MP: SE viable?

[Game_Addy]

I'm going to be starting multi player soon, and thus-far, against the AI, I've been running Specialist Economies almost 100% of the time, while using the terrain for either farms(if Grass), mines(if Hills) or Workshops(if Plains). However, in the War Academy, it's suggested that I use a Cottage Economy. Is the Specialist Economy unable to keep up that badly?

 

[Jet]

From a modest amount of MP experience and from what I've heard:

Unless there are a lot of AIs, you won't get the trade benefits. You will get the production benefits of farms. But getting the most from that requires whip micromanagement. Some people say that whip and specialist management is hard in MP because there's not enough real time per turn. I think playing a Spiritual civ for easy switching between Caste and Slavery would help.

I suggest just trying it.

Unless you're accustomed to more than 20% culture, you might want to cottage the capital, though. That will give you some set-and-forget commerce with the option of Bureaucracy and relatively protected from pillage.

Of course all this depends on the map. Pangaea is much different from one continent per player.

 

[oyzar]

It depends on the MP. SE is probably just as viable as it is in most SP games unless you use alot more time to mm and you are talking about blazing gamespy games. Personally i play mostly pitboss mp and especially in games where tech tradin is on SE would probably be pretty viable. It still get you faster to the military techs you need even if the long term research potential might be a bit lower than a mostly CE.

 

[Fye]

I run a Hybrid economy in MP and tend to run a lot of scientists after discovering Code of Laws. Basically my approach is to farm everything farmable, except I always cottage the capital for bureaucracy. On Noble difficulty(which is the standard for MP), only running cottages in your capital can nearly generate all the commerce you'll need for your empire. The mm may be a bit harder, since you need to watch your specialists carefully, but I wouldn't say it's that much more mm then a CE. With a CE you still need to make sure the right tiles are being worked; making sure you're running the right specialists is pretty much the same thing. It is my opinion that if you play it right you should be teching faster than a CE in the early game which is the most important, especially in ladder games(CTON) where you only play for ~120 turns or so. This is doubly true if you land the pyramids.

So to sum it up: I usually have 1 or 2 big commerce cities, the main one being my capital. I settle most of the great scientists I produce in my capital, and if it's a long game where I end out building oxford there I expect it to be generating at least 400 beakers with representation. The other cities are all production powerhouses and/or running scientists. When I do build cottages outside of the capital it's usually because that city has no conceivable access to fresh water. As to whether or not a "BAN COTTAGES" type strategy will work - I don't know.