sped by the resource; conversely, if I have the resource, I often put wonder building up on the queue because I get them at effectively half-price and am much more likely to get them completed.

What becomes really hard then is where to settle. Do I take the luxury or the stone .....

Breunor

 

[jar2574]

I am not a huge fan of the Pentagon. At that point in the game I usually am ahead of my opponents tech-wise and so my tanks can roll over their riflemen.

The problem with the Pentagon is that it's so expensive that you could build a small army in the meantime. I'd rather have the units than the XP.