The Great Person Farm

[yanner39]

I'm starting to have a very good grasp on city specialization (you realize how huge this concept is when you dominate at Noble level ). I am sorely lacking when it comes to a Great Person Farm. I could not locate a specific thread that deals with this.

As I understand it, if I can settle a city near 3 food resources or 2 food resources and farm a couple more, I could run specialists, which will then generate GPPs.

My main question is how I set it up (assuming the Caste System isn't available yet)? This is what I would do:

1. Improve my food resources and work them.

2. If needed, farm a few tiles.

3. Research the necessary techs to unlock specialists spots.

Here is where I am unclear. Say I research metal castings, do I work my specialist engineer right away? Same goes with the other techs.

When do I substitute working a tile for a specialist? Does it depend on the yield of the tile vs. what the specialist will yield, or am I not concern because the end goal is to generate GPP to generate GPs anyways?

Also, Wonders are great in GP Farms. How to I build wonders if I am busy working food resources instead of mines?

Any tips would be great.

 

[Iranon]

I generally don't go overboard with specialists in my GPP farm. I will want to build the Great Library and the National Epic there and I also like to support the GPP generation by concentrating my wonders there. Just whipping into all of that is a little slow so I want at least some production there.

Regular grassland farms supporting specialists won't make that much of a difference... we're looking at 3 citizens per specialist. 4 scientists (2 from Library, 2 from the Great Library) and 1 engineer are enough.

 

[Lansky]

I tend to wait until late game to set up the mysterious super GP farm with a ton of specialists and a few high food tiles. Earlier in the game I tend to build TGL in a high production city (normally my capital) along with the NE and run 2 library scientists. This tends to be plenty of GS to fuel early game research by either bulbing or settling. "Sacraficing" 2 population in the capital to work scientists is normally not a big deal as with Library/Uni/Oxford/Academy and the spare monostary the scientists still give solid research.

 

[Rameau's Nephew]

I tend to wait until late game to set up the mysterious super GP farm with a ton of specialists and a few high food tiles. Earlier in the game I tend to build TGL in a high production city (normally my capital) along with the NE and run 2 library scientists. This tends to be plenty of GS to fuel early game research by either bulbing or settling. "Sacraficing" 2 population in the capital to work scientists is normally not a big deal as with Library/Uni/Oxford/Academy and the spare monostary the scientists still give solid research.

That's usually the way I handle things, too. Unless the map gives me a great city site for a pre-Civil-Service GP farm (that wouldn't also be a great production city, which is a higher priority), I usually wait until later.

In the rare event that I settle a great GP city early, it's not a wonder-building city. As I hinted above, if it had enough production to be a serious wonder producer, I'd be using it for military needs, not GP. The citizens are working every 3+ food tile, then specialists (with one mine available for priority builds from time to time). Use the whip to build your granary, library, courthouse, temple, marketplace, and other early specialist-enabling builidings.

 

[BufordTJustice]

In order to benefit from GPs early, I try to look for a location where I can chop the ideal wonders, such as GL. But the combination of 2 or more food ressources, some hammers and forest to chop does not occur very often on the common map types...

 

[stuttrboy]

I will often switch a high food capital to the GPP farm and build the Palace at a high commerce city around the time I get civil service, before that the capital tends to be my GPP farm.

 

[Yared]

I'm starting to have a very good grasp on city specialization (you realize how huge this concept is when you dominate at Noble level ). I am sorely lacking when it comes to a Great Person Farm. I could not locate a specific thread that deals with this.

As I understand it, if I can settle a city near 3 food resources or 2 food resources and farm a couple more, I could run specialists, which will then generate GPPs.

My main question is how I set it up (assuming the Caste System isn't available yet)? This is what I would do:

1. Improve my food resources and work them.

2. If needed, farm a few tiles.

3. Research the necessary techs to unlock specialists spots.

Here is where I am unclear. Say I research metal castings, do I work my specialist engineer right away? Same goes with the other techs.

When do I substitute working a tile for a specialist? Does it depend on the yield of the tile vs. what the specialist will yield, or am I not concern because the end goal is to generate GPP to generate GPs anyways?

Also, Wonders are great in GP Farms. How to I build wonders if I am busy working food resources instead of mines?

Any tips would be great.

Yes, I realise I'm running on deficit in terms of food. It's cuz I've reached my health cap, and that citizen is supposed to be something else.

No, I did not make this in WB.

As you can see, this is pre-biology and I have settled almost all my GSlural in that one city. There's no real need for wonders except for the National wonder.

add on

The only thing worth notin is that I have 3 food resources and the rest of the improvements are linked-farms.

Tips? Well, don't waste your National Epic and you don't need to have some sophisticated, intellectual to run one. I did fine with Shaka.

 

[Silu]

1500AD, 6 settled scientists and no Oxford? That's a huge waste tbh

 

[Yared]

1500AD, 6 settled scientists and no Oxford? That's a huge waste tbh

I'm three turns from finishing my university Not to mention that my production sux in that city.

How I got it up to 13 is beyond me

 

[Silu]

I'm three turns from finishing my university Not to mention that my production sux in that city.

How I got it up to 13 is beyond me

...due to those aforementioned settled scientists, most likely. There should be workshops on most of those flatland tiles until Oxford is completed. I usually avoid settling scientists in a city with bad production for this very reason

 

[Yared]

...due to those aforementioned settled scientists, most likely. There should be workshops on most of those flatland tiles until Oxford is completed. I usually avoid settling scientists in a city with bad production for this very reason

Thanks for the advice.

 

[JackOfClubs]

First you have to decide what type of GP "Farm" you want. Engineers and Prophets involve different strategies (mostly based on production and wonders) than Scientists, Artists and Merchants. I am less familiar with the former so I will focus on the latter, which I think is more typical, as well.

As I understand it, if I can settle a city near 3 food resources or 2 food resources and farm a couple more, I could run specialists, which will then generate GPPs. [...]
1. Improve my food resources and work them.

Settle near as much food as possible. Generally you want to maximize the number of flat grass tiles. 2-3 food resources are good, but they can be wasted if there are lots of plains, hills or other low-food tiles.

Also, not all food resources are equal. Pigs, Corn, Wheat and Banana are the best (if they are on grasslands). Sheep are equal to corn and wheat but seem to prefer hills and plains, so are often sub-optimal. Deer can also be good but is usually on or surrouned by tundra. Rice, Cow and Sugar are in a lower category. Spices and Wine are basically equivalent to grassland farms, though they give other non-food benefits.

Seafood resources can be good but you usually have to include lots of coastal tiles, which lowers the overal value of the site. Fish are equal to Pigs; Clams and Crabs are equal to Corn. Whales are only found in ocean tiles which should be avoided if at all possible. They are equal to grass farms, but with added commerce.

Floodplains are great for farms but they add 0.4 . This only comes into play if you go over your health cap, but I usually count them as worth 3.6 food.

2. If needed, farm a few tiles.

No "If" about it: eventually you will farm all grassland tiles. Early on you may want to create some workshops for production if you are still in the building phase, but it is usually best to do this on your stray plains tiles. They have better production anyway.

It is sometimes a good idea to leave pairs of Plains Forests for health boosters, at least in the early game. I frequently leave these until the end of the game because I inevitably run out of health resources, but that is a judment call for each specific game.

3. Research the necessary techs to unlock specialists spots.

This is more the case with the GE and GP type of farm. For the most part Code of Laws (to run Caste System) is all you will really need in terms of technology. Early on Writing is important but mainly to build libraries to help you tech to CoL.

Here is where I am unclear. Say I research metal castings, do I work my specialist engineer right away? [...] When do I substitute working a tile for a specialist? Does it depend on the yield of the tile vs. what the specialist will yield, or am I not concern because the end goal is to generate GPP to generate GPs anyways?

The general strategy is to let the Happiness Surplus = Food Surplus. Thus if you have 8 and 4 you should move your people around so that you have a food surplus of 4. When you get up to 7 , you should assign specialists so that your food surplus drops to 1. With careful micro-managment it is possible to improve on this slightly, but as a rule of thumb, this method works pretty well.

Also, Wonders are great in GP Farms. How to I build wonders if I am busy working food resources instead of mines?

Generally I avoid wonders in GP Farms for precisely this reason and also because you can't turn off the wonder-based GPP if you want to focus on a specific typ.. Also, only build the buildings you absolutely need. Granary is an absoute must, and is the only required building. National Epic is good if you don't mind the GA pollution, but you need to think carefully about the risks.

 

[Grashopa]

Heres my GP farm from my last game and the capital where I settled all the scientists. The GP farm could run 5 scientists pre CS and 7 after and I was able to build the Great Library here. Those 9 settled GSs are providing about 260? of my 960 beakers.

Its well worth running caste and pacifism to get that. Pre guilds the workshops were only 2 hammers 1 food, but that was enough production for my other cities without slavery.

The happy cap is important - I needed HR since this city could run 5 scientists off of working 3 food tiles. So needed to get to a pop of 8. Farm everything while you grow to your cap then you can workshop the farms you don't need so that you can get production when you need it. Your happy cap will stop you from using 3 food farms to add specialists since thats an extra 3 pop per scientist as I think someone said.

And if you have the pyramids and early Rep? You definitely want to be running scientists everywhere.

Spoiler :

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

Here is where I am unclear. Say I research metal castings, do I work my specialist engineer right away? Same goes with the other techs.

Simple rule of thumb - the purpose of your GP farm is to make the next Great Person appear as quickly as possible.

What this usually means is that the city runs in phases: each time you spawn a GP there, you stop to consider whether the next step is your next GP, or if there is additional development (growth, infrastructure) that needs to happen first.

Contrived example: let's suppose you have slots for four specialists, and the next GP is due in 20 turns. You have the option of adding a forge to the mix - that will let you run 5 specialists, so the next GP would be due in 16 turns after the forge is done. So if you can create the forge and recover the population you need in 4 turns or fewer, you do it now. Otherwise, you slow invest in the forge, and reassess after the next GP.

Because the cost of GP grows, and because occasionally some other city will spawn one for you, gaps appear in the pacing that give you opportunities to develop the city.

When do I substitute working a tile for a specialist? Does it depend on the yield of the tile vs. what the specialist will yield, or am I not concern because the end goal is to generate GPP to generate GPs anyways?

You always want to be working your best tiles. If you have a lot of tiles that distract you from running specialists, then maybe this isn't the best location for a GP Farm.

Also, Wonders are great in GP Farms. How to I build wonders if I am busy working food resources instead of mines?

My answer to that is that GP Farms are about farming GP - generating great people with food rather than with hammers. Yes, you'd like to have the right wonders in the GP Farm, but unless the game is already in the bag, scoring a wonder requires a production urgency that's not compatible with specialists.

Which doesn't mean that it's a bad strategy, only that it's not this strategy. Horses for courses.

That said... Engineers and Prophets (especially when enhanced by Angkor Wat) produce hammers and GP points, giving you some production capability while you work your primary job.

Also, settled Scientists/Engineers/Prophets provide hammers as well - so if your "GP Farm" also happens to be the location where you settle everybody, you can get quite a bit of production.

And there's the option of using an Engineer to rush the wonder - a very common plan is to build the Pyramids in the Capital, and invest the Engineer in rushing the Great Library at the GP farm.