A builder strategy please!

[emperor]

You're correct that it isn't optimal to have separate cities with separate types of great person points being generated in them. The most efficient method of generating great people at the fastest rate is to concentrate as many as possible of your great person points in a single city, with the National Epic wonder. This city you will probably want to be in a location where it can grow a lot (multiple good food resources and potential for farms), so that it can employ many extra specialists to further increase your great person point yield.

Of course, your strategy is equally valid, if not quite as efficient. It is always nice to be in complete control of the type of great people you will be getting. Personally though, after much experience with the game I've found that it's good enough for me to have a single powerful "great person farm" in which I can change around specialists to increase chances of getting a certain type (for instance, scientists). Of course, I'll still only have about a 60-80% chance of getting the great person I want, but in most cases this will still pay off. Even where it doesn't, I'll usually get a great person that was my 2nd priority anyway.

If you're trying out the "great person farm" strategy though, it's worth trying to build wonders while keeping in mind their great person point contributions. For instance, it could be worth building Sistine Chapel, Notre Dame, Taj Mahal etc in a different city to your great person farm (if you plan on building those wonders at all), so that you won't "contaminate" your great person pool with great people that you don't want. (In my case, these are generally Great Artists, which I usually try to avoid in all games except where I'm deliberately aiming for a cultural victory.)

[rah]

I always like have one great artist around for when it's time for my neighbor to die. It's great for getting their ex-cap up to being productive and covering a lot of land before the vultures sent their settlers in.

[Solomwi]

I'm with rah on GAs. While I usually have an immediate use for them, either a city of mine that needs to grab some tiles or an enemy city that needs an extra little push toward flipping, I love getting a GA I can hold onto until my next war. Popping that one strategic city's borders in enemy territory can be a huge boost to the war effort.

[smbakeresq]

In real life, Augustus built a huge empire and you can too. It is easy to get seduced into running Praetorians over everyone, but you can just sit back and build. You get 2 free culture a turn in all cities which makes for quick border expansion, half maintenance cost civics to make it easier to maintain a large empire, and half cost libraries, theater, coliseums, lighthouses, factories, courthouses. Since you UU is untouchable, you really dont have to worry about others aggression until they get maceman. You can also pick a few cities from the barbarians and the occasional idiot that attacks you.

If you can wait for the clearing out wars until the about the arrival of maceman, you can generally have such a large empire that you can rush over the others that have built you nice cities to take, just before the arrival of longbowman. On large, epic, by the time of arrival of Maceman, a force of 20-25 Praetorians (with CR 1 promotion) can crush many empires, even without catapults. By that point in the game, it is not uncommon to have 15-20 cities under your control, and neighbors who will fear you so you dont have to worry about the dogpile.

[One_more_turn]

As Romans, you need to sustain your economy through plundering enemy cities until you get Code of Laws and Currency. Pop-rush courthouses in all cities, trade techs for money, and build Forums in most prolific cities.

[popejubal]

I am very much a builder at heart. That said, I enjoy building on my opponent's lands once I have fully exploited my own.

The bonus that goes with that is that I can start out with cities that have already been partly developed at another civ's expense!

[wodan11]

Both Roman leaders (Warlords versions) are excellent builders on archipelago maps.

Wodan

[couerdelion]

Originally posted by wodan11
Both Roman leaders (Warlords versions) are excellent builders on archipelago maps.

Wodan

How do you work that out?

[rah]

YEah, I prefer to be on a mainland with easy access to capture other's cities before my Prets become obsolete.

[0bsidi0n]

I wanted to thank everyone for their great suggestions! I stubbornly insisted on trying one last time with the Romans, and incorporating a lot the ideas here, I am on the cusp of a space race victory! I think I used Augustus as a crutch to my old habits, but change is good. My next game will be with the Inca I think, but now that I have an idea of how to stand up on Noble, I must say I really enjoy this difficulty level over the previous ones.

I will post again with more details of my successful strategies. Thank you!

[Scylvendi]

Regarding your GP strategy, I think that with the Romans at least it's not such a bad idea. Normally it is optimal to concentrate your GPP in one city, but in the Roman case that means you are only getting the benefit of their UB in one city. I love playing Augustus, and like you I try to generate specific GP in a couple of cities. Especially if I have early stone, I try for the Great Wall and Pyramids in Rome, then later Build National Epic and Ironworks there. I also try to build a Great Scientist city in which I build Great Library (with one of my GE if I don't have marble). Anyway I like getting the Forum's benefit in more than one city even though someone could probably prove mathematically that concentrating the benefit in one city may pay off more in the long run.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by rah
YEah, I prefer to be on a mainland with easy access to capture other's cities before my Prets become obsolete.

It takes a long time for that to happen.