Philosophical/Industrious

[qwertz]

Let's just make Huayna Capac Philo/Ind, the Incas are overpowered anyway so it wouldn't really matter.

 

[bentley004]

you wrong . Phil make you have more GP . Why , because you have only 500 turn , so double the speed ofc mean more GP ,only not much though .

I think thats quite obvious.. if you get them faster, you're bound to get more, though there are significant diminishing returns. Which is exactly what he said, read closer...

 

[AfterShafter]

The advantage to Philosophical isn't that you get more great people (although you do,) it's that you get them faster. This means that you get engineers more quickly after building the pyramids, which allows to you use them to instantly build another wonder faster than you normally would, which in turn allows you to more quickly generate great people, and so on. Those who claim this isn't overpowered need to attempt to create the cascade effect themselves.

I can understand the other side of the argument, though, since it is no more ridiculous than Quechuas. That doesn't mean Phi/Ind is OK, though. It means Quechuas need to be altered slightly so you can't win the game with them alone.

To play devil's advocate, while there is some truth to your "cascade effect" idea, the only great person it would really work with is great engineers... And even with Phil/Ind, is a GE farm really viable? Let's say you get the pyramids and get a great engineer. You snag another wonder and you've essentially polluted your GE output whether you build it in the same city or not. There just aren't that many ways to assure great engineers early on - get your forge and pyramids going, an engineer specialist in every city, but you're still going to be getting them either too slow to REALLY nab all the wonders (though you will grab a good number) or the wonders you do nab will end up popping you non-GE's and seriously slow the cascade effect.

Don't get me wrong, the combo is still one of the most powerful that could be in the game, and I don't disagree with leaving it out (though, Darius being in the game annoys me - and they left out pro/org, which I really want to play!!)... But the "cascade effect" you're talking about seems like it would be very hard to actually pull off, and wouldn't be quite the catchall strategy you're describing when all is said and done... It seems to be like its primary result would be just faster GP's, not the wonder monopoly you're alluding to. Unless of course you're playing on a lower difficulty, but frankly, on lower difficulties just about any insane strategy becomes viable and probably even effective.

 

[Molybdeus]

To play devil's advocate, while there is some truth to your "cascade effect" idea, the only great person it would really work with is great engineers... And even with Phil/Ind, is a GE farm really viable?

See Obsolete's games. I think they are posted somewhere around here.

The thing about great people polution is that you intend to get other great people beyond engineers. These will be popped for techs that enable more wonders such as the Hanging Gardens, Hagia Sophia, and so on that also contribute great engineer points. And of course the techs are useful themselves.

The purpose of getting great engineers isn't to generate an endless series of great engineers. It's to enable a single city to build more wonders than it would normally be able to build given the restrictions of turns and production. When I talked about a "cascade" effect I didn't mean an endless series of wonders built by engineers (since there are a finite number of wonders to be built at one level of tech anyways) but rather the effects of popping great people for techs, which opens up new wonders to be built, many of which can be rushed with the engineers you get. The "cascade" comes from the supply of new wonders you can build from popping new great people for techs, which provide more great people with which you can get techs.