What is the best way to manage/control which GP you get?

[WilliamOfOrange]

Okay, after reading many posts about popping GPs and what not, I have a question to ask about preventing "mistakes". I played a game and was very careful about not polluting the GGPs, but accidents happen. My question is, how could I have avoided these problems/mistakes?

First of all, check out this sweet start. (Attached below). I am Greece and Athens has 4 corn and 3 deer in the city limits!! Simply orgasmic!!! I thought I was going to blow my....... um, ok....I digress.

Anyway, how did I screw this up? That is the question. Well, in going for a cultural win on a duel setter map and trying out the great features of the Odeon I had increased my GA assignments to four. The problem with this enormous amount of food, I kept getting so large, that other GP were being assigned. One Engineer, which actually is quite good for rushing the Taj Mahal or Statue of Liberty, but I kept having stupid scientists being assigned.

Given that the Odeon allow you to double your GAs assigned, I though it best to not worry about Caste System and continue to run Slavery for the other 2-4 cities. The production in Sparta was quite good, and the third one really turned out nicely, but I figured whipping culture improvements means they are there quicker and therefore culture grows faster. I had granaries and kept them around size 6-9 usually. I slowed down with the whipping later, but used it mostly on cathedrals.

With Athens it was another story,....I ran out of things to whip! I could have build grocer, bank, etc, but I still had GSs messing things up. At one point I turned on the avoid growth option, but to no avail. I popped a few Scientists which was okay to techbulb Education, but eventually I had one who would discover Compass for ;me....no thanks. I had already build two Academies at this point. I eventually used him with a GP for a 2nd Golden Age.

Eventually, I triggered domination, but I feel I would have won cultural if I had only had an extra GA or two, rather than the other "useless" GPs.

So, my questions are:

1. Should I have just switched to CS to avoid the four GA limit? I could have done that with switches to Pacifism and Representation..or even waited until Mercantilism.

2. Should I have delayed building libraries and/or university in Athens? I wouldn't have had the option for scientists and the city governor wouldn't have been so unhelpful to my plan.

3. How often are people checking out their cities to monitor GPs. I wish there was a way of knowing what they were assigned as without going in the city screen.

4. When do GPs switch from one type to another? Is it to maximize the benefits of whatever tiles you switch the citizens to or only when you whip or the city grows?

5. Any other thoughts or suggestions?


Thanks for your input.

 

[WilliamOfOrange]

I think I figured it out. If you click on the GP, than they stay. Makes sense now.

Anyway, playing as Greece again, I got my best Cultural win yet on Settler Duel. I am still wanting to top at least 1200AD like some other people have expertly done, but I will relish in my 1425 AD

Athens had 4 deer (one on FP ),corn, wheat, two pigs (one on hill), plus two marble, copper, wines and furs all in the fat cross! Sparta had three corn, two pigs, fur, and sugar. Both cities were size 20 in the end and each supporting like 5-7 GA. I had spawned 15 GAs! Plus the one from music. I also had a Scientist who bulbed Education for me and the GM from Economics.

I think I have the GP farming under control, just thought I would share the spoils. I have a screen shot if anyone wants to see and maybe suggest wants they would have done differently.

 

[JackOfClubs]

1. If you are trying to get only Great Artists, then yes Caste System would probably have been the way to go.

2. Delaying libraries or universities would also have the side effect of losing the +2 and +3 culture/turn (which doubles if you build them early enough) so I think that would have been a bad move. Better to just check up on your cities to make sure they are not producing the wrong type of GP.

3. Generally you only need to worry about this when the city grows, but I find that if I need to micro-manage aspects of the city (whether it be specialists or tiles worked) I need to look at it every turn or I will forget about it.

4. As noted above the GPs only switch when the population changes. Generally this won't be an issue if you are whipping because you will already be in the city screen and can adjust accordingly if the removed population does not suit the choices you would make.

5. A couple of notes:

a. Great Artists are not the only valuable GPs for a cultural victory. Once you ran out of light-bulb options, you could have added the scientists to your best research city to help research culture-friendly technologies.

b. I usually do more with the culture slider and multiple religions when going for a culture victory.

c. Also, I tend to focus more on building than GPP, so my cultural cities tend to be production-oriented rather than high-food/specialist-oriented.

 

[cabert]

You should have built (whipped in fact) earlier the globe theater, it allows a few more artists.
And if you're having too many food points for what you can use, you can grow the city and use the cottages you have.

That and the national epic would give you so many more sources of "artists", you wouldn't really need caste system. Before being size 12. 2 turns away ...
Really this situation screams for globe first then whip everything.
Growing past your health limit isn't a problem, when you have so many 5+ food tiles.

Just one question: did you World Build this city? It just doesn't seem right.

Edit : I see your other cities needed loads of artists too. Caste System is what you need.

 

[WilliamOfOrange]

I have been trying other games with the Caste system, but it's hard to put down the whip. I did not use the World Builder, but it is quite amazing isn't it? I have regenerated many times since then, as I hope for something like that again. Yeah Globe Theatre makes sense. Thanks

As per Jack's advice, I am going to try more productive cities and see what happens.