Is the Amundsen-Scott Research Station really worth it?

[Kazmund]

Nice bonuses and all, but it seems like it's too high up the tech tree to make any difference.

Maybe I'm just bad at setting it up, but I've had two games now where I was behind on science and aimed for the ASRS wonder to help bring me up to speed. Both times it happened too late in the game to really make a difference.

Advice? Thoughts?

[Lemurian1972]

I've never gotten it built in time to matter myself. I guess if you were playing a polar civ like Russia or Canada, and thus had a city built early on, it might matter. Most of the time when I try to built it, it ends up in a late built city that doesn't quite have the population or production to get rolling in a timely fashion.

[Urist]

Building the Amundsen-Scott Research Station is a struggle, but some forward planning makes it easier. Especially on larger maps, settling and growing a city which will eventually cover at least one Snow tile is a little difficult since most of the workable tiles will be Tundra, and if you have 5 Snow tiles in a city for the full bonus the city is not going to be very productive. However, by pouring resources into a city through gold purchases, trade Routes, and Great Engineers, you should be able to build the Amundsen-Scott Research Station within an acceptable number of turns. The bonuses it provides are very powerful and empire wide, and will help tremendously when pursuing a Science Victory.

This wonder is easier to build when playing as Russia, or after building St. Basil's Cathedral, both of which increase the Production bonuses of Tundra tiles. Canada also has some incentive to build this wonder, as they can construct Farms on Tundra tiles and mitigate the disadvantage of having a city on less-than-ideal terrain. If a city already has St. Basil's Cathedral, then it should be well-established by the Atomic Era and able to build the Amundsen-Scott Research Station fairly quickly.

[Angelhearth]

Will you lose the bonus if you, after the wonder has been built, use the snow tiles for Alcazar?

[tempest.of.emptiness]

Originally posted by Angelhearth:

Will you lose the bonus if you, after the wonder has been built, use the snow tiles for Alcazar?

No, the tiles can have improvements on them without affecting the bonus.