Great People
- Thread starter JMB2006
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VoiceOfUnreason
Deity
- Joined
- Dec 5, 2005
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In a golden age, the commerce and production values of worked tiles goes up. Any tile that produces commerce gets +1 
, and tile that produces hammers gets +1 
These are changes to the base values - so all your building and civics multipliers will contribute as well.
A Golden Age therefore favors circumstance where you have lots of citizens working tiles (big empire, large population), lots of tiles that contribute both hammers and commerce (towns with universal suffrage, gold mines, plains tiles on a river).
You noticed that the costs of Golden Ages (the number of GP used up)goes up each time you start one?
Attaching specialists to a city is long term strategy. You have to make some deliberate choices well in advance to make it work well for you. If you have a game slanted towards specialization (running Representation), you'll be more inclined to attach a specialist.
Don't forget about Lightbulb research - this can easily be the most effective use of a GP, provided that you learn your way around the tech preferences for the Great People. (Prophets are the classic example here - right now he wants to research Meditation, which is useless to you. But if you research that for yourself, he then researches Civil Service! a very big difference).
, and tile that produces hammers gets +1 These are changes to the base values - so all your building and civics multipliers will contribute as well.
A Golden Age therefore favors circumstance where you have lots of citizens working tiles (big empire, large population), lots of tiles that contribute both hammers and commerce (towns with universal suffrage, gold mines, plains tiles on a river).
You noticed that the costs of Golden Ages (the number of GP used up)goes up each time you start one?
Attaching specialists to a city is long term strategy. You have to make some deliberate choices well in advance to make it work well for you. If you have a game slanted towards specialization (running Representation), you'll be more inclined to attach a specialist.
Don't forget about Lightbulb research - this can easily be the most effective use of a GP, provided that you learn your way around the tech preferences for the Great People. (Prophets are the classic example here - right now he wants to research Meditation, which is useless to you. But if you research that for yourself, he then researches Civil Service! a very big difference).
Sisiutil
All Leader Challenger
Following up on what VoU said:
It rarely makes sense, therefore, to use Great People for a Golden Age early in the game. You'll gain little benefit from it and if you want a GA later on, it will be more expensive. I will sometimes use late Great People for a Golden Age when I'm pursuing a Space Race victory and most of my cities are busy building SS parts.
For most of the game, you're better off popping Great People for key technologies or for settling/merging. In addition, specific GP can also be used for special purposes: Great Scientists can build an Academy to increase a city's science output, Great Prophets can build a Shrine in a holy city which will bring in additional gold, Great Artists can build a Great Work to increase a city's culture, Great Merchants can go on a lucrative trade mission, and the much-coveted Great Engineers, of course, can rush the building of World Wonders.
It rarely makes sense, therefore, to use Great People for a Golden Age early in the game. You'll gain little benefit from it and if you want a GA later on, it will be more expensive. I will sometimes use late Great People for a Golden Age when I'm pursuing a Space Race victory and most of my cities are busy building SS parts.
For most of the game, you're better off popping Great People for key technologies or for settling/merging. In addition, specific GP can also be used for special purposes: Great Scientists can build an Academy to increase a city's science output, Great Prophets can build a Shrine in a holy city which will bring in additional gold, Great Artists can build a Great Work to increase a city's culture, Great Merchants can go on a lucrative trade mission, and the much-coveted Great Engineers, of course, can rush the building of World Wonders.
Andorim said:
What you seek is here Great People Tech Prefences
Golden ages are generally a good use for GPs late in the game. Then a settled GP will not have time to give much benefit and often they lightbulb a tech you don't need or care about.
Wodan
Deity
Danthemansta did an analysis in another thread where he compared settling scientists all into your super science city vs putting acadamies all over the place. It was very interesting. As you might expect, having Oxford and just 1 Academy made that city really crank out the science. Especially if you are running a SE with Representation, that's your best option for any kind of long term strategy. Even in a CE it's a very favorable alternative.karr1255 said:
Wodan
Great Scientists are one of my favorites to make specialists out of, once you get the academy in your main research city.
In one game I had gotten a large herd of great people, and by around 1800 that one city was producing over 500 beakers per turn.
Often, if you have a city that is way ahead in making tech, you are better off adding GP to them as specialists than to put them in another city.
And I almost never use them for golden age - I think the one or two times I did was because it was near the end of game and I had a couple sitting around with nothing else to do but light bulb future tech.
In one game I had gotten a large herd of great people, and by around 1800 that one city was producing over 500 beakers per turn.
Often, if you have a city that is way ahead in making tech, you are better off adding GP to them as specialists than to put them in another city.
And I almost never use them for golden age - I think the one or two times I did was because it was near the end of game and I had a couple sitting around with nothing else to do but light bulb future tech.
Wodan said:
That's something important I noticed too. Putting academies in less than ideal cities is a waste. If I get loads of scientists it's 1 academy in the main science city of course and maybe 1 in the cottage spammed or coastal science city. Afterwards I use them to lightbulb or for golden ages.
Also sometimes Prophets are worth settling but this is really situational.
Sisiutil
All Leader Challenger
True, but the commerce boost could also help you finish researching one or two SS techs.Shillen said:
Academies can also be useful in cities that aren't the main science city -- they give 4 culture per turn. If you are struggling to keep a resource within your cultural borders, the extra 4 points can be a big help -- especially before theatres and some of the other +culture improvements are available.
Wodan
Deity
I've used a GS for that before. BUT it was in a city that I knew I was going to spam cottages, so I didn't feel too badly about it.Andorim said:
Wodan
The first few specialists I generally use for their special abilities. (academies, shrines, wonders, money, or culture bombs). Later I usually bulb except scientists, who I settle in my primary science city until modern times when I switch to bulbing. If I'm trying to push borders against a city which already has meaningful culture, I'll settle the artist because it works better than a culture bomb. I very rarely use GP's for Golden Ages - they just don't seem worth it to me, until I'm trying to use prophets later, when they're almost worthless.
About the merging Vs. academies all over the place for great scientists :
When planning a good old warmongering, having your core cranking out units and only one super science city running a specialist economy allows u to keep up in tech, despite staying around 20 - 40% on the science slider, while taking over the world. Popping techs w/ GP is not as flexible in terms of research choices...
This is quite situationnal, as u might need to capture the pyramids (to get Representation), and to have a GP farm geared towards max scientists to be merged in the science city (possibily capture a capital w/ GLibrary and lots of food?).
When planning a good old warmongering, having your core cranking out units and only one super science city running a specialist economy allows u to keep up in tech, despite staying around 20 - 40% on the science slider, while taking over the world. Popping techs w/ GP is not as flexible in terms of research choices...
This is quite situationnal, as u might need to capture the pyramids (to get Representation), and to have a GP farm geared towards max scientists to be merged in the science city (possibily capture a capital w/ GLibrary and lots of food?).
i've got a simple way of knowing whether it's worth or not going for a golden age :
a GP is worth X beakers (move the pointer over the lightbulbing)
2 GPs are worth X+Y beakers (X=Y most of the time, except GScientist)
A golden age is for a period of 8 turns.
You need to gain more than (X+Y)/8 commerce and hammers / turn for the GA to be a good move.
at best you gain 1 c and 1 h per pop point. Most of the time it's either 1 c or 1 h.
So my way of evaluating the value of a golden age is
if (X+Y)> (8*pop) , then it's good.
In fact i almost never go into golden ages, since i rarely go for space race, and when you have only 6 or 7 cities, size 10 max, it's really not worth using 2000 beakers worth of great persons.
a GP is worth X beakers (move the pointer over the lightbulbing)
2 GPs are worth X+Y beakers (X=Y most of the time, except GScientist)
A golden age is for a period of 8 turns.
You need to gain more than (X+Y)/8 commerce and hammers / turn for the GA to be a good move.
at best you gain 1 c and 1 h per pop point. Most of the time it's either 1 c or 1 h.
So my way of evaluating the value of a golden age is
if (X+Y)> (8*pop) , then it's good.
In fact i almost never go into golden ages, since i rarely go for space race, and when you have only 6 or 7 cities, size 10 max, it's really not worth using 2000 beakers worth of great persons.
