Civilization 5 G&K and Brave New World Strategy
Great Person List, Getting Great People, Abilities & Tile Improvements, GPP
Throughout the history of Mankind, there have been many individuals who made contributions to the arts, sciences, military, and economics. Civilization 5 honors them by including them in the game. When a Great Person is born, one of these historical figures will aid your Civ. Each type offers its own bonuses, tile improvements, and special abilities they can use to help your people. The following guide is a companion to the Guide to Specialists in Civilization 5, where you will learn about Specialists - the primary means of gaining the Great Person Points (GPP) necessary to use these powerful people.
GPP: How to get Great Artists, Musicians, Writers, Merchants, Scientists, and Engineers
Great People, with the exception of Prophets, Generals, and Admirals, are gained through the accumulation of GPP. GPP comes from Specialists +3 each and Wonders, some of which grant flat amounts. Each turn, GPP is added up in individual Cities. When a City reaches the threshold for a GPP birth, a Great Person is born, that City's count set to 0 while all others keep their progress but have the cost go up.
Shared GPP Pools and Costs
The Amount of Great Person Points needed to get your first Great Person will be 100, followed by 200, 300, and so on. Great Engineers, Scientists, and Merchants all share the same pool, meaning getting a Great Engineer will make your Great Scientists and Great Merchants cost more. Given the Merchant is fairly weak compared to others, many players will want to keep this in mind and utilize Markets to produce GPP toward Great Merchants unless they have Wonders that have a higher per-turn of the type you like. If you have Wonders stacked in one type of Great Person's favor, in order to get a different one you should use Specialists of another kind while avoiding using those that produce GPP of the type you do not want.
For example, if you want Great Scientists but have built Wonders that have Engineer Points, don't work Workshops until later when you can use more Scientist slots in each City to pass up that number. This is quite important to note when you are going for a Science Victory, as you will generate more Great Scientists for Academies and Tech Boosts if you set Specialist allocation to Manual in all Cities and do not utilize Merchants or Engineers. You can, of course, have a balance of these three types of Great People since the counter does not reset on other types when one is born.
Great Artists, Musicians, and Writers all have their own pools, meaning that creating Great Writers will not increase the cost of your Great Artists or Musicians later on. This allows you to produce plenty of Great Works to allow for a Cultural Win. Remember, you do not have to use these Great People right away - fortify them near your Cities and wait so that you can take advantage of Theming Bonuses and boost your Tourism even more.
The GPP required to make each type of Great Person is displayed on the right-hand side of the City Management Screen as shown in the screenshot above. If a Great Person is missing there, it means you have not generated any points toward the next Great Person of that type. Scroll through your Cities and use Specialists to make GPP births happen faster when you see one is filling up.
Generating Great Prophets
Great Prophets are born after a Civilization has founded a Pantheon. They rely on your Civilization accumulating faith. The first Great Prophet will cost you 200 faith, which lets you found a religion and later buy more Great Prophets with Faith. The cost will go up with each purchase.
Generating Great Generals and Admirals
Great Generals and Admirals are earned when your land and naval military units gain XP in combat. It takes 200 XP for the first of each kind to be born, while their scaling is not as rough as it is for other types of Great People due to the limitation of XP and that it never really rises beyond 5-7 for a battle.
Buying Great People with Faith
Several Social Policy Trees allow the Purchase of a specific type of Great Person by completing them. Those are listed further in the Guide. Each purchase will start at 1000 Faith, then 1500, 2500, and 4000. It's not typically affordable to buy at/past 4000 Faith but the next cost, following this pattern, would be 6000 Faith. Constructing Buildings (Shrines and Temples), Wonders that Produce Faith, Selecting Faith-generating Beliefs and allying with Religious City States and keeping those Alliances throughout the game, among other things, will help your empire Generate enough Faith to make these purchases. Use a few Great Prophets to generate Holy Sites to aid in this when you have a small empire. To learn more about Religion, see my Guide to Faith and Founding a Religion.
Civ 5 Great Person List, Special Abilities & Strategies and Tips
Within the following list of Great People, you'll find links to in-depth information on each type, including strategies for best use of your GP once you've spawned one. and the Wonders, Ideologies, and Social Policies that can increase the rate they are born in your Civilization.
Great Scientist
Ability 1 Boost Science: Generates the amount of Science your Civ would put out in 8 turns, instantly. Use this only late in the game, otherwise you are wasting valuable research.
Ability 2: Construct Academy - Produces +8 Science on a tile when worked by a City. Place these buildings early and plan to make that City particularly large and focused on Science. Even better when you've placed 5-6 of these over the ages, it can seriously boost Science output when +% modifiers are put into place.
Great Engineer
Ability 1: Hurry Production - Contributes a large amount of Production to a building or Wonder project. In some cases, this can complete the project in a single turn, depending on how developed the target City is and its Production values.
Ability 2: Construct Manufactory - Places a Manufactory Tile Improvement that, when worked, will provide a large (+4) amount of Production to the city working it. A great solution to shore up a Production-weak City or create an industrial powerhouse.
Great Merchant and Merchant of Venice
Ability 1: Conduct Trade Mission - Instantly sacrifice the Great Merchant on a trade mission to a City-State. This will generate 40+ Influence and may give you thousands of Gold, depending on the Era it's used.
Ability 2: Build Customs House - The Customs House Tile Improvement will give +4 Gold to a tile, +5 with Economics. This is a good long-term solution when combined with your Banks, Market, and Stock Exchange.
Merchant of Venice Ability: Purchase City-State - The Merchant of Venice's special ability is to instantly puppet a City-State. Venice has the unique ability to purchase with gold and faith in Puppeted City-States, so you get some degree of control over their production.
Great Artist
Ability 1: Create Great Work - Creates a Great Work of Art that gives +2 Culture and +2 Tourism to a City with an available Art slot
Ability 2: Start Golden Age - Causes your Civ to instantly enter a Golden Age, which increases income by a great deal, culture and production by 20%. Time this so that you are not about to enter one on your own and save it for the opportune moment. Do not use these if you're going for a Cultural Victory, for you need the Paintings to complete several Theming Bonuses and you'll be missing out on Tourism.
Great Musician
Ability 1: Create Great Work - Creates a Great Work of Music that gives +2 Culture and +2 Tourism to a City with an available Music slot
Ability 2: Concert Tour - Use this in an opposing Civ's Territory - preferably that which has the highest Culture, so that your Tourism will have an easier time passing them for a Cultural Win. This produces massive amounts of Tourism in the destination Civ and a lesser amount to every other Civ. Use late-game, when your +tourism is unlikely to meet the amount you gain in a single use of the tour. You don't need to be next to a city, simply inside their borders.
Great Writer
Ability 1: Create Great Work - Creates a Great Work of Writing that gives +2 Culture and +2 Tourism to a City with an available Writing slot
Ability 2: Write Political Treatist - Generates a large amount of culture, instantly. This can help you advance to the next Social Policy. Use this only post turn 250 when Cultural Output is good as it gives about 10x your culture per turn and early-game the Work of Writing is better.
Great Prophet
Ability 1 Found/Enhance Religion: Founds a Religion if there are Religions remaining to be founded, otherwise it Enhances the religion to expand its beliefs and benefits.
Ability 2: Construct Holy Site - Produces +6 Faith on a tile when worked by a City. Place these buildings early to take maximum advantage of Faith over the ages - the earlier you exploit Religion, the better.
Ability 3: Spread Religion - Great Prophets are immune to Attrition behind enemy borders and erase all other Religions from a City when they use their Spread ability.
Great General
Ability 1: Combat Bonus - The Great General emboldens nearby troops, giving them a +15% Combat Bonus within a 2-hex range. Keep the General protected but in the center of your troops to extend this bonus to as many as possible. Extremely helpful when conquering a City.
Ability 2: Construct Citadel - Creates a Citadel Tile Improvement on the current Tile. This gives units a +100% Defensive bonus and deals 30 damage to enemies that end a turn on an adjacent Tile. The Citadel must be placed adjacent to your territory and can flip tiles, stealing ownership of another Civ's property.
Great Admiral
Ability 1: Combat Bonus - Provides a +15% Combat Bonus to all units within 2 tiles of the Admiral.
Ability 2: Instant Repair - Consumes the Great Admiral. Instantly repair all Ships in a 1-hex radius around and beneath the Admiral. Use this situationally to win a large sea battle, otherwise keep the Combat Bonus.
List of Policies, Ideologies, Buildings and Wonders that Boost GPP Output
All of the +% effects listed here are cumulative, so if you have National Epic, Leaning Tower of Pisa, and a Garden, you'll have +75% Generation of all types of GPP in the City. Getting some of See my List of World Wonders for +GPP on each Wonder, by Era to help stack passive GPP, which can greatly help in your efforts to produce many of a certain type of Great Person from the Science/Engineering/Merchant Pool.
Garden
Requires Theology, City next to River or Lake
+25% Great People Generation in this City. The Hanging Gardens Wonder (reqs Tradition, Mathmatics) provides a free Garden.
National Epic
Requires Drama & Poetry, Monument in All Cities
National Wonder. +25% Great people Generation in this City
Leaning Tower of Pisa
Wonder. Requires Printing Press
+25% Great People Generation in all Cities, 1 Free Great Person of your Choice
Freedom Tenet Lv. 1 - Avant Garde
Ideological Tenet
+25% Great Person Generation in All Cities.
Arts Funding
World Congress Proposal
+33% Generation of Great Writers, Musicians, and Artists for all Civs in All Cities. -33% Reduction in Great Scientist, Great Engineer, and Great Merchant Birth.
Sciences Funding
World Congress Proposal, Conflicts with Arts Funding
+33% Generation of Great Scientists, Engineers, and Merchants for all Civs in all Cities. -33% Reduction in Great Artist, Writer, and Musician Birth rates.
Direct Boosts to Specific Types of Great People through Policies
Adopting Aesthetics will boost generation of Great Musicians, Artists, and Writers by 25% with that one point, while completing it lets you buy them in the Industrial Era. There are other Social Policies in the Rationalism, Commerce, Exploration, and Honor trees that boost generation of Great Scientists, Merchants, Admirals, and Generals. There is not a Policy that boost generation of Great Engineers, but they can be bought with Faith in the Industrial Era should you complete Tradition. The other listed Policy Trees will also allow purchase of that type of Great Person in the Industrial Era if you complete them. Great Prophets can be bought with Faith automatically as you progress, but that will stop unless you accumulate massive amounts of Faith. They can be bought later so long as you've founded a Religion, regardless of adopting Piety.
Liberty
Social Policy Tree
Getting all 5 Policies in Liberty will let you choose a Free Great Person.
Patronage
Social Policy Tree
Finishing the Patronage Social Tree will result in City-States occasionally gifting you Great People, even something unique like a Merchant of Venice.
Freedom Tenet Lv. 2 - New Deal
Ideological Tenet
Great Person Tile Improvements provide +4 of the Appropriate Yield - +14 Science Academy? Yes Please.
Order Tenet Lv. 1 - Hero of the People
Ideological Tenet
+25% Great Person Generation in All Cities.
Order Tenet Lv. 3 - Spaceflight Pioneers
Ideological Tenet
May finish Spaceship Parts with Great Engineers.
Babylon (Babylonian Ingenuity)
Civ Choice
Babylon receives a free Great Scientist when they discover Writing. Additionally, all Great Scientists are earned 50% faster.
Sweden (Nobel Prize)
Civ Choice
Sweden gets +90 Influence when gifting a Great Person to a City-State. Signing a Declaration of Friendship gives them and their ally a +10% GPP boost.
Korea (Scholars of the Jade Hall)
Civ Choice
All Specialists generate +2 Science as well as all Great Person Tile Improvements. This gives them incentive to use many Specialists, leading to the generation of many Great People.
China (Art of War)
Civ Choice
Great Generals give a 30% Combat Bonus and their spawn rate is increased 50%. Also gets the powerful Chu-Ko-Nu ranged unit in the Medieval Era.
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2Overall, people use these and few will touch the Manufactory - it is simply not that great a building unless you go a certain route, like Freedom with New Deal to give them +4 Production. That is only late in the game though. It's best to rush for a technology and get the Wonder unlocked, while saving your Great Engineer for that moment. It's also useful to get Wonders in Cities with low production.
