When do i start putting citizens in my specialist slots? Im playing BNW and i dont know when to use my specialist slots. I feel like if i use them im denying food to my cities. Im playing on immortal and i notice if i use my specialist then my cities will have a much lower pop than the other civs cities(more than usual). Also for wide vs tall how do i distribute my population into specialist?
When to use specialists
- Thread starter Dibbick
- Start date
I usually find 10 citizens to be a good point to shift to specialists, but the goal is to make that shift while still growing swiftly (continuing 15-20+ food surplus is usually my goal). Send a food caravan to your capital and work science specialist slots as early as possible, regardless of your chosen VC. Next priority (in culture and non-culture games) is working artist and writer slots -- again a food caravan works wonders. Of course, old fashioned food solutions also work (mercantile friends send 2 food to the capital, allowing you to work one specialist slot per friend).
Jon the Bastard
Warlord
I almost never play a wide empire, so I'm speaking from the perspective of someone who plays tall 95% of the time.
Because you're asking this question, I'm assuming that you are going for a cultural or science victory. If you aren't going for those victory types, specialist slots aren't as important and you should fill them when/if you have the extra citizens. I mean, for domination/conquest victories, having specialists in science slots is a good idea and you should definitely do it; but, you probably won't have much time to focus on growing your cities so it becomes a little more difficult with those victory types.
Generally, you want to make sure that your city is working every tile worth working before you start aggressively pursuing slot specialists. Split focus between food and production early on, with maybe a little more attention being paid to growth. Switch to a production focus only when you need to.
It is important to plan your cities out before hand. Get an image in your head of the 3-tile radius a city can work and plan ahead. Know what tiles you simply must work to maximize the cities intended focus.
For a tradition player that runs tall empires, the focus in on cities with high populations. This means you'll be settling cities in areas with a high food potential. Again, early on the focus should be split between food and production, so all your citizens will be working tiles. Somewhere around the Renaissance Era is when you should be able to start funneling citizens into specialist slots while still getting a decent amount of growth.
Plan your techs accordingly so that you are getting boosts to growth when you need the extra citizens. These boosts come from buildings like Granaries, Aqueducts and Hospitals and technologies like Civil Service (Civil Service is an incredibly important tech for anyone looking to put specialists to good use) and Fertilizer. From the Renaissance Era on you should be able to add specialists at a reasonable pace for the rest of the game. By the Modern Era, your cities should be at their full potential... for some people this even happens in the Atomic Era. It just depends.
Food focus is absolutely essential if you want to use a good number of specialists. City-states and trade routes can help as well. Never forget those.
phillipwyllie
Wannabe Deity
I work specialists asap as they generate great people, making sure I have enough population to support this. Early game I send all trade route internally, unless I'm in negative gpt so then 1 route will be used to generate some ca$h. If you unlock the Secularism social policy from the Rationalism tree then specialists are even more important.
2 early wonders to consider are Petra(currency) and Colossus(iron working) as they give an extra trade route each and give a caravan/cargo ship for free. This will give you an excellent start if you manage to get both.
2 early wonders to consider are Petra(currency) and Colossus(iron working) as they give an extra trade route each and give a caravan/cargo ship for free. This will give you an excellent start if you manage to get both.
reddishrecue
Some dude on civfans
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2009
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- 6,213
To put the specialists to work all you have to do is click on the building that makes that specialist (I.e university for a scientist). You should be having scientists all the time in most cities if possible.
I have to ask, what is the reason for generating Great Artist's in games when you're not going for a culture victory? I can understand Writers, burning them for a big culture boost is nice, but the bonuses Artists provide don't seem that useful for other victory conditions...
Generating culture is useful in any game, whether you do it by creating a Great Work of Art or by burning the GA for a Golden Age (+20% culture, in addition to the production and gold boosts). Frankly, the best time to burn a Great Writer is during a Golden Age.
Breaking the question down:
When to fill science slots: ALWAYS; it's that important.
When to fill guild slots: This is normally going to be always as well; since you shouldn't have built the guild in the first place if you weren't going to fill it.
When to fill engineer slots: Only if there's no tile that's better to work.
When to fill merchant slots: Unless playing Venice, this is often NEVER or at the very least not until there's no risk of accidentally spawning a Great Merchant.
When to fill science slots: ALWAYS; it's that important.
When to fill guild slots: This is normally going to be always as well; since you shouldn't have built the guild in the first place if you weren't going to fill it.
When to fill engineer slots: Only if there's no tile that's better to work.
When to fill merchant slots: Unless playing Venice, this is often NEVER or at the very least not until there's no risk of accidentally spawning a Great Merchant.
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