In Culture games? Absolutely use them for Great Works. You won't be able to generate tourism without them. Musicians, as posted above, need to be weighed against a concert tour.
Non Culture games? Depends on the AI, but I'll usually pop them for Culture/Golden Ages later in the game. Regardless of VC, you definitely need some tourism to counter the other tourism AI and to deal with ideological pressure. Once I feel pretty comfortable with my tourism output, they just get popped.
@OP
RE : WRITERS
Yes use them all the time. In total culture (so long as it is not the last 1/3 of the game) you do better with great works, particularly if you can put them in a theme. Remember it also gives you tourism which will assist you with IDEOLOGICAL WARFARE later on in the game. Finally it is affected by Civ Wide culture bonus ie +33% in each city or whatever so the results do compound significantly over time.
This should all be balanced against the compounding affects of getting POLCIES earlier of course. Early on though, it is fairly clear cut IMO.
RE : ARTISTS
Similar to above, but really depends on the circumstance.
RE : MUSICIANS
If Culture VICTORY and have a hold out or two (ie ones I will never be able to overwhelm naturally) then I spawn musicians. Otherwise Great Works.
Just my opinion of course
i found that artifacts give me enough tourism for ideology wars, that`s why i usually use the artists for golden ages.
can u explain the highlighted sentence please?
joshua43214- u mean building amph for the +1 cult and adding GWW for another +2 culture? or is there any other bonus there?
i found that artifacts give me enough tourism for ideology wars, that`s why i usually use the artists for golden ages.
can u explain the highlighted sentence please?
joshua43214- u mean building amph for the +1 cult and adding GWW for another +2 culture? or is there any other bonus there?
Pretty sure it's possible to declare war and move them into their borders.