Optimal Allocation of Specialists

[WC4J]

Civ 5 has been my first experience with a Civ game, so I'm still trying to figure out the best way to use specialists, particularly when it comes to a diplomatic victory.

Now, obviously if I'm going for a science victory I'll want to maximize science specialists of course, but many of the strategies I've found online say to specialize cities into "gold-focused" cities, "production-focused" cities, etc. This would make sense for a diplomatic victory, in particular.

Is this approach of spreading the great persons across numerous cities better? The approach that I have generally taken is to delay use of specialists in order to get all my cities higher in population, and then trying to find an optimal maximum population when I can then afford to use nearly all specialist slots across all the major indices (not only science, but including culture, gold, production), thus keeping the population fixed at this optimal point.

So which of these approaches is better in your experience? Or do you run a totally different strategy when it comes to specialists? On the one hand, I see that focusing a city on one particular index such as gold can allow the city to continue to grow rapidly as a result of only having a few specialists working markets and banks and such. On the other hand, waiting a while to get all major cities to 20+ population, and THEN deciding to work as many specialists as possible seems like a better, all-around approach.

So what's your opinion on what I've written above? Is it a good idea to ALWAYS work a certain number of science specialists no matter what victory type?

Finally, is there a place on this site or anywhere where I can find a good explanation as to how food and growth are calculated in a city?

Thanks for your help, guys.

 

[Unresolved]

There really isn't much specialization in CiV. Basically, for any victory condition other than culture, you'll want to always work the science specialists all the time. When you get the second policy in Rationalism, work as many specialists as possible without hampering your growth potential. I often work culture specialists to speed up policy acquisitions. Just make sure that you don't spawn any unwanted great people by doing this. For culture victories, I usually work all science and culture specialists as soon as possible. I avoid spawning more than 1 great scientist though.

 

[WC4J]

There really isn't much specialization in CiV. Basically, for any victory condition other than culture, you'll want to always work the science specialists all the time. When you get the second policy in Rationalism, work as many specialists as possible without hampering your growth potential. I often work culture specialists to speed up policy acquisitions. Just make sure that you don't spawn any unwanted great people by doing this. For culture victories, I usually work all science and culture specialists as soon as possible. I avoid spawning more than 1 great scientist though.

Wow, quick reply! Thanks for the help. Yeah, I've also noticed that it takes an unusual amount of time for Great Engineers to spawn, though it might be just because I tend to skip building the Windmill for some reason. So culture comes after science in your mind? Makes sense.

 

[Unresolved]

Wow, quick reply! Thanks for the help. Yeah, I've also noticed that it takes an unusual amount of time for Great Engineers to spawn, though it might be just because I tend to skip building the Windmill for some reason. So culture comes after science in your mind? Makes sense.

GE's probably take you awhile to spawn because you don't work as many GE slots as you do science. The way the great people work is each one increases the total cost by 100 points. So if you have multiple cities working 4 science slots and only 1 GE slot, then you'll likely never spawn a GE in your game.

The secondary specialists really depends on your game situation, but usually getting enough culture to finish Tradition, Rationalism and some Order is hard for me. Half my games I can't even open order.

 

[Maxym]

You should almost always work science slots as most games are actually science games till certain point:

Diplo wins until labs, them you can start bulbing towards UN after building it switch to gold focus

Culture wins all out science until industrial so you can open freedom, while maximizing culture at same time

Domination depending on how long you think it will take if it's pangea the rush with CB and then XB, if you need longer switch to education and then either arty rush or labs and bomber line

SV is self explanatory. You might consider working GE slots for it and diplo as you will need a GE to rush hubble and UN so try to get a very late double pop.

 

[Justice1337]

Most of that city specialization stuff is for Civ IV. In Civ V, city specialization is basically to build the National College and plant Academies in the same city. Every other city will still have a University, and anything you need more than that is hammers for a few buildings, military defense, then just Gold on top. Games go so fast in Civ V relative to the time it takes to get cities working that building more than 4-5 cities doesn't really help for non-Domination VC's, and even one city challenge puts up 250 turn win times.

In that low tech cost/high production cost environment, technology is very important. So now in this version of Civ V, Universities are the first building with a Scientist specialist slot. Fortunately, they have 2 slots. So the objective is to research Education ASAP, most of the time by building the National College early, then fully staff the first University that's built. This is so that you can get a Great Scientist generated as soon as possible. Specialists before then usually aren't optimal in terms of the raw inputs, and it's probably not right to generate anything other than a Great Scientist as your first one anyway. With that GS, you plant an Academy near your city that built the National College.

However, your great person costs escalate in each city whenever one is born in your empire. That means that you don't necessarily need to staff Universities beyond the first one or two. You can focus your other cities on prooduction, growth, or whatever you want. Science victories will always want to push tech, and so will Diplo more or less, but a lot of the time you can focus on conquest or on knocking down an AI that jumped out to a lead. I find out a lot of the time, particularly when I've been warring, that I need to focus more of my cities on Growth during Medieval and early Renaissance, and in those kinds of games I rarely want to field 2 Scientists in every city right at Eduacation.

It's not until some time later that you'll want to be fielding lots of specialists for purposes of the raw inputs. In most games it's best to go into Rationalism, and the point when you get Secularism is when you want to put more specialists in all of your cities. The order I usually go is Scientists > Artists > Work any Jungle TP tiles > Make sure I've got a surplus of 3 or more food > Engineers > Merchants. For cultural victories, I will just switch the priority of Artists and Scientists. All the while you'll want to watch your cities so that you don't generate any GP's of a type you don't want, but you shouldn't have to start taking out Artists or Merchants until way late in the game. Engineers are always good though.

 

[pilot00]

Simply put: Science (truth be told anything in civ but anyway) needs a f* ton of food. The reason not only been the beaker per pop but the specialist slots cost you not only the citizen assigned (therefore not working the tile) but extra food from the city.

I agree that in a science game(every game actually as has been said by the posters above) you need unis slotted ASAP.
That said on your way to tech there you need food production buildings/tiles and accordingly to you difficulty level (Starting at king and below is a mostly safe bet) food enhancing wonders and faith beliefs.

Once you reach rationalism and unlock the policies you need (mostly left side), I would recommend (if you follow the crapton of food idea and 4-5 cities) switching to freedom and take the right side (decreases food consumption and unhappiness generated by specialists) and then go back and finish ratio, depending on what techs you need at the time or your long term plan. If you have a large empire go order and then finish ratio.

Specialists are finicky little things and their use depends highly on food production.

 

[budweiser]

I dont like do do diplomatic victories, but if I did, I might make a few great merchants and do some trade missions with them.