Eng. specialists underpowered?

[MattPilot]

I've been playing around with the eng. specialist trying to get him to do something useful.

I've got a few coastal towns that can't support their food poor land tiles for production. So what i'm left with is setting specialists. Unfortunately, you can only set one engineer specialist until you get into the industrial age - and that only after you've built a forge which takes a great deal of turns because your city only produces 1 hammer in the first place.

Anyway - that got me thinking. I've been playing around with my other cities that can support a few more specialist and set engineers. The result was rather disappointing.

Also, if you build that one wonder that gives +1 hammer to priests, the engineer specialist becomes worthless.

So considering that you can only build 1 engineer specialist until the industrial age (factories, then its a max of 3), i've come to the preliminary conclusion that engineer specialists are way underpowered.


My thoughts would be to set them to +3 hammers. Not ground breaking, but a lot better.

What are everyone elses thoughts on this. Have you guys ever been setting engineer specialists?

[Dog of Justice]

I think they are properly balanced at 2 hammers. They would be a no-brainer choice at 3; as it is, I still usually allocate the max (though, as you point out, that maximum is 1 for much of the game).

Specialists are more important for Great People points than immediate production anyway. Once you have your key shrine, would you rather get a Great Prophet or Great Engineer?

(trick question, the correct answer is Great MERCHANT. More food... to support more merchants... to make more great merchants... to get more food... to support more merchants... TO INFINITY AND BEYOND)

[DrrD]

A great engineer puts (I think) 1000 hammers into a project. So if you engineer generates 3 GP points per turn, it will take 33 turns for the great engineer. 1000 hammers divided by 33 turns is another 3 hammers per turn that you engineer is generating, in effect.

[LzPrst]

only for the first great leader. after that the costs of producing one rises for each leader. mine cost 1050 or something now i think...

[Fried-Psitalon]

Engineers are fine as I see them.

Priests are 1-and-1, unless you are the only player to build a specific wonder. That's an exception, not a rule. For more than one Priest you need a second-tier religious structure, which is limited in buildable quantity. Factories require nothing more than a forge to build as many as you like.

Additionally. Engineers are the only ones able to rush Wonders - which makes them very potent indeed. It's not just the 1000 shields, it's the 1000 shields instantly. Potentially a way to snatch a valuable wonder from someone who's ahead of you technologically, right before they finish it.

[anhalibut]

Originally posted by Fried-Psitalon

Additionally. Engineers are the only ones able to rush Wonders - which makes them very potent indeed.

If the wonder is a building you can hurry its construction like any other building. I've rushed both the Oracle and Three Gorges Dam.