Poll: Best Colonists

I think my choice of colonist will depend upon my choice of other start and seed variables. I may try some heavily biased strategies (i.e. lots of science or lots of production, etc) vs. some well balanced strategies, with a good mix of abilities. My sense is that a balanced mix will work best, but random maps being what they are, it could be that a biased start on the right map could be a winner - or a total loser on the wrong map.

 

I can see them be quite good mid/late game when you've got lots of stuff draining energy for maintenance and cities eating into your health, but wont it be a bit weak early game?

 

Early game I suspect the culture boost from Artists would be most welcome to those eager to get into the Virtues ASAP. But then, I've always been a sucker for Culture.

 

Like I said I'm fairly sure people wanting Prosperity to fast expand should probably get artists. The bonuses in that tree make sense only if you get them fast, and on top of it you get 1 health per city.

 

I have always needed solid science in every Civ game I have ever played. Even going for victory conditions that aren't specifically "science," I've always found science pretty much mandatory.

I am wondering if the "web" approach to science instead of the "tree" approach could make science less important than in past games, but I'm not betting against science until I see hard evidence.

Engineer seems interesting. Extra production right off the bat could be a lot of fun to play around with.

 

I think I'd go with Artists more often than not. More virtues faster, plus the health bonus so I can grow the cities more.

 

I'm liking Aristocrat right now. Trade routes to the stations don't always give energy like they did in Civ 5, rather they tend to give you science, culture, ex. A more durable economy will go a long way I think.

 

Anybody want to change votes after a month of gameplay? I think Artists are a LOT stronger...

 

Artists seem the most potent if you go for a Prosperity start, but Engineers are also surprisingly powerful.

 

I think the balance is pretty good. Though most Colonist options are essentially valued by how fast they help you get Trade Routes going. Will be interesting to see if they do fix Trade Routes how that will affect things.

Artists have the edge for getting the first internal Trade Route in many cases because of a faster Colony Initiative.

Aristocrats often have the advantage on getting the third city because of the faster rush of the second Colonist.

Scientists can help research Pioneering faster (sometimes the limiting factor), get invincible Trade Units faster, and generally get to Spies and Autoplants fastest. So while a bit slower starting, they're still strong.

Engineers can sometimes get a faster start than Artists even towards the first internal Trade Route because of faster Explorers, Trade Depot and/or Trade Units builds. Faster Explorers especially have a very large volatility. An extra Culture pop can completely negate the Culture advantage towards Colony Initiative, a Solar Collector can mean a much faster 3rd Colonist rush, a Crashed Satellite can mean a lot of things, Affinity is huge, and a Signal is crazy OP.

Refugees are the hardest to quantify and use properly. Health turned out to not be as big a factor as it looked like, but early pop growth is silly fast. You need extra Workers ASAP to keep up with Refugees. As far as direct outputs they are effectively some form of hybrid of Scientists (Science from extra pop, extra Academy) and Engineers (extra Mine) and/or Aristocrats (extra Generator), and rarely Artists (Gold, Coral worked early). As well as any direct output increases from working more tiles.

Refugees also give the very strongest internal Trade Routes. You can easily lower food surplus down, but if you have Refugees a city's max food surplus is always 2 higher than otherwise. That leads to wider possible variation on the Food side and so more potential Food from Trade Routes.

 

Bill Gates would definitely be a SCIENTIST or ENGINEER. On the other hand, Kim Kardashian and Kanye would be Aristocrats and dead within moments of planetfall.

 

I think Stock Brokers who want to play Spaceman. CEO Survivalists. So they will be paying extra for all the best quality, high efficiency equipment, with all the bells and whistles. And they... are patrons of the arts?

Kim and Kanye are artists. They're not rich enough to be Aristocrats.

 

I thought ITRs are calculated from the difference in surplus food? If all cities have +2 then the difference is unchanged.

 

It is easy to bring your surplus food down (to levels you wouldn't want to go lower than) though. So while each city has +2 Food, you can use an extra non-Grower Specialist or Mine or something in the city with low Food to lower the surplus.

The city with high Food will be able to have +2 Food surplus at any given pop #. So using Refugees allows you to increase the differential on the Food side of things.

(Engineers don't work that way, since you can't ever get rid of the 2 Production.)

 

The benefit is double sided - The city wherein the food is going down gets to work non-food tiles (like maybe an extra Academy or Manufactory). The higher total on the other end means both the surplus and the added food on both sides of the ledger are higher.