After reading so much about the Specialist Economy, I decided to give it a
try since it sounded like the game play would be substantially different
( = fun!). Honestly, I expected it to be at best as good as the standard
approach, and possibly slightly worse. Boy was I wrong. If you haven't
tried it, I suggest you do. It requires a bit of luck with circumstances to
pull off, but when successful the results can be spectacular. I am going
to discuss a few underappreciated aspects of the strategy.
First, I've found with most non-Roman civs, that the cottage economy,
even with Financial but definitely without, doesn't come online fast enough
to support a large army AND the new cities a large army can provide, while
still getting the techs needed to support a large empire and the units
necessary (esp. Construction) to keep on the offensive. This proves to be
the rate limiter for my expansion. Yes, Cottages eventually are incredible,
but in order to beat my top scores, the game has to be over BEFORE that.
My games often go as follows:
Build a core base of cities, fight a quick early war taking out a neighbor,
getting me to 8-10 cities. I often have to pause for a little while here to
keep research at ~40-60% to get to Currency/Code of Laws. Pushing out
faster just results in research rates in the 10-30% range, making the techs
come later even with more cities. Crucially, this pause means there is usually
only one (and sometimes no) more neighbors I can take out before
Longbowmen show up. Longbowmen slow the conquest as Swords and Axes
now need Catapults to be effective. With the Cats built, I push out, while
researching towards Communism/Chemistry with trading giving me tech parity
as I push for domination. When I get to 50% land area, I research drama,
pump the culture slider, and solidy my empire. This gives a domination victory
in the 1000-1500 AD range on Emperor. With Caesar I follow the same
strategy, but the fact that the veteran Praetorian can handle longbowmen
makes for less of a pause in the quick roll, leading to a 750-1250 Domination
victory.
So I tried Peter one level down (Monarch) to get a feel for how things would
work first. A few things with that game made me decide the SE is more
powerful at higher levels, so I decided to try Mao on Emperor.
(1) Philosophical is really key. The GP aren't just a bonus of the SE, they're
critical to exploiting the heck out of it. You will get an early Great Engineer,
which will build the Great Library. Your first Great Scientist should build an
Academy in the same city. Unlike in many other games, the REST of your
GP (most of whom will be Great Scientists) should SETTLE in the science
city. With Representation, they get +9 beakers without bonuses. With
the Library, Great Library, Academy, each one generates an obscene amount
of research, and with Philosophical + Parthenon + National Epic + Pyramid
+ Great Library, you get tons of them. When my river cottage city was
producing ~10 beakers, the GP farm was producing 75! It has to be seen
to be believed.
(2) The whole "tech slider" flame war completely misses the point. The real
point is that one of your cities will be generating 50-100+ research VERY
early, which frees up commerce for other things. Research, army support,
upkeep, whatever. At the point in the game where you're usually putting
on the breaks to keep 50% research and tech parity, you instead have
TWICE the available commerce if you chose to go to 0%, and can STILL
maintain a substantial tech LEAD.
(3) tech trading is much less important as your obscene science city will
have you in the lead from early on, even on Emperor.
(4) Industrial, which usually is quite weak on Emperor, is worth considering
again just for the extra help with the Pyramids.
(5) Stone is virtually essential, and good food near the capital helps. Having
your capital be the GP farm means you get the Palace bonuses, avoiding the
need to waste crucial time moving it.
(6) Why is the Specialist Economy more powerful at higher levels? Because
you need a pop point to work a cottage, which means you need the
happiness and health to support the point. The cottage squares also
(generally) only produce enough food for themselves, so if you're working
them, you can't support as many specialists. On the other hand, with the
SE, with a reasonable number of farms, you can support two scientists
(= +18 beakers) in many of your cities, even if they top out at size 5 due
to lack of happy resources (which happened in my game).
(7) All these free beakers frees up commerce for unit support and upkeep.
Since I was Organized too, I was able to support a pretty much nonstop
swordsman rush. By 1AD, I already controlled 40% of the world, and wasn't
having money problems!
(8) Beelining to Banking (for Mercantilism) has some useful side-effects,
since it is on the lower half of the tech tree, which I previously was not
using as much. Feudalism, Machinery, and Guilds are now in the mainline,
instead of being distractions that prevent you from getting to Liberalism/
Communism early. In particular, this means Knights help give your rush
extra punch at a crucial time, and if you are Mao, you get an extra punch
from the Cho Ku Nu just a bit before that.
Ended up winning by Domination on Emperor in 670 AD, in just my second
game using the Specialist Economy. I'm definitely a fan now.
try since it sounded like the game play would be substantially different
( = fun!). Honestly, I expected it to be at best as good as the standard
approach, and possibly slightly worse. Boy was I wrong. If you haven't
tried it, I suggest you do. It requires a bit of luck with circumstances to
pull off, but when successful the results can be spectacular. I am going
to discuss a few underappreciated aspects of the strategy.
First, I've found with most non-Roman civs, that the cottage economy,
even with Financial but definitely without, doesn't come online fast enough
to support a large army AND the new cities a large army can provide, while
still getting the techs needed to support a large empire and the units
necessary (esp. Construction) to keep on the offensive. This proves to be
the rate limiter for my expansion. Yes, Cottages eventually are incredible,
but in order to beat my top scores, the game has to be over BEFORE that.
My games often go as follows:
Build a core base of cities, fight a quick early war taking out a neighbor,
getting me to 8-10 cities. I often have to pause for a little while here to
keep research at ~40-60% to get to Currency/Code of Laws. Pushing out
faster just results in research rates in the 10-30% range, making the techs
come later even with more cities. Crucially, this pause means there is usually
only one (and sometimes no) more neighbors I can take out before
Longbowmen show up. Longbowmen slow the conquest as Swords and Axes
now need Catapults to be effective. With the Cats built, I push out, while
researching towards Communism/Chemistry with trading giving me tech parity
as I push for domination. When I get to 50% land area, I research drama,
pump the culture slider, and solidy my empire. This gives a domination victory
in the 1000-1500 AD range on Emperor. With Caesar I follow the same
strategy, but the fact that the veteran Praetorian can handle longbowmen
makes for less of a pause in the quick roll, leading to a 750-1250 Domination
victory.
So I tried Peter one level down (Monarch) to get a feel for how things would
work first. A few things with that game made me decide the SE is more
powerful at higher levels, so I decided to try Mao on Emperor.
(1) Philosophical is really key. The GP aren't just a bonus of the SE, they're
critical to exploiting the heck out of it. You will get an early Great Engineer,
which will build the Great Library. Your first Great Scientist should build an
Academy in the same city. Unlike in many other games, the REST of your
GP (most of whom will be Great Scientists) should SETTLE in the science
city. With Representation, they get +9 beakers without bonuses. With
the Library, Great Library, Academy, each one generates an obscene amount
of research, and with Philosophical + Parthenon + National Epic + Pyramid
+ Great Library, you get tons of them. When my river cottage city was
producing ~10 beakers, the GP farm was producing 75! It has to be seen
to be believed.
(2) The whole "tech slider" flame war completely misses the point. The real
point is that one of your cities will be generating 50-100+ research VERY
early, which frees up commerce for other things. Research, army support,
upkeep, whatever. At the point in the game where you're usually putting
on the breaks to keep 50% research and tech parity, you instead have
TWICE the available commerce if you chose to go to 0%, and can STILL
maintain a substantial tech LEAD.
(3) tech trading is much less important as your obscene science city will
have you in the lead from early on, even on Emperor.
(4) Industrial, which usually is quite weak on Emperor, is worth considering
again just for the extra help with the Pyramids.
(5) Stone is virtually essential, and good food near the capital helps. Having
your capital be the GP farm means you get the Palace bonuses, avoiding the
need to waste crucial time moving it.
(6) Why is the Specialist Economy more powerful at higher levels? Because
you need a pop point to work a cottage, which means you need the
happiness and health to support the point. The cottage squares also
(generally) only produce enough food for themselves, so if you're working
them, you can't support as many specialists. On the other hand, with the
SE, with a reasonable number of farms, you can support two scientists
(= +18 beakers) in many of your cities, even if they top out at size 5 due
to lack of happy resources (which happened in my game).
(7) All these free beakers frees up commerce for unit support and upkeep.
Since I was Organized too, I was able to support a pretty much nonstop
swordsman rush. By 1AD, I already controlled 40% of the world, and wasn't
having money problems!
(8) Beelining to Banking (for Mercantilism) has some useful side-effects,
since it is on the lower half of the tech tree, which I previously was not
using as much. Feudalism, Machinery, and Guilds are now in the mainline,
instead of being distractions that prevent you from getting to Liberalism/
Communism early. In particular, this means Knights help give your rush
extra punch at a crucial time, and if you are Mao, you get an extra punch
from the Cho Ku Nu just a bit before that.
Ended up winning by Domination on Emperor in 670 AD, in just my second
game using the Specialist Economy. I'm definitely a fan now.
