Which Great Person do you find the least useful?

Note that to me they are all useful. However there are some i find less usefull.

I think the great artist is probably the least useful. I still use it for a culture bomb sometimes. However i never go for a cultural victory so i end up using it on a city near an AIs border that is being culture starved.

Hmm, funny i find the great artist to be the most usefull. Its abillity to end a resistance and dump 4000 culture points can be vital. But for most useless i would say great prophet, Sure you need ONE if you've got a holy city but other than that i would prefer another GP.

I Disagree, I love the great prophet, +2 Work and +5 gold is great early in the game, ever rush Stonehenge and get Moses early on?

I actually find the great artist one of the most useful great persons in the game. Especially for culture bombing. Nothing like having another civilizations city flip to your civilization. The satistfaction is almost overwhelming. That being said, what action by the great artist do you think is more effective in flipping a city culturally? Is it the great artwork option or the super specialist option? I still dont understand the mechanics of culture production...what exactly does +1(or n) culture mean and do for your city?

edit: yes I have gotten an early moses. =D. I also find great profits equally useful as artists. Especially there shrine building ability. I think I find the scientists the most useless. Im not much of a research rushing freak.

-Ardinius

Once I have my religions shrine, I find Great Prophets to be the least useful.

SuperBeaverInc. said:

Once I have my religions shrine, I find Great Prophets to be the least useful.

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I used to agree, but I've started to use them as super-specialists in my production cities for that +2 hammers--especially since I reserve GEs for rushing Wonders and never as specialists. And +5 gold for the rest of the game doesn't suck, especially since some of it can, depending on your tech rate, translate to beakers.

still dont understand the mechanics of culture production...what exactly does +1(or n) culture mean and do for your city?

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The Great Artist as a Super Specialist produces 6, iirc, culture per turn. That means every turn it gives that city 6 more culture forever. The culture of the city gradually grows and seeds itself over the land. It also expands your borders once the city has enough culture. Hovering the mouse over the city or going to the city screen will show you when the borders expand. You can also have the Great Artist give you a "culture bomb" and give the city an instant 6000 culture, but that is it. So the question is do you want a large lump sum right now, or annuity payments over time that will add up to more in the long run.

I don't prefer the Great Merchants. That's because I usually cottage spam so I don't need the cash as much as I like the other benefits. Although the Super Merchant is good, I like the options the other Great people provide. I still find great uses for the Merchants.

Honestly, I find all the Great People useful. Engineers are great for rushing wonders, Scientists build academies in science cities, Prophets build holy shrines, and Artists allow for border expansion via culture bombs. All will help you research a tech or you can use them together for a golden age, both pretty useful ... and you can always add to city if you are all out of ideas or have a ton of great people just sitting around waiting to do something.

All EARLY GP's are heaven-sent, while none are really good for anything in the late game... engineers and scientists are still pretty useful, if there's still a substantial city without an academy, or a wonder to be built.

As for the rest, allthough an early prophet/artist are great, the best thing to do with really late ones is to save them up for another golden age.

Oh, and if your capital/biggest city cant really grow anymore, i guess a great merchant is of some use as it is the only food-generating gp.

Me, i usually concentrate most of my GP's in one city, and run representation... with all the modifiers a scientists extra 9B, 1H (+2C) doesn't hurt, even if the bonus perhaps isn't as great as those first two prophets or, even better, that first engineer.

I would say great artists, even though prophets are only good for the 1 shrine, they still make better super specialists than artists, and both unlock crappy techs. Culture bombs are not useful at all to me. I capture/raze till there is no cultural pressure on my newly conquered cities (ie exterminate the civ fully) and just building culture will fill in the fat cross border in a couple turns.

I've used early great prophets to gain all but 1 of the religions...

They're all useful, although I believe you can only use Great Prophets for specialists after Scientific Method.

BTW, the Great Artist is wickedly powerful, especially when you want to claim a tight spot for a resource, or another city, or even block a chokepoint.

Why do people think that you only need one shrine? I have a state religion, but I still get money from spreading religions that I have the shrines for. In one game I was lucky enough to get three shrines in one city and I spread two religions almost entirely across my empire, and one quite widely. The more money the better.

GAs aren't too helpful. The others have uses in any situation, but unless you're going for a culture win they're only a slight bonus for putting in captured cities. I don't tend to get many because my specialists are always doing something useful.

Scientists are fairly poor, because their science is only a few turns' worth by half-way through the game. At least Merchants have that food bonus to make them very helpful.

I think g prophet is least useful.

Great Prophet, is definitely least useful. I usually one found Taoism by building the oracle, and I use one to make a shrine. I use nearly all my GP, except sometimes engineers and scientists, to discover a tech, and after Lib Great Prophets are useless.

My votes on the merchant. I can always put the others to good use but the merchant engh usually I have cash and my sciene is relatively well along so sacrificing him isn't usually that great.

I think it depends on difficulty level to some extent. On higher levels Great Merchants, for instance, would probably become more valuable due to the increased upkeep costs. By contrast Great Prophets would become less valuable due to the increased difficulty in founding religions.

Playing on Monarch, I'd personally say that Prophets are the least useful although they can still be quite useful if I draw a civ that starts with Mysticism (I randomly choose my civ).

It also depends on the game and victory type.

Great artists are clearly the best if going for a culture victory. Like Cathedrals, they are much mroe valuable for culture victories than other types.

Great prophets are clearly the best if you founded a religion, since the shrines are awesome; of course, if you haven't founded a religion, they are far less useful. s people above have said, they are still good super specialists.

When I go for a spaceship vicotry, engineers and scientists are really awesome, artists are less useful.

Great merchants are always good. The plus 1 food for a super specialist can really be awesome.

Best wishes,

Breunor

My Opinion:

Great Artist (GA): Excelent for cultur bomb + bad super-specialist
Great Scientist (GS): Academy + good super-specialist
Great Engineer (GE): Excelent for critical Wonder + good super-specialist
Great Prophet (GP): needed for shrine + excelent super-specialist (5g + 2H)
Great Merchant (GM): Excelent super-specialist + poor for make cash


Details:

The GA are the worse super-specialist because the city need many city multipliers (or join them very early) to generate more culture than culture bomb. The GS are needed to build academies, but this +50% to beakers can be reached in science cities in different ways, and isn’t the best super-specialist. GE are excellent to "don’t be worried" about critical wonders and are excellent super-specialist in production cities. GP are NEEDED for shrines and they are excellent super-specialist in production or commerce cities (they are welcome whenever they arrive). GM are very powerfull and versatile like super-specialist, They can be used in GP Farm for more food to support more specialist, good for commerce cities (+6g * multipliers), good for production cities because you can replace a grassland farm (3 food to support 1 mine) for a SGM + workshop (3 food + 3 hammers with State Property, Guild and Replaceable parts), IMO the cash generation of GM are poor because in early game is small (compared with join them in early game) and in the late game I can generate this 4000 gold controlling the science slider.

I almost never use any of them for tech.

Why must there be a new thread asking the same question every month?