Sweden - Getting Great People early strategy?

[tiamats4esgares]

Say I'm playing as Sweden and I want to found a religion and get all the great scientists, merchants, and engineers I can (especially early) but we can ignore W/A/M. I also want to try to found a bunch of cities. xD And playing on Deity. To make matters easier, we can play on Archipelago if need be to prevent aggressive neighbors. xD

Here's my thoughts:

Usually my first build is a Slinger, and then start Settler spam for the most part. If wanting to go for a religion, I might chose to instead build a Holy Site and Shrine after the first Settler, then go back to Settlers. The second city I usually start with a trader or builder first, then usually the other. I usually get the civic policy that gives +1 production in all cities.

But if I want Great Merchants/Scientists early, here's another thought: What if I do in my capital: Slinger, Settler, Holy Site, Shrine, Campus? And instead of the +1 production, get the one with faith and try to rush the pantheon that gives a settler to build my 3rd city. Then make the best production city of the 2nd and 3rd the settler spammer, and the other will be making districts along with my capital for great people?

Any thoughts on this? From potentially anyone else who has tried this? Do I have a good plan or am I way off base? lol

 

[Loerwyn]

Faith's pretty useful if you're playing Sweden, because if your Faith output is high enough then you'll be able to 'snipe' Great People away from other players. It could be that, say, Greece is generating a lot of W/A/M points, but if you're doing okay on that front and have good Faith output, you can buy the Great People just before another Civ is about to earn them.

You'll probably want to focus more on Sci (Great Sci) and Cul (W/A/M) districts, but I personally find Faith a useful secondary currency. This also ties in with one of the Dedications you can make, which means you can purchase Builders + Settlers with Faith, which can help you expand cheaply and at little 'real' cost to your Empire.

 

[Archon_Wing]

No real point in fitting merchants into them. There's better synergy with harbors since you're getting astrology anyways. I would mostly focus on campus/theater/holy for better synergy woth the rest of Sweden's abilities. You can just sell favor for gold anyways so commercial hubs just aren't that useful.

Also God King is terrible. +1 faith a turn will not guarantee religious settlements or really any good pantheon really.

 

[sdtum21]

Also God King is terrible. +1 faith a turn will not guarantee religious settlements or really any good pantheon really.

I would go even further and say that Religious Settlements is extremely difficult to snipe unless you're playing a civ that gets early-game faith like Mali, or you get lucky with a faith goody hut. The AI guns for it in 99% of games.

Getting a religion is definitely a good idea as Sweden, as you'll want strong faith generation in order to more comfortably afford naturalists and rock bands late-game. I'm not sure how I feel about neglecting writers, artists, and musicians though considering Sweden is a culture civ through and through.

 

[Lily_Lancer]

Archipelago is Archipelago. If you're playing Archipelago Frigate suddenly becomes your first and only prior regardless of Civ. All of your efforts shall based on forming an army of Frigate as quickly as possible.

 

[Victoria]

@tiamats4esgares why do you want to ignore GWAM? They are Sweden’s best producers and you do not have to use them just produce them if your ultimate game is the 50 bonus.
Understanding why you want these GP is the key.
For example the trader inspiration can be gained from one CH and projects.
Why the prophet? You can only get one of them, but I guess it does point to diplo
If you are just wanting what you state for something different to do then you need to state what you call early and build your strategy around that. District discounts is not going to work well with such a spread so early placement and limit finishing until near the time you want to build them seems sensible.

 

[WiserFanatic]

I would say build more settlers in the beginning.