GeezerGamer
Chieftain
Great Artist.
Two words: CULTURE BOMB!
Two words: CULTURE BOMB!
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What is your favorite Great Person?
- Thread starter blitzkrieg1980
- Start date
blitzkrieg1980
Octobrist
@Solo4114What's your favorite, though? Which one did you vote for?
As I have become addicted to the Great wall, I have also become addicted to Great Spies. With an early great spy you can steal more techs with an infiltration than you can trade for with a bulbed tech. You also get to steal them at a fair price instead of the blackmail rates the Ai charges for trades. I now play with tech brokering off to avoid the temptation to trade stolen techs. That is just too abusive. There is no "WFYABTA" in the espionage game. And don't give me that "we're not ready to start sharing this technology yet" crap. You'll give me that tech when i want it. "We will never trade with you, our worst enemy".....hey buddy a trade implies you are getting something in return....which you aren't.
And due to the nature of espionage costs being affected by the total number of EP generated per turn each successive infiltration is more effective. I try for three by the time jails/intellagencies/security bureaus are available. By that time my discount is incredible and the EP's generated by those buildings and a single spy specialist in each city is more than enough to do the job.
I used to think settling and SY was the way to go until I realised that more espionage early is better than the long term benefits of settling. And while a scotland yard gives a great boost to a cities EP. The reduced cost from an infiltration benefits the EP from every other city you will ever have.
And lastly, upping your beaker rate, gold rate or culture rate does not lower the effectiveness of the enemies similar rates. Espionage does. The more you generate the less effective theirs become. Not only that by the Ai seems to realise this and take steps to try and close the gap. Thus taking away vital commerce from their research and gold to aim towards espionage.
And due to the nature of espionage costs being affected by the total number of EP generated per turn each successive infiltration is more effective. I try for three by the time jails/intellagencies/security bureaus are available. By that time my discount is incredible and the EP's generated by those buildings and a single spy specialist in each city is more than enough to do the job.
I used to think settling and SY was the way to go until I realised that more espionage early is better than the long term benefits of settling. And while a scotland yard gives a great boost to a cities EP. The reduced cost from an infiltration benefits the EP from every other city you will ever have.
And lastly, upping your beaker rate, gold rate or culture rate does not lower the effectiveness of the enemies similar rates. Espionage does. The more you generate the less effective theirs become. Not only that by the Ai seems to realise this and take steps to try and close the gap. Thus taking away vital commerce from their research and gold to aim towards espionage.
fugazi
King
I love Great Merchants. They can give me a big sum of gold, make me specialise a gold city even more and get some free food to boot or I can grab a tech with them!
The money can be used to run a deficit for a long time, upgrade troops, rush-buy things and or to buy techs/other stuff from other AI's. While I rarely generate them by focusing lots of cities on merchants, I'm doing so now more often
*Fugazi is a devoted REX-maniac*
The money can be used to run a deficit for a long time, upgrade troops, rush-buy things and or to buy techs/other stuff from other AI's. While I rarely generate them by focusing lots of cities on merchants, I'm doing so now more often
*Fugazi is a devoted REX-maniac*
blitzkrieg1980
Octobrist
I love Great Merchants. They can give me a big sum of gold, make me specialise a gold city even more and get some free food to boot or I can grab a tech with them!
The money can be used to run a deficit for a long time, upgrade troops, rush-buy things and or to buy techs/other stuff from other AI's. While I rarely generate them by focusing lots of cities on merchants, I'm doing so now more often
*Fugazi is a devoted REX-maniac*
I used to run 2 GP farms in my SE. 1 Great Scientist Farm(the bigger of the 2) and 1 Great Merchant Farm.
Now, I'll look at my cities and if I'm lacking a second or third solid unit production city, I'll run a GS farm and a Great Prophet farm and settle all my GPs in my second or third best production city. Turns it into a production/gold mecca.
popejubal
Emperor
Just like everything else in Civ IV, it depends on the game and on the map in particular.
If someone else builds the Temple of Artemis in their coastal capital, there's not much that can beat a Great Merchant.
If you've founded an early religion, there's not much that can beat a Great Priest. Running at 100% science for the entire game regardless of the number of cities you built is a lot of fun.
I used to absolutely salivate when I popped a Great Engineer. Now, not so much. If I can build the wonder myself, I'll do it. If not, I'll be happy to take it from the AI later in the game.
Great Scientists are simply amazing on smaller maps. On huge maps, they're pretty much only good for bulbing techs.
Great Artists are wonderful. If you want to start a Golden Age. Other than that, they're worthless.
Great Spies are extremely powerful, but I don't have a whole lot of fun with them just because of the odd play style you have to adopt to make them worthwhile. I don't like to build spies so much, so a settled Great Spy is not as important for me.
If someone else builds the Temple of Artemis in their coastal capital, there's not much that can beat a Great Merchant.
If you've founded an early religion, there's not much that can beat a Great Priest. Running at 100% science for the entire game regardless of the number of cities you built is a lot of fun.
I used to absolutely salivate when I popped a Great Engineer. Now, not so much. If I can build the wonder myself, I'll do it. If not, I'll be happy to take it from the AI later in the game.
Great Scientists are simply amazing on smaller maps. On huge maps, they're pretty much only good for bulbing techs.
Great Artists are wonderful. If you want to start a Golden Age. Other than that, they're worthless.
Great Spies are extremely powerful, but I don't have a whole lot of fun with them just because of the odd play style you have to adopt to make them worthwhile. I don't like to build spies so much, so a settled Great Spy is not as important for me.
blitzkrieg1980
Octobrist
I can see a case for the Great Artist being better than just for starting a golden age. Cultural wins utilizing a Great Artist farm instead of GS might be one. Or rocking back and forth between GS and GA for your GP farm.
Skallagrimson
Deity
- Joined
- Sep 12, 2006
- Messages
- 2,043
All of them. MOAR MOAR MOAR!!! LOL...
Probably Great Spies are a close second to Great Engineers (never any such thing as too many GEs). But Great Scientists are a very close third to that.
Merchants, if I only get one for Sushi I'm good, really.
Prophets, if I get any (and I usually don't), they're good for a shrine, but, meh.
Artists, Golden Age or border management.
They're all good, but I guess I have a slight pref for engineers and spies.
Probably Great Spies are a close second to Great Engineers (never any such thing as too many GEs). But Great Scientists are a very close third to that.
Merchants, if I only get one for Sushi I'm good, really.
Prophets, if I get any (and I usually don't), they're good for a shrine, but, meh.
Artists, Golden Age or border management.
They're all good, but I guess I have a slight pref for engineers and spies.
blitzkrieg1980
Octobrist
Which is exactly why I like the Great Prophet. You can create an almost pure GrProph farm right from the start of the game. I guess with a civ like Egypt, it's almost too easy. But you can really get them to pump out. Since they contribute to both
and 
and will never go obsolete, if I pop nothing but Great Prophets all game I'm happy. And if I'm using a cottage economy, I can keep the science slider much higher from the gold from the prophets and a few merchant specialist cities for that gold.I didn't. I don't really have a favorite. It's all about which one is most useful to me at a given moment. Least favorite is probably Great Merchant or Great Spy, though. They have their uses, but I find that once you have one or two great spies who've built Scotland Yard in a few cities, they aren't really worth it. They get used up on any mission they run, they can't pop techs, etc.
Great Merchants are similar although they can still pop techs and can found corporations. But the trade mission thing? Useless mostly, unless you're in DIRE need of cash. E ven then, you can usually sell soemthing to the AI.
Ultimocrat
Warlord
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2007
- Messages
- 274
I think trade missions can actually be pretty useful as a means of raising funds for an army upgrade.
Stewie0416
Who Cares?
I usually LOVE a great merchant around the time i get rifling. Helps get all those nice CR3 maces to CR3 rifles. The money can also be used to upgrade siege weapons to cannons.
Which is exactly why I like the Great Prophet. You can create an almost pure GrProph farm right from the start of the game. I guess with a civ like Egypt, it's almost too easy. But you can really get them to pump out. Since they contribute to both
I'm not a big fan of Great Prophets, as settling Great Persons is really not that worth it anymore once you get to the Renaissance. And they can't lightbulb/create a special building past Divine Right or found a Corporation.
Depending on the map, for me it's either a GM or a GE. Whether I want Sid's Sushi or Mining Inc/Crative Constructions more.
blitzkrieg1980
Octobrist
I don't really care about corporations. By the time the good ones are available, I'm usually close to winning. Once I step up my difficulty again, they might become more useful.
Settling past the Renaissance Era isn't worth settling? Really? That's when settling nets you the largest bonuses all game. In the capital (my usual GP settling point), each Great Prophet provides +10 +4.5
(university/library/rep) and +4 (bureaucracy/forge/orgRel) for buildings or +4.5 for units (bureaucracy/forge/MilAcademy).
It's game specific, of course, but usually my games end before corporations can even be fully utilized.
Settling past the Renaissance Era isn't worth settling? Really? That's when settling nets you the largest bonuses all game. In the capital (my usual GP settling point), each Great Prophet provides +10
+4.5 (university/library/rep) and +4 (bureaucracy/forge/orgRel) for buildings or +4.5 for units (bureaucracy/forge/MilAcademy).It's game specific, of course, but usually my games end before corporations can even be fully utilized.
settling past renaissance of course gives huge bonuses, but the # of turns to benefit from them is now much shorter, whereas benefit from GA increases greatly.
I find GProphets useful for GA post-renaissance, second GA (combined with someone you pop regularly) particularly, or 3rd when combined with GE from fusion & someone else.
I find GProphets useful for GA post-renaissance, second GA (combined with someone you pop regularly) particularly, or 3rd when combined with GE from fusion & someone else.
blitzkrieg1980
Octobrist
I see what you mean. On the other hand, the faster I can win is sometimes the more desirable (if I'm not looking for the epic feel of the game). So, honestly, the less turns I benefit anything right from the start is better. Since less turns benefiting means less turns until victory
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