Great People, What do you with them?!

[Beatie]

I wonder this for as long as I play CIV4...

What is better? Every great people can do different things, add a city as super specialist, trigger a golden age (with 2 great people) or give one free tech, and of course help build things...

On my last game (still busy, not the warlord level, but ONE higher.. forgot the name) I was contrentrating on add as super specialist in my captital city because I was trying to get as many as tech level devolpment in that city. But I wonder.. later in the game you can get techs that cost over 4000 tech points, so can we say that the later you get your great people, the better it is to just take the free tech ?

Or perhaps you do other things with this?

My current game is going just fine, pretty peacefull, but for sure a winner, about 70 turns to go. just got flight in 3 turns and need about 6 techs to finalize the tech tree.. My sience output is superb....

I was playing CiVs from the first one, until this one... the only one I didn't like was alpha centauri....

[vee4473]

Well, GP are very useful, but they don't neccesarily give a free tech. In the later game, they give research points towards a tech only, not the tech itself in one turn.

A great use no doubt though.

[Beatie]

So just as getting hammers, usefull to get worldwonders more quicky eg ?

So because I was going so well on my game before this one (on warlord) I tought I was getting this tech for free... but I understand.. you can see how much tech points you get if you diside to take the tech points....?

[Solomwi]

Yes, the later you get them, the better it is to get the beakers or hammers out of them up front, simply because the later you get them, the fewer turns they'll have to contribute to your city.

This isn't to say that adding them to a city in the early game is always the best option, though, by any stretch. It all, thankfully, depends on your situation . A GP available just in time to nab a key tech or wonder early in the game (say, Engineering just as Genghis Khan gears up to march your way) can be worth far more than the super-specialist, even if you play out the tech tree.

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of Golden Ages, unless they're extremely well-timed. That first GP hanging around always bugs me, and usually, if I can afford to let him camp out, I've already got the game in hand and don't need the GA anyway.

[Urban Ranger]

Re: Great People, What do you with them?!

Originally posted by Beatie
I was playing CiVs from the first one, until this one... the only one I didn't like was alpha centauri....

Pah. Alpha Centauri is still an excellent game. Far better than Civ 2 and better than Civ 3.

[Yosho]

Originally posted by Solomwi
Personally, I'm not a huge fan of Golden Ages, unless they're extremely well-timed. That first GP hanging around always bugs me, and usually, if I can afford to let him camp out, I've already got the game in hand and don't need the GA anyway.

Yeah, I agree. 8 turns of ++ production is nice, but it's not going to pay as well in as just cashing the two GP for tech (or hammers, or gold, ect), and it's not as good long-term as super specilists/acadamies/ect. I've used them for golden ages before, and have always been underwhelmed.

[Blake]

I nearly always create Super-Specialists with them, with the following exceptions:
Acadamy for high-research cities (over about 30 raw beakers)
Religious Shrines. Always for my primary religion, only sometimes for secondary. The breakpoint where a shrine becomes better is once it's spread to about 10 cities (this is because a prophet in the wall street city is a Very Good Thing).
I'll pop Theology, Philosophy or Divine Right if the religion is still available.

Also past the mid game (about scientific method) I nearly always tend to use them for the immediate payoff. The exception is Engineers and Prophets, I might add them to the Ironworks city to increase the speed at which it can build the spaceship.

[Solomwi]

I agree, Blake. Though I didn't mention them, academies and shrines get a high priority for my early prophets and scientists. After that, unless I have a pressing need, or see one just around the corner, for a key tech or wonder, they go into the cities until about mid-game, though I start considering the relative benefits of each approach earlier than scientific method. Of course, I'm typically trying to research around it unless I fell like I have enough monasteries to last me through the game.

[Hauptman]

always situational...


most OCC games i run elizebeth fi/phi and just crank out those great people... I settle almost ALL of them unless....

This last game the pyamids gave me a 30% chance of a great engineer, with the library putting a 60% chance of my academy making scientist...

But the engineer popped. so i did something i never tried before... I force built the parthenon, I almost never get this wonder as i go after pyramids but this time... =)

then after that its 1 prophet for a shrine and ALL others get settled. With OCC you are limited to working 20 tiles, but each settled GP under representation is worth 2 more... end game I'm pretty confident this city will be producing well over 1000 beakers per turn, and you have to be able to do that to keep up on emporer occ's.

[Hauptman]

here's some screenshots of my last game (not occ) with my 3 perfect cities. the capital (london) was the original GP pump but got replaced later by Moscow, York was my cash cow. I purposfully stopped expanding after the second city was build just to make sure I got my 2 religions in that one city... and from the SS you can see how nicely that payed off later.

I did in that game however lack a decent hammer city. so the game was still not perfect... I did rush buy heroic epic and westpoint in a decent city that has iron and coal in the radius but it just came so late, the game is already won.

[Cort Haus]

SIX food specials in the GP pump, Hauptman? That's a rare site.

[gentle]

Most of GPs I burn for techs or save for golden ages.
In the early stages an Engineer may rush a wonder but that's it.

[Beatie]

Originally posted by Hauptman
here's some screenshots of my last game (not occ) with my 3 perfect cities. the capital (london) was the original GP pump

I saw that you had your gold on 0%, how do you pay your buildings, upkeep ect ect???

over 500 beakers nice score btw

[Hauptman]

Originally posted by Beatie


I saw that you had your gold on 0%, how do you pay your buildings, upkeep ect ect???

over 500 beakers nice score btw

Take a look at york. I simply settled all my +cash gp in that city with its TWO religion shrines... it makes 300+ gold per turn from the buildings and GP ONLY.

And that SS was from when i was running universal sufferage to rush buy a few buildings and units to gear up for war with rome. Under representation i could run at 100% science with the +3beakers per specialist the cap was cranking 800+ beakers per turn.

SIX food specials in the GP pump, Hauptman? That's a rare site.

Can you imagine how gleeful i was to see that city once my religion spread to it. especially so close to me.

[Hauptman]

Oh can someone please explain to me why, in those screenshots, my water tiles give me 4 comerce each well after collosus was obsoleted? was the game bugged or is there a feature i was un aware of like banking giving +1$ per turn from water?