I've been playing mostly Monarch level games, but I want to step it up a notch. Reading the forums, I'm led to believe that I should work on limiting the number of wonders and concentrate on the basics. Getting the AI involved in wars early seems to be critical, and it's best if I can (how?) get them to fight themselves rather than having to slow myself down with them. If I'm concentrating on building up production (and not via wonders), I'm not going to be able to devote a lot of citizens to generating great person points. Also, I figure I'll have to plan on taking over a neighboring holy city so I don't have to go down the early religion and great prophet chase.
I have read on the forums that at least some high-level players find great engineers the most useful of the great people, but studying the Civilopedia a bit makes me think they're one of the more difficult great people to get early. Tough to assign people working on them (need a forge) and the earliest wonder that gives them to you is the Pyramids (expensive).
And then there's the question of what to do with the Great Engineers once I get them. I'm concentrating on production, so adding them to the city sounds good. But I might want wonders, especially Hagia Sophia and the Hanging Gardens which could get me more of them. And, since they give some useful techs, the early tech boost they give might be just the shot in the arm my military needs.
So, to summarize, I'm curious about others' opinions on the following issues for higher-than-Monarch games: 1) How do you best go about getting Great Engineers? Wonders or forge-driven specialists, and 2) How do you best use your engineers if you're aiming for a militaristic game (at least in through the medieval period). Thanks in advance for any insights and experiences!
I have read on the forums that at least some high-level players find great engineers the most useful of the great people, but studying the Civilopedia a bit makes me think they're one of the more difficult great people to get early. Tough to assign people working on them (need a forge) and the earliest wonder that gives them to you is the Pyramids (expensive).
And then there's the question of what to do with the Great Engineers once I get them. I'm concentrating on production, so adding them to the city sounds good. But I might want wonders, especially Hagia Sophia and the Hanging Gardens which could get me more of them. And, since they give some useful techs, the early tech boost they give might be just the shot in the arm my military needs.
So, to summarize, I'm curious about others' opinions on the following issues for higher-than-Monarch games: 1) How do you best go about getting Great Engineers? Wonders or forge-driven specialists, and 2) How do you best use your engineers if you're aiming for a militaristic game (at least in through the medieval period). Thanks in advance for any insights and experiences!
