GSpy in Isolation

[FlyinJohnnyL]

Well with the new LHC out I was reminded of a question I had been thinking about. If you build the GW and get a Great Spy in isolation, should you just put them to sleep? It seems that settling them would waste all those EPs, although I guess you'd get some beakers out of it. Seems like maybe putting them to sleep till caravels when you can infiltrate would be the best use of them?

 

[JammerUno]

Golden Age

 

[Bleys]

I guess my advice would be to build Stonehenge instead of the GW, saving all those Monument whips and generating a Prophet for early bulbing (if you dont have a religion yet) or settling instead of the GSpy. The GW is worth far less in isolation. Let the barbs come, get some free XP. Let them settle some cities for you too, take em when you have the economy to do so.

 

[Caldazar]

I would definitly wait... As you said it's a big waste to settle it when you have no way to put those points to good use.

 

[huerfanista]

I guess my advice would be to build Stonehenge instead of the GW, saving all those Monument whips and generating a Prophet for early bulbing (if you dont have a religion yet) or settling instead of the GSpy. The GW is worth far less in isolation. Let the barbs come, get some free XP. Let them settle some cities for you too, take em when you have the economy to do so.

I like to save the priest for bulbing theo to build the AP - one huge PITA out of the way, an easy early religion, you'll be researching med + poly anyway, AP hammers are a great plus, mono is cheap + OR benefit. I like to chop out oracle in same city to get an easy 2nd GP for the shrine.

 

[FlyinJohnnyL]

I guess my advice would be to build Stonehenge instead of the GW, saving all those Monument whips and generating a Prophet for early bulbing (if you dont have a religion yet) or settling instead of the GSpy. The GW is worth far less in isolation. Let the barbs come, get some free XP. Let them settle some cities for you too, take em when you have the economy to do so.

I always thought having the wall in isolation was a big benefit, as I can now settle my continent at my leisure. No rushing to get metal, no teching archery if there is no metal. I can focus almost exclusively at infra. until while still sending troops ouside my borders to pick off barbs and get the exp. What can I say, I've always been a wuss about barbs

I do agree SH would be a good idea to save hammers though. Maybe I'll give that a try instead of the wall.

 

[Bleys]

I always thought having the wall in isolation was a big benefit, as I can now settle my continent at my leisure. No rushing to get metal, no teching archery if there is no metal. I can focus almost exclusively at infra. until while still sending troops ouside my borders to pick off barbs and get the exp. What can I say, I've always been a wuss about barbs

I do agree SH would be a good idea to save hammers though. Maybe I'll give that a try instead of the wall.

Still, whats your hurry? If you dont get a metal, and discover you are isolated around the same time frame, just tech to Archery. You arent going to be in competition for land. You can afford to build 10 Archers, which will eventually end up garrisoning 10 cities, but act as escort-fogbusters in the meantime. You will still be able to focus far less on military overall, since all you will need for a while is a garrison unit per city. Also, Cities are better fogbusters than units, so get those settlers rolling, while escorted by Archers, or moving along a line of fogbusters. Once the cities are up, you can pretty much skip extra units and focus solely on infra. Building SH and having your garrison units in place, first build can be a Granary, and if your EXP, you can whip it at 2 pop and be off to the races.

 

[FlyinJohnnyL]

Thanks Bleys, I never looked at it that way but that sounds much more efficient to me. I'll give it a shot in this new LHC.

 

[UncleJJ]

Well with the new LHC out I was reminded of a question I had been thinking about. If you build the GW and get a Great Spy in isolation, should you just put them to sleep? It seems that settling them would waste all those EPs, although I guess you'd get some beakers out of it. Seems like maybe putting them to sleep till caravels when you can infiltrate would be the best use of them?

I don't think waiting is the right choice. A settled great spy still gives EPs and these will help you against other civs once you meet them just like the EPs from your palace and courthouses do. Obviously you can't use the EPs in this period for missions as they are not set against an AI but they do give a discount on future mission costs. Also a settled GSpy gives 3 beakers which is a small but useful income. If you put it to sleep then it could cost 1 gold maintenance while you wait.

This happened to me once with Izzy on an Archipelago map when I was isolated. I settled one GSpy and used a second for a Scotland yard. Just before I discovered Optics culture from Ghengis put me into contact with the outside world and I already had an appreciable discount. All my EPs went against Ghengis from then on and I soon stole several cheap techs from him and caught up with the pack. Espionage was a big part of that game despite the difficult start.

 

[madscientist]

My two Cents

Cent #1: Either launch a Golden Age or settle the Great Spy. You still get +3 free beakers the entire game if settled. You cna also save the Great Spy for a later Golden Age, nothing says you have to rush it.

Cent#2: Great wall in Isolation. Greatly depends on terrain. If your in the middle of a decent sized land mass, it's a life saver if you have a horde of Barbs hitting you. If you fogbust adequately, then it's a waste.

Bonus third Cent: Stonehenge is big in isolation if you not creative nor have a religion.

 

[DMOC]

Well with the new LHC out I was reminded of a question I had been thinking about. If you build the GW and get a Great Spy in isolation, should you just put them to sleep? It seems that settling them would waste all those EPs, although I guess you'd get some beakers out of it. Seems like maybe putting them to sleep till caravels when you can infiltrate would be the best use of them?

Settle for the +3 beakers.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Gwall is a worthy investment in isolation with barbs on. Fogbusting on higher levels is no easy task on some terrain types. With Gwall you just need to spam a few galleys - much easier.

If you happen to get the gspy then just settle it. You don't want to burn a golden age so early, and holding it for a later one is a little silly. 3 BPT isn't great but it's probably the best use you're going to be getting out of the guy for a long, long time, so take advantage.

 

[r_rolo1]

Settle for the +3 beakers.

Signed under. Early pwns later in Civ IV. Too bad the "lost" spy points ....

Except if you get it fairly late: infilitrate him might worth it ( as the AI has no spy points on you...... )