Starting a Golden Age with multiple Great People

[D64]

Is there a way to control which Great People are selected? For example, I group together two Great Prophets in a separate square, and the AI always picks one of them, and then one at random from another city that I don't want to burn for the GA.

 

[lymond]

A Golden Age requires 2 or more Great People of different types (except the first Golden Age that only requires 1 GP). If you have more GPs than required for that Golden Age, you can group them on the same tile to ensure that only those 2 are used. Do not group more than needed on the same tile or they will be chosen randomly.

2 Great Prophets are not valid to kick off a Golden Age. 1 Great Prophet plus 1 other Great Person will work.

 

[Seraiel]

Yes, the GP must be of different types, so i. e. the 5th Golden-Age requires you to have one of almost every Great Person available.

Seraiel.

 

[6K Man]

What lymond said. Move the GP you want to use to a tile away from your other GP. Make sure you have the required number (1 more for each successive Golden Age) and that they are all different varieties. Group them as a stack and click the Golden Age button.

 

[PPQ_Purple]

I wonder at what point do you people think spending GPs on golden ages hits diminishing returns? I tend not to do it ever as I always have better stuff for them to do.

 

[AcaMetis]

Probably around three, I'm guessing. It's pretty easy to get together a total of three "useless" Great People of at least two different types to start two Golden Ages, but three different types is a little harder. Not impossible of course, but I'm assuming less common.

 

[6K Man]

I wonder at what point do you people think spending GPs on golden ages hits diminishing returns? I tend not to do it ever as I always have better stuff for them to do.

Depends how big your empire is. If you have 40+ cities, a Golden Age can be worth 10,000+ and a few thousand

 

[lymond]

I wonder at what point do you people think spending GPs on golden ages hits diminishing returns? I tend not to do it ever as I always have better stuff for them to do.

Depends a great deal on your objective, but playing the long game like Space Victory, I'd say it's the reverse of diminishing.

 

[6K Man]

The other thing to consider about Golden Ages is that if you have a state religion and access to Pacifism and Caste system, you can finish one with more Great People than you started with. Sure, you're not getting more Great People so much as you're getting earlier Great People, but it's a nice side effect from the Music Artist or the Taj.

Bulbing a tech and trading it around, or using Great People to bulb something that gives you a major advantage (Liberalism or Machinery, say) are great moves in the early to mid game. In the late game, it's not really that thrilling to get a Great Scientist anymore ("Oh look, I can bulb 34% of this tech!"). When you're working 300-odd tiles, Golden Ages' +1 hammer and +1 Commerce per tile, x multipliers, x 8 turns, really adds up. And there's free civic changes on top of that.

 

[Seraiel]

In Espionage Victories two Golden Ages, in Space Races Five Golden Ages, that' s what I can say from My Games.

@PPQ_Purple : Try building the Mausoleum of Mausollos, I consider the MoM to be the best Wonder in Civilization IV.