The scratching post

[Catwalk]

Short update:
Ad Hoc wrote that he has no interest in Stonehenge and that there is no need for me to pay him anything in order to let me have Stonehenge and one of the early religions. Relations seem to be developing very nicely, I want to see if I can turn Ad Hoc into a strong ally. In a 5p game that should be a pretty big advantage, and I don't see any risk of running out of targets with a single ally. I suggested to him that I could sell him my first prophet (provided that I land Stonehenge), as I'm reconsidering about an early religion.

Then again, I'm reconsidering back again already The extra GPP and priest slots for the holy city would be very nice together with Stonehenge, if I can land them in the same city. I suppose I might end up with too many prophets, though. Would it make sense to have a prophet farm and a scientist farm, as opposed to a single GP farm?

I'll respond to the rest of your excellent post later No other news, capital reached size 4 and will produce a worker in 4 turns. Still working on [strike]getting started on[/strike] my sandbox. New warrior is moving south, the other is continuing east and should have some useful info when it climbs a hill next turn.

[Catwalk]

I have no idea what I was thinking with the orange site, there are indeed only positives to moving it 1N. 3 forests, 4 less overlap, immediate resource usage and not wasting a river tile are all excellent benefits. I vaguely suspect that this is really what I intended and somehow I messed up the dotmap. At least that sounds better than just messing up

An added benefit of these settlement plans (red then orange) is that I'll be able to manage perfectly fine until Stonehenge lands, not least because my capital will give them extra tiles to work on pretty soon. Time to get that sandbox rolling, this newbie is getting excited!

[Catwalk]

13 hammers for chopping until you have Math, then 20. Usually 20 for whipping, unless you are whipping a wonder or have zero hammers in the box.

Any recommendation on when I should switch to Slavery? With the worker being churned out this fast, I'll only be able to shave off a single turn if I revolt now and whip it. I'm still thinking I'll revolt when I want the settler ready, don't know if that's standard or not. I do have a whole bunch of food available here, with more coming once the pigs are ready.

For the forest chop, SW will clear a tile for the settler to move through, and make it easier to move back into the tile to build one of your needed road segments later.

Makes sense, I'll go for that one.

If you can't get the road ready ahead of time (and improving key resource tiles is definitely more important), try to get it built as soon as you can. This may mean another worker needs to be built -- you will have 2 cities so should get at least 2 workers going if not more. The need for early worker turns for resources, roads, chopping, etc., is what makes having an early worker chop another worker a valuable tactic.
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Building a good sandbox is very valuable if you have the time available to do so. It is the best way to catch small things that would otherwise trip up your planning.

I'll definitely try to give early roading a priority in the sandbox. On that note, I've posted a question about sandboxing in the general forum as I'm not doing too hot with it.

Pink is a pretty strong site, although the jungle is a bit of an issue. You will definitely want IW before, or very soon after, founding this city. Lots of food, so you could run some specialists in Pink quite easily.

Pink is okay, I'll have to see what's available to the E and S. Ad Hoc is founding his first city in our direction, he won't take offense at me founding my 3rd in his direction.

Moai...I am not sure if it has similar requirements as a lighthouse, or if you could build it. But it is pretty expensive for what it does, something like 167 hammers on quick? (375 on epic, so 250 on normal). If you find some stone somewhere it could be worthwhile, otherwise you probably have better ways to spend your hammers.

Civilopedia doesn't say anything about it, I'll try it in the sandbox. I'm tempted to get both Moai and Colossus

I generally play with the BUFFY mod, which includes the BUG features, in my personal games. It has a very nice built-in dot mapping functionality. In games without it, I tend to put signs (alt-S) on the planned center tiles and draw in the BFC borders using the strategy layer tools.

Nice, I hadn't even seen the strategy layer tools yet. They seem a bit limited, but it'll be easier than Paint. Is there a way to switch colours, and can I have it make lines following the grid? Also, are there any interface mods that are allowed in PBEM games?

Why work the lake tile rather than the pigs? The extra commerce is nice, but I usually value a hammer more than a commerce at this stage. It depends what you want, though, a little more research or an extra hpt on the warrior.

The warrior won't be finished anytime soon, I mainly just wanted to finish growing before the workers. With my newfound knowledge, I think I'll be somewhat more daring and use only these two warriors to explore for now. Should I keep a third warrior around to protect workers and settlers?

Stonehenge would be valuable for you, saving you the cost of building monuments in your new cities. But it will cost quite a few hammers -- is this more worthwhile than another settler, or workers, or whatever you could have built instead? On the plus side, how do the hammers compare to building multiple monuments? And the GPP would certainly be nice as a philosophical civ. As with all wonders, there are tradeoffs. Judge the pros and cons and make your decision.

The excited newbie in me just wants to build it I do find it worthwhile, though. I will be getting a discount on my hammers once I put up my fourth city (the culture bonus in the capital will be worth less), and I will effectively be able to boost new cities with production from an established city. I consider this last effect to be highly valuable, since there are few ways to transfer production. One thing I really like about Civ4, btw.

I think I mentioned ad hoc being the only civ starting with Mysticism twice. It gives him a guaranteed early religion if he wants it (and most likely he would, or he is not making the most of his traits). And it may mean he really wants Stonehenge for the GPP, to get a prophet for his shrine. So he may be more of a competitor for it, not less.

Hey, I'm an excited newbie My wife also always complains I'm not paying attention. I do appreciate your posts, though! I talked some more with Ad Hoc, and he's going for Polytheism early on. He has no interest in Stonehenge, so I think chances are really good I can have it in peace. I offered to sell him a great prophet, would this be a good idea if he offers a reasonable price?

There is no benefit that I am aware of to having Stonehenge in the Holy City. The two are not connected in any way. Stonehenge will generate GPP in its city, plus culture, while providing a free monument in all your cities.

2 GPP from Stonehenge + 1 from Holy City + possibly more from priests means there's a bit of synergy GPP wise. I'd rather have the GPP in a single city than spread out. But would this give me more prophets than I need? Is there such a thing?

Hmmm, I guess that was a big enough data dump. I probably should have just found an existing article about religion.

Quite a bit indeed I knew most of that, but thanks for the info about spreading. If I knew for sure that I could get Buddhism if I went for it within a reasonable time frame, would you find it to be worthwhile? The extra culture isn't worth a whole bunch if I get Stonehenge, and it seems like it'll take a while for me to get notable happiness benefits from it (slow spreading). The holy shrine will also take a while to really pay off, and unless I get some good spying on enemy cities with it I doubt it'll be worth it.

[haphazard1]

Short update:
Ad Hoc wrote that he has no interest in Stonehenge and that there is no need for me to pay him anything in order to let me have Stonehenge and one of the early religions. Relations seem to be developing very nicely, I want to see if I can turn Ad Hoc into a strong ally. In a 5p game that should be a pretty big advantage, and I don't see any risk of running out of targets with a single ally. I suggested to him that I could sell him my first prophet (provided that I land Stonehenge), as I'm reconsidering about an early religion.

Then again, I'm reconsidering back again already The extra GPP and priest slots for the holy city would be very nice together with Stonehenge, if I can land them in the same city. I suppose I might end up with too many prophets, though. Would it make sense to have a prophet farm and a scientist farm, as opposed to a single GP farm?

Sounds like ad hoc could turn out to be a valuable friend. Or an evil betrayer only pretending to be a friend, of course, but I think I mentioned that I tend to be overly paranoid in these MP games?

On setting up GP farms...the answer really depends on what you are trying to achieve. There are positives to focusing as much of your GPP into one city as possible: you get more GP sooner, and GP tend to be relatively more valuable earlier in the game. They bulb entire early and mid-game techs rather than fractions of later game techs, getting special buildings (shrines and academies) earlier means more total benefits, settling them earlier also means more total benefits, etc. Also, building one primary GP farm allows you to boost it even further with the National Epic.

On the negative side, you lose certainty of the type of GP you will get. And this can be extremely frustrating if you really need a certain type (like a GS for a particular bulb or an academy) and you keep getting prophets or artists or whatever instead. Also, because of the way costs for the next GP increase you usually end up getting only a few more for the entire game than the spread out strategy would have produced.

If you have a long term bulbing plan (e.g. I will use 5 GS bulbs to grab key techs on the path to Liberalism) then you probably want to spread out your GPP and keep "clean gene pools". But if you just want as many GP as you can get as soon as you can get them, go for one big GP farm.

I have no idea what I was thinking with the orange site, there are indeed only positives to moving it 1N. 3 forests, 4 less overlap, immediate resource usage and not wasting a river tile are all excellent benefits. I vaguely suspect that this is really what I intended and somehow I messed up the dotmap. At least that sounds better than just messing up

That's our story and we're sticking to it!

An added benefit of these settlement plans (red then orange) is that I'll be able to manage perfectly fine until Stonehenge lands, not least because my capital will give them extra tiles to work on pretty soon. Time to get that sandbox rolling, this newbie is getting excited!

I am enjoying ded-lurking your game because you are having fun and getting excited. It reminds me of when I was first getting into Civ IV, which are some good memories.

Any recommendation on when I should switch to Slavery? With the worker being churned out this fast, I'll only be able to shave off a single turn if I revolt now and whip it. I'm still thinking I'll revolt when I want the settler ready, don't know if that's standard or not. I do have a whole bunch of food available here, with more coming once the pigs are ready.

One common approach is to have the revolt after the settler is produced, while it is moving to the planned city site. You do not delay the settler, and you also avoid the new city losing a turn to anarchy. But if you need to be able to whip earlier (for the settler, or whatever), then try to revolt just after a unit is produced so it can start moving during the anarchy.

I'll definitely try to give early roading a priority in the sandbox. On that note, I've posted a question about sandboxing in the general forum as I'm not doing too hot with it.

The WorldBuilder can be tricky to work with. I am sort-of-okay with it, certainly not an expert. I saw your post, and one thing to try is that different map types can have different "standard" sizes: a small Rainforest map may be a different size than a small Lakes map. I believe there are also mods that can allow non-standard map sizes; once saved as a worldbuilder file these can be started as non-mod games. So it could be something not available as a standard map.

If it is not revealed at the start of the game, trying to figure out what map type the map maker used as the template is often a mini-game in itself. In this case, I would take a look at the Lakes map script -- it generates an all-land map with a lot of small, scattered bits of water and that seems to be what you are seeing. Maybe it would be a better match?

Civilopedia doesn't say anything about it, I'll try it in the sandbox. I'm tempted to get both Moai and Colossus

Sandbox is definitely the best way to test if those can be built. I am thinking they are not without a larger body of water, but I am not certain.

Nice, I hadn't even seen the strategy layer tools yet. They seem a bit limited, but it'll be easier than Paint. Is there a way to switch colours, and can I have it make lines following the grid? Also, are there any interface mods that are allowed in PBEM games?

The strategy layer tools are pretty limited, but they are part of basic Civ IV and are always available. As far as I know you always get one color (your civ's default color). And you have to follow the grid yourself...rather imperfectly, in my case.

On interface mods allowed, that is probably a question for the tech issues thread. Some people do not care if they are used, others feel very strongly that they give an advantage by making certain information more easily accessible. I would check with your rivals to see what they think.

The warrior won't be finished anytime soon, I mainly just wanted to finish growing before the workers. With my newfound knowledge, I think I'll be somewhat more daring and use only these two warriors to explore for now. Should I keep a third warrior around to protect workers and settlers?

You do not have barbs to worry about. But it is good to have some military available -- and visible -- in case a rival wanders by with an exploring warrior and thinks that sniping your non-combat units would be quick and easy. But on the positive side, with no barbs it is unlikely a rival can quickly develop a woodsman II or guerilla II unit to get double moves. Worker and settler steals are much more of a threat with two-movers.

The excited newbie in me just wants to build it I do find it worthwhile, though. I will be getting a discount on my hammers once I put up my fourth city (the culture bonus in the capital will be worth less), and I will effectively be able to boost new cities with production from an established city. I consider this last effect to be highly valuable, since there are few ways to transfer production. One thing I really like about Civ4, btw.

Sounds like a plan. The extra culture in the capital is useful, since it will mean an earlier third border pop for greater visibility and 60% culture defense.

Transferring production...yes, this is one of the core ideas of Civ IV. Earlier Civs had ways you could, such as caravans or even absorbing additional workers. (Was that the first Civ? Been so log now since I played the original game. ) In this game things like Stonehenge are rare; Eiffel Tower as well with broadcast towers. Mostly you can just supply the garrison units and workers from established cities, and then wait for natural growth.

Hey, I'm an excited newbie My wife also always complains I'm not paying attention. I do appreciate your posts, though! I talked some more with Ad Hoc, and he's going for Polytheism early on. He has no interest in Stonehenge, so I think chances are really good I can have it in peace. I offered to sell him a great prophet, would this be a good idea if he offers a reasonable price?

Any deal can be a good idea if the price is right. :aar: You might want your first prophet for yourself if you do found a religion (or can use the prophet to found one), but that can be discussed as part of the price.

Hmmm...Polytheism is a prereq for more later techs (Literature, Monotheism). And there are some bulbing strategies that rely on not learning Meditation. I wonder what ad hoc is planning?

Stonehenge is a lot less useful for Creative civs, although the GPP and culture are still nice to have. Is anyone in this game Charismatic? They benefit a lot from monuments and would be competitors for the wonder, if there are any such civs in the game.

2 GPP from Stonehenge + 1 from Holy City + possibly more from priests means there's a bit of synergy GPP wise. I'd rather have the GPP in a single city than spread out. But would this give me more prophets than I need? Is there such a thing?

The holy city itself does not produce any GPP; the shrine will add +1 prophet point once it is built.

It is possible to have too many prophets, mostly because it means you are not getting other types of GP. And for each GP you generate, the cost of the next one goes up -- the first few increases are linear, but later it scales up faster. But prophets are pretty useful, at least the first few: they can bulb religious themed techs which includes some useful things like Code of Laws, Theocracy, and Philosophy; they can build shrines; and if you settle them they are quite nice with +2 hammers and +5 gold. And of course you can sell them to other civs.

I still have fond memories of an SP game where I generated a bunch of prophets, and ended up with a holy city with the shrine producing over 60 gold per turn (huge map) plus 5 settled prophets for +10 hammers and +25 gold every turn. With market, grocer, bank, and Wall Street this one city was producing over 250 gold per turn even with the research slider at 100%. You don't usually see that many in one place, but even a couple prophets can be very nice.

Quite a bit indeed I knew most of that, but thanks for the info about spreading. If I knew for sure that I could get Buddhism if I went for it within a reasonable time frame, would you find it to be worthwhile? The extra culture isn't worth a whole bunch if I get Stonehenge, and it seems like it'll take a while for me to get notable happiness benefits from it (slow spreading). The holy shrine will also take a while to really pay off, and unless I get some good spying on enemy cities with it I doubt it'll be worth it.

If you felt certain you could get it, founding Buddhism would certainly have nice benefits. Stonehenge and its free monuments only give +1 cpt to other cities (more to the home city, of course), so getting another +1 cpt from religion doubles the base culture of most of your cities. Even after the first border pop to get the outer ring of the BFC, more culture means getting the second border pop much sooner. And the increased visibility and culture defense help a lot. The happiness can also be very helpful, especially early in the game before Calendar resources and Monarchy start lifting the initial happy cap. One from religion and another +1 from a temple (if you choose to build them) can make a big difference.

Spread is not always slow; it is random, so sometimes you get free spread quite early. And sometimes you don't seem to get any. The shrine boosts the free spread rate a lot if you can get it built.

The use of the shrine to spy on cities with the same religion was eliminated as part of BtS; all the spying functionality was moved into the espionage system. So you no longer get that benefit from shrines. I kind of liked that system, and am sad that it no longer exists -- it added some interesting benefits (and drawbacks) to religious spread.

[Catwalk]

Sounds like ad hoc could turn out to be a valuable friend. Or an evil betrayer only pretending to be a friend, of course, but I think I mentioned that I tend to be overly paranoid in these MP games?

Sounds like we'll balance each other nicely There's no cost to putting on a happy face, you don't need to stop being suspicious for that reason.

On setting up GP farms...the answer really depends on what you are trying to achieve. There are positives to focusing as much of your GPP into one city as possible: you get more GP sooner, and GP tend to be relatively more valuable earlier in the game. They bulb entire early and mid-game techs rather than fractions of later game techs, getting special buildings (shrines and academies) earlier means more total benefits, settling them earlier also means more total benefits, etc. Also, building one primary GP farm allows you to boost it even further with the National Epic.

On the negative side, you lose certainty of the type of GP you will get. And this can be extremely frustrating if you really need a certain type (like a GS for a particular bulb or an academy) and you keep getting prophets or artists or whatever instead. Also, because of the way costs for the next GP increase you usually end up getting only a few more for the entire game than the spread out strategy would have produced.

I think I'm leaning towards a single GPP farm, adjusting it as needed when I want something specific. I probably won't make good enough plans to want a specific GP anyway, so this appeals to me:

If you have a long term bulbing plan (e.g. I will use 5 GS bulbs to grab key techs on the path to Liberalism) then you probably want to spread out your GPP and keep "clean gene pools". But if you just want as many GP as you can get as soon as you can get them, go for one big GP farm.

I am enjoying ded-lurking your game because you are having fun and getting excited. It reminds me of when I was first getting into Civ IV, which are some good memories.

Civ4 was way confusing when I started out a couple months ago (and I still haven't played much past 500 AD), but I feel it's all starting to come together. I'm hoping to be underestimated a little by the other teams, I think I just might surprise them. But if I was serious about that strategy, I should probably spam my thread less

If it is not revealed at the start of the game, trying to figure out what map type the map maker used as the template is often a mini-game in itself. In this case, I would take a look at the Lakes map script -- it generates an all-land map with a lot of small, scattered bits of water and that seems to be what you are seeing. Maybe it would be a better match?

I'll try that out, thanks.

The strategy layer tools are pretty limited, but they are part of basic Civ IV and are always available. As far as I know you always get one color (your civ's default color). And you have to follow the grid yourself...rather imperfectly, in my case.

It seems like I can't keep resources visible while using the tools, any way around that?

Stonehenge is a lot less useful for Creative civs, although the GPP and culture are still nice to have. Is anyone in this game Charismatic? They benefit a lot from monuments and would be competitors for the wonder, if there are any such civs in the game.

Nope, noone. I think Stonehenge is lining up to be a really good plan because of all these factors, I will try to work it into my sandbox.

It is possible to have too many prophets, mostly because it means you are not getting other types of GP. And for each GP you generate, the cost of the next one goes up -- the first few increases are linear, but later it scales up faster. But prophets are pretty useful, at least the first few: they can bulb religious themed techs which includes some useful things like Code of Laws, Theocracy, and Philosophy; they can build shrines; and if you settle them they are quite nice with +2 hammers and +5 gold. And of course you can sell them to other civs.

Generally speaking, which GPs are most important? Is it highly situational, or are there rules of thumb for what kind of distribution to aim for? On that note, how exactly does bulbing work and how does the great engineer bost a production item?

If you felt certain you could get it, founding Buddhism would certainly have nice benefits. Stonehenge and its free monuments only give +1 cpt to other cities (more to the home city, of course), so getting another +1 cpt from religion doubles the base culture of most of your cities. Even after the first border pop to get the outer ring of the BFC, more culture means getting the second border pop much sooner. And the increased visibility and culture defense help a lot. The happiness can also be very helpful, especially early in the game before Calendar resources and Monarchy start lifting the initial happy cap. One from religion and another +1 from a temple (if you choose to build them) can make a big difference.

Would the extra culture (from both Stonehenge and a religion) be overkill, or would it be significantly helpful?

The use of the shrine to spy on cities with the same religion was eliminated as part of BtS; all the spying functionality was moved into the espionage system. So you no longer get that benefit from shrines. I kind of liked that system, and am sad that it no longer exists -- it added some interesting benefits (and drawbacks) to religious spread.

That's just sad I was way excited when I saw this feature.


In other news, I explored a little bit more! And you're being subjected to my horrible dotmapping skills once more:

I moved the orange dot up and the pink dot turned into a purple dot 1E. Only a little bit of extra overlap, immediate access to a good tile (the original had none) and utilization of two tiles that were going to be ignored. If I have a neighbour somewhere to the west, he's going to find these settlements pretty aggressive

In case you couldn't decipher it, I indicated the immediate usage area as well as the BFC and the extra ring from the capital. I also indicated tile overlap with lightning bolts!

[haphazard1]

Civ4 was way confusing when I started out a couple months ago (and I still haven't played much past 500 AD), but I feel it's all starting to come together. I'm hoping to be underestimated a little by the other teams, I think I just might surprise them. But if I was serious about that strategy, I should probably spam my thread less

It takes a number of games for everything to start coming together. But if you enjoy Civ, then more games is a good thing anyway. Reading about other players' games can also be helpful by exposing you to ideas you may not have considered or describing the details of how to use game mechanics you are not yet familiar with. I got a lot of value from reading Sullla's game reports, as well as others from T-hawk, Kylearan, etc. And the discussion in PBEM and Pitboss games, especially among teams of players, can also be a great resource to learn from.

It seems like I can't keep resources visible while using the tools, any way around that?

I have not been able to find one, sadly.

Generally speaking, which GPs are most important? Is it highly situational, or are there rules of thumb for what kind of distribution to aim for? On that note, how exactly does bulbing work and how does the great engineer bost a production item?

All GP types have their uses, and a lot depends on what you need in that game. But I certainly find some to be generally more valuable than others. Some thoughts on each type:

Artist - Immensely valuable if you are going for cultural victory, but usually not that great otherwise. Artists can be useful in war, as you can have them create a great work (the "culture bomb") in a newly captured or founded city to quickly grab control of nearby tiles. Be aware that this does not work all that well for taking land that has been under enemy control for a long period, as they have built up culture. But for disputed areas that no one has had control over, or not for very long, a culture bomb can claim large amounts of territory and greatly restrict enemy movement.

Merchant - Pretty useful. Merchants can be used for trade missions to foreign cities to generate large amounts of gold, allowing for lots of deficit research or mass upgrading of units. You have to get them to the foreign target city safely, which can be risky, and you need someone you have decent enough relations with for them to enter the other civ's territory. Can also be useful settling, as they provide nice gold and +1 food -- settling a merchant in a strong but low-food city can be very beneficial.

Scientist - These guys are all about the beakers. All GP (except generals, who are only sort-of GP) can bulb techs, but the scientist produces more beakers than any other type. Also, they can build an academy for +50% beakers in a city, which can make a big difference if you have one city which contributes a large fraction of your total research. Deciding whether to bulb or create an academy (or settle) often depends on how long you think the game will last. One of the better GP types, at least to me.

Engineer - Awesome GP, my favorite. Being able to suddenly materialize hundreds and hundreds of hammers for a project can be incredibly powerful. Got a key wonder you want, but don't have the hammers to build it or a doubler resource for it? A GE can help build it, sometimes instantly. Late game wonders can be so expensive even a GE only builds part, but you can still get a sizable fraction completed. This is especially powerful if you need to build something expensive in a city with minimal production, such as Wall Street in a hammer-poor holy city. Not especially good to settle, and hard to generate -- early in the game pretty much the only sources of GE points are forges (1 engineer slot) and two wonders (Pyramids and Hanging Gardens). There are a couple more wonders later, plus industrialization with factories and power plants opens up more slots. But excellent to have.

Prophet - These guys are all about the religion, building shrines and bulbing techs which can found religions. But as I mentioned in a previous post, these guys are also great to settle as they give +2 hammers and +5 gold.

Spy - Maybe banned in this game, or required to settle if generated? When not restricted, the Great Spy is the ultimate infiltrator -- completely undetectable by the enemy, they can go anywhere. If used against an enemy, they give a huge chunk of EP -- enough to steal several techs in many cases. Settled in your cities or used to build Scotland Yard, they can provide a sizable boost in EP per turn for your empire. Often this can be enough to give you excellent passive information on multiple rivals, especially if done before the discovery of Code of Laws starts boosting EP generation beyond the default 4 per turn era. Overall, quite useful.

General - Not really a GP, but sort of, the great general is generated from accumulated combat XP rather than from GPP. Generals can be settled in a city to give all units built there +2 XP -- this can be very powerful if you have one city which generates a large portion of your military, especially if you settle multiple generals in the same city. I have had cities with Heroic Epic and West Point, barracks, and multiple great generals plus Vassalage and Theocracy so they turn out units that start with 3 and even 4 promotions. Later in the game with Military Science tech (I think it is MilSci, anyway) they become able to build a military academy and boost production of military units. And their final ability is they can merge with one or more units, adding 20 XP to the merged unit(s) and allowing one unit the ability to take special promotions that only warlords can have. The most common use for this is to create a "super medic" with the Medic III promotion, as this greatly boosts healing of units for an entire stack and can keep a major campaign moving forward by healing units quickly even in enemy territory. You can also make a super combat unit, but combat odds tend to eventually catch up to such units even with lots of promotions.

Another point to keep in mind is that all GP types (except generals again, as they are not true GP) can be used to start golden ages. You need an additional GP for each successive golden age, and you have to have different types. So first golden age is one GP of any type, second is 2 GP of different types (no relation to the type used for previous golden ages, just different for this golden age), etc., up to 6 GP, one of each type other than general, for a 6th golden age. This is one reason I usually go with a single big GP farm and do not worry about getting an occasional "misfire" on type. You can always keep the odd artist or prophet or whatever and use them later for golden ages.

Bulbing...every GP type (except generals) has a list of tech preferences for bulbing. I don't have a link handy right now (on my other machine), but you cna find it easily with a search or I can dig one up later. But basically you take the list for that GP type and work from the top until you find a tech that you do not already have and are currently able to research. That will be the tech bulbed by the GP. This is why you will see certain bulbing strategies where a player or team will intentionally skip a tech (like Meditation) -- knowing it would open up other techs that are higher on the bulb list than the one they actually want.

The bulb preference lists are generally thematic: prophets bulb religious techs, artists go for things like Drama and Music, Merchants like trade-related techs such as Currency and Compass, Scientists favor basic conceptual techs like Alphabet, Math, Education, etc. But not all techs are bulbable by all GP types, so you can reach points where a GP may not bulb anything. (Most common for prophets, after all religious techs have been completed.) And there are some techs on lists which may not be obvious: merchants can bulb Civil Service for example, or Artists religious techs (historically great patrons of the arts), etc.

The number of beakers for a bulb is a fixed number, plus a small factor based on the total population of your empire. The great scientist gets a bigger fixed value, something like 50% more than other GP types.

Would the extra culture (from both Stonehenge and a religion) be overkill, or would it be significantly helpful?

Getting the second border pop for your cities can be quite helpful, as it gives you greater visibility on incoming stacks. And of course the further your cultural control extends, the greater distance any enemy has to move slowly without benefit of your roads. (Unless they can get the commando promotion, but that is so rare as to be mostly not worth worrying about.)

In other news, I explored a little bit more! And you're being subjected to my horrible dotmapping skills once more:

Deer to the north, could be useful. And the capital border pop reveals wine to the south, and another whales tile. The extra happiness from wine could be quite useful later.

I moved the orange dot up and the pink dot turned into a purple dot 1E. Only a little bit of extra overlap, immediate access to a good tile (the original had none) and utilization of two tiles that were going to be ignored. If I have a neighbour somewhere to the west, he's going to find these settlements pretty aggressive

In case you couldn't decipher it, I indicated the immediate usage area as well as the BFC and the extra ring from the capital. I also indicated tile overlap with lightning bolts!

Looks good. Noting the initial tiles available is a good move, as this will have significant impact on the initial growth of the new city.

[Catwalk]

Excellent info, thanks. How exactly does the Great Engineer work when completing something? How can I figure out how many hammers he'll add? If all bulbing gives a fixed amount of beakers, would it be correct to conclude that they're wasted early on when you're facing cheaper techs?

[novice]

Excellent info, thanks. How exactly does the Great Engineer work when completing something? How can I figure out how many hammers he'll add? If all bulbing gives a fixed amount of beakers, would it be correct to conclude that they're wasted early on when you're facing cheaper techs?

A great engineer gives 300 hammers + 30 hammers for each population point of the city you use it in. A great scientist gives 1500 beakers + 3 beakers for every population point in your empire. Other great people give 1000 beakers + 2 beakers per pop. Multiply all the numbers by 0.67 to adjust for quick speed.

EDIT: And you don't get overflow beakers from bulbing, so bulbing cheap techs can be considered a waste, although it can be worth it in some cases.

[Catwalk]

Thanks! Great Engineers are appealing indeed, and bulbing also sounds very good. Generally speaking, how often are GPs used for settling? The other options sound stronger.

[Catwalk]

New sandbox created! I'll play it up to turn 13 tomorrow and upload it.