Specialist Economy in LOR

[bigfatjonny]

Discussion thread - How are is the economy different in LOR.

Is a specialist economy as viable?

Also, take a look at this game http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=178607 - a very clever way of getting a nice victory on Immortal without using any cottages at all.
In my opinion this game is a good advert for LOR as is it very linear in progression – expand – expand – expand. LOR adds so many new concepts particularly with the revolutions, in my opinion there is no way you could play that game the same with LOR.

Revolutions make it harder to keep a large empire without revolts, Early domination is virtually off the cards.
Later civics give greater stability and help keep revolutions down. It all points to cottages, emancipation and universal suffrage as being the best option.

Has anyone had any luck in successfully holding a large empire and running a SE?

 

[phungus420]

I typically use a specialist heavy economy, and build very few cottages. This is a great strategy as it allows you to focus on hammers and food from farms and mines. Specialists are then used to stop growth due to happy and health caps. This always works for me, and I play on Emperor. There is a huge weakness in this strat though, you absolutely need the mids, but I think that's pretty much par for the course for SE based games.

 

[rodnok21]

There is a huge weakness in this strat though, you absolutely need the mids, but I think that's pretty much par for the course for SE based games.

please what do you mean by "mids" ?

 

[phungus420]

The Pyramids. They are pretty much essential for a high level (Emperor+) games that use a specialst based economy. The reason for this is pretty straight forward, the +3 from specialists you get from Represenation ends up providing the bulk of your research, especially in the early game.

Edit:

There actually isn't really any difference in the basics of how to run a specialist heavy economy in LoR then in BtS, or even Vanilla CivIV for that matter. Check out some of the strategy articles on it for BtS, or vanilla civ, they still apply. Basically go heavy on Farms/Mines and ignore cottages early ( unless a city is really geared for it, in which case you should reevaluate if a specialist heavy economy is really what you want in that game), go all out for the Mids once you have the basics up, and then use farms + representation boosted specialists to drive your research (actually specialists pretty much drive your gold and research), and the mines for production.

 

[OnmyojiOmn]

I'd love to see Pyramids changed. Right now, in both vanilla and LoR, playing a specialist economy means devoting every aspect of the early game to the 'Mids. No such thing as an SE strat that makes use of some other early wonder, or does a lot of warmongering early, or any number of other interesting decisions you'd make depending on the game if you weren't constrained by this one strat and tech path. It's tedious enough that I avoid SE and philo leaders.

Maybe swap the specialist effects of Representation and Caste System. The increased happy cap and unlimited specialists on Representation synergize well. Pyramids would be less than mandatory for an SE, but still a very useful for the great engineer because you're going to want the Great Library. Having to run Caste System early on instead of Slavery is another consideration, maybe a slight nerf to SE and a buff to Spiritual.

Definitely going to try this for myself.

 

[rodnok21]

Oh thanks, I just didnt understand 'mids'... Well, I dont think Representation is so necessary for SE in BTS, 'mids' come with a price too, if there is no stone around... Playing on Immortal level usually myself, I liked SE and Philosophical leaders, but I could often come with something else in vanilla BTS than trying the race for Pyramids, which I didnt win always anyway.
But I agree Representation is "too good" for Revolution mods, as instead of a negative empire effect of Despotism and HR you get early a positive effect of Repr. and therefore a much lower danger of revolts... also an expansion instead building that wonder doesnt make much sense if you cant hold your gains. That makes 'mids' (built or conquered) very tempting even for mixed economy (I play Spiritual leaders now mostly, so I am not forced to go for SE in all cities).