Great Person roles

[Thalassicus]

In the first half of vem/gem during the Ancient-to-Renaissance time period, do you use most non-military Great People for:

• Instant bonus mission (Artists have instant culture mission in the mod).
• Tile improvement.
• Golden Ages (all GP can do this in the mod).

 

[Quboid]

It depends on my circumstances. Usually I'd take the bonus mission but if I have a city that lacks production, or that has a high multiplier for the GP's improvement resource, I might go with that. I'll tend to take gold ages towards the end of the game, when the bonus mission might not matter so much (no Wonders left, or no Technologies to research) and the improvement seems bad value - why get extra culture from a tile when there's only a dozen turns left, the Golden Age money is more likely to be needed for one last push.

 

[mystikx21]

Depends on time/circumstances and which one.

Engineer almost always hurry wonder.
Scientist mostly academies early and techs later.
Artist mostly landmarks. Hurry culture sounds good too later in game. Louvre tends to be a golden age and landmark.
Merchant always trade missions until I have national treasury then one or two CHs.
General once I have a couple for military use are resource grabbers. Sometimes a citadel.
Admiral explores. I'd probably use them to heal but I haven't had much experience. They're really kind of boring and if the GG effects can be ported over to a sea battle, and preserve the instant heal and exploration effects to give GGs something else to do, I'd almost do that instead. I think there are flavor reasons to keep them, but they're not very interesting right now as a GP.
Prophets once religion is done, Holy sites, use them to spread later if I have a religion as missionaries become less effective.

Vote should be on GI. Phone screwed it up.

 

[GenjiKhan]

That was my preference in G&K(as GEM isn't ready yet) :

- Great Artist,I usually favor Landmarks over Golden age,before Renaissance era or before National treasury and Hermitage are built;
- Great Scientist,I favor Academy over bulbing,before Atomic era .
- Great Merchant,I always use it for trade missions,because of the sum of both short-run(plenty of ) and long-run(+30) advantages it provides;
- Great Engineer,always hurry wonder and when there's no Wonder to rush,I create Manufactory with it,except if I'm playing with Sweden(in this case,it's more profitable to give it to a City-state);
- Great General,I use Citadel to grab resources/Natural wonders from city-states . I even developed an exploit strategy for that;
- If I'm spawning Great Prophet(because I found a religion),the order is always: Found religion>Enhance religion>Holy site>Holy site . But if for some reason,I prefer to not found a religion,then I'll always built Holy site,specially if there's a civilization nearby who will found Christianism or Islam(as Cathedrals and Mosques will consume the faith generated by my holy site);

 

[Lazaroth]

Engineer, 100% hurry world wonder. Never anything else (unless it's extremely late game). Power-researching towards a couple of the really good wonders and be sure to get it because of the engineer, despite how much the AI cheats on deity.

Scientist; more common that I use it to insta-research. In combination with what I wrote on the engineer it's powerful.

Artist, landmark 50%, golden age 50%. Golden age are more probable if I get an artist early on. The bonus of gold early on can really propel your civ forward. Later golden age doesn't matter that much, since you're so rich anyway.

Merchant, never get many of those. When I do I usually do trade missions.

General, save 1-x (depending on how many separate "fronts" I have). After that I steal land. In certain circumstances it's more advantageous to build a citadel tho. It can be either that I need a resource, need to rob the AI of a resource or that the AI streams units the same way and therefore takes constant damage when passing by, thereby doing more damage this way than the bonus it has when near units.

Admiral, they are kinda worthless to me TBH. Sure 1 or 2 can be good to do more damage (all I need), but I often end up with 4-5+ not that long into a game. I usually scout with them, and then put them in cities. When I have filled up all cities I start to disband them. Wouldn't mind a better alternative way to use them. Don't think I ever had to heal with one, since the AI is worthless at finding boats. I.e: early on upgrade boat to the point where you can attack and move after attack (get xp by using boat defending cities), then get the +movement policy (under commerce), then move in shoot and move out when attacking enemy boats. They haven't got a clue where I went.

Prophets, the great person I use the most. It's awesome. First 2 I use to create and enhance a religion. If I have a close neighbour that also have a religion I may use the second to convert him. I always try to get both the world wonder that gives more missionary spread and the one that gives a free prophet. 60% of the time I succeed on deity. 100% of the time I get at least one of them. After the initial 2, they are really powerful converting cities since they don't suffer from attrition and can convert large cities in one turn. If the city however don't have more than 50% of a religion, it's better to use a missionary (and if you can, get open borders first). Why is the prophet so important? Well, +happiness per citizens and + gold per citizens following the religion. Especially the gold one, my god is it overpowered.

 

[Ahriman]

Early game I'll nearly always use scientist and artist for academy/landmark. Merchant could go either way. Engineer mostly gets saved for a Wonder - not because a manufactory isn't useful, but because the race nature of Wonders means that shifting future production into current production is much more useful than it would be for science, culture or gold. Prophet initially of course is used for founding/enhancing religion. After that it depends; am I going for a culture victory? Does my religion already dominate my continent? Does my religion benefit from being followed by lots of others (eg with Tithe or ceremonial burial)? The former two mean more likely to use holy site, the latter means more likely to use for spread.

 

[Zaldron]

In the first half of vem/gem during the Ancient-to-Renaissance time period, do you use most non-military Great People for:

• Instant bonus mission (Artists have instant culture mission in the mod).
• Tile improvement (~7 yield in the mod).
• Golden Ages (all GP can do this in the mod).

I also posted in the great improvements thread, but I'll post here too.

Prophet: Found, settle, enhance, convert as my circumstances dictate.
Artist: Always settle. I haven't tried the GEM Great Works but in VEM they were far too weak to compare to settling. Note that while not asked, in the latter portion of the game I will switch these to golden ages.
Scientist: Save for astronomy of space race techs. They don't get used at all in the early game.
Engineer: Save and use for whatever wonder I'm aiming for.
Merchant: Mission always immediately, then use the gold to ally with a second CS.

 

[Stalker0]

Scientists - Acadamies very early, then bulb for the rest.
Merchants - Trade missions only
Artists - If going culture win all landmarks, else all GAs.
Engineers - All wonders
General - Keep 2, citadel the rest.
Admiral - If early on I scout the world, else keep them with my ships.

 

[Skobrin]

Am I the only person who thinks that great engineers' abilty is way too powerful? Whenever I get a free great person, I always pick an engineer and when I have one I always use them to rush a wonder. Couldn't hurt to make it a set percentage or even just give it a hard cap based on the era to prevent insta-building the most powerful wonders.

 

[pthmix]

Scientists: Acadamies early game, instant research late game, never golden ages (in VEM)
Merchants: depending on the situation, if I get one early from wonder GP points then I may settle him, never golden ages (in VEM)
Artists: landmarks early, golden ages late
Engineers: improvement early, instant wonder later, never golden ages (in VEM)