Best Ancient Wonders

[Ashrem]

Their worthiness will depend on play style. for anyone who has purchased a fairly large number of expansions (say 10 or more) Aws are a different calculation than they are for others.

I made the choice several months ago to slow my advancing in the tech tree to a crawl at the start of Wood Elves and put virtually all of my KP into AWs for a while (I've only completed 6 techs since the start of September). I have been enjoying the game a lot more, since I've been able to keep lots of free space for Events and Fellowship Adventures, and they have all gone very easily.

 

[Risen Malchiah]

@Ashrem I am doing basically the same thing but I chose to do it in S&D instead. I had the goal of getting to S&D in less than a year from the start of the game and was glad I was able to do that. Also, Woodelves annoyed me because the entire city was just trees. The residences, workshops and grafting sites all looked way too similar. I like the S&D architecture much better.

 

[Ashrem]

I've actually sstopped so early in WoodElves that I didn't upgrade any of the buildings until just this last week or so when i finally picked up the new residences. So far all of my other stuff is still Dwarf/Fairy.Orc stuyle, and I'm not unhappy. I might blow through Elves quickly in a couple of months. An upside has been that last spring's eleven Glossy Gardens are still more population/square than the level 23 residences, and they also give me 1400 culture instead of using some. I don't know when i'll be able to get rid of them.

 

[Mykan]

i have found the answer to deciding which AW I should have
I'm just building them all

Considering every wonder level benefits you with seed collection from Halflings onward they all gain an additional benefit at that point, so the more the merrier.

For Dwarves through Orcs, I'd say that would be detrimental to most players' growth in the game. Maybe by S&D or Halflings that might work though I personally wouldn't. I value my space too much to fill it up with some AWs that I could live without.

That's how I feel. I have 1 Wonder that I focus on (Golden Abyss), and 1 Wonder that's worth it from a space standpoint (Mountain Halls). But the rest of them don't feel efficient enough without significant levelling.

You might be surprised by just how much spare space the game provides and how efficient many level 1 wonders are. Priorities are a huge factor in the game and it is this which creates the diversity of strategy and town design.

Any person who sticks to their strategy and builds (or not) wonders that suit that strategy has the best wonders for them.

 

[kctanzen]

I was initially really excited about the Crystal Lighthouse, as the nerf-bat hadn't yet landed on it when I made it a focus point. Then, just before I had decided I wanted it, that nerf-bat swung hard! I 'almost' tore it out because I thought I had things better suited for the space -- was really upset about the bonus goods only coming from helper chests which are limited to 3 per day. However, the 2nd tasty bit of that wonder, the extended helper polish does make a significant difference - if I read it right, is 2.5 hours bonus time for me. The Golden Abyss had gotten all of my stalled KP (flippin' granite miners were on a slow-down but that did pile up scads of KP for wonders!!)

Now, I am having a similar debate with myself about the Mountain Halls.

Right now, before I do a re-think / re-design of my city I have a *lot* of steel factories and 4 each of scrolls / elixir (smattering of planks / marble just because they were left over from the event and they fit in some otherwise unused space for now) None of the factories are close to max level, with just 4 steel even into dwarven style and the tier 2 / tier 3 aren't capped in the initial design at all.

Do the cost / benefit calculator methods take into account factories that aren't chapter maxed or do they assume chapter maxed buildings?
Also, does the Mountain Halls require a road connection?

Thanks!~

 

[mucksterme]

Also, does the Mountain Halls require a road connection?

yes

 

[Pheryll]

Also, does the Mountain Halls require a road connection?

yes

This needs a better explanation. Direct increases (or decreases) to population and culture do not require a road. So residences do not need roads to provide population, only for upgrading and producing coin. Similarly the mountain halls population bonus remains there even without a road, however the goods increase needs a road. Another example is the watchtower ruins will give its culture benefit without a road, but needs a road for its indirect culture benefit from boosting the polishing bonus.

 

[mucksterme]

This needs a better explanation. Direct increases (or decreases) to population and culture do not require a road. So residences do not need roads to provide population, only for upgrading and producing coin. Similarly the mountain halls population bonus remains there even without a road, however the goods increase needs a road. Another example is the watchtower ruins will give its culture benefit without a road, but needs a road for its indirect culture benefit from boosting the polishing bonus.

Try building it without a road.

 

[Pheryll]

Try building it without a road.

You have a point there with building, and with upgrading.(I had already outlined the upgrading need in my example with residences).

 

[DeletedUser5800]

Try building it without a road.

You would think the builders would be able to traverse a grassy patch in far less time!
As it turns out all builders in Elvenar suffer from agrostophobia.
It began long ago with their great great Grandfather, Elder Builder, and the horrible inbreeding within the builders hut has kept it thriving through the generations.
Try as they might to overcome it they suffer from debilitating anxiety except while immersed in the work of pure culture.
The mere thought of the beauty they raise from the very thing that tortures them is just enough to continue on with the job.
Anything less than that without a path and they would rather stay home with the sisterwives "upgrading the builders hut" with more agrostophobic builders.
Note: Sometimes these pure culture masterpieces do become overrun with homeless squatters that are just avoiding taxation.

 

[DeletedUser3507]

lol what @Lord Draconian said is correct. And quite funny I like 2 types of aw's ones that give pop, and ones that give troops. I like Temple of Toads AW and Mountain Hall the best.

 

[mucksterme]

You would think the builders would be able to traverse a grassy patch in far less time!
As it turns out all builders in Elvenar suffer from agrostophobia.
It began long ago with their great great Grandfather, Elder Builder, and the horrible inbreeding within the builders hut has kept it thriving through the generations.
Try as they might to overcome it they suffer from debilitating anxiety except while immersed in the work of pure culture.
The mere thought of the beauty they raise from the very thing that tortures them is just enough to continue on with the job.
Anything less than that without a path and they would rather stay home with the sisterwives "upgrading the builders hut" with more agrostophobic builders.
Note: Sometimes these pure culture masterpieces do become overrun with homeless squatters that are just avoiding taxation.

The funny thing is, the Builders Hut itself does not require a road. I think they are discouraging visits from angry customers.

 

[DeletedUser5800]

The funny thing is, the Builders Hut itself does not require a road. I think they are discouraging visits from angry customers.

Well I wasn't going to give away their secret but I guess there is no harm in telling you that they always have a secret tunnel to the nearest residence with a road connection.

 

[DeletedUser3507]

Or factory ;P

 

[DeletedUser2870]

@Dhurrin No fair! When comparing 2 buildings having both is always going to be better lol.

Your playstyle of often being at the end of the tech tree and stockpiling massive materials to blast the next guest race is pretty advanced- I've been playing for ~17 months at a pretty quick pace and in a couple weeks it'll be the first time I hit the end.

This is why we both had to use "for my style of play" in our posts.
I like the abbey because it sits there banking mana(in spell form) until I need it.

I'm not sure that your dutch account is saving 56,000 mana every day with the decreased decay though.
Without the maze wouldn't you just be sitting at 1,944,000 instead of 2m for the months between chapters?
I think it might be more accurate to say that it is increasing your mana cap by 2.8%.
During the chapter it will be better of course, but in between it's not really doing a whole lot.

Ok, its been a while since this was posted, but I've been looking into it. Actually, I think the combination of both is more practical than just one, no matter the style of play.
The abbey can generate instant mana on demand by using spells, which if one plays even at medium levels at tourneys should be relatively easy to stock up on, whilethe maze will produce mana at a high rate AND slow the decay. Having both will greatly reduce the need for other mana-producing buildings. That means less hassle with roadconnections (and probably less roads, so more space) with the added benefit of being able to use that space for pure-culture buildings which have a much higher culture/square to make it easier to keep the culture at the desired level of play.

 

[Mykan]

That's basically what I have done. My only mana buildings are event ones like magic mana hut, allowing my culture to be pure culture or pop/culture.

Speaking of wonders the new amuni wonder and the heroes forge make for a nice combo option too.

 

[SoggyShorts]

I still can't justify the Maze in my cities. 1200 every 3h where 2 libraries make 10k per day just doesn't work out for me.
I only would collect 4 times tops for 5K, meaning that I'd need to have over 400K mana stored in order to save an additional 5K from decay.(level 1 maze)
Other than between chapters I never have more than 300K mana stored (usually between zero and 200K) and between chapters I don't really care about mana.

Of course the numbers would be more favourable in maze vs libraries if I levelled the maze, but aside from the KP cost it is nice to have a few unloved wonders where I can smash runes to make broken shards for other, better wonders.

With 3 collections and at least 200K mana stored it would require a level 6 maze and 400 cleared provinces for the maze to beat 2 libraries, and that's not worth the 1000 KP to me.

2 libraries has another nice little advantage in that I can nuke them on a whim to make room for an event and then bring them back overnight when I'm done.

 

[DeletedUser12171]

I still can't justify the Maze in my cities. 1200 every 3h where 2 libraries make 10k per day just doesn't work out for me.
I only would collect 4 times tops for 5K, meaning that I'd need to have over 400K mana stored in order to save an additional 5K from decay.(level 1 maze)
Other than between chapters I never have more than 300K mana stored (usually between zero and 200K) and between chapters I don't really care about mana.

Of course the numbers would be more favourable in maze vs libraries if I levelled the maze, but aside from the KP cost it is nice to have a few unloved wonders where I can smash runes to make broken shards for other, better wonders.

With 3 collections and at least 200K mana stored it would require a level 6 maze and 400 cleared provinces for the maze to beat 2 libraries, and that's not worth the 1000 KP to me.

2 libraries has another nice little advantage in that I can nuke them on a whim to make room for an event and then bring them back overnight when I'm done.

Since it doesn't sound like you have only 2 libraries in your entire city, if what Mykan says is true, I'd go his way rather than yours

 

[DeletedUser3602]

That's basically what I have done. My only mana buildings are event ones like magic mana hut, allowing my culture to be pure culture or pop/culture.

Speaking of wonders the new amuni wonder and the heroes forge make for a nice combo option too.

So you have no Ancient Libraries or Torch fountains whatsoever? What level are your Abbey and Maze?
I have a level 7 Abbey and level 6 Maze, 3 mana huts (Ch IX, X, XII), 2 Eldrasil's sawmills (Ch X), a Magical nutcracker (Ch X), a Mana sawmill (Ch X), an Ice temple (Ch XI) and the lindworm area (Ch XII). I have 8 libraries and 5 torch fountains, do you think I can delete them without getting into too much mana trouble during the Amuni?

 

[SoggyShorts]

Since it doesn't sound like you have only 2 libraries in your entire city, if what Mykan says is true, I'd go his way rather than yours

What difference would having more libraries make? The reason I'm not building the Maze is that 2 libraries in the same 5x6 space are better for me.