Help me specialise my economy

[Iblis]

Hi all - I'm relatively new the forums but I've been playing civ 4 since it came out. I'm still stuck on the Prince/Monarch level at this point, and have never won a monarch game. Reading these forums has made it clear that I need to have a strategy early (started doing that, it does indeed work), spam cottages (definitely doing this), be clear on which techs to research and when (better at that than I was) and finally to specialise cities and general economy.

Quite frankly I'm not clear I know how to do the last one effectively. My usual game experience is to have my capital as an economy city (mainly because they start near rivers) and then build a production city, a science city and a gold city in that order as locations become located (obviously depends on what I find). I usually have between four and six cities by the time I've run out of room due to AI (I generally play standard/continents). Of course wars always provide more cities (although I can hardly ever bring myself to pillage improvements, especially cottages, because I can't bear not to have access to them myself when I've conquered them).

Past this point I stick to the right builds for each city (library/uni/observatory for science, forge etc and lots of units being churned out for production and so forth) but:

1. I don't make great use of specialists, generally I just throw them in for good measure according to city type and I don't see the point of priests or artists, and
2. I don't really change civics that much during the course of the game and hardly ever use mercantalism, caste system or representation.

I'm sure I'm doing things wrong or not doing things as I always fall behind in the tech war, end up having to bring my research level down over time to stay in the black and generally just not be on quite the even footing with the AI at Monarch (I've not tried above).

So, any tips/strategies/comments/observations people have would be really appreciated, especially around specialists or civics as I understand these the least (I know what they do just not entirely clear which is best in what situation).

Thanks in advance for all the gems of wisdom you'll provide me, I've been extremely impressed by both the volume and quality of help people here have been willing to give to new/struggling players and I'm hoping I'll benefit the same.

 

[mike p]

Sounds like you're neglecting Great People. You should have a strategy for generating the type of Great Person you need most, which is why Priests are important - A great prophet is the only way to get shrine income going. Artists are useful for cultural victories or for popping the borders on newly conquered city, especially if you're running caste system.

 

[Sisiutil]

If you're mainly going the cottage economy route, which is certainly valid, you won't be using specialists in a lot of your cities; you'll want the population to be working cottages instead.

The only exception will be one city you make into a GP farm; it sounds like this is the one specialized city you're missing. Just pick the spot that can grow the most food--look for rivers, grassland, and floodplains; often a former jungle site works best. More food allows you to run more specialists, and each specialist contributes GP points so they appear faster.

In most games the best type of GP to get is a Great Scientist, so my GP farm is often also my science city, with the Great Library, Oxford, and National Epic wonders. Early in the game, Great Prophets are very useful for popping techs and/or building shrines.

Regarding civics:

Representation is mainly useful in a specialist economy, as it means every specialists adds another 3 research points. You'd mostly be improving tiles with farms rather than cottages.

If you find yourself in a situation where you don't have trade or even contact with other civilizations (say you're at war with most of them, or you've conquered your continent pre-Astronomy), then Caste System and Mercantilism can be a powerful combination. Otherwise, Free Trade or State Property are far more lucrative.

 

[Iblis]

Again - state property is a civic I have NEVER used, and I'm not clear why I would. I guess if you're trying to get lots of specialists then it is more useful.

So to be clear, is it better to run a cottage economy without specialists OR a specialist-heavy economy based mainly on food? Is the latter a viable strategy? I would have thought the cumulative increase of cost for GP would make it no-go in the long term.

 

[Sisiutil]

Again - state property is a civic I have NEVER used, and I'm not clear why I would. I guess if you're trying to get lots of specialists then it is more useful.

So to be clear, is it better to run a cottage economy without specialists OR a specialist-heavy economy based mainly on food? Is the latter a viable strategy? I would have thought the cumulative increase of cost for GP would make it no-go in the long term.

I don't follow your statement on state property, as it has no relation to specialists. It is extremely helpful for a large, late-game empire, often reducing maintenance costs by a significant amount, and it's helpful for making the transition to a production-based late game economy since it makes two production-heavy improvements (watermills and workshops) produce more food.

As for the CE versus SE debate, hoo boy, there are several on-going threads about that here on the board if you want to delve into it in detail.

 

[Wodan]

Again - state property is a civic I have NEVER used, and I'm not clear why I would.

Agreed with what Sisutil said. One tip, though, might help you. Click on the civ costs screen (F2). Look at city maintenance costs. It is trivial to determine exactly how much money you will save by switching to SP.

All that is necessary at that point is to mentally compare this value to what you will lose by switching away from Free Trade or whatever you're currently using.

Wodan