What is the most useful Great Person?

[diablodelmar]

For me it's the Great Merchant. He seems to be the hardest guy to get, and I get a lot of satisfaction from conducting trade missions to cities really far away from me.

 

[vinstafresh]

Depends, they all serve their purpose. I have done great things with them when I needed them the most, but sometimes I have no purpose for them.

I have had a great merchant which gave me enough cash to upgrade my army while I was about to be overrun by two neighbours. The cash gave me the upper hand instantly.

Great prophets can be huge when you have early religions. Early great scientists can offer a nice boost in research in the early game with an academy.

Great engineers are often useful for the bigger early wonders.

Great artists can be useful when you capture an enemy capital which you want to be productive off the bat upon capturing.

Can't decide

 

[Civistynyt]

In my games I usually go after cultural victory, so I vote the artist. And the artist is also great when you took a city from the enemy.

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

My three favourite are:

Engineers - Hurrying wonders
Prophets - Building a religion's shrine
Artist - Expanding the culture of a city

But my favourite of the three is the Engineer.

 

[ShaLouZa]

Engineer by far, Scientist second.

 

[sligo]

I go engineer first (rushing wonders)
then
Artist 2nd (culture bomb)

- Sligo

 

[Dueck]

Torn apart
I picked engineer because getting an early wonder quick is just fantastic; auto-win the construction race, and don't waste your cities' time building the thing. But I agree with vinstafresh: each has their own purpose.

The only one I'd exclude (except when doing a cultural victory) is the great artist, whom I find to be particularly useless - the military effect of early expansion of borders is adequately replaced by a few turns with +% culture after a city capture (IMHO).

If you're going for a military win, the others will give you an edge in at least some area: scientists will allow you to better keep up with tech, merchant will have a similar effect, allowing you to increase your +% science without decreasing your income as much, priest is like the merchant (both to be used as super-specialists unless you can build a shrine).

 

[mucco]

I chose the engineer because it can spawn an expensive building anywhere - not just in your capital. I've made great use of GE near the borders, with military and culture wonders. In fact, a GE can be nearly as effective as a merged artist when it builds a +10 culture building.
Artists are cool especially early, when there is a big lack of them .
Prophets are good all-around, because they can build the religious wonders (which is not so good if you haven't founded any religions), but they can also be merged and provide a very nice bonus IMO. 2h is not bad, but that 5g is amazing, when combined with market, grocer, bank and possibly wall street it becomes 15gpt. If i merge 3 prophets i get such an amazing amount of money that can support a whole empire by itself.
Merchants are quite useful, i find their best use is to merge them into a city to get almost 20gpt. It's better than having a single 1000g bonus, i think.
Scientists can build academies, but i don't like them very much. An academy is not as big as a shrine or a wonder IMO.

 

[Raisin Bran]

My personal favorite is the great scientist

In the game that Im on right now i pop one every 5 turns .... it gives me a HUGE upper edge in the tech race .... cuz I use them only to discover new tech! ...... I was a bit late in the tech racy and in about 30 turns a was really all over the tech tree

 

[Crighton]

Could someone who chose the Great Artist expand on it a bit, I find the GA to be almost useless. I'd like to see some suggestions for tips on what to do with them (i don't really try for cultural victories and culture bombs don't impress me all that much).

 

[Meffy]

But my favourite of the three is the Engineer.

Well, of course. A beaver would. ;-) If there were Great Chemists, I'd naturally gravitate toward them.

Crighton: The culture bomb isn't meant to impress you. The idea is to impress the inhabitants of your opponents' tiles enough for them to switch to your civ, and for that they work just dandy! :-D Warmonger? Culture your way right up to a rival city for the easiest invasion ever.

 

[King Flevance]

1) Engineer - Wonder Rush
2) Artist - can be used in cultural victory as specialist, or be used to push borders in military campaign through Great Works.
3) Scientist - Making an acadamy in top research cities is very noticable to gain an edge in tech race.

 

[Crighton]

The idea is to impress the inhabitants of your opponents' tiles enough for them to switch to your civ, and for that they work just dandy! :-D Warmonger? Culture your way right up to a rival city for the easiest invasion ever.

For me by the time I get GA's to start appearing I'm already well into my warmongering (which up until I started reading these forums would mean late or mid late game, now my warmongering just seems to keep coming earlier and earlier, I even manage the occaisional crumbshot with the first warior knocking the odd civ out of the game).

The engineers and scientists or more usefull to me, more upfront value I think. I hve flipped the occaisional border city, and lost a mere one previously conquered city once, but thats about it.

 

[jray]

Could someone who chose the Great Artist expand on it a bit, I find the GA to be almost useless. I'd like to see some suggestions for tips on what to do with them (i don't really try for cultural victories and culture bombs don't impress me all that much).

1. Capture workable tiles from neighboring cities, or even capture the cities themselves, by using GA's on the borders of your empire. Create great works to get instant flip-overs, or park them as super specialists to get gradual flip-overs over time with the added research/gold benefits.

2. If you're going for a cultural victory, parking GA's in your 3 best cities as super specialists can generate massive culture over time when accompanied by cathedrals and other culture-multiplying buildings.

I've been spamming GA's on my borders in my current Monarch game for a while now, and I've already flipped 4 cities over to my empire and reduced 4 others down to single tiles, just waiting to revolt . So I'm getting the benefits of a military expansion campaign without creating anything more than a few minimal defense units and parking them in my cities to ward off would-be attackers. I suppose that a military campaign would be more fun for some, but I enjoy the concept of overwhelming competitors with culture rather than war (and find that it takes less micro-management). And remember that culture improves your city defense.

 

[AngryPants]

I side with the majority and select the Great Engineer. What would be interesting is a poll that let you rank all 5.

 

[BubbaYeti]

I'd say great prophet for early game, to found religion and build shrine. Late game, great engineer, because of the many useful wonders available later on (kremlin, three gorges dam, statue of liberty, space elevator, pentagon ...)

 

[Snerk]

I think the great artist is the most powerful unit in all of the game. Its abillity to end a resistains and drop 4000 culture points can often be vital for the survilval of your empire. Plus i like their outfits

 

[Meffy]

Their special move is the best too. Hunka hunka burnin' Civ!

 

[salty mud]

I like great Scientists the best. They can discover useful techs really fast!

In a close second second are the Great Artists. Good tech discoveries, and the +4000 is fantastic for expanding cities!

(btw, mdern artist make me )

 

[Dominus Belli]

Overall, I prefer the advantages of the Great Scientist. Early on, building academies gives a nice boost to your research, and later in the game contributions to techs are also very helpful. Great Engineers are also very good, especially later in the game, when many excellent wonders become available. Great Artists' culture bombs are also a great way to apply pressure to enemy border cities.