Golden Age?

[DNK]

So, I never used to think these were worthwhile, but then after hearing it was regularly utilized by some players, I went ahead and gave it a shot in my last game. In the end, though, it only amounted to a maybe 15% increase in commerce at most, and some extra production, for a very limited time. My question is how is that the best use for specialists? Wouldn't it be better to either lightbulb or settle them?

I mean, a great artist is +3gpt, a great priest +5, and a great merchant +6. Put those in your Wall Street city, and it's +9, +15, +18gpt for the rest of the game. Scientists, likewise, are +21bpt in your science city, assuming they don't lightbulb or build an academy.

So, first golden age is at best a lost +24gpt (less if it's pre-Wall Street, maybe only +16), second one is a lost +28-42gpt (discluding scientists, which would be even more total commerce lost, and assuming it isn't a bureaucratic capital). What exactly is the benefit that outweighs this significant opportunity cost, because I just didn't see it... Am I missing something here?

 

[DNK]

Oh, and not to mention that great merchants would give an extra food to said commerce city, or half a merchant specialist, equaling what - 4.5gpt more?

 

[LuckyAC]

Well, they are rarely worth it early on, but late in the game, like in the middle of a space race, they can be very good. Settling them won't last long enough to do much and lots of specialists aren't very useful by that point. I defintely am not a big fan of them though, since I can't say I have ever used more than 2 GP to make one, and I run a CE, so I don't get much besides some scientists for academies anyway. Of course, I tend to have small empires, and Golden Ages scale with size, while academies/settling doesn't.

 

[Lord Chambers]

There are two issues here.

A golden age is generally regarded as a weak way to use two great people. Really the only exceptions to this is when you have a great artist and a great prophet, or when under universal sufferage (particularly for winning a close space race battle). The reasons for these exceptions is that artists and prophets are generally the weakest great people, and universal sufferage gives you an hammer on every square with at least one hammer, thus it can almost double your empire's production.

Settling great people is often not their best use unless it is done early, and you can't take advantage of their other functions. Some instances of this would be extra prophets after you already have a shrine, or artists for a cultural victory.

Generally you won't want to settle scientists since the first one (maybe two) should be turned into an academy, and then the subsequent ones can bulb the important path toward liberalism. There's a small window after liberalism where it might be more advantageous to settle a scientist than use him to bulb or build academies more, but considering that an early advantage is more useful than a greater and later return, not quite.

Merchants retain their utility all the way to the end due to the trade mission which will generate much more coin than a scientist could equivalently bulb.

Engineers help you get wonders, which is always helpful, though by the end of the game they might be more useful towards generating a golden age.

As a rule, if you're about to settle a great person, you either aren't taking the proper measures to generate the ones that would be most useful in your era (essentially this means avoiding artists), or you're very early on and settling really will pay off in the end.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

I only use a golden age at the end of a space race game to get extra production and research, although I do buid Taj Mahal if possible, it's either a GA or money in the bank.

 

[JoeBlade]

Simply put, the later the game the more effective golden ages become.

Settling GPs instead has less effect as you'll enjoy the benefits for a shorter time as was pointed out already.
Lightbulbing and trade missions become less effective as well. Both have absolute yields hence their relative value is reduced as your empire becomes larger and more productive. 2000 research or gold for instance is a lot early game but far less significant in the 20th century.
Ditto with engineers, their hammer yield is fixed as well and the end-game wonders are horribly expensive hammer-wise. Unless a late-game wonder can be built without the aid of a GE I will rarely even consider it, so the GE isn't that big a help anymore.
And so forth and so on.

Inversely, the added value of a golden age becomes far more important later in the game as one will typically be working far more tiles (= more & larger cities)

Granted, the increasing GP cost per golden age and random nature of GP generation do make golden ages less of a strategy and more of a nice-to-have.
I quite like them nontheless for, as others said, space race and also to boost my empire-wide production and gold (for upgrades & rush-buying) prior to a war; typically the last stretch to conquest or domination.

 

[r_rolo1]

I'll quote myself:

don't know if anyone already done the maths, so i'll try to.....
(only comparing to lightbulbing; comparing the settling requires to know when the GP's were generated, and I want to keep it simple)
From what I read in the forums:

Great Scientists are worth 1500 + ( 3 * [total population] ) beakers

Other Great People are worth 1000 + ( 2 * [total population] ) beakers

So, for the first GA, for better use you must use two non-scientist GP's ( less beakers lost).
Then ( and suposing that all cities are in research (oversimplification, I know) and that we are at 100% science ( again oversimplification) for H + C = beakers), the extra H+C total on the 8 turns fo GA must be bigger than:

2*(1000 + ( 2 * [total population] )) = 2000 + 4 * [total population] or

(2000 + 4 * [total population])/8 = 250 + [total population]/2 per turn.

From here all depends of the population and of the H + C of your empire ( none of these follows a simple formula ... ), but my feeling is that Golden ages aren't (in the optic that I used) useful before the industrial era, and maybe even there....

Of course, seeing things like this is highly reductive ( there are more things in this game than beakers) and like Arvedui and Mischief said, a well timed Hammer boost can do wonders for your game. But I wanted to do a baseline, so please forgive me...

P.S Any kind of corrections are welcome

The corrections are still welcome

 

[LlamaCat]

I agree that artist + prophet is the best way to get a golden age. The best way to get a golden age though is to build the Taj Mahal because it gives you the boost and denies that wonder's benefit to all the AIs.

 

[obsolete]

The reasons for these exceptions is that artists and prophets are generally the weakest great people

Prophets are NOT weak. +5g +2h is a very hard combo to beat. An engineer only barely surpases it in the production dept. Most my Great Peoples revolve around prophets, and I'll trade my scientists in for them any day.

If I get any Artists (YUK) I'll keep at least one in reserve so I can golden age during my building of projects (yes projects are exploitable). Sometimes I"ll keep all my artists in reserve (if I dont have representation) so I can use them for warmongering.

 

[Rayder]

I use most of my great artist during conquering of other civs. Their culture boost are fairly nice when it comes to turning a population of a foreign city to your side. One click and you suddenly own most of the nearby land/resources and the city stops rebelling on you. Damn, they've really saved my ass a couple of times...

 

[carl corey]

Apart from late-game Golden Ages I only used them very rarely; the one time I felt they were really needed was when I was isolated at start and then found another civ alone on its continent. I decided to invade. I was the first to Liberalism and built the Taj Mahal, so that's one free GA, then I had to get to Astronomy and used to great persons for another GA. This all allowed me to take over the other continent, go to Democracy, cottage a lot and pull off a tech comeback to easily win the Space Race. Were it not for the need to conquer then and there, I would have used my great persons differently for sure.

 

[DNK]

I guess I get the idea of using them in the modern era, as their effect will be minimal in the long-term, and by that time it's space race anyway, and you could use the temporary big boost.

Artists are always iffy for me, since they're no better than merchant specialists, but to waste a GE, GS, GM, or GP with them is a tough call. Another scientist or super-specialist would be better, imo, and the artist either wasted GPPs or a culture bomb/settled in a new conquest.

 

[TeraHammer]

I like early vassalage-theocracy golden ages for pumping military, and then when my age is done focus on economy again.
Multiplayer though.