GPs as Super Specialists

[raketooy]

I have never actually used any GPs to have super specialists in my cities. The other options just seem to heavily outweigh the benefits of super specialists. So, do you ever make specialists out of GP's and in which situation it would be of use?

I usually play on Prince.

 

[DMOC]

Yes, I settle great people VERY often in my games (I play difficulties Monarch and Emperor usually). It's very helpful, especially under representation, where if settled, they get 3 extra beakers. Lightbulbing never really occurred to me, as I don't like to waste great people on lightbulbing techs except for Philosophy.

It's also nice in a wonderspam game, where you can keep getting specialists easily from wonders and settle them.

 

[AmazonQueen]

Yes
GE: rarely become super-specialists since they're rare and i use them to build wonders or found corps
GS: I'll found 1 or 2 academies but most will be settled in what will become my OU city
GM: rarely become super-specialist, use them to found corps or for trade missions
GA: I try and avoid getting but if I do usually use them for Golden Age or to bulb techs
GP: after I've bulbed any useful techs and founded any shrines the rest are settled in what will become my WS city. Since its not usually high production gold + hammers is ideal
GSpy: 1 will found SY in my highest commerce city, the rest will be settled there or usedfor Golden Ages

 

[r_rolo1]

Settling a GP normally is the best move in the beggining of the game, where you can't found corps ( another atractive proposal , but somewhat costly ),where bulbs will not give more than 1000ishs beakers and GA would give meager results due to the small quantity of tiles worked
That is because the beakers, hammers and coins given by a settled GP can be multiplied by buildings or civics and they will add until the end of the game...

Of course if the end of the game is near settling GP is the worse thing you can do with them... and if your game style requires/desires having a certain tech bulbed far before the AI can grab it, settling them it is not the solution too.

 

[OTAKUjbski]

I think it comes down to your early game strategy and intended victory condition.

Late game victories (like Space Race) seem to call more for settling, while early wars (esp. for Conquest or Domination) call more for bulbing early to leverage military superiority.

-- my 2

 

[DigitalBoy]

If I plan on getting a lot of great scientists, often the case if I'm philosophical, a lot of them end up as super specialists, with a few others being used for an academy and lightbulbs towards Philosophy and/or Education.

Great merchants and great artists almost always end up as super specialists in my games. Great merchants sometimes do trade missions, but I don't have the patience to have them wait for corporations.

Great prophets sometimes end up as super specialists, especially if they come early and I control no holy cities, but they usually end up starting a golden age or constructing a holy shrine later on.

Great engineers virtually never end up as super specialists in my games. Better spent on wonders or corporations.

I don't get very many great spys, but I suppose I might settle them or use them to establish a Scotland Yard spy city.

 

[Bleys]

I generally settle every GP I get, until I conquer a Holy City and have a LOT of other cities with that religion. Late-game GPs are a nuisance, so I use them for Golden Ages. I have never bulbed a GP that I can recall, except once for Theology so I could go to war using Theocracy.

 

[gopher666]

Let's see... I'll include Great Spy (BtS) just for kicks.

Spy - Early great spies I settle, since their +12 espionage points far outweigh the advantage Scotland Yard gives until late game.
Engineer - Almost never settle. I build wonders with them, or use them for the rare bulb.
Merchant - Practically never. Either settle in a high prod/low food city with an acute need, or, failing that specific need, I use them for a trade mission. As a last resort, if I don't have any particularly lucrative missions, I'll bulb them or start a golden age.
Scientist - Maybe. I pretty much use them for academies all the time, unless I have no commerce cities left, in which case I settle.
Artist -Never. Assuming the map is tight, with ruthless struggles over territory, I culture bomb all the way. If there's plenty of room, I'll bulb them for the heck of it.
Priest - Yes. Often. As soon as any holy city wonders are built, I have no need for them, and the +2 hammer, +5 gp are unmatched IMO.

 

[mystyfly]

Artists: Generally start a golden age
Engineer: Generally build wonders. Exception: Oracle > MC > Machinery sling
Merchant: Generally settled in Wallstreet City. Trade Mission only for mass upgrades.
General: 2-3 Medics, 1-2 Academies, rest settled
Prophet: Shrine if I capture holy city w/o it (of a dominant religion) - rather rare. Early GP gets settled. 5 GPT early is huge. Later they're used for a GA.
Scientist: 2-3 Academies (Cap and Oxford city, probabely other great science city, but rare), Lightbulb certain techs (Philo, Education, Astronomy), rest settled.
Spy: rarely get those. Eighter settled (+3 Beakers under Representation) or start a GA

 

[lilnev]

Similar to mystyfly, except I'll save a GE for Mining Inc. Early GMs go where the food is needed most, later ones trade missions.

 

[noto]

Of course settling GPs makes sense sometimes. Take a GA, for example. The great work of art doesn't pop borders very well anymore (some weird rule change in BTS), so i settle them in a border city. That super specialist is the equivalent of like 4 or 5 cultural buildings - so they will definitely help a border war, and on top of it I get 3 gold out of it (possibly 5 or 6 with multipliers) and perhaps 3-6 beakers if running rep. In games where I get tonnes of GE's it is because I'm playing an industrious civ and have built the pyramids and hanging gardens. In a game like that I don't need to use the GE to build wonders, I can build them the normal way, so i'll use my GE's for more important things, like bringing badly needed hammers to a super commerce city that has almost no natural hammers. You must keep in mind that specialist output is subject to multipliers. 3 hammers + 3 beakers is one thing, but a forge, factory, and power make a GE produce 3x1.75= 5.25 hammers and science buildings make it produce anywhere from 3 to 9 beakers. Also, I might settle a GS in a super science city because often those cities have poor hammer output and a GS gives a hammer plus all those beakers.

 

[Iranon]

I rarely ever lightbulb. Apart from 2-3 academies, a shrine or two, corporations and 1 golden age, everyone gets settled.

 

[dragomaster]

I like to settle GP, espeshally if I play CE. If i Play SE I tend to blub more techs. my favorit GP to settle is the GM becous of the free food he delivers and I settle him in low food commerce city's. I love being able to work that extra riveside plain title without the need of farms to do it. I use to calculate how many GM's I need in low food commerce city's. Sids sushi and creal is also werry atractive. A got to say that those two corperation is the best. You can have them for production, build more workshops, You can have them for more specialists and you can build more cottages. those merchants just rock.
GS is first used for strategical blubs like philosophy, education and machinery then for academys and lastly settled.
GE's is one of those rare mid game GP's. when I have one I start to think about what win i'm going for. If it's space i ushally save him for Mining inc. if not space I ushally burn him on a wonder in low production citys. for example the greate library in my gp farm. I have neverr settled a GE in all my life i belive they can do so many thing that if settled i mise many opertunitys to do better stuff.
GA what to say about them. cultural victory is the best use of them. then golden ages.
GProph is sutch a nice GP. they are first used for shrines, religus blubs and lastly settled. the good part of the Gproph is they can be settled in Commece citys or production citys. If i have a bad production city he will be settled there in outher way he will be settled in a Commece city.
GSpy I have never used them for infiltration. its better in the longer run to make a spy city and build scotland yard, build all spy buildings and run as many spy spesialists as possible.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

I settle prophets, merchants, artists, and very rarely engineers, though not exclusively or anything. Prophets can build shrines, merchants can cash bomb, engineers can hurry wonders, and all 4 of them can do golden ages. Screw culture bombs though, they never do much. Same for corps, I must sacrifice state property to use them.

Scientists and Spies have too much else to do for me to ever consider settling them though

 

[JBossch]

Check out Obsolete's games. He definitely proves the power of settling nearly every GP in a monster super capital that basically carries the whole empire for much of the game. I certainly am not as strict about settling GPs as Obsolete but I certainly learned how powerful it can be and now settle half to 2/3 of my GPs.

 

[SnowlyWhite]

depends on the game; if you go domi all the time, as I do, an uber capitol won't help too much. The ai is bound to poison and whack your main cities sooner or later.

regarding settling; marathon speed. An infiltration provides 10k ep(roughly). If you settle him, until constitution and 1st multiplier(jail) - for instance, he'll make 12 eps/turn. I'm researching constitution in 15 turns now, and it's turn 567. So, till now he'd produce me 12*567 - 6.8k eps till now.
I always infiltrate them; I think twice if somehow I catch the pyramids, but otherwise... my gs brought me divine right(was a very wierd game - I ended up building both the ap and UoS so kinda wanted a shot at both minaret and versailles since I had half of the big contient to backfill)/engineering/guilds so far and will bring me replaceable parts when that bummer will finish up with his research(again, wierd game, since I ended up going grenadiers since my beloved neighbour decided to go rifles)... Plus, I'll still have a decent ammout of eps to provide city revolts when I declare.

Ok, in a very favourable situation: open borders, same religion, his city close to my border, so stealing engineering with 50% stationary bonus was only some 1.3k. But anyway, even if further neighbour, I still infiltrate. The tech advantage is immediate and allows me to capitalize on it with my army while I go for the military techs and don't fall behind on the others since my infiltrated targets provides them.

the ga - golden age and that's that. Worst case scenario(read, I already had 2 golden ages, and 3 gps for a golden age I avoid), I settle in ws city. But then it means I got 3 gas, which makes me bother more about cursing the rng then wondering what to do with him
the gp - always settled. Either in he city(which is different in most of my games from iw city - I tend to go iw in 1, he/wp in the other), or, again in the 1 in 100 games where I manage to convince ppl. confucianism is nice(rarely getting it on immortal to start with, even rarer to actually have a realistic shot at convincing anyone about it's values) in the shrine/future ws city.

ge - keep it, pet it, mining inc. Lotsa land allows for lotsa resources.

gs - philo, part of edu.(paper by hand, part of edu, since it's better beakers wise), 2-3 academies or 1 academy/settle(but that after philo and crap) if for some obnoxious reason(read - I seem to finish very fast) I don't plan transition to ce.

gm - funds the upgrade of cr2 maces to rifles/seldom to grenadiers.

All the above, obviously, if not going a la obsolete, where, obviously, you settle everyone and their mothers. But since I'm not a big fan of that approach...

 

[praktik]

I had the best capital going in a game as Lincoln of the Ottomans on Friday night.

I had:

4 x settled GE
3 x settled GSci
2 x settled GP
2 x Settled GSpy

Man, the research I was getting out of those specialists was sick! And the + 19 hammers from the scientists, prophets and engineers was pretty helpful too!! Under representation, I was getting 6 x 6 beakers for the spies and engineers, and 3 x 9 beakers for the scientists!!

Ended up with a diplomatic victory at ~1840. Kind of a shame really.. was happy to keep playing... oh well.. Maybe I'll come back to the save and bust out another GE to give Mining Inc a try..

In short, my tendency is always to settle... and even though I coulda kept a GE for mining inc I just worried about all those turns of him sitting there when he could have been helping my capital along. My plan was to build Ironworks in my capital and run 4 engineers and no other specialists to pop out the last one I needed...

This was the game that convinced me I should be on Monarch now...

 

[dragomaster]

regarding settling; marathon speed. An infiltration provides 10k ep(roughly). If you settle him, until constitution and 1st multiplier(jail) - for instance, he'll make 12 eps/turn. I'm researching constitution in 15 turns now, and it's turn 567. So, till now he'd produce me 12*567 - 6.8k eps till now.
I always infiltrate them; I think twice if somehow I catch the pyramids, but otherwise... my gs brought me divine right(was a very wierd game - I ended up building both the ap and UoS so kinda wanted a shot at both minaret and versailles since I had half of the big contient to backfill)/engineering/guilds so far and will bring me replaceable parts when that bummer will finish up with his research(again, wierd game, since I ended up going grenadiers since my beloved neighbour decided to go rifles)... Plus, I'll still have a decent ammout of eps to provide city revolts when I declare.

True, more espionage but the story ends menwhile the settled one keep on spying. not only will you be able to see every civs reserch you will se your oponets armies aswhell. the bst use for it is to produce two GSpy and build scotland yard aswhell. the secound one is mutch stronger when you double evry assingend spys the whole game.