At what point do *you* start using specialists?

[Forrester]

Just curious, as I'm sure that this is an area in which I'm completely incompetent. I never use specialists of any sort (other than the add-on great prophet kind) early or mid game, and only find that I'm using them late game because I'll check on my capital or another city and find that the AI "governor" has decided (sometimes wisely, sometimes not) that my city should have 6 scientists or a mess of priests (instead of mining hills, which give hammers but none of the other benefits), or whatnot.

Sometimes the governor will decide to use specialists but at the expense of city expansion, of course, which is a bit annoying . . . but maybe it shouldn't be.

Anyway, that's my question to y'all -- early/mid game (however you want to define it -- and define it, pls, re where you'd be on the tech map), where do you start using specialists generally?

For the record, talking about Prince/maybe Monarch games. I'm doing okay on Prince as Ghandi, doing the religion/poprush/Oracle slingshot thang, with some early aggression towards annoying neighbors, but I find that even when I win it's still not until the late late 1900s, and I'm sure I can improve on that.

[ghen]

I dedicate a new city to be the great person city every time I create one.. so that there's always a city working full tilt boogie towards giving me a great person..

Other than that, specialists are only used if I need something specific like cultural expansion a few turns sooner, or they're better than working another sea tile etc.

[Son of David]

I usually make an effort to get the Great Library which gives two free scientists.

If I get the Oracle, that will eventually give its city a free Great Prophet.

Otherwise, I don't use specialists in the early game. It's not worth sacrificing the hammers/food just for great people.

[Arrian]

It depends

If I'm doing the Oracle CS slingshot, I'll use 1-2 scientists (library) to assist in researching Code of Laws.

Otherwise, I'll generally use them in cities that have excess food but are (for the time being, anyway) at their happiness or health limit. When that limit moves up for whatever reason, I'll put the citizen back on the land and grow up to the limit again.

-Arrian

[Quillan]

I typically put one scientist in one of my cities as soon as I build a library there, with the goal of making a Great Scientist early to build an academy in my highest commerce city. I dedicate one city to great people, generally one in a high food area (lots of flood plains along a river is great for this), and in that city I'll have a bunch of specialists. Other than that, the majority of specialists are either free ones or else placed by the city governor.

[axi]

The most interesting question here should be IMO:

At what point in a city's growth do you decide to use specialists?
- As soon as you can?
- When all the good tiles are taken?
- When it will take ages for the city to grow further?
- Only when overpopulation forces you to?

[Urban Ranger]

I tend not to use any, except for the free ones. I usually abhor an excess amount of micromanagement.

[joncnunn]

I'm still using the city governor to handle the city workforce, so it's whenever the governor feels like doing so.

I just give the occansional avoid growth / emph producation / emp great person orders.

[Tony]

I never used specialists at all on Monarch and below. But on Emperor I am finding that I miss all the early wonders, so I won't get great people if I don't use specialists. This can be good in a way because it gives you full control of what kind of great people you receive. I like using the library to generate an early Great Scientist for the capital (even though I don't use the Oracle Slingshot), and priest to generate a Great Prophet, if I manage to build or capture a holy city.

These great people get generated in a city that has a) one or two high food recourses (eg wheat) plus other grassland squares b) does not have other low food squares I really want to work (eg mined iron). Pick a city like that and you can continue to grow even with 2 specialists.

Once those 2 great people are generated, Great People become too expensive to make using specialists so I wait until I have some later wonders to help.

Specialists are still very new to me though so this may not be optimal.

Tony

[madmaxxam]

I try to start using them in at least 1 or 2 cities as soon as I can when I get some spare food. But I had a lot of fun in my last game, which was on a highlands map and I started to go for a cultural victory. I was able to build a statue of liberty, and I switched over to mercantalism, and representation, which meant that all of my cities had 2 free specialists, all putting out an extra +3 science. That with pacifism for the +100% great person growth, and I was popping out great leaders quite rapidly, and all of them gave me +3 more science. Suffice it to say this let me stay ahead of research even putting the slider down a bit to give myself some more culture.

[Dog of Justice]

The capital Academy is disproportionately valuable, especially with Bureaucracy, so I will use scientist specialists fairly early to get it.

But other than that, I pretty much only get specialists from Mercantilism/Statue of Liberty; cottages provide better commerce, and I'm fine with the "natural" rate of GPP generation provided by dumping a whole bunch of wonders and the National Epic in my capital. Perhaps I'd be forced to change in a multiplayer game where cottages' vulnerability to pillage is an issue.