Who's your favourite Great Person?

[Raven_Lore]

(Title)

[Kodii]

I haven't played Warlords long enough to vote for the Great General.

I think that Great Merchants are the weakest of all the great people. I don't think I'm the only one that groans when it appears instead of something else. I do like how it gives +1 food as a super specialist.

Great Scientists are awesome, especially since they can come in great numbers. Strategically, I think they are used the most.

Great Prophets are generally best for shrines of well-developed religions. Unless it lightbulbs something useful, I usually use them as GA fodder.

I like Great Artists only because giant border pops are fun. They are only very useful in achieving a Cultural Victory.

I voted for Great Engineer just because I like wonders, and being able to guarantee a strategic wonder, especially at higher difficulties, is great. The techs it lightbulbs aren't bad either. If I had two votes, I'd vote for the Great Scientist as well.

[sooooo]

Without a doubt, Isambard Kingdom Brunel is my favourite.

[Blake]

Great Merchant is by far the highest yielding GP in "point value" terms, settled he allows working half an extra tile, in a wonder pump for example that's half an extra plains hill mine, 2h, if he allows working a gl hill mine it's +3h. A plains town, +1h +4c. All those numbers being bigger later in the game.

His cash bomb is very high yielding under good to ideal circumstances, you can do a lot more research with a well placed cash bomb than with a GS's lightbulb. However the value of a cash bomb is somewhat dependent on your gold multipliers, if you already have +100% gold everywhere then it's not as valuable as if you have +0% gold and +100% science (ie the GM works best with a tech to Universities and Observatories rather than the Banking line... he's most useful when hardest to generate). One problem can be that he generates so much cash it can be hard to spend it in a timely fashion, but with an expansive empire that's typically not a problem, he's more of a big empire GP (although he's great settled in a small empire where that extra half tile is worth more).

Great Engineers have the second highest point value, settled the 3h and 3c is an excellent yield, that's my usual use for them. The hammer bomb is decent too - but not so good if you use it on a wonder you don't really want, in that case just settle him and build the wonder you don't really want the old fashioned way, that way he gets to help build all future wonders. An excellent wonder pump can typically get about 50 raw hammers off the land, adding just 4 settled Great Engineers increases the hammer yield of the city by nearly 25%. They are the most useful late game GP because settled they allow you to build projects considerably faster.

The Great Prophet is the potentially most profitable in gpt, if you have a well spread religion the income is unrivaled. He's also decent settled in a city, especially if the city focuses on both production and gold. The extra hammers make Wallstreet much more affordable in a shrine city. One of the major pros of the GP is the ease of generating him from early wonders (which can cost much less than running specialists).

The Great Scientist has of course the most powerful lightbulb and this can be used decisively, especially with the race to Liberalism, one GS to pop Philosophy early in the game and using another one or two to accelerate the Paper/Education line can pretty much ensure being first to Liberalism. GS lightbulbing stuff is a common tactic to compete research-wise on the highest difficulties. His Academy option can rival the income of a shrine, a good capital can push over 100-150 commerce/turn, multiplied by the Academy that's 50-75 beakers/turn. Of course a shrine generates RAW gpt which is then multiplied, so a 25gpt shrine with +100% gold is worth an academy in the 100cpt capital. Shrines are still the potentially most powerful Great Person usage, but Academies are a solid performer.
Settled he is actually the second worst great person at least in terms of point value, unless you are maintaining 100% science or have an excellent super-science-city set up and no equivilant super-gold-city. If you are stuck at 100% science (thanks to shrine income) then the marginal value of another gold-bearing settled GP is minimal, while you get full value from a settled GS. This makes settled GS's the optimal choice in OCC, where you're typically stuck at 100% science.

The Great Artist is the red-headed stepchild of the Great Peoples family. It could also be said that he sucks, badly. However every so often a well placed Culture Bomb really, really helps, and he can lightbulb some decent techs like Monarchy, Alphabet, Mass Media... despite having generally the worst bomb and settling potential it is worth noting that he's the ONLY Great Person you want for Cultural Victories, in which case anything but a GA is a miserable disappointment.


Conclusion, all GP's have their uses. I tend to find that for the expansive empire Great Merchants and Great Prophets are the best, as they help to fund the empires expansion. For small empires Great Engineers and Great Scientists are the best. However all four types are very useful settled in specialized cities regardless of empire size. Great Artists and Great Generals are just kinda bleh, although they too have their uses.

My vote went with Great Merchant because they are my personal favorite, with Engineers being a close second.

[cynyck]

Great Merchant - I love being able to upgrade for a quick war.

[zakalwe]

Great Merchant is by far the highest yielding GP in "point value" terms, ...

Wow, great analysis there Blake (the same applies to everything you said). I never fully realized how valuable that single food really is, although I also like merchants to the point of preferring them in OCCs as well. My OCC play might be a bit suboptimal, though, as I tend to over-emphasize production. It's just so cool to be able to crank modern armors (or even ICBMs) every turn

BTW, my I always found it fun to play OCCs when permanently allied with an AI. Maybe I should revisit that using your improved AI... If the AI is actually able to recognize that I just nuked our enemy into the stone age and invade him efficiently, it would certainly be more enjoyable. Maybe that's a trick you could teach the AI as well - executing coordinated nuke strikes with follow-up "blitzkrieg" invasions. That would be scary.

Anyway... sorry for rambling

[Raven_Lore]

I think the Great Merchant might be considered best because the +6 value goes directly toward your income, avoiding the science/culture tax on commerce (I think)

[KMad]

Henry Ford is my most despised great person. in a recent game i was waiting and waiting and micromanaging my specialists to get a scientist for an academy. then he popped up with only a 7% chance of a GE!! dodohead. no wonders i was planning to build for a long long time either.

i finally got my GS a few turns before i burned henry on the statue of liberty. i am still bitter. i did vote for GE tho, since in general i like them.

[Raven_Lore]

So i Guess Great Engineer leads by 4 votes compared to Great Scientist. Go Great Merchant :2dance:

Edit: My Bad

[LKendter]

So i Guess Great Merchant leads by 4 votes compared to Great Scientist. Go Great Merchant :2dance:

Did you mean Great Engineer? This is the only one I see above GS.