Great People and Golden ages

[Garth Vader]

So this might be a stupid question, but say I have 3 different GP and need 2 for a GA. How is it decided which two are used up?

[eris]

I do not know what the default is, but it is usually not what I had in mind. To get around this, I take the two Great Folk I want to use for the Golden Age and move them to the same tile. I select this stack of two and push the Golden Age button. Presto! The two Great Folk disappear and that engineer waiting to start Mining Inc. is still there. I tried it once with selecting only two of the three that were on a tile and it still went arbitrary on me, so this was the answer I found.

[rah]

Experienced the same. With one exception. When I had 5 GPs and needed 2 and 3. I clicked on 2 and started back to back GAs consuming all 5. I did this in a city so the results may not be the same as eris's but assume they will be.

[snoopy369]

The default, IIRC, if no other GPs are on the current tile, is to take them in the order of creation (where permitted).

The official way to do it properly is as eris says, to put them together on one tile, it will choose all GP from one tile first (when you select one of that tile's GPs.) Selecting multiple does not work.

You can definitely do back to back GA's ... i've had something like 40 turns before between Taj Mahal and GP GAs. Quite fun that game... had 6 GAs, or maybe 7, I forget.

[wodan11]

7 GAs is a ludicrous waste of GP, don't you think?

Wodan

[Ming]

Not really... You might think it's a matter of short term vs long term... but if you use the GA's properly they will help you in the long term as well. They could put you so far into the lead that nobody can catch you. GA's, especially if they are enhanced by the wonder, are quite powerful and can jump start you way beyond everybody else.

[wodan11]

So, you advocate using a GA early, rather than later when you have the multiple hammer bonus from Towns and the additive bonus from more cities running specialists?

Wodan

[Theben]

Sure. I usually wait until I build the Mausoleum before running GAs, but it can give me that boost that Ming was talking about to put me over the opposition.

[Jaybe]

I have read that when you select a GP for a golden age, the game selects additional required GP nearest the one selected. My experience since has supported this rule.

[snoopy369]

The advantage gained from the early development outweighs the later potential, particularly in BtS where you get extra GP generation also - so you get your later GAs sooner with your earlier GAs.

As long as you've built all of your primary cities and maxed population, and don't have much unhappiness, you're pretty much maximizing the GA bonuses. The hammer bonuses will actually be a higher percentage of your production ability earlier rather than later; even if it's more net, the advantage early is huge. This is even more true with the commerce bonus (which is the more important one anyhow). You'll get very nearly as much commerce early as opposed to late, if you're not playing a conquest game (as I wasn't), and the significant tech lead you get helps a lot in maintaining a tech lead - faster universities, access to wonders earlier, etc.

Dominae wrote a really good explanation of this strat, look it up if you're interested It was about a year ago, maybe? Probably one of the last threads he wrote in this forum as he hasn't been posting much.

84 turns of ~50% higher commerce than the rest of the world is pretty insurmountable; and by the time you get that far, you don't need the GA bonus any more.

(Also, this was an MP game, which certainly has different time issues than a SP game, although it was at normal speed and a normal map size.)

[Petek]

Originally posted by snoopy369
Dominae wrote a really good explanation of this strat, look it up if you're interested

Dominae's thread may be found here, a really good read.

Petek

[couerdelion]

Originally posted by snoopy369
As long as you've built all of your primary cities and maxed population, and don't have much unhappiness, you're pretty much maximizing the GA bonuses. The hammer bonuses will actually be a higher percentage of your production ability earlier rather than later; even if it's more net, the advantage early is huge. This is even more true with the commerce bonus (which is the more important one anyhow). You'll get very nearly as much commerce early as opposed to late, if you're not playing a conquest game (as I wasn't), and the significant tech lead you get helps a lot in maintaining a tech lead - faster universities, access to wonders earlier, etc.

My own personal view is that the GA’s were strong enough before being made easier to get and improving them to the extent that SPI got so badly mauled. Now I would tend to think that the first GP -> GA makes quite a lot of sense for any expansive civ although a more settled one might still find that an early Academy might be of more benefit over the medium term.

Before a civ gets to around 20 cities, there might still be an argument for GS to be used to lightbulb. These a likely to provide a bigger commerce boost than a small period of extra commerce/production (which costs 2 GP anyway).

In general I tend to wait until after Taj before using more than one GP for a GA. The 2000+ gold from a trade mission or a big 3500+ lightbulb are just too enticing to pass up.

But after 30 cities, I’d say that GA’s are far more powerful

[jbp26]

Originally posted by wodan11
So, you advocate using a GA early, rather than later when you have the multiple hammer bonus from Towns and the additive bonus from more cities running specialists?

Wodan

i sometimes use my very first GP for a golden age- if im trying to build up an army to go conquer my first enemy, that boost in production and commerce can make all the difference. since i've been playing more emperor games lately, i've found more and more often i need this boost to get that slight lead on the AI i need for my first war.

[Ming]

I usually use my first scientist for an Academy, and my first priest for a shrine if I have the religion. After that, I save them for GA's, but sometimes keeping any engineers for a quick wonder. I try to time them for major civic changes. I also use them toward the end of a long war or just prior to going to war. Most of the time, I will wait for the two or more GP GA until after I've got the Mausoleum. I've usually used the single one before then to meet some specific goal, usually a civic change or a war.

[Garth Vader]

I usually try to time them for civics changes too. Not the early ones, but there are a lot of changes that come shortly after the Taj and it's worth it just to save like 4-5 turns of empire wide anarchy, so I'll usually tack an extra GA shortly after I build it... if I get it.

I prefer to wait until around then so I get get the extra hammers from towns, but maybe I should try an early one to build an army.