Questions about specialists, religion and great people farms

[AnotherGuy]

I've recently started playing Civ IV with expansions and I'm having a thrill! It's a great game with much more depth than I first anticipated. While lurking these forums for a while I have come to some questions about some of the commonly used strategies.

1: I see people talking about specialist economies. I usually just stick with cottages and I'm quite happy with that. I've have read some of the guides about specialist economies (not thoroughly though), and there is one thing I haven't been able to figure out. When do I need to run specialists? Is it when my city has grown big enough to work all it's tiles? That seems like a long wait.

2: This answer to this question is maybe the same as above. I understand the concepts of a great people farm, you just have to spam farms instead of cottages and the run some specialists. But again: When should i switch workers into specialists? At what city size and how many citizens should be specialists?

3: I'm also wondering about religion. I always try to found a religion, and with advanced start as I'm always playing (great addition!) it's quite easy as you can start with the religion tech. However for some strange reason the AI always ends up spreading their religion way faster than I can manage. The rest of the world always ends up hating me this way because they consider me a heathen. What is generally considered the best way to spread your religion? Just spam missionaries in all of your cities? That would really hurt my expansion in other fields.

[Jerrymander]

1. Run specialists whenever you have enough food to still grow. Or if, for example, you're at a 'happy cap'. Requires extreeeme micromanagement skills, though.

2. Maintain a positive food amount, barely. I say 2 or 3 food, but other people will have different ideas.

3. Let the AI found your religion and spam it, then conquer them with your advanced war machine that you developed while they wasted hammers on missionaries.

[Giovanni Caboto]

Originally Posted by AnotherGuy

1: I see people talking about specialist economies. I usually just stick with cottages and I'm quite happy with that. I've have read some of the guides about specialist economies (not thoroughly though), and there is one thing I haven't been able to figure out. When do I need to run specialists? Is it when my city has grown big enough to work all it's tiles? That seems like a long wait.

It is not a bad idea to have a surplus of food production in order to shift from citizen to specialist as cottages only produce max 2 on grassland which is exactly the consumption of a citizen. I tend to improve 2 to 3 farms with 3+ to have a surplus (or have a city near fish, sheep or other special features). Also this way I can balance between stronger growth and specialists.
Tip: if you turn on the automatic micromanagement you see that the automatism also not waits until all tiles are set (or until you reach the unhappiness threshold which is more likely to happen first)

2: This answer to this question is maybe the same as above. I understand the concepts of a great people farm, you just have to spam farms instead of cottages and the run some specialists. But again: When should i switch workers into specialists? At what city size and how many citizens should be specialists?

This depends on the overall situation..
My basic strategy is not to switch to specialists when the city is young (that's obvious). When I built a forge, switching to the engineer is a good choice since it boosts the hammer production by 2 . When you want to strengthen the research, then the scientist is an option. Also it depends on current civics or wonders. e.g. Angkor Wat gives priest an extra , representation 3 extra beakers to any specialist. Switching to artists is a good option to enhance the cultural production; I apply it in new or captured cities to get the 10 as quick as possible to get the full fat cross.

3: I'm also wondering about religion. I always try to found a religion, and with advanced start as I'm always playing (great addition!) it's quite easy as you can start with the religion tech. However for some strange reason the AI always ends up spreading their religion way faster than I can manage. The rest of the world always ends up hating me this way because they consider me a heathen. What is generally considered the best way to spread your religion? Just spam missionaries in all of your cities? That would really hurt my expansion in other fields.

First prerequisite to spread your own religion into other empires is to have open borders. Cities with no religion after a while yet get automatically a religion after a while - with open borders also one of your opponents. Normally I am too impatient. To get most of the advantages of an advanced religion civic you need to spread your state religion with missionaries preferably in all of your cities, particilarly if you produced a Great Prophet and built a shrine, which results in one extra gold per city with the religion and I think an ever higher likelihood of spread. Besides take it as normal that opponents with different religions turn up their nose. You'll overcome with it for good when you get Free Religion as a civic.

[Dubai Vol]

Welcome to the forums AnotherGuy

Like you, I started out running cottages and loved them. Then I came on here and learned a bit and have tried the specialist thing. Also great. The basic strategy as I understand it

Farm all the tiles you can, and grow your cities as fast as possible until you get to your "hapy cap" or your "healthy cap" when your next citizen will be unhappy or your unhealthiness starts to go up (I try to keep a healthiness surplus always so as not to waste food) then it's time to employ specialists. Thyat can start as early as size 5 cities; no need to wait until every tile is being worked. now you have specialists, they are not only cranking out goodies but also Great People Points (GPP.) Choose a philosophical leader and get double GPP! switch to the Pacifism civic ASAP and add another +100% bonus. Also get to the Representation civic soonest, as this makes every specialist generate +3 Keep raising your happy and healthy caps with resources and buildings, and let your pop grow but keep your specialists working. Certain wonders help too, as above.

As for religion, here's a trick I just found: Go ahead and found a religion,and spam it everywhere. Shoot for a Great Prophet to build your shrine and bring in bucks. But here's the trick: you don't need to keep the religion you founded as your state religion! If all your neighbors are Buddhists, become a Buddhist, and they will love you. Keep spamming "your" religion for profit, but make the most popular religion your state religion.

[AnotherGuy]

Thanks for the warm welcome

Great suggestions! I have already made my first great people farm now and it seems to spit out great people.

About conquering the holy city: I tried to do that but the whole world seems to have turned Christian and everyone hated me. I declared war on Louis XIV since he had the Christian holy city and was leading in points but my 5 nearest neighbours decided to join him. My praetorians couldn't do much to his cities anyway as I had waited for too long. I reloaded after that.

Anyway, I never seem to get any quests. I think I have only had like 2 quests in 5 games. How can I increase the frequency of quests?