How many 'hurry production' with Great Engineer?

[Sherlock]

I had two great artists and used one for a culture bomb. The other one then had CB greyed out and it said something like 'you cannot do for another 8 turns'.

I used a GE to finish a wonder and was rewarded with another GE.

On that one there is no 'hurry production' button. Not greyed out, no 'cannot for so many turns'. It's just not there.

So is hurry production something you can only do once?

Or is it that you cannot hurry production with a unit that came from hurrying production?

 

[Thry]

You didn't have anything selected for the city to produce, therefore couldn't hurry production.

 

[Sherlock]

You didn't have anything selected for the city to produce, therefore couldn't hurry production.

Actually, I had picked another 'many turns Wonder' to maximize my use of the GE.

I just got another GE in that game (many, many turns later) and was able to speed production.

So you can do it more than once. I'm curious what the rules are for how often.

 

[BigChiefLizzy]

Was it a building wonder, or a project (eg Manhatten, Apollo)? You can't rush projects..

I've rushed two wonders on the same turn with engineers, two different cities, Porcelain Tower in one, and Notre Dame in another. Done this many times!

Also I thought I'd rushed one wonder in a single city, then another straight away the next turn in the same city with another engineer as you are trying. Can't remember a problem doing this but it's been a while...

I think I've seen a bug(?) where the engineer needs to be moved out of the city (it spawned in) then back in straight away, or moved into a new city. Then the button will light up.

 

[gopher666]

I've had this happen once. I let the city build one turn of the second wonder, and could then hurry as normal. I figure it might be a bug. At any rate, I'm pretty sure there's no actual limit or cooldown on hurrying.

 

[darroldtg]

I haven't found a Wonder that requires more than two Engineers to get it in one turn. The Engineers can be used in the same turn on the same Wonder in the same city; otherwise, you have to use them in another city on a different building, unit, or wonder; or, wait till the hurried wonder gets finished, then use another one on the next wonder in the same city.

The Artist's Culture Bomb is the only Great Person function that requires you to wait, and as mentioned above, Manhattan, Utopia, Apollo, and United Nations can't be rushed with Engineers.

 

[BigChiefLizzy]

I thought United Nations could be rushed, could be wrong not bothered with a Diplo win for ages....

 

[Halcyan2]

I thought United Nations could be rushed, could be wrong not bothered with a Diplo win for ages....

United Nations can indeed be rushed with a Great Engineer. It's a common tactic for GOTM.

I haven't found a Wonder that requires more than two Engineers to get it in one turn.

The number of hammers it provides is affected by the population of the city. One of the forumites posted the actual formula awhile back. With big cities, you can often get by with just 1 (or 2) GE's, but you might not get nearly as much mileage with a small city building an advanced wonder.

 

[pxpdoo]

I have repeatedly had it happen that when a GE is already in a City (Zzz-ing or not, both ways) at the beginning of a turn where the City completes something, and I choose a Wonder as the next project, and then activate the GE, the 'Hammer' icon is greyed out. This is always fixed by simply moving the GE one space out of the city, and then right back in. 'Hammer' icon is lit again.
Seems like a mini-bug...

Oh, and I ALWAYS use GE's to rush Wonders; nothing sucks like losing a good one needlessly.

 

[Halcyan2]

Oh, and I ALWAYS use GE's to rush Wonders; nothing sucks like losing a good one needlessly.

I agree that generally GE's are best off used to rush Wonders. However, I have found that I might do things differently if some of the following factors are present:

- It's an easier difficulty level
- I'm in the tech lead
- I've scoped out the map and can see that none of the other AI's are building wonders
- The other AI's have low "Wonder" flavors for their personality

In these cases I can usually just hard build all the wonders anyway, so I'd rather save the GE's for something else.

Of course there's also the situation where I'm playing Domination and/or warmongering and would actually *prefer* that the AI's build the wonders since it saves me the trouble (though several of the wonders have a "free" effect that is only granted to the builder).

Manufactories can be especially useful if:

- You're finishing Freedom (doubles production output of the improvement)
- You're playing as Korea (you get the extra Science)
- You want instant access to a Strategic resource you just discovered
- You want to quickly finish a key Project (especially Apollo or Utopia), since you can't hurry projects but the extra hammers might shave off a few turns

Normally, I tend to get one or more GE's in the late Classical or early Medieval Era (either from the Liberty finisher or developed normally if I managed to build Artemis/Stonehenge/Pyramids early).

In competitive games, I may use the GE to rush:

- Hagia Sophia (though I rarely find the AI bothering with HS so I usually don't need to rush it. Obviously, I choose a GE for my free Great Person and usually hurry PT, though occasionally there are games where I build the PT normally and save the GE).
- Hanging Gardens (since Mathematics is out-of-the-way in terms of tech path, I often end up rushing this)
- Chichen Itza (AI's seem to prioritize Civil Service and Itza seems to be the AI's favorite Medieval wonder).

Normally I don't bother rushing Renaissance or Industrial wonders, but I will often save several GE's for the end game. Especially the U.N. (for Diplomatic games) or Sydney (for Cultural).