GP farm?

[Larwin]

I'm trying to be clear on something a lot of guides talk about GP farms. Are these farms supposed to be high on food or high on coins? And could a grassland area on the coast with no rivers work for this well? Putting farms on most the tiles by a lake and fill is rest of grassland with farms when I get civil service. Does this work just as good for getting GPP as getting coins to support science?

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

I'm trying to be clear on something a lot of guides talk about GP farms. Are these farms supposed to be high on food or high on coins? And could a grassland area on the coast with no rivers work for this well? Putting farms on most the tiles by a lake and fill is rest of grassland with farms when I get civil service. Does this work just as good for getting GPP as getting coins to support science?

1) High on food. Commerce (coins) are irrelevant.

2) Pre-biology, 3F farms aren't usually in important part of farming GPP. The explanation is that trying to support a specialist with farms is expensive

You need two farmers per specialist
... which means you need three happy
... and three health


For example, suppose you have a city with wet corn and pigs. City + Corn + Pigs = 14 food, which means you can support 5 specialists at size 7 (15 points/turn).

With the grass farms, you get to 6 specialists at size 10 - a 20% improvement in your base rate with a 42% increase in size. Probably not worth it.

When you get to biology, and 4F farms, the math is a bit more favorable.


So what should you do with all the green tiles around the GP farm? You farm them - not because you are going to use them to support specialists, but because you are going to use them to recover population when you whip buildings, and use them to grow to the next size when the time comes

Alternatively, you give those tiles to nearby cities to work.

 

[Larwin]

Thanks. I got a start with 2 corn and a lake next to the coast. I'll be changing between slavery and caste a few times in this game. Playing noble a lot is making warlord seem easier and easier. I might move up to prince when I can win noble on a couple different maps. Maybe should move up higher then try similar strategies on a noble map. I like getting the boost from the great library. Might try a couple prince games later. I won a warlord game around 1800ad on pangea map by following a guide. trying this strategy on a noble map now.

 

[lymond]

Larwin - Hate to be blunt here, but do you really not know what a GP farm is by now? You went through all this before several months ago. Do you know what GP means and how to get them? I would think so by now.

Anyway, you want high food bonus resources in a GP farm, plus some regular farms if need, and a coupe of mines to get in buildings or whip them. Commerce (coins) are irrelevant to a GP farm.

 

[Seraiel]

VoU only described the classic concept of a GP Farm, having lots of , working Specialists. There are also the heavy GP-Farms that have lots of Forrests that can be chopped and that have Wonders, and there is the very late game GP Farm with National Park.

In my games I usually play with multiple GP Farms, in my Current game I had up to 5 or 6, but the main thing is, that they aren't used as GP Farms all the time, but only in Golden Ages because of the 100% bonus to . Switch to CS + Pacifism and turn every city that has some Wonders and some into a GP Farm and create twice as many GPs as you'd have otherwise.

Example:

First GP Farm: Capital, has Cottages + , is a holy City, gets OX + WS, but in a GA it hires Prophets, Wonders, Oracle, Buildings, a Temple and a Shrine.

2nd GP Farm: GA-Farm, has MoM, sometimes SoZ, sometimes Parthenon, normally a city with lots of trees as those all have to be chopped out. Gets TM later and creates GAs only to start GAs

3rd GP Farm: GM Farm, gets GLH + Colossus, runs Merchants during the GA which are sent on Trademissions after that.

4th GP Farm: "Real" GP Farm, lots of , working about 10 Scientists during the GA + having TGL sometimes.


So be creative, sometimes the best GP Farms are heavy and don't have that much , sometimes one can use hybrid GP Farms that run Cottages in normal times (and grow) and work Specialists during GAs. And maybe try to sort by Wonders, it's very unpleasent if you needed that GS but built the Parthenon in that city and got a GA with 1% chance.

 

[Larwin]

I think I got confused between cottage farms and gp farm. It makes sense now. I was reading a guide about cottaging and it talked about gp farms I see the difference now. On my last game I had so much production that didn't get the cottages worked. It seems to work out better if there's 4 or 5 plains hills and the rest river and grassland might work better to make those river tiles cottages and the dry grassland farms. I had trouble getting that city to grow. I'm getting better at noble though read a few more guides this week. I sometimes forget to check my city screen and i think the auto manager changes tiles it works so I'm going to try to watch it when the city levels up or a production finishes. Not sure if the auto manager changes every turn. that can be a bit tedious to check all my cities every turn. I read what VoU said and it made it clear. I tend to spend at least 12 hours on one game. Thanks.

 

[Larwin]

I was looking at the wonders a little more closely and specializing gp farms could be done like you said. I tend to worry about not having enough defenders if I go after wonders. I find some AI is itching to fight around 1000BC and 1ad on most games I play. but If I watch it close they don't declare on me. Alex declared on me 1 turn before I finished the GL and I threw everything I had at him and couldn't get my city back. I was short on axe men and he sent phalanx after me. If I hooked up copper and didn't have to wait for iron I would be a bit more prepared for that. It seems the AI are more easily agitated as you go up in difficulty. I think it was because I didnt declare on his enemy.

I followed a guide for emporer+ And the only problem I saw with it is he didn't mention whipping settlers and workers only monuments and barracks in other cities. Just think whipping works out better to get defenders when regrowing the cities. I am finding if I whip 1 or 2 turns after starting a settler or worker I have great results.

 

[cbucks]

Try archers vs phalanx

 

[admtanaka]

Although I am far from the best player on this forum, I think I should say that having a "GP farm" is situational in and of itself.

In many games, there isn't an obvious city to make a GP farm, and the capital kind of becomes it by default. GLib and National Epic plus a few specialists is usually sufficient to generate enough great scientists, and the capital will usually have the time, food, and production to do this more quickly than whipping a later settlement into an adequate GP farm.

Does a "GP farm" have its place on some maps? Of course. But I certainly don't rely on one as part of my regular strategy - many maps just won't have an adequate spot that you can control soon enough to be practical.