We/sse?

[madscientist]

I will play this out my next game to see. I do believe I can get to liberalism and bulb astronomy with this economy at emperor/normal by 1000 AD but things have to be reasonably right. Again the WS/SSE is situational.

As far as the early expansion/hammer investment, yes it's a risk. However, getting a good City#2 reduces the risk and those settled GPs more than make up for the lost hammers. Again, it's a builder's game but does not rule out war-mongering.

 

[Freedom]

If you did really, really well and got 8 great people by 1000 AD, and settled them all in the capitol with representation, AND somehow managed to have 200% worth of science multipliers there already without bulbing, AND the average settled spec was worth say 7 beakers (some scientists, some engineers, some priests/merchants/artists, but one used to get the academy for the multipliers), you'd be getting less than 200 BPT from this "economy" even still.

The settled super specialists are just a bonus, the capital is still a normally functioning city. Depending on food it could be supporting a lot of cottages as well. The point is, that extra 200BPT is extremely significant, especially in the early game, and it comes at the cost of no food, no tiles having to be worked... They are by far the most powerful citizens available, but of course they come with opportunity costs.

 

[Ignorant Teacher]

Wow! I'm really enjoying the discussion in this thread. For what I've read so far, wonderwhoring and settling most of the specs can be a way to make a less optimal kind of land count a little more. You can't base your whole game around it, but I guess it is a nice way to play in, say, a kind of boxed in situation with not so good a land. The settled specs can work as an extra city in the long run (except for the military prod) and it can help you get a nice ground to either expand later or launch, depending on the situation of the other empires compared to yours.

I like to play in crowded maps, I think the diplomacy gets more interesting. Unfortunately I don't have such a good PC so I can't play large or huge maps and have fun at the same time. In this case no one gets to expand a lot peacefully in a normal game so the SSEs can give me a huge edge over the AI. (But then again, in such a map taking one or two AIs early can make you a run away). When you have the standard number of civs it's not something you should pursue regardless of your situation, you can usually get a better economy having 10-15 cities then with 1 super city, 1-2 good ones and 3-4 underdeveloped.

The way I see it, this style of playing is another card in your sleeve that you should use depending on the map. And, in my opinion, it's really fun.

Spoiler :

(I've started a game with Qin and the way the continent is made me try to go for it. I'm starting a new thread with it, it's a standard size fractal map with the standard number of civs. Stone and Marble are nearby but there aren't many good early city spots. If anyone wants to try it feel free to join. I'll be playing some segments online, up to where I've played so far and I'd really appreciate suggestions, comments and criticism of my stupid moves.)

 

[TheMeInTeam]

The settled super specialists are just a bonus, the capital is still a normally functioning city. Depending on food it could be supporting a lot of cottages as well. The point is, that extra 200BPT is extremely significant, especially in the early game, and it comes at the cost of no food, no tiles having to be worked... They are by far the most powerful citizens available, but of course they come with opportunity costs.

That "extra" 200 is actually being compared against the output of several extra cities often, and you have to factor in the costs of an altered tech path, potential opportunity cost attached to an early war, etc. Finally comes the realization that this 200 BPT comes quite late in the game, for much of the game it is well under 100 or even 50, and for that part of the game you're small and your output in the capitol is only a little bit better than with no wonders at all depending on your land...

It is wrong to count the settled specs against no specs too. What if someone with 3 extra cities (or maybe 4+) popped say 4-6 GPs instead of 8 and also just settled them? They wouldn't be very far behind considering their extra land come constitution. So really wonderspam only buys less than a handful of extra GPs compared to just running a bunch somewhere with national epic or pacifism (or both), because of their diminishing returns.

 

[muxec]

[troll]
When I play Pericles I have so many settled Great Scientists in my OU city that it becomes decent production.
[/troll]

Seriously though specialists give not only beakers, even under rep.