Alhambra - You should always build this on Poland, it's an extra wildcard slot It gives Gorgo an extra combat strength too, but thats not as valuable. There are lots of good Military Policy Cards you can make use of that are kind of hard to slot in otherwise, Logistics (+1 move in friendly territory) is incredible for your builders (and siege units), but is pretty hard to slot in over the industrial zone adjacency card a lot of the time. If you're warring with a religion, fitting the pillage card, the industrial zone card/50% bonus prod towards units card and Wars on Religion for the combat strength bonus is really tough without digging into your wildcard slots you don't want to use on Military policy slots. It's not as good as the other ones, but it being several tiers below Potala Palace is pretty nuts, the midgame diplomatic cards aren't particularly impressive. Alhambra also is far less production cost than the other extra policy card slot wonders. The bonus amenities are also great. Chichen Itza - Totally agree. One of the worst wonders in the game. Also a pain to build since the city you want to build it in will have a bunch of unimproved rainforest tiles. Colosseum - I think this is one of if not the best wonders in the game, absolutely belongs in the top tier, the difference between having and not having the Colosseum is game changing. The culture is fantastic, but the best part is the amenities. Getting your cities to +5 amenities for the 20% boost to all yields is incredible at all stages of the game, and getting it in 5 or 6 cities early on is such an enormous boost that it makes it worth sinking production into the entertainment complex in the first place. Setting up killer adjacencies for your theater squares early on is also a great bonus. Mausoleum not being in the top tier is nuts, it singlehandedly lets speeds up your game regardless of your wincon (except Religion I guess....) Oracle is pretty overrated, in my opinion. You can replicate it's use with using city projects if you keep an eye on the great person screen, and you have to sacrifice so much in order to build it (going into mysticism before your political philosophy, sacrificing an early settler). And then the AI beats you to it a lot of the time anyway. It's definitely incredible on some civs like Wonder Spam China and Work Ethic Civs like Russia or Brazil since they can have the crazy production early in the game to build it, but I definitely don't want it in every game. It also generates way too many great writers in my experience, it's pretty tough to keep up with places to put all the books it generates. Taj Mahal - It's effect is fine, but it's pretty unnecessary. I think it's a waste of production, but your point about it being useful for newer players is good. Artemis - This can snowball your capital so hard early in the game with its amenities combined with Pingala. I think it's a top 10 wonder. Terracotta Army - Another great thing about this is it giving promotions to your spies. A spy with two promotions gives you 6 combat strength on its own (12 on Mongolia!)
I agree with all of that, esp Alhambra. I would also add that Kotoku-In on a 20+ adjacency fully-developed Holy Site with Voidsingers and the right city states is a lot of extra faith per turn. Situational sure but definitely not why.
Lighthouse breaks island games because your navy will ALWAYS be able to chase or run. Knowing you always have the most movement is a huge boost....in a style of map that most of us don't play
In a game were there are a lot of Marsh or Desert Floodplains in your starting area, Etemenanki is game breaking. You can get it very early on and the bonuses can shoot you forward quickly, especially when you combine it with Lady of Reeds & Marshes. Getting tiles that product 3 food, 3 production and 2 science by turn 30 of the game is powerful, IF you get the right terrain.
@@jyutzleryeah, God of the sea is so damn good if you're on an island. Picked that up when I played as Norway and England on true Earth start, and it's so damn good.
Golden gate bridge certainly isn't the best wonder, but if you actually do the math, it is really underrated. If the city has just 2 national parks and each tile has an appeal of just 4, then golden gate yields (4 appeal * 8 tiles * 2x tourism) = 64 tourism, plus another 32 tourism from doubling the tourism of the tiles' base appeal. That plus the base tourism of the wonder is upwards of 100 tourism from one wonder in a mediocre case. If you add in the eiffel tower, planting woods, and reyna and manage to get 4 parks in the city, the golden gate bridge is now worth more than 350 tourism by itself. Still very situational due to the placement restrictions, but if you can build it in a tourism game, you almost always should
@@jyutzler Other wonders are a bit harder to calculate, but here we go: Eiffel tower: Needs 12 national parks to match 2 golden gate national parks Cristo: Needs ~20 seaside resorts/25 relics/8 reliquary relics to match 2 golden gate national parks Hermitage: A themed hermitage with the best art, pingala promotion, and the card for double tourism from art barely matches 2 golden gate national parks None of the other great work wonders even get that far Biosphere only needs like 17 improvements to match it, but it's also biosphere Overall, only the Eiffel tower, and maybe Cristo in some games, can rival it in terms of raw tourism (But build both because they work well together)
If you can get the great library as Babylon, it pretty much just ensures you'll win your science victory since anytime someone recruits a great scientist you're unlocking another science tech lol
Great video - thanks. I will just add the Venetian is also great when you can merge units to instantly create a fleet, or help build an armada. I always build the Venetian :-)
Building the Golden State bridge is essentially just to flex on the other civs that you have so many resources that you can devote some to a vanity project lol
There should be a tier that is: "Build if it somehow hasn't been built yet" tier. I usually play on epic speed and when I see an early game wonder hasn't been built yet and it's only 3-5 turns to build at this point, I just do it because the bonuses are worth it for such little cost at that point.
One camp and the standard horses in the capitol are worth ToA. Contrary to Oracle and 'Mids (except no AI owns one desert tile), the ToA can be built on Deity even after PolPhil. The +food and the happiness modifiers compensate for every early settler including the wonder cost. It is the one game breaking wonder because it comes early and it has hard food/prod benefits. The ToA is the difference between 4 and 6 early cities and if you are forced into an early defensive war, well..., the extra food and production help you keep up in producing units. Every other wonder is sugar coat once you built the ToA.
I try to build Potala Palace in every game. The extra policy slots are game changing and I never regret having that extra green policy slot to free up a wildcard slot. I REALLY hope you do a video of your ranking each wonder in the tiers next. Great video!
Alhambra is actually much better for non-Dom games than anything, because the governments you take for all the other victories tend to miss out on military slots and having that extra one can be very helpful! Especially for science!
I once did a very fun deity England island plates domination game with the Venetian arsenal. But definitely I do think because the AI just don’t do naval stuff very well it just all feels a bit silly and gimmicky. Helpful for a very fast victory I guess. I think I’ve been sleeping on Big Ben! Only built it a couple of times. It’s funny I have over 1800 hrs in the game and some of these I’ve still never built. Perhaps because I’m a deity player so it can be hard. I do miss the early days when the AI didn’t value pyramids and you could always get it!
Yeah, in theory, Venetian Arsenal should be amazing, but the AI doesn't even make coastal cities that often unfortunately unless you're on true Earth and are in Europe. It is fantastic in PVP though as you can build up a crazy navy really quickly. Being able to create two fleets or armadas at the cost of 1 is pretty damn great. Also it's a really nice way to pump out privateers or sea dogs if you're going for a pillaging civ build (I do that with England a lot. Just pump those out and declare a bunch of wars with everyone without looking to actually take their cities. Just pillage and harass while amassing thousands of gold and setting their civ back in almost every victory condition).
Thanks for still providing Civ 6 content, VB! The others streamsers have mostly basically checked out (boes, TGM etc). Although I vehemently disagree with many of your placements in this list, I still find your arguments interesting 👍🏻
I mostly like this list, but I have to get on my soapbox about Golden Gate Bridge! It is the most extreme "Great but situational" wonder in the game by a long shot. In the right city, with the right setup, it's absurdly overpowered. It's only rivaled by KIlwa in terms of how broken it can get with the perfect set up. But of course the placement restrictions are so bad that's only rarely even playable. But still - I've gotten culture wins in one city challenges on deity a couple times now where the whole game was built around jamming as many national parks into one city as possible. It's totally feasible to get 400+ tourism per turn from it. Probably more than that if you min/max your city enough. It's a fun challenge to build a game around it.
Orshegaz and Statue of Liberty are both fantastic pivot wonders. The AI avoids does not like building them and both of them together lets you just brute force your way to a diplo victory.
Every late-game (modern+) wonder should be Why [haven't you won already]? I can't recall having played a game where the outcome wasn't assured by the time these wonders come online.
Oh my god, your tier list is different from mine. However will I manage? Seriously though, it's evident that you use a limited set of maps because the general Civ rule is Nuke beats Air beats Sea beats Land. Naval units are more powerful than land units at every stage in the game. Those two wonders, Venetian Arsenal and Great Lighthouse should not be dismissed so lightly. In every game, I oscillate between, first galley promotes to extra naval strength, next gets extra movement because movement is so very important. In addition to sheer military power, harbours function as stronger versions of industrial zones combined with commercial zones - they are incredibly valuable and what's more, can't be spied upon. So the gold is safe.
I build Golden Gate every game, not for any bonuses just because I like having the only bridge in game lol, I also play on emperor not deity so my games are easier.
Well now aren’t I just the biggest idiot around. I like how my criticism though actually applies better to how your explanation of how the wonder works instead of how I thought it did
In Deity, I usually get thunked when I try to build Forbidden City, Oracle, or Pyramids. I would rather spend my money when I get it than hoard it and double it with Ben. Therefore I would strike your top tier completely and move everything else up, more or less. It's a fair take to put SoL in uninstall, but I often don't have the patience for non-diplo victories. That said, religious victory is even worse, which makes many of the faith-based wonders in the uninstall category. Kotoku-in? Come on.
@jyutzler Fair, my playthroughs I have turned culture victory off because it got to the point I was always winning by culture, often without trying to.
Colosseum is S tier. I have never had a situation where i cant hit multiple cities with it. Chitzen is USLESS. god this weeks sucks. When do you ever build this other than brasil? Etimanaki suffers from competition. River real-estate is so valuable and to many things want to be there. That said. It can be absolutely broken at times. The early game tech and production body can snowball so hard. Temple of Artemis is amazing. Housing food and amenities, just beautiful. I really really enjoy a good Jebal. It is hard to make good use of though. It feels amazing when its good and unless when its not.
Alhambra - You should always build this on Poland, it's an extra wildcard slot It gives Gorgo an extra combat strength too, but thats not as valuable. There are lots of good Military Policy Cards you can make use of that are kind of hard to slot in otherwise, Logistics (+1 move in friendly territory) is incredible for your builders (and siege units), but is pretty hard to slot in over the industrial zone adjacency card a lot of the time. If you're warring with a religion, fitting the pillage card, the industrial zone card/50% bonus prod towards units card and Wars on Religion for the combat strength bonus is really tough without digging into your wildcard slots you don't want to use on Military policy slots. It's not as good as the other ones, but it being several tiers below Potala Palace is pretty nuts, the midgame diplomatic cards aren't particularly impressive. Alhambra also is far less production cost than the other extra policy card slot wonders. The bonus amenities are also great.
Chichen Itza - Totally agree. One of the worst wonders in the game. Also a pain to build since the city you want to build it in will have a bunch of unimproved rainforest tiles.
Colosseum - I think this is one of if not the best wonders in the game, absolutely belongs in the top tier, the difference between having and not having the Colosseum is game changing. The culture is fantastic, but the best part is the amenities. Getting your cities to +5 amenities for the 20% boost to all yields is incredible at all stages of the game, and getting it in 5 or 6 cities early on is such an enormous boost that it makes it worth sinking production into the entertainment complex in the first place. Setting up killer adjacencies for your theater squares early on is also a great bonus.
Mausoleum not being in the top tier is nuts, it singlehandedly lets speeds up your game regardless of your wincon (except Religion I guess....)
Oracle is pretty overrated, in my opinion. You can replicate it's use with using city projects if you keep an eye on the great person screen, and you have to sacrifice so much in order to build it (going into mysticism before your political philosophy, sacrificing an early settler). And then the AI beats you to it a lot of the time anyway. It's definitely incredible on some civs like Wonder Spam China and Work Ethic Civs like Russia or Brazil since they can have the crazy production early in the game to build it, but I definitely don't want it in every game. It also generates way too many great writers in my experience, it's pretty tough to keep up with places to put all the books it generates.
Taj Mahal - It's effect is fine, but it's pretty unnecessary. I think it's a waste of production, but your point about it being useful for newer players is good.
Artemis - This can snowball your capital so hard early in the game with its amenities combined with Pingala. I think it's a top 10 wonder.
Terracotta Army - Another great thing about this is it giving promotions to your spies. A spy with two promotions gives you 6 combat strength on its own (12 on Mongolia!)
I agree with all of that, esp Alhambra. I would also add that Kotoku-In on a 20+ adjacency fully-developed Holy Site with Voidsingers and the right city states is a lot of extra faith per turn. Situational sure but definitely not why.
Lighthouse breaks island games because your navy will ALWAYS be able to chase or run. Knowing you always have the most movement is a huge boost....in a style of map that most of us don't play
Helps that the AI typically doesn't build it fast. I often build it when it is 8 or less turns on epic speed.
In a game were there are a lot of Marsh or Desert Floodplains in your starting area, Etemenanki is game breaking. You can get it very early on and the bonuses can shoot you forward quickly, especially when you combine it with Lady of Reeds & Marshes. Getting tiles that product 3 food, 3 production and 2 science by turn 30 of the game is powerful, IF you get the right terrain.
Yep, it's like the fishing boats pantheon on water-based maps. Game-breaking. You really have to rush it, though. It can go fast.
It can be hard to build before the AI is the worst thing about it
@@jyutzleryeah, God of the sea is so damn good if you're on an island.
Picked that up when I played as Norway and England on true Earth start, and it's so damn good.
Golden gate bridge certainly isn't the best wonder, but if you actually do the math, it is really underrated.
If the city has just 2 national parks and each tile has an appeal of just 4, then golden gate yields (4 appeal * 8 tiles * 2x tourism) = 64 tourism, plus another 32 tourism from doubling the tourism of the tiles' base appeal. That plus the base tourism of the wonder is upwards of 100 tourism from one wonder in a mediocre case.
If you add in the eiffel tower, planting woods, and reyna and manage to get 4 parks in the city, the golden gate bridge is now worth more than 350 tourism by itself.
Still very situational due to the placement restrictions, but if you can build it in a tourism game, you almost always should
How does that compare to other cultural wonders?
@@jyutzler Other wonders are a bit harder to calculate, but here we go:
Eiffel tower: Needs 12 national parks to match 2 golden gate national parks
Cristo: Needs ~20 seaside resorts/25 relics/8 reliquary relics to match 2 golden gate national parks
Hermitage: A themed hermitage with the best art, pingala promotion, and the card for double tourism from art barely matches 2 golden gate national parks
None of the other great work wonders even get that far
Biosphere only needs like 17 improvements to match it, but it's also biosphere
Overall, only the Eiffel tower, and maybe Cristo in some games, can rival it in terms of raw tourism (But build both because they work well together)
@@pyroxx462 That's really good info, thanks. Never occurred to me before to try that.
It’s the most worthless wonder
@@lefthanded0440 weird response to a comment literally explaining why that is not the case
Coliseum is an S tier early wonder that gets culture snowballing
If you can get the great library as Babylon, it pretty much just ensures you'll win your science victory since anytime someone recruits a great scientist you're unlocking another science tech lol
Great video - thanks. I will just add the Venetian is also great when you can merge units to instantly create a fleet, or help build an armada. I always build the Venetian :-)
Building the Golden State bridge is essentially just to flex on the other civs that you have so many resources that you can devote some to a vanity project lol
4:10 Angkor Wat goes in the WHAT category.. should have seen that one coming
There should be a tier that is: "Build if it somehow hasn't been built yet" tier.
I usually play on epic speed and when I see an early game wonder hasn't been built yet and it's only 3-5 turns to build at this point, I just do it because the bonuses are worth it for such little cost at that point.
Statue of liberty is not essential to a diplo victory, it is extremely helpful and speeds it up.
One camp and the standard horses in the capitol are worth ToA. Contrary to Oracle and 'Mids (except no AI owns one desert tile), the ToA can be built on Deity even after PolPhil. The +food and the happiness modifiers compensate for every early settler including the wonder cost. It is the one game breaking wonder because it comes early and it has hard food/prod benefits. The ToA is the difference between 4 and 6 early cities and if you are forced into an early defensive war, well..., the extra food and production help you keep up in producing units. Every other wonder is sugar coat once you built the ToA.
I try to build Potala Palace in every game. The extra policy slots are game changing and I never regret having that extra green policy slot to free up a wildcard slot. I REALLY hope you do a video of your ranking each wonder in the tiers next. Great video!
Alhambra is actually much better for non-Dom games than anything, because the governments you take for all the other victories tend to miss out on military slots and having that extra one can be very helpful! Especially for science!
I like this list but really confused how you totally misunderstood the function of Hanging Gardens. It's food growth plus a little housing.
I once did a very fun deity England island plates domination game with the Venetian arsenal. But definitely I do think because the AI just don’t do naval stuff very well it just all feels a bit silly and gimmicky. Helpful for a very fast victory I guess.
I think I’ve been sleeping on Big Ben! Only built it a couple of times. It’s funny I have over 1800 hrs in the game and some of these I’ve still never built. Perhaps because I’m a deity player so it can be hard. I do miss the early days when the AI didn’t value pyramids and you could always get it!
Yeah, in theory, Venetian Arsenal should be amazing, but the AI doesn't even make coastal cities that often unfortunately unless you're on true Earth and are in Europe.
It is fantastic in PVP though as you can build up a crazy navy really quickly. Being able to create two fleets or armadas at the cost of 1 is pretty damn great.
Also it's a really nice way to pump out privateers or sea dogs if you're going for a pillaging civ build (I do that with England a lot. Just pump those out and declare a bunch of wars with everyone without looking to actually take their cities. Just pillage and harass while amassing thousands of gold and setting their civ back in almost every victory condition).
The AI doesnymt rush the colloseum so it's one of the easier ones to get as long asvyou have some chops available
Thanks for still providing Civ 6 content, VB! The others streamsers have mostly basically checked out (boes, TGM etc). Although I vehemently disagree with many of your placements in this list, I still find your arguments interesting 👍🏻
I mostly like this list, but I have to get on my soapbox about Golden Gate Bridge!
It is the most extreme "Great but situational" wonder in the game by a long shot. In the right city, with the right setup, it's absurdly overpowered. It's only rivaled by KIlwa in terms of how broken it can get with the perfect set up. But of course the placement restrictions are so bad that's only rarely even playable.
But still - I've gotten culture wins in one city challenges on deity a couple times now where the whole game was built around jamming as many national parks into one city as possible. It's totally feasible to get 400+ tourism per turn from it. Probably more than that if you min/max your city enough. It's a fun challenge to build a game around it.
I always play owls of minerva, hence I think kilwa is the best wonder. I would put Stonehenge in "uninstall" though.
Nah, Stonehenge is a decent faith rush wonder.
You can get a religion up before some civs even have a pantheon.
Orshegaz and Statue of Liberty are both fantastic pivot wonders.
The AI avoids does not like building them and both of them together lets you just brute force your way to a diplo victory.
What about a Wonder tier list by victory condition? I bet the lists would be interestingly different!
Every late-game (modern+) wonder should be Why [haven't you won already]? I can't recall having played a game where the outcome wasn't assured by the time these wonders come online.
Pantheons. I never, never know which one to take.
Bro simply forgot Diplomatic victory exists :(
Really enjoyed this. Interesting to see the comments, too. How you play the game sure affects how these things are used.
Great video! Could you do a tier list for natural wonders next?
The biggest surprise was the top tier had more than Oracle.
Oh my god, your tier list is different from mine. However will I manage?
Seriously though, it's evident that you use a limited set of maps because the general Civ rule is Nuke beats Air beats Sea beats Land. Naval units are more powerful than land units at every stage in the game. Those two wonders, Venetian Arsenal and Great Lighthouse should not be dismissed so lightly. In every game, I oscillate between, first galley promotes to extra naval strength, next gets extra movement because movement is so very important. In addition to sheer military power, harbours function as stronger versions of industrial zones combined with commercial zones - they are incredibly valuable and what's more, can't be spied upon. So the gold is safe.
Playing naval maps is a cheat-code for single player. The AI can't handle them at all. They can still be fun, but it is not much of a challenge.
I build Golden Gate every game, not for any bonuses just because I like having the only bridge in game lol, I also play on emperor not deity so my games are easier.
Hanging gardens gives a multiplier to food not border expansion. Pop grows not tiles
Well now aren’t I just the biggest idiot around. I like how my criticism though actually applies better to how your explanation of how the wonder works instead of how I thought it did
@@VanBradley Yep, growing too fast just leads to amenity problems.
Forgive my ignorance but are the governors a mod or pc only feature? I play on ps5 and I’ve never encountered them. They seem really helpful
Rise and fall expansion (dlc)
Thanks. Good info :)
In Deity, I usually get thunked when I try to build Forbidden City, Oracle, or Pyramids. I would rather spend my money when I get it than hoard it and double it with Ben. Therefore I would strike your top tier completely and move everything else up, more or less.
It's a fair take to put SoL in uninstall, but I often don't have the patience for non-diplo victories. That said, religious victory is even worse, which makes many of the faith-based wonders in the uninstall category. Kotoku-in? Come on.
99% sure estadio is like coliseum on steroids (culture in every city)
For sure. Estadio is basically a “win now” button.
The only wonders I will never bother with are Hermitage and Sydney Opera House. Both of them are just....why?
Because you're going for culture victory and you are looking for anything useful to spend production on?
@jyutzler Fair, my playthroughs I have turned culture victory off because it got to the point I was always winning by culture, often without trying to.
Colosseum is S tier. I have never had a situation where i cant hit multiple cities with it.
Chitzen is USLESS. god this weeks sucks. When do you ever build this other than brasil?
Etimanaki suffers from competition. River real-estate is so valuable and to many things want to be there. That said. It can be absolutely broken at times. The early game tech and production body can snowball so hard.
Temple of Artemis is amazing. Housing food and amenities, just beautiful.
I really really enjoy a good Jebal. It is hard to make good use of though. It feels amazing when its good and unless when its not.
If Chichen Itza isn't S-tier, I'm unsubscribing. 😉
next time instead of doing alphabetical order, please do by era order
Kilwa is the best wonder bar none. You get 30% plus 15% across the empire man cmon
If you're not playing Barbarian Clans mode, then it is not so great because the AI loves to knock out city states.
KILWA IS EVERY GAME