Best Places to settle Great Prophet? Great Engineer? People in general

[GKShaman]

Great Prophet - So far Ive found a tile of wheat next to a river. So I settled one there to get a tile earning 4 food and 6 faith. Sweet stuff.

Great Engineer - Otherwise I settle engineers on Hills to get 6 production.

Great Scientist - I usually settle on a bad tile like desert since I usually use the grassland tile. Now Im thinking plains might be a good tile.

Thoughts people?

 

[Viregel]

Generally speaking, don't create Great Tile improvements. You're far better off expending them as it takes ages for them to make up for it, so it's not worth it once you're around the Renaissance. However, if you happen to get these early game, then Great Tile improvements are pretty useful. I don't know where the best places are, but they connect Stratigic Resources (so Manufactory + Iron = something like 11 , I can't be bothered to check) so you might want to take that into consideration as well.

 

[Browd]

I will tend to settle all great persons on food-self-sustaining tiles where the improvement loss is minimized. That means non-riverside wheat and grasslands tiles (loss of farm is only 1 food until Fertilizer) are preferable over similar riverside tiles (which lose 2 food from inability to farm from Civil Service onward). Cows are great, as long as I've already built a stable (or have another tile that has or can build a pasture). Naked plains tiles are, at best, fourth or fifth best choice (horses on plains tiles are better, IMO, again assuming a stable has been or can still be built).

I don't usually settle engineers (save for key wonder, usually), but when I settle engineers I never settle them on hills. Not only is a hill tile not self-sustaining, but I don't want to lose the eventual benefits of mining that hill. Better to mine the hill and settle the engineer on a food-giving flat tile.

 

[PrimoXanthous]

Better to mine the hill and settle the engineer on a food-giving flat tile.

settle all great persons on grassland with no access to fresh water. I think thats the best option especially if all your tiles are flat terrain. Besides default Citizen Management tend to work on tiles which produce food.

 

[Silverman6083]

Prophets: Generally for me Grasslands/Plains
Engineers: I like iron/resource hills because even though the tile won't fund itself food-wise I would've worked it anyways and that's like 11-12 production
Scientists: Grasslands/Plains
Merchants: I've never settled one always go with the Mission

 

[BlackWizard]

settle all great persons on grassland with no access to fresh water. I think thats the best option especially if all your tiles are flat terrain. Besides default Citizen Management tend to work on tiles which produce food.

If you settle Great Person you should manually lock that tile. Default focus might skip that tile...

 

[Zaimejs]

Last game I kept getting engineers at inopportune times, so I ended up just settling them. It seems like they should be worth more production. They are barely as good as a decent mine tile after chemistry. Meh.

 

[Tabarnak]

If you do, try to settle on a non riversided forest tile. The gp ''chops'' the forest for you and let you gain some hammers. But later in the game it's not really relevant.

With Babs it's pretty good when you wanna rush the GL or anything else because it comes very early.

 

[King Jason]

Generally speaking, don't create Great Tile improvements.

I would say this applies to all of them except an early scientist, and then of course prophets - which I think are far better served as faith generators than anything else. Plus, if you happen to be going Piety (not popular, I know), Holy sites could yield up to 3 gold and 3 culture, making it a powerhouse of an improvement.

 

[GhostSalsa]

I agree with the others stay off of rivers. There's no gold in rivers so your GP tile gets nothing out of being on them - whereas a normal farm would get the crucial mid-game food boost from Civil Service.

I also agree only plant Scientists or prophets. Manufactories are a rip-off. A GE can get you a game-changing wonder - but when you plant it you get less yield than the Ironworks national wonder plus have to devote a citizen? Totally busted. My point here is manage your specialists, control what great person is coming next and don't pop GEs when you aren't ready for them.

Cows are ok for GS if they are the only pasture tile in city range, since stables wouldn't have been worthwhile anyway and fertilizer takes a while to matter.

 

[UWHabs]

An early scientist is a must for settling. Bulbing early to mid game might be ~350 beakers, but settling you get 8, plus a bonus for national college (and later universities and others). You get a small loss early, but it will pay itself off in maybe 40 turns.

Settle a GE only if you are far ahead in tech that you are really in no danger of losing out any wonder. If you're a bit behind, then definitely save it for a wonder.

 

[Magma_Dragoon]

Sheep are guaranteed not to be antiquity sites

 

[Viregel]

I would say this applies to all of them except an early scientist, and then of course prophets - which I think are far better served as faith generators than anything else. Plus, if you happen to be going Piety (not popular, I know), Holy sites could yield up to 3 gold and 3 culture, making it a powerhouse of an improvement.

I'd agree with early Great Scientist, but you're only realistically going to get that with Babylon. I've yet to try Holy Sites with Piety, as the prophets are generally better used to spread religion when you go Piety, but if you do happen to have a fairly strong base of followers, this seems like a good strategy.

 

[reddishrecue]

All great people are settled better in grassland, IMO. However, if there is enough food for a city to grow, then I would reconcider and place great people in other tiles that have 1 food (i.e tundra or plains) preferably on non-hill land.

 

[PrimoXanthous]

If you settle Great Person you should manually lock that tile. Default focus might skip that tile...

that's why build a Manufactury on grassland. Either Unhappy or Happy your empire is, default City Management will work for it. Especially on the early Eras.

 

[cinattra]

I sometimes plant my engineers in cities that have high population potential and low beginning production potential such as a jungle city or a city in a flood plain.

 

[Syailendra]

important! If you have, try to put GP improvements on tiles that are shared between 2 or more cities. It usually saves me a lot of beakers when i have to prod focus a key wonder.

 

[PrimoXanthous]

important! If you have, try to put GP improvements on tiles that are shared between 2 or more cities. It usually saves me a lot of beakers when i have to prod focus a key wonder.

I Always do this. capital and the coastal 2nd City. For Petra & Colossus

 

[King Jason]

I'd agree with early Great Scientist, but you're only realistically going to get that with Babylon. I've yet to try Holy Sites with Piety, as the prophets are generally better used to spread religion when you go Piety, but if you do happen to have a fairly strong base of followers, this seems like a good strategy.

I'd say that depends on what you're doing with religion - in terms of the raw benefits of from founder beliefs of spreading the faith, I think the fully enhanced holy site eclipses religion spread.

You have one belief that nets you 2 gold per city with your religion. The Holy Site grants 3 gold that can further be enhanced by modifiers within a city (and Piety adds another 25% with temples). So at their base, 2 prophets are worth 3 cities of gold. 3 cities that someone can't come along with their own prophets, missionaries, or inquisitors and burn away your well spent faith.

Then there's 1 culture per 5 followers. This faces a similar issue; due to city-pop sizes, as well as the likely-hood that multiple religions will be in one city, thus hogging followers - you'd probably be averaging about 2-3 culture per city. You're likely get a better value here than for gold since it's follower based, but again - this is all taking effort on your part. The holy site net's 3 culture. An astonishing 5 if you're able to pass the WC resolution. Again, this culture flow that can't be disrupted by your enemies faith-machine. Further, it too can be enhanced by modifiers and even converted to tourism via hotel etc.

As for Faith? 6 faith is equal to 3 cities with Pilgrimage. Plus, after your 4th or 5th Holy Site you should be looking at anywhere from 75-100 faith per turn even with a small empire; more than enough to spam missionaries if you're concerned with spreading the faith. This is assuming you also have a faith generating building. I almost always get pagodas, if I am able.

To cap it all off? This tile improvement has all THREE of the effects of those founder beliefs rolled into one spot that can't be targeted by your opponent's own religious agenda.

 

[joshua43214]

Great Prophet - So far Ive found a tile of wheat next to a river. So I settled one there to get a tile earning 4 food and 6 faith. Sweet stuff.

Great Engineer - Otherwise I settle engineers on Hills to get 6 production.

Great Scientist - I usually settle on a bad tile like desert since I usually use the grassland tile. Now Im thinking plains might be a good tile.

Thoughts people?

I think your priorities are backwards.
Always settle your first 2 or so GS's on a good food tile, I like cows the best, avoid settling them on riversides.

Prophets should be settled on a 2 food tile when possible, but sheep or some other 1 food tile is fine.

Religion does not win the game, but growth and science does.

You should never have a GE to settle, ever. If you are popping GE's unintentionally then you are losing GS's and not micro-managing your citizens properly. Even if I had a flat start in the middle of the jungle I would not settle a GE