Specialist Economy Question

[Xanxir]

OK, since I've been reading this forum, I've been experimenting with Specialist Economies more and more. I think I've got the science down and financial aspects of this down... Settling my super science city or my financial center in a good flat location and farming the area heavily, I've been able to generate a good load of beakers and money once I switch over to Caste System.

My question is how do you create a good production city with the Specialist Economy. I've been able to to run, it seems, at most 3 engineer specialists in the cities that I've set as production cities. I can get good production from these cities, but with the way that I've developed the land around it, it really looks (to me anyhow) more like a city from a cottage economy.

For those who run Specialist Economies here, what are the characteristics of your production cities? Are you running a mixture of specialists in them? What kind of tiles are you looking for when founding a production city?

 

[Chuey68]

I dump the great prohpets I dont need into production cities for the extra hammers.

 

[JrK]

Specialist economy doesn't mean you should do everything with specialists.

How do you build a regular prod city? Why would it be anything different with SpecEc?

 

[Betafor]

Production cities for a cottage econ should be pretty much the same as a specialists econ.

DON'T use engineer/preist specialists to get your hammers! Horribly inefficiant due to the fact that engineer specailsits are MUCH harder to get. You get a better hammer deal by whipping for your food anyway. If you have an excess food square, you're better off running a scientist for suplementary beakers, but production should come from regular production squares.

 

[shivute]

Build angkor watt and use priests. Working mines is still a better option though for hammers.

 

[gdgrimm]

A production specialized city is a production specialized city, period.

Type of economy makes no difference.

 

[Innawerkz]

I dump the great prohpets I dont need into production cities for the extra hammers.

Wouldn't using them in your Gold city be of more benefit? Especially considering Banks & Wall Street multipliers.

I'm still learning the SE fully, so it is a genuine question and not a challenge.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

For any Economy you have five types of cities, Slider is at high Culture

1. Gold Cities: has gold buildings
2. Science Cities: has Science buildings
3. Wall Street City: (hopefully with Shrine) after Shrine, all Prophets and Merchants Settled here
4. Super Science City: after Academy, Scientists settled here
5. Production City, Runs No specialists, works Mines+Lumbermills, has production buildings

A high Specialist Economy runs the sliders at high Culture and
#1+3 run Merchants
#2+4 run Scientists
[Commerce is nearly useless for a high Specialist, it is all about Food, Happiness and Health, Caste System, Representation near Mandatory, Nationalism best Law, Pacifism best Religion, Mercantilism and Environmentalism best Economy]

A standard Specialist Economy runs the sliders at high Gold and
#1+3 work Cottages
#2+4 run Scientists
[Bureacracy is Really good, if your Capital is a Gold City, Free Speech is also good, once you have Multuple Gold Cities...State Property is Best Econ, as this is often based on a few Gold Cities, a Few Science Cities, and many production cities, otherwise Representation, Mercantilism, any Religion, any Labor technique]

in A Cottage Economy, the slider is run at high Science
#1 consists almost only of Holy cities
#1-4 work Cottages
[US, is best allowing you to phase out #5 cities altogether, FS is mandatory, Free Market or State Property is best FM for a well developed nation, State Property with one thaat has a lot of 'new' cities that are best turned to #5s. Emancipation is Mandatory, any Religion except Pacifism]

[Also in a Cottage Economy, you Might want to build multiple Academies in some of the really big cities, instead of putting all of them into the science city]


# 5 never changes [what might change is how Many #5s you are running]

 

[Xanxir]

Thanks, Krikkitone. Given all of the reading I've done on SE's so far. This summary best explained how they work to me.

 

[acidsatyr]

the thing is, it is more likely that you will have many cities which are not specialized in none of the above, i.e. you will have average science and production output, and only few specialized cities. Unless making an academy early in your science city, it is questionable weather you should settle any of your GP as super specialists (like GM and GS), and rather use them for immediate tech or money rushing (or keep them for GA).
Some civics you should run for greatest effect no matter the economy you have, for example Mercantilism is almost always the best economy civic for large empires, far better than FM and SP. SP is handy in some cases but it is given more credit than it deserves. One definite civic for specialist based economy is Caste System. The problem is you need to switch to Slavery often to whip buildings, and this makes Spiritual civs, imo the best candidates for this kind of economy. Representation is a must as well.
All in all, if you concentrate on specialist economy you can get same and even better effects than running cottage based economy (each specialist can outperform single cottage under representation). The downside is that this requires more planning and most people find it easier to just plant cottages everywhere. High population means greater score as well.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

well All cities should have Some production (unless you are running slavery or Cottage spam US) for their own buildings
#5 Cities are there to provide Imperial production, ie Troops and possibly Wonders.
And even a #5 city will have some Commerce due to specials, trade routes

the Per City Benefit of
Free Market (trade route) is proportional to population+buildings
State Property (maintenance) is proportional to population+size of empire NOT buildings
Mercantilism (Specialist) is proportional to buildings NOT population or size of empire

Although the Cost of Mercantilism (foreign routes) is proportional to how much is NOT your empire... and is Friendly

 

[acidsatyr]

The point of mercantilism are closed trade routes, so your (smaller) opponent(s) can't benefit from your large empire and cities. And with representation, you almost always ofset researchwise the gpt you "lost" when you decline foreign trade routes. Frankly by far my favorite civic mid-late game.

 

[pixiejmcc]

Quick SE question. Presumably, if you are trying, or (more likely in my case), managing for whatever reason to run 100% science, then your gold and Wall street citys (new one to me, presumably just a super gold city) will simply be farmed up, because they will have gold multipliers and therefore extra commerce that would go towards science would be a waste.

In which case you would have A LOT of extra gold. Fantasy situation probably. I am also working on my SE.

Actually reading further through yout post, Krikkitone, it appears I have a lot more to learn about SE.