Questions on specialists farms versus corruption reducers

It seems most posters prefer to have corrupt cities feed specialists rather than build courthouse, police stations and what not to reduce corruption and make the town workable that way.

Is there a post anyone can point me too with details on why thats better?

When I play I tend to build the corruption reducers and police specialists and a factory and get some reasonable production from distant towns, or just go communist . Maybe thats just a bad habit I need to break.

Is that something that works at Monarch and Regent, but not the high levels of difficulty?

What does the science farm city build? Anything? Or just set to wealth?

How large does it want to be ; 6, 12, bigger?

I understand that it should be improved for maximum food production rahter than shields.

Thanks

Up to a point, I build courthouses. Police stations I tend not to build because that branch of the tech tree is low on my priorities most of the time.
However, once you get enough cities, they become entirely corrupt and at that stage the only thing that makes sense is to grow the population as large as you can and make as many specialists as you can. Sometimes my farms will be building workers and settlers, otherwise wealth.

I tend to build courthouses in cities under 80% corruption because the cities can at least build something. Cities > 80% corruption really can't build anything so I use specialists. The specialist cities are usually size 4-6 for me.

Ringo Kid said:

When I play I tend to build the corruption reducers and police specialists and a factory and get some reasonable production from distant towns, or just go communist . Maybe thats just a bad habit I need to break.

Is that something that works at Monarch and Regent, but not the high levels of difficulty?

Click to expand...

As you work your way up the levels, corruption gets worse so the cities that will benefit from this become closer to the capital and more cities fall into the 'not worth the effort' catagory.

Ringo Kid said:

What does the science farm city build? Anything? Or just set to wealth?

Click to expand...

Depends. I tend to claim the land with loose city placement and then use these specialist farms to produce new workers/settlers at first. At some point I may switch many of these cities to cats/trebs/cannons/arty or even wealth depending upon the whole game situation. Don't spend any shields on city improvements though as their primary role is to provide cash/beakers (as well as unit support) for the empire-maintenance costs will reduce this effectiveness.

Ringo Kid said:

How large does it want to be ; 6, 12, bigger?

Click to expand...

Don't build aqueducts so whatever will support the highest number of specialists for the least number of tiles used. This depends upon the surrounding terrain, if you are playing a AGR civ and if you have rails. (I've even used some specialist farms in Despotism so I guess I should add type of government.) The classic sea of railed/irrigated grassland leads to towns of size 5 (two working the land, 3 specialists) and cities built by rivers/lakes of size 11 (4 working the land, 7 specialists).

When you have 100+ cities, no amount of corruption reducers are of any help. In corrupt areas I tend to build in ICS style, CxCxC, especially in grasslands. I never build any improvements. They will usually grow to 6 with no river, 10 to 12 with a river, and approx half of the citizens will be specialists while the rest produce food. In desert or tundra areas, I sometimes have towns with a single specialist living off the center tile and no other citizen.

For builds I usually set them to cannons or artillery, then skim workers or settlers as needed. Sometimes, after they've accumulated quite a few shields, I'll cash-rush something else I need. In a 100k culture game in a cash-rush government, after I get Replaceable Parts, I'll use civil engineers to build temples and libs.

Edit: X-post with Tone.

Ringo Kid said:

It seems most posters prefer to have corrupt cities feed specialists rather than build courthouse, police stations and what not to reduce corruption and make the town workable that way.

Is there a post anyone can point me too with details on why thats better?

Click to expand...

I only use specialists for corrupt towns, never in my metros or core cities. I irrigate every tile around the heavily corrupt cities, switch production to wealth, and get as many scientists as possible. There's no point in building courthouses and police stations because:

• The city is heavily corrupt and courthouses/police stations won't be that effective.
• The tiles are irrigated meaning less shields being produced, which greatly reduces shield production. Mostly to 1 or 2 uncorrupted shields per turn.
• Courthouses/Police Stations cost upkeep.
• It would take forever to build a courthouse and/or a police station, since it's so corrupt.
• Police officers are much more affective.

I'll replace some scientists into police oficers provided that it doesn't change the amount of turns a tech has until it is researched. That is, if I can't get it any lower.