Where do you put your great person tile improvement?

[justaquestion]

just curious as to what the best is to do. i usually put them on tundra or plains. tundra mostly. i know i am not getting any other tile yeild from tundra though.i put them on plains when i have to bc i dont like to use the three food i get from them. i never use them on grasslands bc i want that 4 food. but ik that strat has its downfalls too. your using a population point just for science, but im a science guy so i like growth lol. anyways. whats the best to do? i assume its putting em on plains or grassland but i dont. im just wondering what yall think is the best to do?

 

[Browd]

If you aren't putting them on a food-giving tile, you are sacrificing food elsewhere to support the citizen working the GP improvement tile. So, for example, if you have a post-Civil Service riverside farm (4 food) and plop your GP on a plain desert tile, the excess food from the farm tiles is being used to support the citizen working the GP tile improvement. All things being equal, I would prefer to put the GP tile improvement on a tile that is food-self-sustaining, so I still get the excess food from the 4-food farm.

Best are tiles that don't involve sacrificing any food (grassland cows are best -- you lose the hammer from a pasture, but as long as you've already built a stable you get 3 food, 1 hammer and the GP tile yield). Next best, in my book, are food tiles whose farms do not enjoy an extra apple until Fertilizer, so the only loss is 1 food from a farm (and who really wants to work a 3-food grasslands farm?). Non-riverside grasslands are fine -- 2 food plus the GP tile yield. If I'm only left with 1 food tiles (non-riverside plains tiles, plains horses, sheep on a hill), then I'll usually drop on the horses first (lose 1 hammer from pasture) and then non-riverside plains tiles (forsaking 1 farm food until Fertilizer) or the sheep (lose 1 food from pasture).

Least attractive are worthless tiles, like tundra or, even worse, flat desert.

 

[Granty555]

Personally I put them on non-riverside grassland (at least early ones). That way you can work the tile for the faith/culture/production etc while remaining food neutral. Riverside farms get the food bonus early (Civil service) while non riverside don't get that bonus until fertiliser which is quite a way down the track.

 

[justaquestion]

ok what yall sayin is making sense. ill put it on nonriverside grasslands and grassland cows.

 

[DudewiththeFood]

All Great People tiles improve strategic resources so you don't lose by putting them there. Just saying.

 

[budweiser]

I tend to put them on hills so I dont lose out on a 4 food tiles. We are talking about the cap here, so I am working some hills probably and I dont mind losing 2 hammers.

 

[beetle]

I am so rigid about this that I only plant GP when I have non-riverside grassland available. Browd, you have tried to educate me about this before, but I can’t remember. Why is planting on wheat worse than planting on cow or sheep? Is loosing extra granary benefit that much worse than losing stable side effect?

 

[Browd]

You still get the granary benefit (applies to raw wheat, not just farmed wheat). If it is non-riverside wheat, I will plant a GP on it. If it's riverside wheat, I am less likely to do so (prefer not to lose 2 food from the post-Civil Service farm).

Whether it's better to lose 1 food or 1 hammer when dropping on a bonus resource depends on the entire situation in that city -- varies from game to game.

 

[danaphanous]

hmmm. I see the points made here, however I also tend to like to plop GP tiles on otherwise worthless terrain. Yes, it will grow slower in the short run because they don't support themselves with food, so this is a slower start. however, I find that by turn 300 or so my cities are giant anyway (I always get the % growth bonuses because I like tall cities and ally with mercantile states to make up for choices like this). So yes, until my cities are big I've lost some growth momentum doing this: but with a few exceptions. Tundra or desert coast cities or islands often have very low initial production without a great engineer tile boost. Because of the off-shore resources and granaries, etc, I build to compensate this extra production boost is definitely the best choice. And it doesn't sacrifice my squares that were already productive. By the later turns my cities are marginally better as a result of these choices with only a dozen or so turns of growth lost. I would argue for doing the worthless-tile scheme later when your cities are big so you don't lose out on any other potential, but at least in my experience you don't get more than a few GP tiles until this stage anyway. So, circumstantially I would say there's a place for both schemes. Great Engineer tiles tend to complement well with worthless tiles though. I've turned many a marginal island or coastal city into a proficient producer with one of these and the workshop/factory/plant multipliers.

 

[Vitruvius]

Sheep, cows, non river wheat, strategics that I want to work. You shouldn't be working your tundra anyway. Its only 1 food, it doesnt even support itself. You should be using the pop for specialists.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

[Memoryjar]

All Great People tiles improve strategic resources so you don't lose by putting them there. Just saying.

I tried to plant a great prophet on cotton an realise I loose that lux. Are you sure ? Trading post keep it, but great prophet nope. I didn't try with GSor GE.

I plant GP and GS on non-river grassland or non-river wheat or cattle. GE on hills.

 

[Aaron90495]

This may have already been posted (don't have time to read the whole thread), but PolyCast did a decently-long segment on this exact topic a while ago. Go here (http://civcomm.civfanatics.com/polycast/polycast/season6.php) and listen to the appropriate section of Episode 154. It explains the topic quite well.

 

[thelesserevil]

I tried to plant a great prophet on cotton an realise I loose that lux. Are you sure ? Trading post keep it, but great prophet nope. I didn't try with GSor GE.

He mentioned strategic resources, cotton and other luxuries aren't strategic resources.

 

[Memoryjar]

Oupssss.

 

[Asklepios]

On that topic, I tend to find oil a decent place to drop a late GP. You lose some hammers from not building a well, but you save on quite a few turns. Likewise on coal if I'm trying to speed up the time to starting Factory.

Its a lot of resources lost in the long run, of course, and there's often better uses for late game GPs then planting them, but I sometimes consider it. One thing I'll often do is go for coal or oil that is just outside my borders with a great general. That expands my territory and gets me the strategic resource instantly.

Not sure whether this is a sound approach, but its always worked well for me.

 

[TeriXeri]

It depends if it's an academy It's usually a high food tile (non river grass seems best), manufactories I used to put on hills or strategic Iron/Oil/Aluminium/Uranium, but lately I tend to rush wonders more often on higher diffs.

I hardly ever make Customs houses as I usually don't put specialists into merchant slots.

As far as Holy Sites, hardly use them as well unless pushing religion to the max, with faith purchases (the piety finisher + New Deal(Freedom) makes them even better)

Citadels Tend to get planted somewhere if I end up with 3+ generals.

 

[reddishrecue]

I prefer to put my gp improvements in dry grassland tiles. I don't like to spread religion with the great prophet so I make a holy site instead because of the excess faith that the holy site can give. Great scientists that make academies i rather put them in a city radius that has national college or a observatory for even more science. As for the manufactory, I rather place these usually in the late game when there's no more wonders to build or when I give up on building wonders from a low literacy. I prefer dry grassland if there is any next to the capital.

 

[Grogs]

Can you plant a GP on a tile that has already been improved? It seems when I've tried in the past I haven't been able to (except generals). As a result I usually save a couple of tiles for academies.

 

[joncnunn]

My top priority for great tile improvements:

1. Sheep (with or without fresh water as it doesn't matter)
2. Wheat (no fresh water)

if I run out of such tiles; other candidates are both flat plains & flat grassland without fresh water. Also with Desert Faith or Petra: flat Desert without fresh water.

Yes; an academy can be placed on top of an improved tile; it will replace the old improvement. Same goes for the other ones.