Hello everyone! I'm a big fan of this forum and so far I just read your nice articles. Now it's time for my first thread! I'm German (not Bismarck or Fred :) ) that's why my english is not the best...

I usually play Space-Race against friends in local networks on Prince. I like SE (Specialist Economy) and with Peter it works quite well. My problem is the wars. SE has a lot of advanrages like fast science and a strong cultural pression on enemy borders. BUT: You are forced to farm a lot and most citizens are working on those farms (to feed the specialists) and there's a lack of hammers (production). Changing civics in order to produce nice units (Vasallage / Theocraty) means losing Pacifism.

Do SE Players change the micromanegement in citys to increase production by reducing scientist acitvity? In case of long wars this could leed to disadvantages in science. I think a good working CE (Cottage Economy) could be more flexible.

Now I'd really like to hear you guy's opinions!

SE economy goes in bursts. When you want science (GP lightbulbing tech) you run specialists. When you want military, you whip. In both cases you work farms/food specials.

That's a good point, futurehermit, I never used the Nationalism civic / drafting (= whip, right?) because I wanted the 2 XPs from Vasallage.

Economy Players that sometimes go to war prefere CE and financial leaders? The problem here I guess is pillaging. Towns need too much time to be rebuilt.

The whip is actually slavery. It can be quite effectitve and there are a lot of guides on the forums about it.

Thanks ArneHD, perhaps I should have known that one :hammer2: !

But in any case aplying Slavery means losing Caste System, wich is necessary for SEs.

Main idea behind SE is flexibility.

When you need research, you hire specialists.
When you need shields, you conver your population into them using slavery or nationalism.
With all farms around your population will regrow in no time, and why do you need castle system is your population temporary working itself to death anyway?

When running SE, don't forget to make a cottage city that you never whip and has lots of river grasslands and flood plains. Settle your great prophets there and run priests/engineers for hammers to build science and commerce buildings.

Thanks! I've to admit that I've no experience in whipping, I always thought that it caused to much unhappyness. But I will try this stragedy asap. Especially with burocracy and the capital as cottaged metropole it might get interesting (and with Elizabeth perhaps). I guess having the appropriate wonder in the respective type of town is also a thing that shouldn't be neglected.

Making the most out of the 'burst' potential of SE requires a spiritual civ.

That means Gandhi I guess. I prefere few and well planed wars so the switching-anarchy might not get too big. But probably you are right, überfish, spiritual provides great flexibility (also to react on enemies' actions). I'm not too sure on lightbulbing. Acadamies and settled scientists that get another 3 beakers of Representaion (optimal with Sistine Chapel) are powerful as well.

I would like to hear your opinions on running CE without beeing philo...

Specialists are better then cottages in two cases:
1. The city can produce a GP. Use those for lightbulbing or for golden ages. Usually you'll have 1-3 such cities in the early game, and just one dedicated GP farm later.
2. You have captured the Piramids. (But don't bother buidling it yourself, its just too expensive).

If you don't have the Piramids, build cottages everywhere except the GP farm. In a short game you can use sea tiles instead of cottages.