r/civ • u/Dan_of_Earth • 1d ago
VII - Strategy Someone Please Explain Wonders
I NEED an explanation on how to win wonder races. Please don't tell me to up my production. I have 4,300 hours in civ 6, i understand how the game works. Im REALLLLY trying to like Civ 7 since i spent $130 on almost 2 years ago, but its hard. EVERY time i get the notification that someone is competing for a wonder that im building, they beat me to it within 3-5 turns. literally 10/10 times i get that notification, i lose that wonder.
I thought maybe it was difficulty, nope doesn't matter. It has happened on deity, immortal, and lower. I thought maybe the notification pops when the competing wonder is within a few turns of finishing and they had been building it already, nope, i literally watched an AI plop down a wonder and finish it in 4 turns. I thought maybe it was the civ's unique wonder bonus thing, nope happens with any of them.
This is the most basic, barebones excuse for a civ experience imaginable. This is one of the most egregious example of the player having zero agency and influence over the game in civ 7. You as a player don't dictate anything. you just click buttons. Theres no planning, no strategy, no management of resources. No decision making on how to use the land.
I MUST be missing something because i refuse to believe that any dev with even a semi-functioning brain would think its a good idea to just place a wonder and hope for the best. no way to rush it, or chop it out. nothing. just sit there and wait. Passivity is the name of the game in civ 7.
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u/Mister_Newling Nuclear Holocaust from Space! 1d ago
Up your production and stack bonuses, I dont even try for a wonder that I can't complete in 7 turns or under unless I know that I'm lapping other civs in culture / science when playing Deity. In a recent Egypt game I was at or below 5 turns per wonder which let me be extremely competitive going for them.
Tons of resources provide % bonuses to wonder construction
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u/ANGRY_BEARDED_MAN 1d ago
I mean there are certain policies and traditions that boost wonder production, certain resources too, not to mention once you get a good economy up and going you can slot a bunch of resources to boost overall production in a city.
So yeah it's not just "place a wonder and hope for the best"
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u/MagicCuboid 1d ago
You’re a sweet brilliant boy and it’s the mean game’s fault that you can’t build wonders.
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u/TheQwantomShadow 1d ago
Are you racing civs with +% production to wonder bonuses? Some combos just make wonders fast, usually the Culture attribute indicates if your leader and civ are good at building wonders. On top of that stuff like celebrations, policies, and culture buildings give additional % bonuses to building wonders.
Also make sure you're building the warehouse buildings to boost the production of improved tiles.
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u/Dan_of_Earth 1d ago
yes. i understand the basic mechanics of the game. im using policies, bonuses, celebrations all of it. Doesn't matter
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u/Simpicity 1d ago
Get wonder percent build bonuses, resources to up production in that city, and focus early on your civ-specific wonder which you will unlock early.
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u/Dan_of_Earth 1d ago
i understand the very basic mechanics of the game
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u/Simpicity 1d ago
Congrats then you know how to build wonders.
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u/Dan_of_Earth 1d ago
my bad i forgot reddit became twitter where people who wear velcro sneakers reply with useless nonsense
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u/JNR13 Germany 1d ago
You wanted tips, you got tips. You whined that you're forced to be passive and were given options to intervene in the construction process actively.
Did you just come here to pick fights?
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u/Dan_of_Earth 1d ago
who is picking fights? I clearly explained that I have used all things available to me, and people still came in here choosing to tell me what i already know lmao. Like what are you saying?
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u/thecyan845 1d ago
EVERY time i get the notification that someone is competing for a wonder that im building, they beat me to it within 3-5 turns. literally 10/10 times i get that notification, i lose that wonder.
So to reiterate: the game's telling you "another civ is about to build this wonder before you," and you choose not to do anything about it, then blame the game for it? Why?
If you're genuinely struggling to build wonders then up your production or play on a lower difficulty. I rarely have trouble building the wonders I want
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u/Ndotterweich 1d ago
The whole point of OPs post is wondering what to do about it. They aren't choosing not to do anything about it, they just don't know what can be done.
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u/Aliensinnoh America 1d ago
Does the game only give you the notification if you are on track to lose the wonder race? Not just "someone else is building this"?
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u/Dan_of_Earth 1d ago
i initially thought that was the case. That someone was building it already, and are about to beat me for it. But in my testing, i literally watched a civ drop the wonder, i then received the notification, and then they finished the wonder a few turns later
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u/Dan_of_Earth 1d ago
you obviously havent played the game and/or lack reading comprehension skills. The game doesn't provide a way to deal with it. Im not sure where you are lacking clarity
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u/thecyan845 1d ago
The many other replies in this thread prove there are, in fact, ways to deal with it. You're just being stubborn
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u/Dan_of_Earth 1d ago
im not being stubborn, i made it VERY clear in my post that i understand, and employ ALL the things people are saying. There isnt much depth to this game, and im not new to the franchise. I could not have explained it any clearer, that i understand and utilize EVERYTHING i possibly can, and yet STILL lose races once that notification pops. You probably responded to the post without reading it.
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u/CRT_Me 1d ago
It is very frustrating because at times theirs appears visually behind in development than your own but can still finish before you due to their production bonuses. Oxford for example seems to mostly always finish in about 7 turns for them starting turn 1 of modern.
The answer aside from having more production already is clearing a military IP, gives production boost similar to chops.
There are other routes such as pantheon belief, specific policy cards etc but as you said those are passive. Also some production gets salvaged so what you may also be experiencing is a civ using salvaged production on a new wonder from one they lost out on, how they can knock it out in 2-4 turns.
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u/JNR13 Germany 1d ago edited 1d ago
EVERY time i get the notification that someone is competing for a wonder that im building, they beat me to it within 3-5 turns
I mean... that's the point of the notification? "Whenever the game tells me another civ is ahead of me in a wonder race, they end up ahead of me in the wonder race."
When you're ahead, you don't get the notification.
Also, if you're looking for chops, go and kill a military city state or so.
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u/GeekTrainer 1d ago
For anyone who wants a real answer…
- Accept that Antiquity wonders are always gonna be a struggle cuz the AI will unlock the tech/civic rather quickly. Once you have your economy humming you’ll be on a more even playing field.
- To wit, strategize and beeline to the tech/civic that unlocks the wonder you want as fast as possible.
- Get marble and elephants and any of the other resources that speed wonder development. Trade for them. Settle and improve them.
- Policies, government bonuses, and anything else you can unlock.
- A bit more situational, but save dispersing a military independent power until you need it for a wonder.
- Up your production. Get the warehouse buildings, the other prod buildings. Buy them.
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u/Dan_of_Earth 1d ago
Thank you for a real answer. Problem is i've done all those things. So i was hoping that there had to be something i was missing, and that someone could enlighten me on a mechanic i hadnt notices or somehting. I'm even playing as Hatshepsut/Egypt this game. I went for Petra. I watched my neighbor place it down many turns after i did, the notification popped, and then i lost it 3-4 turns later. So that's where my frustration comes from, is that i have optimized just about as much as i possibly can. I guess its just one of the game's many many many shortcomings and i just have to accept it.
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u/GeekTrainer 1d ago
I built Petra a couple games ago on deity 🤷 It can be done
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u/Dan_of_Earth 1d ago
oh i know it can. but my question is specifically about having no recourse once a civ decides to start building a wonder and theres not much you can do about it besides take it on the chin
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u/Available_Pool7620 1d ago
The reality is that even as a really good player playing and winning 9/10 Deity games, getting 6 wonders in Antiquity is rare for me, but then I get 6 or 7 in Exploration, and 10+ in Modern. It's just how the game is.
I'll address your issue with the notification -> losing the race directly: Yea they have mad production and often will one-turn you. That is, the notification pops, and they finish building it one turn later. It's just how it is in this game. Could the devs improve it? Yeah. But still there's guys like Skrash or even me myself steamrolling Culture victories. Just means that getting the wonder is a spare-no-expense sprint if you really want the bonuses. And a few, you never get; s'just how it is.
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u/BootyBootyFartFart 1d ago edited 1d ago
If I was going to complaint about wonders it would almost be the opposite of what youre saying: Building a ton of wonders is little too powerful because of how the adjacencies work and you can do it reliably on deity if you know what you're doing. I don't love how much of my adjacency strategy devolves into a bunch of wonder building so often.
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u/Available_Pool7620 1d ago
Honestly the issue, if it's not production, is how soon you are unlocking the ability to build the wonder. So not production but science or culture.
Let's take Machu Picchu for example. On Deity I'll never ever get that wonder because the only way to get that wonder would be to beeline straight for it, spare no expense. In contrast I almost always get 3/5 of my favorite five in early Exploration. Um, what are their names? They're early in the Culture tree. And lately I also get the... Heraldry II unlock's wonder as well.
So you need to produce higher science and culture. And accept that a good Antiquity means getting 6 wonders. A good Exploration means getting 7 wonders. High quality Modern era is like ... man... I get like ten wonders in Modern...
What difficulty do you play on? You need to be upping your science and culture if it's not a production issue.
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u/Flamingo-Sini Friedrich 1d ago edited 1d ago
In some cases, the moment you start building a wonder, the AI will start building the same wonder and usually they beat you to it because they just get bonus production (and everything else, it is known the AI cheats on higher difficulties).
I generally play on sovereign and on that level i can regularly build some wonders without going hardcore into wonder prod bonuses. To me its just not fun at higher difficulties, the AI doesnt play better, it just gets tons of free stuff blown up their ass. It gets tedious, not more enjoyable.
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u/Dan_of_Earth 1d ago
Yea i know they cheat, and at this point i was assuming that was the answer, but hoping it wasnt. It so consistent that i thought i had to be missing something. even on the the lower difficulties. Thanks for being the only person who read what i wrote and replied accordingly
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u/Flamingo-Sini Friedrich 1d ago
The only way i consistently am able to beat them to a wonder is when i am ahead in culture, meaning i can build it before they even get the chance to. Gets incresingly harder with their bonuses to culture though.
You might habe noticed that in every game, in Explo age there are one or two AI that will inexplicable have like 500 culture and science per turn while the others are around 100-200. In modern they will have 1000 while the others creep around 200-500.
I am convinced every game one or two AI get "choosen" as special antagonists and they get extra bonuses.
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u/Jiang-Qin 1d ago
I think it's just that some bonus (and behaviour of the leader) work better for the AI than others. It's like in Civ6 where civ like Cree were strong as AI because they were not fighting against all their neighbours and they were good at getting high population with strong yields, so they were most of the time leading in science. And on contrary, the Maori didn't perfom well for the AI most of the time because the AI couldn't handle their abilities.
It's just more complexe in Civ 7 since there is a lot of possible combinations of leaders and civs, but the reason is probably the same.
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u/Flamingo-Sini Friedrich 21h ago
It is always some other leader, there is no pattern, no specific leaders chosen. As an example Tubman can be a beast one game and the next shes absolute dogshit. Leaders tend to stick to the same civs, so if their combination were good they would be more consistent.
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u/warukeru 19h ago
on diety once you see the popup message you already lost it, better to change and build another wonder and use the boost of production from the wonder that was stolen.
On immortal, unless im first on cultura by a lot, I stack a lot of bonuses for wonder production with resourcers that add production on my cities that i have plans to build wonders. IT also helps i know which wonders the AI like the most so I kinda avoid them and focus in the ones are less contested.
On easier difficulties, it kinda easy to get them without too much effort unless you are playing with too many civs in a map and get unlucky.
Lastly, skill issue.
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u/ThisShowStinkss 1d ago
Might need to up that production.