Pyramids + farming GMs???

[futurehermit]

^^^Yeah, true enough, but I was thinking of trying to maximize it as early as possible.

 

[Zombie69]

I would rather settle all the Great Merchants to a Holy City with a market, a gorcer and a bank (and if possible Wall Street). Then for each settled GM you get :
- 1 food (fantastic, and can be used to feed normal merchants)
- 6 gold (multiplied by the market, etc.)
- 3 beakers (because of representation)

 

[Mr. Civtastic]

Then for each settled GM you get :
- 1 food (fantastic, and can be used to feed normal merchants)
- 6 gold (multiplied by the market, etc.)
- 3 beakers (because of representation)

...which isnt much better then a great prophet. Both would get you the +3 beakers, gp gets you only one less gold, gp gets you two hammers but no food.

 

[Elandal]

I find food to be the lifeblood of cities, and thus in many (although not all) cases would value settled GM more than settled GP.

 

[Mr. Civtastic]

The question is if that +1 food (which can be easily replicated with a windmill, biology, hanging gardens) is worth settling the specialist over a trade mission.

 

[Elandal]

And as usual, the answer is "that depends"

Early GM: settle or bulb. Midgame GM: trade mission or bulb. Late GM: who cares. All those situational, but that's what I'd generally do.

 

[Zombie69]

...which isnt much better then a great prophet. Both would get you the +3 beakers, gp gets you only one less gold, gp gets you two hammers but no food.

Agreed, not much better (i find the great prophet to be the second best great person to add as a super specialist), but better nonetheless. Never underestimate the power of food.

 

[cabert]

I (we in fact, SG) tried something like that, but we didn't bother building the big pointy thing. Hatchepetsuh was kind and did it for us.
When I saw we were going for egypt, I went all crazy with merchants.
2 GM in a row gave us 2500+ gold each = a bunch of troops.

Aelf is almost right. When you can get good money from it, democracy isn't far away. But not far away isn't eaxctly there, is it ?

Just to be clear : it is not an early game strat. It's only worth it in the late middle age or later.
And DaveMcW is right. US isn't really necessary to begin with. Upgrading dirt cheap units to game breakers is just as good (chariots to cavalry).

Early game, this strat should go :
- pyramids
- representation
- go for engineers/merchants
if engineer, rush a favourable wonder (Great Library! or to a lesser extent, ToA, or sistin chapel for cultural), if merchant settle in your GP Farm or "gold" city (aka shrine + market).
US will only be worthwhile after you have grown towns.
You will not grow towns if you play SE.
Only think about trade mission when you have enough upgradable troops (= 10+ cheap units).
If you count 250 gold for a multiera promotion (axe to grenadiers), you can see where this leads.

A trade mission for less than 2000 gold is a waste IMHO. Better to lightbulb a good tech or settle in your hills city where every food point counts.