Age 2 Wonders

Hey guys! A post after a long time. Life has got busy and I dont get much time. Still managed to write this basic post

In this post I’ll emphasize on the age 2 wonders, their importance in different formats and with for a particular nation which wonder is preferred.

Which are they?

– Pyramids:

Wonder Powers:

• Increases your commerce limit for food and wealth by +50.
• Increases your city limit by +1 and cities cheaper by 33%.
• Improves your food gather rate by 20%.

– Colossus:

Wonder Powers:

• Increases your wealth rate by 30%.
• Increases your population limit by +50.
• Increases your commerce limit for wealth and timber by +50

– Hanging Gardens:
Wonder Powers:

• Increases knowledge production by +50.
• Granary, lumber mill, smelter production upgrades are discounted by 66%.

Built time for each wonder with a villager : 4 mins 24 secs

Plunder after destroying them?

– Colossus : 250 wood.
– Pyramids : 250 wood.
– Hanging Gardens : 250 food.

Their rankings in different formats?

– Standard :

1. Hanging Gardens: In standard, Hanging Garden gives an awesome boost to your knowledge gathering. It also helps in building up economy fast. The sudden knowledge boost plays a crucial role. The moment you out-boom (Age difference) your opponent, you can win him over.
2. Colossus: It gives a good boost to your wealth income. The more wealth collection you have the more scholars you can create. Indirectly helps in knowledge gathering. It is also helpful in making archers since they require wealth.
3. Pyramids: This wonder goes well with nations like Lakota and Koreans. Its a long-term investment wonder in standard. At start, you are at a stage of building economy. Isn’t advisory to build pyramids in Age 2-3. But in the later ages, its very helpful in increasing the food and wealth commerce limit.

– Nomad :

1. Colossus: Colossus takes the first spot because it provides +50 population limit. In nomad, managing population limit is one of the key to win. +50 population limit helps a lot. You can get larger armies. More villagers for gathering. Overall it the most ideal wonder in nomad.
2. Pyramids: Strange to see pyramids above Hanging Gardens? The reason is a few simple calculations. Pyramid allows you to build one extra city. So, consider you are in age 2 without civic2. With pyramids, you will make 3 cities. That extra city will provide you with an extra university with +45 (When full) and a once off +25 knowledge bonus (given when a new university is just built). Overall city number 3 will provide +45 knowledge which is about the same as the Hanging Gardens which gives you +50 knowledge. The real advantage comes later in the game when the universities can be upgraded so they produce a vast more knowledge. The Hanging Gardens however will only provide +50 knowledge for the entire game. Another reason is the third city provides better opportunity for growth in economy early on (Especially when playing on non-water maps for example). The extra city allows you to build more farms, markets caravans etc straight away in the early ages. However when it comes to the Hanging Gardens there is no such advantages as the cheap upgrade bonuses are not available until way into the later ages (not to mention having to build the Granary, Lumber Mills and Smelters first as well). In Standard this time period that long which makes it a great booming tool, however in nomad these upgrades simply don’t become available for a long long time meaning the Hanging Gardens doesn’t add that much extra in economy wise in Nomad when compared to the Pyramids. Throw in the fact that the Pyramids give +50 wealth cap and 75% cheaper cities for the entire game and is the same total cost of the Hanging Gardens it’s quite an easy to see that the Pyramids are better than the Hanging Gardens.
3. Hanging Gardens: This wonder serves as an excellent long run wonder. The reason it is last in nomad is because most of the nomad games end up by age 4 and you spend a lot of time in a single age. You can easily get your economy to commerce limit till age 4. But in a long nomad game esp sea nomad games, this wonder is very helpful.

– Infinite : In an infinite game, only colossus should be build because in an infinite game your economy is infinite. +50 population limit serves as the deciding factor in this format.

The above order was the ideal preference of the wonders to build in different formats. But it also depends on the nation you have. The following are few Nation-Wonder (Age2) associations :-

Americans + Hanging Gardens (Terracotta is ideal)
Lakota + Pyramid
Koreans + Pyramid (Seifer’s favourite combination)

There are more nation-wonder associations. I’ll explain that in detail in my later posts.

When to build age 2 wonders?

Building an Age 2 wonder depends on the scenario of the game and the format you are playing. I usually build a wonder when I have the edge over my opponent.
It also depends on the opponents nation. Like for example, you have a Turks opponent in front of you, and you start building a wonder with less defences. It would be like a suicide.

Its not always necessary to build these wonders. But if you can manage to build them while keeping your opponent at bay then you can certainly over-power your opponent.

Credits: |IND|_DangerousDave and seifer008 for contributing few points.