(P)REVIEWS - Civilization IV Preview by Solver
You’re So Special...
In CivIV, specialists play a big role. Specialists are citizens that do not work a tile in your cities, but instead add to your city's culture, treasury etc. Assigning specialists requires you to have enough food, as you don't want to push your city into starvation. Some other prerequisites may also apply. For instance, scientist specialists require a Library be built in a city. Also, under most circumstances, your number of specialists will be limited, such as Library will only allow for 2 scientists. That said, each specialist can, in fact, be enabled in several ways.
By themselves, specials have a positive effect. Artists produce culture, scientists produce breakers towards technological research and so on. There are also Wonders and Civic choices that can make your specialists even more productive. In total, there are six types of specialists: Scientists, Priests, Engineers, Merchants, Artists and Citizens. The Citizen is a basic specialist that gives very little and is usually best avoided. It is, however, the only specialist that does not have any prerequisites to be able to use them. Then again, it doesn't allow you to get a Great Person either.
Ahh, Great People. These guys are really interesting and significant. The basics are simple: each of your cities has a Great People meter with points accumulating as time goes on. When enough points are in the meter, it drops back to zero and gives you a Great Person. The amount of points required for the next Great Person goes up each time you get one. These Great People points come from Wonders and specialists.
Each Wonder and specialist gives a specific type of Great Person points. Scientist specialists give Great Scientist points, obviously, and, for instance, the Notre Dame Wonder gives Great Artist points. All of these points are added together in the Great Person meter, but how many points of what type there are affect the probability of getting a specific type of a Great Person.
Each Great Person has four actions it can take once you get it. The first is discovering a technology (or contributing a significant amount of breakers towards it). The technology will also be in the Great Person's area of expertise. A Great Prophet might give you the Theology advance, and a Great Merchant the Banking one. The second action is settling in a city. That essentially gives the city a "super specialist" who has the effect of several normal specialists and is thus a considerable boost to that city. The third action is starting a Golden Age. For that, you need two Great Persons of different types for the first Golden Age, three for your next and so on. Finally, there is the special action for each type of Great Person.
Great Prophets can build a religious Shrine in a Holy City that give benefits for that religion. Great Merchants can conduct a trade mission, giving you a significant amount of cash. Great Engineers can rush-build almost anything. Great Artists can create a Great Work, instantly giving the city a good amount of culture points - this is sometimes called the "Culture Bomb", as it can push enemy borders back. Great Scientists meanwhile can create an Academy, a building only available through Great Scientists, which improves the science and culture output of a city.
With all these options available, it should be said that the Great People are well balanced. There is not just one right thing to do in any situation. What you want to use your Great People for is going to depend strongly on your current situation and play style. The balance is good, but everyone is likely to develop his own preferences for the use of Great Persons.
Specialists and Great People encourage you to have specialized cities. A city that has surplus food can have a high number of specialists for good economic output coupled with generating Great Persons. Cities that only have, say, one or two specialists will not be able to be steady Great People sources once you have had a few Great Persons and the point threshold goes up. In fact, all of this is closely related to another truth in CivIV.
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