I tried using a Great Artist to create a great work in a city that I had just taken over. It didn't appear to work, the culture was added to the city but the city was still in revolt.

I'm assuming this is a new gameplay change for BtS.

Yeah it appears so, I had the same thing happen to me too.

Yup, I already described it here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=233701

so... great artists are now completely useless?

just great

so... great artists are now completely useless?

just great

How exactly is it useless? It still starts a corp, it still adds a great specialist to your city, it still culture bombs.

Culture bombs are useless?

What, are you playing pure militaristic over and over regardless of map conditions?

I guess I should qualify my statement. Culture bombs are great, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't nearly make up for the GA's other deficiency. Namely, the lack of ability to lightbulb anything worth mentioning...

Nerfing it more cant help its case...

How exactly is it useless? It still starts a corp, it still adds a great specialist to your city, it still culture bombs.

Forgot free tech.

The culture bomb doesnt help much later on in the game once everyone's culture is high, unless there was a city recently captured near your borders and you want to flip it.

Later in the game it's not so much a culture bomb as a really powerful cultural weapon... it's true that you're not going to take a solidly locked city that way, but it's also true that it can provide a crucial boost to an already powerful culture producing city.

I usually have at least one serious cultural city on my border (hello Hermitage!) if I'm not going all out war to grab some border territory and maybe a city. It might not be as effective as a full out production city, but then its not as though you could have thrown a second ironworks into the city, and cultural warfare via hermitage + great artists can provide some serious leverage (I once actually won a late military victory that way, seizing a few crucial resources and enough territory to provide a great launching pad for a military campaign).

It can be useful for the End of a War (rather than the Middle) to Protect a newly captured city.