What great people do you feel are weak and tend to pass on?
- Thread starter Artifex1
- Start date
Admirals, purely because I rarely build harbours or even near-coastal cities before the modern era. Also the fact that I only ever see 1-2 admirals claimed in a whole game by the AI, I have no idea if there are even any good ones. All I see are the ancient, standard ones.
Writers soon enough. With an amphitheater in every city, and almost every single wonder that gives writing slots, I 100% am always ending up passing on dozens of these over the course of the late game, with nowhere to put them.
Even my art museums will get full soon enough. So I never bother 'going for' any cultural people.
Scientists, merchants and industrialists are the only ones I go for. And even then, only the ones that add to space projects, add to wonder construction, or give me new amenities, or +housing and +amenity in that city.
I quite like the occasional great general. By mid game I have a fair few encampments and get a lot of GG points. Some of them are helpful if you're turtling and have neglected an army. The one that gives a free bombardier unit, which you can get really early. I remember getting that the first time in like 500bc. I could 2 shot cities with walls and take them with a scout. Was too powerful. Or ones that make a unit an army.
So frankly I find myself passing on most great people
Writers soon enough. With an amphitheater in every city, and almost every single wonder that gives writing slots, I 100% am always ending up passing on dozens of these over the course of the late game, with nowhere to put them.
Even my art museums will get full soon enough. So I never bother 'going for' any cultural people.
Scientists, merchants and industrialists are the only ones I go for. And even then, only the ones that add to space projects, add to wonder construction, or give me new amenities, or +housing and +amenity in that city.
I quite like the occasional great general. By mid game I have a fair few encampments and get a lot of GG points. Some of them are helpful if you're turtling and have neglected an army. The one that gives a free bombardier unit, which you can get really early. I remember getting that the first time in like 500bc. I could 2 shot cities with walls and take them with a scout. Was too powerful. Or ones that make a unit an army.
So frankly I find myself passing on most great people
So true. They need to make more slots for great works (especially of writing) available, and they need to make the culture game harder and more proactive. Culture victory was my favorite in BNW, but I find myself frequently disabling it in Civ6 because it's too easy to win accidentally.
Mr. Shadows
Nomad of the time streams
It's extremely disheartening when you generate a lot of great people that you can't use. If you have the ability to generate great writers, artists and musicians there should be a way to use them. That means more slots or an alternative bonus. I had a game (granted only King) where I had a dozen cities, all with fully loaded Theater Districts and STILL had a good half a dozen of them with no where to put them. It's particularly bad for great writers. Personally I'd rather see the writers put to good use (either in proper slots or by way of a secondary ability) than anything, but DON'T just let them keep uselessly stacking up that way. Does anyone have any good numbers on how many points it takes to purchase the next great person, and what effect passing on one has? I don't understand exactly how that works yet.
CaiusDrewart
King
Then they could put Vergil and Dante back in the game! What horrible omissions
Anyway, as to OP's question, I almost never pass on great people because the AI is really, really slow to generate them (the only real exception being Peter on high difficulty levels, who churns through writers/artists/musicians like crazy). So it's very often faster just to take the useless great person and start generating points for the next one right away. Even though there are some extremely bad great people (like the merchant that gives you +1 diplomatic visibility with all nations), any great person can be sold for a LOT of money. So it's best to do that.
I'd take that great engineer anyway, just to mess up any A.I. going for a science victory. There's not a lot of great engineers after that I believe so there's not much point to passing.
I always take the great person if the A.I. are generating very little or no points for that type because you can't get the next one until someone else takes the one you passed on, which could be a very long time.
I never pass on great writers, because I think (I could be wrong) all great works of writing produce the same amount of culture and tourism. So there's not much point in spending a few great person points to pass, give the A.I. a discount, and then grab the next more expensive one. I don't believe the Great Writers take maintenance, I keep them around just in case I get slots or I disband them for gold if I'm sure I won't get slots for them.
If I knew the Great Person possibilities and timings better I might pass more often if I knew a good one was coming up.
I always take the great person if the A.I. are generating very little or no points for that type because you can't get the next one until someone else takes the one you passed on, which could be a very long time.
I never pass on great writers, because I think (I could be wrong) all great works of writing produce the same amount of culture and tourism. So there's not much point in spending a few great person points to pass, give the A.I. a discount, and then grab the next more expensive one. I don't believe the Great Writers take maintenance, I keep them around just in case I get slots or I disband them for gold if I'm sure I won't get slots for them.
If I knew the Great Person possibilities and timings better I might pass more often if I knew a good one was coming up.
Olleus
Deity
I find that the great engineers that give a boost to wonder production are pretty bad. The boost is just too small to make much of a difference. Writers/Artists/Musicians are all identical (apart from theming bonus) so there's no reason to skip them. Similarly for Generals and Admirals, the real bonus for them is the passive ability.
Now the ones I love the most are those that give a bonus to every building. Science has 3 of those, engineers 1 and a few merchants too I think. Although I love all the merchants, more trade routes, new luxuries, new policy are all brilliant. Free oil is great too.
Now the ones I love the most are those that give a bonus to every building. Science has 3 of those, engineers 1 and a few merchants too I think. Although I love all the merchants, more trade routes, new luxuries, new policy are all brilliant. Free oil is great too.
RawlsRorty
Chieftain
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2016
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- 18
I believe he improves the appeal of every tile in a city, amounting to 2-3 housing depending on how many neighborhoods you plan to build in that city. He can also help you maximize seaside resorts if that's your aim.
RawlsRorty
Chieftain
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2016
- Messages
- 18
I pass on some of the not so great ancient/classical scientists just to make the other civ generating significant scientist points spend them to get +100 faith. That way, I'm more likely to get Galileo and/or Newton at my leisure.
Onii-chan
King
Even if you don't necessarily need a guy, you're still taking him away from the others. So it might be worth taking him anyway
I mostly pass on great engineers and scientists towards the lategame that are unrelated to the space race, since I know that there are plenty of them still to come and I'd rather save my great person points for those instead. If I'm going for a science victory that is. Passing great merchants in the midgame in the hope of getting a better shot at Adam Smith (best great person in the game by far imo) is also a valid strategy. If there's one guy you want to save your gold/faith for to patronage asap at almost any cost, it's him. It's like getting an extra Forbidden City just like that
Passing on great writers/artists/musicians makes no sense though. Why would you ever do that? They all do the same thing, so even if you don't have slots for their works yourself, there is no way passing would ever be a better option. That'll only let another civ get him faster after all. It'll be the same outcome for you, but a buff for someone else if you pass. I guess if you care about theming bonuses for art museum than in theory passing a great artist for that would be logical but that's really far-fetched
I mostly pass on great engineers and scientists towards the lategame that are unrelated to the space race, since I know that there are plenty of them still to come and I'd rather save my great person points for those instead. If I'm going for a science victory that is. Passing great merchants in the midgame in the hope of getting a better shot at Adam Smith (best great person in the game by far imo) is also a valid strategy. If there's one guy you want to save your gold/faith for to patronage asap at almost any cost, it's him. It's like getting an extra Forbidden City just like that
Passing on great writers/artists/musicians makes no sense though. Why would you ever do that? They all do the same thing, so even if you don't have slots for their works yourself, there is no way passing would ever be a better option. That'll only let another civ get him faster after all. It'll be the same outcome for you, but a buff for someone else if you pass. I guess if you care about theming bonuses for art museum than in theory passing a great artist for that would be logical but that's really far-fetched
I'm not sure what the point of passing Great Writers / Artists /Musicans are because these seem to be so similar.
What I see as possibly worth passing is a badly timed Great Admiral / General (e.g. giving specific era based bonuses that are have become or about to become useless) and things like the exposed Great Scientist gives a tech boost to a tech you already have. (e.g. passing this GS will get you a better GS soon)
What I see as possibly worth passing is a badly timed Great Admiral / General (e.g. giving specific era based bonuses that are have become or about to become useless) and things like the exposed Great Scientist gives a tech boost to a tech you already have. (e.g. passing this GS will get you a better GS soon)
Onii-chan
King
Ah yes this is probably the most obvious reason, somehow slipped my mind
An extra Big Ben, actually. The Forbidden Palace gives you a bonus Wild Card slot; Adam Smith and Big Ben give you bonus Economic slots.
Artists aren't identical because they produce different types of great works, which for reasons that baffle me are important for theming bonuses. Religious art seems to overwhelmingly predominate. (Personally this system makes no sense. I don't know about you, but any art museum I've ever been to has had religious art, landscapes, portraits, and sculptures. Actually, if it were up to me I'd say give each museum four slots and make the bonus involve having one of each. On which note we need more variety in Great Artists.)
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