Specialists? When and where?

[Seanirl]

I haven't made a specialist yet in any of my cities and I'm wondering when is the best time to do it. I want to some engineers/scientists but it pisses me off when my city loses growth/production...

So I'm wondering what is the best kind of city to make specialists in? Should you wait until they're not growing much anymore (size 13 or so)? Or assign them as soon as possible?

 

[baboon]

I haven't made a specialist yet in any of my cities and I'm wondering when is the best time to do it. I want to some engineers/scientists but it pisses me off when my city loses growth/production...

So I'm wondering what is the best kind of city to make specialists in? Should you wait until they're not growing much anymore (size 13 or so)? Or assign them as soon as possible?

A good tactic is to specialize a city to make Great People. You need a city with a lot of food for this, for example flood plains. If you build some Wonders and add as much specialists as possible (while it still grows) you are having a Great People Farm.

So, if your capital starts at flood plains, you have a perfect Great People farm. (but don't ignore the Commerce then because you're at a river as well)

Pyramids and Hanging Gardens will get you Great Engineer points, the most popular Great People. You can use those to get even more wonders in your Great People Farm.

In other cities, I don't use any specialist, it doesn't work because the numer of GPP you need increases after every GP.

 

[Corlindale]

I use tons of specialists in my cities. With Representation they'll all give a nice science boost in addition to their other benefits.
Cities with floodplains and/or many food resources are best for specialists. Building farms instead of cottages and windmills instead of mines will also help the food production. And turning Great Merchants into Super Specialists will add 1 food.

 

[jeremiahrounds]

hmmm thanks. with that representation bonus they might be roughly as good as towns considering they also boost great person production. (here the thing be considered is a town upgrade to a square versus irrigation with a few peeps pulled off for specialization)

I had gone cottages but i might like this way better. The other advantage is unlike cottages which cant feed mine workers irrigated squares can feed mine workers or specialist which means flexibility!

Next game this is the strat i use.

 

[petey]

It's best to only have one or two cities using specialists if you're using them for GP production. Focusing that production allows you to concentrate the GP points and then use all the other cities for production, instead of removing some population from everywhere in order to get many cities producing them.

Some good early strategies are to buid Stonehenge if you're going for an early religion, since that will get you a Prophet to build the Shrine - this will take 50 turns, but they're early turns and you can also add in a Priest specialist to speed this up.

For a Great Scientist, you can build a library and then turn two citizens into scientist specialists - that will get you a Great Scientist in 17 turns. If that's your strategy, it's also good to try and build the Great Library in the same city to maximize its scientific output.

 

[jeremiahrounds]

ahhh. see i was pondering something before i went to sleep.

At first i was comparing one town to one representative. But that was wrong. Assuming grassland it takes two irrigated grassland to feed one representative. So then I compared a representative to two towns. But then i realize that was wrong. When you have two irrigated squares being worked and a representative the opportunity cost is 3 towned squares. And then i couldnt understand how this is better.

However from the perspective of getting seriously timely great specialist this makes more sense.

Though it is interesting to note this:
Cities using representatives have a lower footprint on the play grid in the sense that they arnt putting down all their workers. That means they can maintain their effectiveness at a higher density.

 

[anton_z1]

Use specialist if you get Sixtine Chapel wonder. each specialis, brings culture which will push your borders. also using Engeneers helps to get some hammers fast + gives you science.