I like Great Artists... is that bad?
- Thread starter CapnKill
- Start date
Dirk1302
Deity
GA depends purely on situation, they can be invaluable in war as you said or when some AI's settle on the outskirts of your empire, a culture bomb will convert them soon to your cause.In a zone where 2 or more parties are fighting and cities are getting raised a GA can give you huge chunks of land instantly.
In peaceful situations with fixed bortders a GA is almost useless though.
Overall my preference of GP's (on average)
Great engineer
Great merchant
Great scientist
Great artist
Great prophet (unless there's a good shrine to be build or he come early then +5 gold or theology can be very valuable)
In peaceful situations with fixed bortders a GA is almost useless though.
Overall my preference of GP's (on average)
Great engineer
Great merchant
Great scientist
Great artist
Great prophet (unless there's a good shrine to be build or he come early then +5 gold or theology can be very valuable)
madscientist
RPC Supergenius
If I pop a great artists I will save them incase I end up or plan a war as they are great in captured enemy capitals. Of course they are awesome for cultural victories.
I hate them 
(But if you like em go nuts 
)
Got 2 in a row last game from Parthenon, was not amused.
Merchants, Scientists and Engineers are all awesome, Artists needs something better for me to consider trying for them. (Prophets are ok too, just get em early in the game, not late)
(But if you like em go nuts )Got 2 in a row last game from Parthenon, was not amused.
Merchants, Scientists and Engineers are all awesome, Artists needs something better for me to consider trying for them. (Prophets are ok too, just get em early in the game, not late)
paperfiend
Chieftain
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2007
- Messages
- 11
Artists are the only Great People I go for (aside from some Prophets in the early game, for lightbulbing religions), but then I play always-peace domination victory games.
Caste system, large near-border city, temporarily set all citizens to artists with the city starving (just for the culture bomb), temporarily set culture slider to 100%, create great work.... voila, lots more tiles under my control. Often this creates a newly-under-my-control area where I can build another city to start driving another wedge into my neighbor's territory.
Yes, I milk the odd culture-bomb mechanics for all they're worth
Caste system, large near-border city, temporarily set all citizens to artists with the city starving (just for the culture bomb), temporarily set culture slider to 100%, create great work.... voila, lots more tiles under my control. Often this creates a newly-under-my-control area where I can build another city to start driving another wedge into my neighbor's territory.
Yes, I milk the odd culture-bomb mechanics for all they're worth
futurehermit
Deity
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- Apr 3, 2006
- Messages
- 5,724
Artists are great when going for a cultural victory. I believe that is their main intended usage.
Otherwise, I use them for golden ages. I use military for dealing with border disputes
Otherwise, I use them for golden ages. I use military for dealing with border disputes
AThousandYoung
Prince
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2007
- Messages
- 399
Always peace domination victory? Interesting.
sylvanllewelyn
Perma-newb
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- Oct 19, 2006
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- 2,036
They're the best GP in multiplayer. Usually human player wars are very tightly contested, and you have to raze every enemy city. Unless you have a great artist from music, in which case you pop it in your newly captured city, ending resistance, providing 80% cultural defense, and can see FOUR tiles away, giving plenty of warning about surrounding cities. It usually breaks games.
Single player though... yeah they kinda suck. They CAN be poppted for radio though, if you want bombers. And great prophets can pop printing press.
Single player though... yeah they kinda suck. They CAN be poppted for radio though, if you want bombers. And great prophets can pop printing press.
Preacherman
Chieftain
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2006
- Messages
- 45
Great Artists can under certain circumstances be VERY powerful. In this game the AI surprised me with a delicious use of a GA. After I had taken a few cities from Genghis, Isabella founded a city nearby and then snuck in a GA. The result: complete cultural domination, since the cities I'd taken had barely any culture at that point. It forced me to declare war on her much sooner than I would have liked.
That could also be considered a disastrously poor use of a Great Artist, depending on your military strength relative to Isabellas
madscientist
RPC Supergenius
It is a stroke on Genuis by the AI if they happen to be your vassal though!!! Similar thing has happened to me in the past. Sometimes I could declare war, once I couldn't.
paperfiend
Chieftain
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2007
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- 11
I got the idea from another thread around here that I can't currently find -- though I believe KMadCandy was involved
If you search the forums for "always peace domination" you'll turn up all kinds of discussion.
My particular variant is that only domination (and maybe time) victories are turned on. Granted, I've never *won* one of these via domination (warlord level, standard speed and map size) without letting it run until about 3500 AD... but I enjoy the game a lot more! War isn't my thing, and I like playing to see if I can reach a really difficult goal. My best land area so far at 2050 is 56.6%.
futurehermit
Deity
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- Apr 3, 2006
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I had an AI use a culture bomb on me the other game. I was about to culture-flip his city and then all of a sudden all my culture was all pushed back. I was like "WTH?!!?!?!?!".
Of course a few turns later the city was mine anyways = waste of GA imo.
Nice to hear about them being stronger in multiplayer. Multiplayer is a different ordeal altogether because you have to be pretty much total war or at least total-war capable at all times.
Of course a few turns later the city was mine anyways
= waste of GA imo.Nice to hear about them being stronger in multiplayer. Multiplayer is a different ordeal altogether because you have to be pretty much total war or at least total-war capable at all times.
I was playing a OCC once and my culture was thru the roof. Cyrus settled in an area that I had razed (I trapped Mansa on a small slit of land and went to war with him). Cyrus's city was immediately engulfed in my culture so he sent not one, but TWO Great Artists and culture bombed my borders back so he could work a cow. Even then it only worked for a couple turns.
Great Artists can however be great for war. The culture bomb instantly ends any resistance in a newly captured city, and at the end of the game that can be 12-15 turns. One thing you have to watch out for however is city-flipping. If you take the capital first and culture bomb to end the resistance you are removing that 12-15 turn grace period. Now you have to prevent that city from flipping by stacking troops in it or taking the surrounding cities. It's often best to capture the capital last and culture bomb it instead of capturing it first, because a city that isn't in revolt needs to be defended more carefully then one that is, lest you end up going back into revolt and wasting that GA.
The other great use for GAs is filling out land in war. You can raze cities and not worry about the AI settling in the exact same spot (which ALWAYS peeves me). Also, GAs can lightbulb Nationalism I believe, so it's not always a bad tech late in the game. Early GAs aren't that great though unless you're still expanding your land and want to cut off the AI from settling an area.
Great Artists can however be great for war. The culture bomb instantly ends any resistance in a newly captured city, and at the end of the game that can be 12-15 turns. One thing you have to watch out for however is city-flipping. If you take the capital first and culture bomb to end the resistance you are removing that 12-15 turn grace period. Now you have to prevent that city from flipping by stacking troops in it or taking the surrounding cities. It's often best to capture the capital last and culture bomb it instead of capturing it first, because a city that isn't in revolt needs to be defended more carefully then one that is, lest you end up going back into revolt and wasting that GA.
The other great use for GAs is filling out land in war. You can raze cities and not worry about the AI settling in the exact same spot (which ALWAYS peeves me). Also, GAs can lightbulb Nationalism I believe, so it's not always a bad tech late in the game. Early GAs aren't that great though unless you're still expanding your land and want to cut off the AI from settling an area.
