Great Merchants

[Bengalsfan58]

I have just discoverd the joy and wealth that comes from getting a Great Merchant. Does anyone have a playstyle or plan that greatly increases the odds of getting a Great Merchant outside of building the wonders that boost the odds?

 

[Roxtar]

In most of my games the only GM I get is the one I get for being the 1st civ to discover Economics, & I use him for a trade mission so I can raise enough gold to upgrade my cities' defenders from archers to longbows. But if I do get other GMs, I join them to icy cities for food & gold boosts.

 

[Hans Lemurson]

I have just discoverd the joy and wealth that comes from getting a Great Merchant. Does anyone have a playstyle or plan that greatly increases the odds of getting a Great Merchant outside of building the wonders that boost the odds?

Yes, there is a quite easy way of increasing your GM possibilities. Have a city with a market, and then select some citizens to be merchants. They are GPP sources of the merchant-type, and thus will shift the Person-type probability more towards a great merchant.

If you do not intend to send your merchant on a trade mission, it is best to park them in your financial capitol. The gold they produce gets multiplied by all of the modifiers in the city and can be more than doubled in the right spot. Bank+Grocer+Market is a 100% bonus, and so a merchant can be contributing 14 gold per turn to your empire. In 100 turns, this will surpass whatever a trading mission ever could have gotten you, and you get a food bonus too! Either place them in your financial capitol, or your production capitol, since those guys always need more food, and will often have all of their improvements already built. Don't try to subsidize worthless cities with them though, unless they have all their financial imrpovements (in which case they are probably not worthless). A small icy city should stay small, since it probably only existed to secure resources, and maintainance goes up with size.

 

[eumaies]

I agree that great merchants are amazing, because the money they give is worth more than the same amount of raw science cash (since you probably have more libraries/universities than banks)

I think caste system lets you have unlimited merchants, so if i have enough food i'll go for that and emphasize them.

 

[walkerjks]

Great Merchants are the only great person whose value goes up significantly as the game wears on. If you have a use for a large influx of cash late in the game, then a great merchant is tremendously valuable.

 

[Vynd]

I don't see many Great Merchants in my games. But they can be nifty. walkerjks is right about their late game value. The first GM I ever had I received late in a game, around, oh, 1950. I sailed him to the world's largest city, on the far side of the planet, and he brought in roughly 4,800 gold.

 

[Grimz101]

gotta love putting him in my gp city for the food

 

[bonscott]

If I can I'll be the first to Libralism and choose Economics as my free tech which then give me a GM for free. Another way to stumble into at least one other GM in a game is to build the Colosuss. I've rarely build it but ended up in my last game cause I had nothing else to build at the time in a coastal city and it was only 9 turns. I added one specialist as a merchant and just before it expired that city popped out a GM. I love at least one GM by the Industrial age as it allows me to upgrade my military and my power rating a ton with little effort.

 

[Landmonitor]

I agree with bonscott. The colossus and a market place will outweigh the mandatory library, especially if you ramp up the number of normal merchants using caste system. I put them in my GP factory for the extra, since if you have a bank, grocer, and market place, their money gets multiplied the same as it will in a city with lots of cottages. I put them whereever I can use the food bonus as long as it has the commerce upgrade buildings, which my GP farm typically does, since its pulling in some decent commerce from having a lot of rivers.

 

[strategywins]

"Can't have more if you haven't had any. " Bengalsfan58
You can have twice as much!

 

[AngryPants]

Does anyone have a playstyle or plan that greatly increases the odds of getting a Great Merchant outside of building the wonders that boost the odds?

Here is my system for cranking out the GMs:
1. Find a city site with plenty of grassland, floodplains, and food resources.
2. Build farms, farms, and more farms.
3. Adopt Caste System and make lots of merchants.

 

[Ogrelord]

Make a coastal city. preferably next to a river

1. build Great Lighthouse and Colossus Wonders in that city.
2. build all money related building; grocer, market, harbor, bank, etc...
3. Adopt Caste System, Mercantilism, and Philosophical.
4. dedicated 2-3 citizens to merchant specialist.
5. make farms next to the river and all other tiles cottages (unless you have specific ressources)
6. When you get your first and second GM, make them super-specialist merchants in that city.
7. Later in the game you might want to get Wonders that brings in more % of generating a GM, i forgot which one tho...Statue of Liberty and Eiffel Tower?.

 

[Drake007]

Does anyone have a playstyle or plan that greatly increases the odds of getting a Great Merchant outside of building the wonders that boost the odds?

In space race games I try to build the great library for the early academies. Thing is you have to obsolete it in the gunpowder era, and i used to delay that a bit even though communism (state property) and biology are two great techs. I used to hate that dilemna . Now I dont care obsoleting it anymore because of great merchants, and heres why:

Somewhere in the gunpowder era, it actually becomes more profitable to start using great scientists on techs rather than academies (do the maths you'll see)

Also, I've come to realize that for science a great merchant sent on a trade mission is about as valuable as a great scientist used on a tech, unless you're running very close to 100% science rate or something.

So in the gunpowder era, I recommend building a market/grocer in your GP city, researching scientific method like you dont care about the great library, and replacing the lost scientists by merchants.

 

[Bengalsfan58]

Since I don't delve into the mechanics of the game that much I never realized there was so many options. Big thanks to all of you who have provided such wonderful inormation.

 

[lawren65]

I take my best GPP city (most food excess), build grocer, bank, and market place, place shakesspeare theater in it, place wall street in it, (no national epic as I then have two national wonders already). This allows me to have 8 merchant specialists all generating cash with a 3x multiplier (200% bonus). Lost of cash so I can keep science high and a great merchant pops out every so often.

Guess which city I add the great merchant to?