Best way to secure a specific Great Person?

[kamex]

Let's saying I'm playing England and I really want Mary Leakey, what's the best way to go about it?

I'm thinking if I spam GS points, I may get the one before and miss the one I want. Is patronage the best way, as it seems very expensive without gaint gold or faith outputs?

 

[Sagax]

Have a gold/faith reserve to snipe the GP you want once (s)he shows up. With enough funds you can acquire at least three GPs of the same kind in a row.

 

[Magil]

The best way is to generate lots of Great People points, then look at the amount your opponents are generating. If you think they're generating enough to compete with you, pass on Great People until the one you want pops up. If they're not generating much in the way of GPP this may just cause you to miss out though, so make sure to take them if you're generating 3-4x more GPP than your opponents (as is often the case for me in the late game). And of course keeping lots of gold/faith on hand for patronage will assist as well.

 

[kamex]

Thanks. I forgot about having the option to pass. Do you know if the AI patronage swipes? I doubt it ever passes.

 

[Animist7]

I can concur with Lord Olleus. I was slightly ahead on a couple of other civs (not Arabia, so their leader bonus didn't apply) in getting the last great prophet, feeling pretty confident and suddenly it was taken. I haven't noticed this behaviour with the other great people so I can't say for sure whether the AI swipes them too.

 

[agonistes]

I am not 100% on this, but I think that the cost of patronage goes down the closer you get to earning the GP with gpp. Pretty sure I saw the faith cost drop from like 12k to about 1.5k as my faith bank increased. So it might be wise to blend patronage with gpp's.

I was stocking up on faith for GPs, got suckered into buying an engineer to rush some wonders, then missed out on the next merchant... the toy maker. Boy was I pissed. And after him? The +1 economic policy one. Which I could have purchased, because my faith put me ahead of Rome's gpp by 1 turn, but I forgot to do it, and missed out.

 

[Magil]

It might be patronage, but they could also be using district projects. I know on my first emperor game I had to use Holy Site Prayers a time or two to secure a religion.

District projects are also a great way to boost your progress towards a particular Great Person, by the way.

 

[Amrunril]

District projects are also a great way to boost your progress towards a particular Great Person, by the way.

Yes, district projects are an important tool for this. They allow you to treat GP races the same way as world congress projects in Civ V.

 

[smartcanuck1988]

I am not 100% on this, but I think that the cost of patronage goes down the closer you get to earning the GP with gpp. Pretty sure I saw the faith cost drop from like 12k to about 1.5k as my faith bank increased. So it might be wise to blend patronage with gpp's.

I was stocking up on faith for GPs, got suckered into buying an engineer to rush some wonders, then missed out on the next merchant... the toy maker. Boy was I pissed. And after him? The +1 economic policy one. Which I could have purchased, because my faith put me ahead of Rome's gpp by 1 turn, but I forgot to do it, and missed out.

Yeah they do drop. I forgot exactly the conversion rate of GPP-to-Faith but it is simply multiplied by how many GPP left to obtain that great person. I think it says so when you mouse over the buy with faith option.

 

[teakbois]

I'm pretty sure the AI uses patronage. i know Ive had engineers and merchants i wanted taken when no AI was anywhere near the total needed a few turns prior.

I really like the great person system. I would love to see them add a huge amount of them (along with even more city state options) to add variety each game.