specialists

[mattux]

hi there

im new to the civ series and have had civ iv for about 2 weeks now playing when i can, but the depth of the game is stopping me being able to just pick up and play. the last game of this type i played was warcraft on the ps1 .
one of the major things i couldnt get my head around was city growth and population. i thought that the workers or units built in cities are the population but it turns out that citizens are the population and they work the tiles, the workers just building improvements to improve the worked tiles. <-- is that right?.

anyway my next prob is these great people/specialist and city specialist.
the great people are just a bonus to me, that can do one off things like give you 4000 culture, carry out a trade mission to boost your gold and so forth.
so why would i want to keep them in a city? what else should i be doing with these gps? if they only give you a relatively small bonus when in the city ie 6 beakers 4 hammers per turn or whatever. i cant grasp this other part.
i tried specialising a city to produce gps but i was getting more from my science city prob because of the wonders i had built there?
1 more question in a specialist city if i only have enough population to work enough tiles to feed themselves how can i do any production when the population are only enough to work the food tiles and not hammers? i hope you understood that last bit

i have read lots of stuff guides from here which has helped no end but i really need to ask specific questions cos im a little confused at the mo would be great if someone could shed some light on this for me please

cheers

matt

 

[Derek_Zoolander]

I suck at making a specialist economy, but a lot of times, it's going to be better to make a small amount every turn then just make a large amount for one turn. An except might be a great artist, who's great at culture bombing a city with another smaller city nearby.

 

[mattux]

hey derek

but a great merchant can give you 1500 in one trade mission. so should i be producing loads of great merchants and keep sending him of foreign trade missions and keep culture bombing my cities with great artists?
a scientist can do his special building in a city but after you have done that what do i do with the next one that i get? just stick him in my research city to give me that extra little bonus per turn?

thanks for the input derek

 

[Verge]

I settle them because the "small bonuses" settled Great People generate are affected by multipliers.

I almost always settle Great Merchants, for example, in my Wall Street city. Since his + per turn is going to be multiplied by markets, grocers, banks, and Wall Street, that's a huge boost that easily outweighs the one-time trade mission income (unless you receive the Merchant late in the game, of course).

 

[madscientist]

Welcome to the forums! There are alot of excellent beginner articles that would clear a great many things up.

For just starting out, here are some ideas about city specialists

1) Every population is a citizan that can work either a tile on the city screen or run a specialists (providing you have unlocked them by getting the needed tech or building).
2) Your city can maintain up to a certain population, above that you will see unhappy faces. When you have too much food where your population is going to get above the happy face limit, you should run specialists. Thsi is noway set in stone, but a great rule of thumb for learning the game.
3) Great people are produced by running specialists described in point 2 and you get some great persons points for every wonder you build (example, pyramids get you great engineer points, stonehenge gets you great prophet points). Once you get a great person (a very good and useful thing) you have several options with include

A) "Bulbing", where they either completely research a tech (such as theology for a Prophet) or help alot (as a scientist for education). Generall Great Scientists will be more productive in this.
B) Settling the specialist, where you get their benefit for the entire game. They do not get you any more great person points but will recieve bonus's from certain civics (+3 beakers from representation) and wonders (+2 culture from Sistene Chapel). There are times when this is preferred and times not
C) Special ability: A Great Engineer will quickly build most early/mid game wonders. A Prophet will build the shrine in the holy city which gets you ALOT of gold. A great Artist get's you alot of culture, good for pushing close cultural borders or going for a culture win. A great scientist will build an academy in a city for +50% beakers in that city. A great Merchant can get you alot of gold on a trade mission.

Hope this helps.

 

[mattux]

thanks has helped a lot already

i have read quite a lot but there is so much to read im getting information overload. tbh im prob trying to run before i can walk.

matt

 

[madscientist]

thanks has helped a lot already

i have read quite a lot but there is so much to read im getting information overload. tbh im prob trying to run before i can walk.

matt

I understand completely. My suggestion is play a game where you build military and kill everyone until you lose. Next play a game where you build all wonders in the capital, and all buildings in the other cities until you lose. Last play a game where you build cottages and run specialists to get as far in tech as you can before losing (you will if you ignore military). Once you lose those three games you'll get the basics, then try to belnd them at the lowest difficulty and move up as you feel comfortable. Some of us play at Chiefton level, some at nobel (the most balanced), some Monarch (my level) and some win routinely at Diety.

 

[Game_Addy]

If a specialist economy is being run, then more likely than not, Representation is being run as well. It gives any specialist in the city(this includes settled Great People) +3 beakers. Now, this may not seem like a lot, but they get multipliers, and can add up quickly. Take, for example, an island city with a wheat, corn, and two fish. IIRC, they give a total of...24 food with Lighthouse/Farms. 26 after discovering Biology. That 24 food can support 9 specialists(it costs 2 food to work the tile, and each specialist is 2 food. 4 citizens=8 food used, leaving 18 food). If you turn them into Scientists, you get 6 beakers a piece, or 54 beakers total. A library will increase that to about 68. Not half bad for a city which has next to no production. And they give GPP points.

As mentioned before, Great People are usually settled(except for a Great Artist, who should be burned at the stake...err...I mean to say, he should create a great work or Golden Age).

To answer the other part of your question though is City Specialization. In the same game, another city consisted of 2 Sheep(one on a mountain but the other was on grass) and a wheat on, and the rest plains/mountains. With that city, I irrigated all the grassland, and either mined or built workshops on the rest. If you want productivity, IMO, a mined hill or workshop'd plains is the way to go. You'll want to make sure you have enough food-producing tiles to be able to work them though(farms/pastures). I believe it was making about 20-30 hammers/turn before multipliers. Focus on a city being either production, specialist or cottage(generally only my capitol falls in this category due to Bureacracy)

 

[futurehermit]

Howdy,

To get used to specialists, just dedicate one city to them. After literature, that city gets the National Epic which gives you +100% gpp. If you run pacificism that is another +100% gpp.

You want this city to build primarily specialist buildings such as library, market, grocer, temples, forge, courthouse (if bts), theatre, etc.

For tile improvements you want LOTS of surplus food. The more the merrier. You will need some production for the buildings, but in general you just want farms and special tiles that have lots of food (livestock/seafood/grains). This is because specialists cost you 2 food each, but don't generate any so you need surplus food to be able to run the specialists. You want to be running as many as possible. Unless you have a city that has built a helluvalotta wonders, no city should be producing more gp than your gpfarm city.

What to do with your gp?

GS: Your first one should build an academy in your capital. Your second one could lightbulb philosophy (you need meditation, col or drama, and math). Others can build academies in other high-commerce cities or lightbulb appealing techs or get settled in your capital with plans of building Oxford university there.

GM: Sending these guys on trade missions overseas for $$$ to upgrade your troops is a good idea if you have a number of highly-promoted but outdated troops kicking around. Settling them in your future Wall Street city is also ok. Lightbulbing is generally not recommended with them, but can be advantageous sometimes.

GA: Unless you're playing for a cultural victory (in which case you want to produce their great work in your lowest of the 3 legendary cities you are trying for), these guys have limited uses. I usually use them for golden ages, but you can also use their "culture bomb" to relieve cultural pressure off of a city where you don't want to go to war with the offender (in which case you would just sack the offending city) or you can use it to remove the revolt period after capturing a city, which can help a lot if used strategically later in the game during conquest.

GP: These guys can build shrines in holy cities. This can be beneficial if the religion has spread enough or if you plan on spreading it. They can also lightbulb techs along the religious path as well as Civil Service which is a great tech to bulb if you can. They can also be settled a la Obsolete to give both a $ and production bonus to the city they are settled in. Although small individually they can add up, especially after buildings start modifying the bonus.

GE: These guys can rush wonders to completion. Pretty handy to build an expensive wonder in 1 turn (Later-game wonders need 2 GEs to build in 1 turn). They can also lightbulb some good techs (machinery/engineering) or can be settled like priests.

GSpy (BtS): These guys can be used to infiltrate an enemy civ. The huge amount of espionage points you get can be used to steal techs amongst other things. They can also build scotland yard in a city which gives +100% esp points in that city.

 

[mattux]

thanks everyone

the gp/specialists are becoming clearer now
maybe ill post a save game in a couple of days for someone to laugh at

matt