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

[KmDubya]

For great scientists I usually settle until close to research labs. With a base ten beaker you get +33% university, +17% policy, +50% national college for 20 per turn. After labs you get another 50% for 25 per turn. If going freedom you can get another 4 base which nets you 28/35 per turn. This is better than 2-3000 beaker bulb unless the tech gained will make a big difference such as early artillery or something like that. Once I get close to labs I will save them up for bulbing after my labs are up.

My science wins are not that impressive, standard map, standard speed, emperor level and around 340 turns. Higher level play might do things differently. I probably have 50 turns or so after labs before space launch with seven or so bulbs in there.

Engineers always go for wonders.

Prophets usually spread religion with one and then settle the rest on non river grassland.

 

[GhostSalsa]

Now I'm imagining students at an academy just totally surrounded by cows, dutifully chopping up and eating them as they attend their lectures... got to generate that extra food for the city growth..

 

[Syailendra]

Now I'm imagining students at an academy just totally surrounded by cows, dutifully chopping up and eating them as they attend their lectures... got to generate that extra food for the city growth..

don't bother, they enrolled at national academy of pasturing.

 

[Zaimejs]

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Ag school. Whoo hoo!

 

[FinsT]

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.

Except if you go Freedom and pick that tenet which gives +4 (iirc) to whatever great improvement is generating. Then it gets substantially better. I remember having some hill tile with a manufactory generating more than 12 production (it most likely had some strategic resource in it, connected by manufactory, too). Now that's quite nice, eh.

 

[GhostSalsa]

I remember having some hill tile with a manufactory generating more than 12 production (it most likely had some strategic resource in it, connected by manufactory, too). Now that's quite nice, eh.

That's still only 7 hammers more than a mine on iron, and 7 hammers to city is still less than the Ironworks (multipliers same in either case), so even with Freedom you're still getting less yield than a National Wonder out of planting the GE, still a mind-boggling rip-off.

Not that I mind taking over an AI city that's covered in manufactories and can kick out a ton of units, but I didn't pay for their great people.

 

[GKShaman]

Through Tradition faith buying, and the early GE Wonders - I get too many great engineers than wonders. Ive settled them in grassland but I do like connect with Iron/Horse/Pasture ideas.

In this past game - I did a combination of settling and bulbing Great Scientists - towards the end I just bulbed most if not all great scientists.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Great scientists or Prophets: no freshwater grasslands, bananas can be good too, sometimes
Great Engineer: iron, coal, or uranium tiles, if no Wonders are available or coming soon
Great Merchant: always send to city-states
Great General: use it to grab a resource.

 

[SemperFi2382]

Honestly, I feel it is more situational than if x then y.

In my last game, I used a lot of them on snow tiles. I had a coastal city in a weird spot for critical need of Iron, but was crap in terms of usefulness. By the end of the game, I had a lot of tile improvements, that turned the city into a powerhouse.

If I hadn't needed to put a city there, I typically use them on grassland or to improve a city's particular output.