What's the best Wonder?

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.civ3 (More info?)

Ok, here's a question I don't see in the threads [though I'm sure it's been
kicked around before].

What Wonder do you consider the most advantageous in Civ3?
What Wonder do you consider the most useless?

I always go for "JSBach's Cathedral" that puts 2 happy faces in each city on
continent.

"Longevity" seems most useless as it adds two population for each grain
advance, but cities are already pretty much developed by the time one
researches Genetics anyway.


Perhaps the era is important here too. Early on, I've found Great
Lighthouse allows me to expand my civ while other civs have to sit home.
Anyway, any comments?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.civ3 (More info?)

On Tue, 22 Jun 2004 04:41:08 -0400, "tooly" <rdh11@bellsouth.net>
wrote:

>Ok, here's a question I don't see in the threads [though I'm sure it's been
>kicked around before].
>
>What Wonder do you consider the most advantageous in Civ3?
>What Wonder do you consider the most useless?
>
>I always go for "JSBach's Cathedral" that puts 2 happy faces in each city on
>continent.
>
>"Longevity" seems most useless as it adds two population for each grain
>advance, but cities are already pretty much developed by the time one
>researches Genetics anyway.
>
>
>Perhaps the era is important here too. Early on, I've found Great
>Lighthouse allows me to expand my civ while other civs have to sit home.
>Anyway, any comments?

Era and situation matters most, so there is no best one. What
strategy you use also makes a big difference.

For example, the Great Library allows you to do a no-science
spending strategy for the early eras. If you want to do that, you
need to get that Wonder.

On a map with lots of sea, the Lighthouse is critical. On a Pangea
world, you can skip it.

Large continents reward the continental wonders -- JS Bach and
Hoover Dam are the two best ones of those. Of those, I consider
Hoover Dam to be the most essential. With it, your productivity
increases radically, easily doubling the effect of Factories without
increasing pollution. Sun Tzu's is great for a conquerer, as the
newly taken cities all have barracks to heal units (and turn out new
veterans).

But if you are on a small island map, neither of those is worth
much.

None of the wonders hurt to have, so it is more which ones have a
critical effect on balance.

Adam Smith's is very powerful, greatly effecting income/taxes.

The modern era wonders are all good, but I figure that Seti/The
Internet have the biggest effects on game production. Of course, the
UN is key, but only because you must have it to control the diplo
victory option -- it does nothing else. Pretty much, though, by this
point you either have won or lost without worrying about which new
wonder to get.

The genetics wonders are nice but not essential. OTOH, if you have
empty areas and conquered cities, Longevity isn't bad for boosting
your score. It does not matter for winning, nor really is the
happiness of Cure for Cancer essential -- you should have enough to
keep your people content without it.


--
*-__Jeffery Jones__________| *Starfire* |____________________-*
** Muskego WI Access Channel 14/25 <http://www.execpc.com/~jeffsj/mach7/>
*Starfire Design Studio* <http://www.starfiredesign.com/>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.civ3 (More info?)

"tooly" <rdh11@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:u9SBc.5201$lp1.1579@bignews5.bellsouth.net...
> Ok, here's a question I don't see in the threads [though I'm sure it's
been
> kicked around before].
>
> What Wonder do you consider the most advantageous in Civ3?

The UN is the only game breaking wonder.


> What Wonder do you consider the most useless?

This all depends on the given situation. The one i never try for however, is
the oracle. I can't remember the last time i built or even cared about that
one.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.civ3 (More info?)

On Tue, 22 Jun 2004 04:41:08 -0400, "tooly" <rdh11@bellsouth.net>
wrote:

>Ok, here's a question I don't see in the threads [though I'm sure it's been
>kicked around before].
>
>What Wonder do you consider the most advantageous in Civ3?
>What Wonder do you consider the most useless?
>
>I always go for "JSBach's Cathedral" that puts 2 happy faces in each city on
>continent.
>
>"Longevity" seems most useless as it adds two population for each grain
>advance, but cities are already pretty much developed by the time one
>researches Genetics anyway.
>
>
>Perhaps the era is important here too. Early on, I've found Great
>Lighthouse allows me to expand my civ while other civs have to sit home.
>Anyway, any comments?

In the epic game I like the Hoover Dam which puts a pollution free
power plant in every city on the continent. This has an added bonus
of not having to figure out which cities have what type of power
plant.

In my current Rise of Rome Conquest there is a GW called Basilica or
something like that. It puts a temple in every city on the continent.
It is great because every city I build has its borders expand 4 turns
later. The epic game has something similar with research labs but it
is too late in the game to be of real benefit.

 

[alex]

Archived from groups: alt.games.civ3 (More info?)

"tooly" <rdh11@bellsouth.net> wrote in message news:u9SBc.5201$lp1.1579@bignews5.bellsouth.net...
> Ok, here's a question I don't see in the threads [though I'm sure it's been
> kicked around before].
>
> What Wonder do you consider the most advantageous in Civ3?
> What Wonder do you consider the most useless?
>
> I always go for "JSBach's Cathedral" that puts 2 happy faces in each city on
> continent.
> "Longevity" seems most useless as it adds two population for each grain
> advance, but cities are already pretty much developed by the time one
> researches Genetics anyway.

Longevity has approximately the same effect as Pyramids (it doubles
the speed of population growth). In tougher level games you often
cannot afford Pyramids, but Longevity is always up to grabs.
If you let Longevity go to your enemy, they will mobilize their
conscript MI at double speed. Conscript MI is not something innocent,
because your stupid allies will rapidly promote conscripts to elite.

> Perhaps the era is important here too. Early on, I've found Great
> Lighthouse allows me to expand my civ while other civs have to sit home.
> Anyway, any comments?

IMHO the Great Library is the key wonder. It allows peaceful growth in
the first quarter of the game (when the game is the toughest) and it also
makes it possible to compete for one of the early-medeival wonders
like Leonardo's via pre-build.

I play Americans/Emperor/democracy and almost always win the GL race
(after Philosophy race->free Literature), provided that someone
trades me Alphabet. Americans have Masonry and can pre-build
the GL with Pyramids.

Speaking of pre-builds,
I also find it counter-productive to build Battlefield Medicine.
Battlefield Medicine is an excellent pre-build for
any Great Wonder, Hoover dam in particular. OTOH democracy makes
Battlefield Medicine pretty much useless as such, because I cannot
keep my troops in enemy territory, let alone heal them there.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.civ3 (More info?)

> In the epic game I like the Hoover Dam which puts a pollution free
> power plant in every city on the continent. This has an added bonus
> of not having to figure out which cities have what type of power
> plant.

isn't it just the cities that are built on rivers ?

--
Eps

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.civ3 (More info?)

On Sun, 27 Jun 2004 12:53:17 +0100, burchill <burchill@btinternet.com>
wrote:

>
>> In the epic game I like the Hoover Dam which puts a pollution free
>> power plant in every city on the continent. This has an added bonus
>> of not having to figure out which cities have what type of power
>> plant.
>
>isn't it just the cities that are built on rivers ?

No, the Hoover Dam puts them in every city, even ones which couldn't
have a Hydro Plant. That is what makes it so powerful -- free
non-polluting power everywhere, with no maintenance cost. It doubles
the effect of Factories (which you need in order to gain the power
plant bonus), on one continent.

On a huge continent, it is the single most dramatic powerup in the
game. On smaller continents, it is less so, and on a tiny island --
the AI will build it on a 4-city island, wasting it (same with other
continental wonders) -- it is hardly worth building, except to deny it
to someone else.

--
*-__Jeffery Jones__________| *Starfire* |____________________-*
** Muskego WI Access Channel 14/25 <http://www.execpc.com/~jeffsj/mach7/>
*Starfire Design Studio* <http://www.starfiredesign.com/>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.civ3 (More info?)

"The Stare" <wat1@not.likely.frontiernet.net> wrote in message news:<FJVBc.96$085.73@news02.roc.ny>...
> "tooly" <rdh11@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
> news:u9SBc.5201$lp1.1579@bignews5.bellsouth.net...
> > Ok, here's a question I don't see in the threads [though I'm sure it's
> been
> > kicked around before].
> >
> > What Wonder do you consider the most advantageous in Civ3?
>
> The UN is the only game breaking wonder.
>
>
> > What Wonder do you consider the most useless?
>
> This all depends on the given situation. The one i never try for however, is
> the oracle. I can't remember the last time i built or even cared about that
> one.

the last time I built it was in Civ1..

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.civ3 (More info?)

In my opinion, those wonders which automatically put a free wonder in
each city, or pays for those wonders.

Sun Tzus, Pyramids, Adam Smith's, JS Bachs, Hoover Dam..

These are all great wonders.

ToE is great too because it gives you two free techs.

UN is a must-have to keep you from losing the game.

--Hank


tooly wrote:
> Ok, here's a question I don't see in the threads [though I'm sure it's been
> kicked around before].
>
> What Wonder do you consider the most advantageous in Civ3?
> What Wonder do you consider the most useless?
>
> I always go for "JSBach's Cathedral" that puts 2 happy faces in each city on
> continent.
>
> "Longevity" seems most useless as it adds two population for each grain
> advance, but cities are already pretty much developed by the time one
> researches Genetics anyway.
>
>
> Perhaps the era is important here too. Early on, I've found Great
> Lighthouse allows me to expand my civ while other civs have to sit home.
> Anyway, any comments?
>
>