Episode: 4390
Title: HPR4390: Playing Civilization IV, Part 9
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr4390/hpr4390.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-26 00:06:34

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This is Hacker Public Radio Episode 4,390, for Friday the 30th of May 2025.
Today's show is entitled, Playing Civilization Roman 4, Part 9.
It is part of the series' computer strategy games.
It is hosted by Ahukah and is about 16 minutes long.
It carries a clean flag.
This summary is, Using Wonders to Help Win.
Hello, this is Ahukah, welcoming you to Hacker Public Radio and another exciting episode
in our series on computer strategy gaming.
And I'm going to conclude our look at Civilization 4.
By taking a look at how to use the building of Wonders as part of your strategy, we did
some of that in our demonstration of how to get a culture victory, but I'm going to go
back and look at that culture and at science and at military and just some ideas about how
you should prioritize these things.
Now there is a good summary table of all of these that is on the Civilization fandom
wiki, and I've got a link to that in the show notes.
And you know, that's worth a little bit of study.
You should have wonders that you are aiming for, and if that's the case, then you need
to get the required discoveries in place to build them.
So that means you've got to take a look at your research plan in terms of getting the
wonders you need.
This is not too difficult when you understand that if you identify a particular technology
you need to achieve, then you go into the technology tree.
You can just click on that and it will automatically fill in any prerequisites and research them
in order.
So you don't have to overthink that.
Now if you want to build, for instance, the Temple of Artemis, well first you have to
research polytheism.
Now if you were to go that route, bear in mind that if you are the first to discover polytheism,
you will be the founder of Hinduism.
So if your strategy is to get a religion and found a holy city as well as build the Temple
of Artemis, you should immediately be aligned your research to polytheism and kill two birds
with one stone.
Also the effects of most wonders apply to the city in which they are built.
So you want to take that into account.
In our demonstration I talked about having your cities specialized and I think that's
a very good strategy to have your cities specialized in culture, science, production, etc.
Now first let's take a look at the ancient wonders.
Honestly I don't really prioritize building ancient wonders because in the early part
of the game my focus is always on building up my empire.
That doesn't mean that you might not pick up one or two along the way and if so you can
tell from looking at that table that you can get eight culture from Stonehenge, Oracle
and the Temple of Artemis.
Sixth culture comes from the Pyramids and the Great Lighthouse.
Now the Great Wall only yields two culture and is mostly defensive.
I don't find it worthwhile for me.
Then when we get to the classical era, the big three for culture are the mausoleum of
Masalus, Parthenon and the Statue of Zeus.
All of these three yield ten additional culture and additional great artists points each
turn and other benefits.
Next is the Medieval Era.
Now I don't always grab the classical era wonders but by the Medieval I do need to get cranking.
Now for me the top culture is the Sistine Chapel, particularly if you can combine it
with the state religion.
Notre-Dame and Versailles are also good but as a pure culture play I would rank them below
the Sistine Chapel.
Then below them probably the Spiral Minerat.
It has less culture added but it gives a nice financial boost to empires with the state
religion.
That's not to be despised.
So generally my strategy if I'm going for a culture victory includes getting a state
religion and so then I'm going to bring all of that good stuff into it.
Now there are only two Renaissance wonders we're looking at for culture, Statue of Liberty
and Taj Mahal.
The Taj Mahal is slightly better on culture but with the Statue of Liberty you get added
free specialists so for me kind of a toss up those free specialists however can help your
military and science cities as well.
In the industrial age Broadway is the biggie, that's going to get you a lot of culture.
In the modern age Hollywood and rock and roll are the ones here.
Now they do not add culture points directly.
What they do is they give you a 50% boost to the points you're already generating.
So they're pretty valuable to get.
Now these wonders are the ones that only can be built once.
What about the national wonders?
There are a few of those that we might want to look at.
The thing about the national wonders is that every player can build them.
So you're never going to lose out if you want them you can get them.
There's a little strategizing you need to do here however because national wonders can
only be built to per city.
So you need to strategize a little bit about which ones you will build and where you
will build them.
As you're not in competition with other players to build these don't feel rushed.
Figure out the best way to maximize your return on the investment.
Now there's nothing useful in the ancient era in terms of a culture of victory.
But in the classical era the globe theater and national epic are the best.
Now globe theater gives you six additional culture per turn plus turns three citizens
into artists.
National epic gives you four additional culture per turn plus doubles your birth rate for
great persons.
So they're both useful.
Nothing in the medieval.
In the Renaissance era the Hermitage will double your culture in the city you build it
in.
So one of the we saw last time in the demonstration what I did was I said well let me pick the city
my culture city that has the least culture that most needs a boost build the Hermitage
there and boost it up.
Because remember you need to get three cities to have legendary culture.
So you don't want to put everything all your eggs into one city.
No to speak industrial era nothing no major culture wonders.
Now just because there are only three major culture wonders.
Globe theater national epic and Hermitage that does not mean you should neglect the others.
You should also have science and military cities that can use boosts.
So by all means build those wonders in the appropriate cities.
As for where to build the culture national wonders I'd recommend building the Hermitage
in the culture cities lowest in culture so it gets the boost remember you need to get
all three cities across the line to win.
Now what if you're going for a science victory what are the good science wonders.
One of the ancient wonders are crucial in my opinion though of the bunch Oracle gives
you a free tech and a boost to getting a religion now remember that religion can help boost
your science so this is not in any sense wasted effort but in practice as I said above
I often skip ancient wonders altogether to focus on building out my empire.
Now in the classical era if you're going for a science victory you really want to do
everything you can to get great library that's a biggy.
Parthenon is also useful because of the boost to great person points so if you have the
Parthenon you're going to get great scientists faster.
In the medieval era the University of Sancourt is probably the best but if you're using
a strategy of using religion to boost your science then Ancourt Watt and the Apostolic
Palace are good choices as well.
In the Renaissance era Statue of Liberty because the free specialists and you put an extra
scientist into each city.
In the industrial era I would probably go for Kremlin because it reduces the cost of
hurrying buildings.
Now space elevator in the modern era is probably the number one because it's crucial for
building your spaceship.
Don't overlook Christo Redentor for being able to swap policies without the NRK period
and that's useful.
Now what about the national wonders, the ones that you can't be beaten to because everyone
gets to do them?
You can build all of them.
In practice you probably won't just because of competing demands but the key ones to
my mind are national epic because of the boost to the great person growth rate and Oxford
University.
Now if possible build Oxford University in the city with the highest science output since
it doubles the output of the city.
This is different from what we did in the culture victory because remember the culture victory
is about three cities getting to legendary culture.
For a science victory what you're trying to do is just get the total amount of science
and it doesn't matter where it comes from so focusing in a one city that is just cranking
out science like nobody's business is not a bad idea.
Now if you're going for a military victory what are some wonders to think about?
In the ancient era the Great Wall is probably the most important because that's going to
give you more great generals that's very useful if you're going for military victory.
Pyramids is also useful for giving you all those government civics.
In the classical era the Statue of Zeus will help demoralize your enemies, Chichen
Itza builds your defense and Parthenon boosts great person growth rates.
Then in the medieval era I would consider Hagia Sophia for the rapid building of roads.
Conquest goes a lot smoother when you can get your units to the fight faster than your
enemy can.
Apostolic palace can give you a production boost but on balance probably not enough unless
your state religion is widespread throughout your empire.
In the Renaissance period Statue of Liberty for all the free specialists.
In the industrial era the Pentagon is the obvious first choice but don't overlook
Kremlin for the great spy and lowered cost of herring buildings and units.
In the modern era the three gorges dam would be my first choice because of the big production
boost.
The crystal redentor is good for changing civics without the energy period.
Now as for the national wonders the ones that everyone gets to build you know again you
could build any or all of these but in practice you probably want to choose.
Top would be probably heroic epic in the classical period.
Though I would also consider national epic for the great person growth points.
In the Renaissance period you would want to build West Point.
Put it in a city with high production and lots of military buildings to multiply the
bonuses.
In the industrial period I would go with ironworks first and if possible put it in the same city
as West Point.
Again there's nothing wrong in a military victory for having one city that is just able
to crank out units like nobody's business.
And you know combining those you're going to be cranking out lots of units with very high
stats.
In another high production military city I might put red cross so that the damaged units
heal faster.
These are all general suggestions.
The strategy sites like the Civwiki and Civfinatics to name just a couple and again I'll
put links in the show notes.
We'll have a lot of discussion of strategies and if you want to be a really successful player
they go way beyond what we've discussed here.
But remember the gaming is supposed to be fun.
Get the game, try it out on the easier difficulty levels and play around with the ideas we've
outlined here.
You just may get hooked.
Civwiki was a great leap from the earlier visions of Civ and many players still consider
it to be the best in the series.
So it's worth a little bit of your time to get to know it.
And so this is a hookah for hacker public radio, signing off and is always encouraging
you to support free software.
Bye, bye.
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