[Advice] When to Bulb and When to Settle?

[cammcken]

Can anyone help me understand this more fully?

All I know is the obvious rule of thumb: settling is better in the early game and bulb-ing is better in the late game, because a settled Academy will provide about 6x [number of remaining turns], while a bulb-ed scientist provides yields only once, more for the more generated per turn, which is later in the game.

However, I don't play on Deity, and I don't know the complexities behind snowballing.

I can see how timing might be involved—if you're planning a war with a certain unit (scientist tech bulb), or if there's a wonder you absolutely need (scientist tech bulb) (engineer instant prod). Maybe you want to snag a policy before you begin a rapid expansion and/or annexation period (writer instant culture). But when do I ever conduct trade missions?

And, if we look at the situation without any specific plan in mind, if I'm only trying to "get ahead," how do I know when the instant yield would be the better investment?

Thank you in advance. If there are some wide-consensus tips, I'll edit this post with a list to help everyone else.

 

[cammcken]

Specific scenario:

I'm playing a game right now as Korea with Tradition, and I just popped my first Great Scientist. I am 26 turns (Epic speed) away from Education, should I choose to beeline. If I bulb the scientist now, I get a free 1200 to finish Drama and, after overflow, leaving me with 900 remaining to finish Education, at +84/turn. In ~11 turns, I could start building my unique university. This seems like the poster child for a good beeline. (It would also advance me to the Medieval era, but my advantages are minimal there because I don't have many bonuses that scale. It's only councils and Halicarnassus now)

But is it even worth unlocking universities (and considering Korea's UB) so soon? Will I have the spare time to build them in my four cities? Or will the hammers be better spent catching up on older buildings, or a defensive standing army? Will I have enough gold to invest for cities with slow production? Will I have the spare trade route slots to send hammers, if I don't have enough gold? Will my cities have enough population to man the scientist slots?

Will early universities even pay off? Alternatively, I can settle the scientist, which involves waiting for one of the plentiful nearby tundra tiles to fall into my borders, and eventually get the boost from Tradition. By waiting ten turns for my borders to pop (at 84 /turn). then settling my Scientist (90/turn), I can get Education in 24 turns. (23 for immediate settle).

 

[CrazyG]

Specific scenario:

I'm playing a game right now as Korea with Tradition, and I just popped my first Great Scientist. I am 26 turns (Epic speed) away from Education, should I choose to beeline. If I bulb the scientist now, I get a free 1200 to finish Drama and, after overflow, leaving me with 900 remaining to finish Education, at +84/turn. In ~11 turns, I could start building my unique university. This seems like the poster child for a good beeline. (It would also advance me to the Medieval era, but my advantages are minimal there because I don't have many bonuses that scale. It's only councils and Halicarnassus now)

But is it even worth unlocking universities (and considering Korea's UB) so soon? Will I have the spare time to build them in my four cities? Or will the hammers be better spent catching up on older buildings, or a defensive standing army? Will I have enough gold to invest for cities with slow production? Will I have the spare trade route slots to send hammers, if I don't have enough gold? Will my cities have enough population to man the scientist slots?

Will early universities even pay off? Alternatively, I can settle the scientist, which involves waiting for one of the plentiful nearby tundra tiles to fall into my borders, and eventually get the boost from Tradition. By waiting ten turns for my borders to pop (at 84 /turn). then settling my Scientist (90/turn), I can get Education in 24 turns. (23 for immediate settle).

I think its a pretty easy decision to plant here, its still so early and you probably have many worthwhile buildings available (like writer's guilds), so I would plant that scientist. For Korea science play, the first scientist I bulb is usually to reach industrial era faster (usually through public schools tech)

Where do you plan to put the great scientist? For Korea I would try to find a better tile than empty tundra, sheep is a really good choice

 

[ElliotS]

I'd like to note that as a Warmonger I tend to value bulbing more than planting most games. I'll conquer your GPTIs, so any instant advantage I can get to help me do so is worth it.

Look at it this way: 6 science per turn is a lot when you plant it at first, but the 14 science per turn it will produce in industrial is a drop in the 1000+ science per turn bucket. Add in that early resources are more valuable than late ones and I like bulbing earlier more and more.

 

[M45T3R5W4G3R]

I am not sure about Vox Populi, just too new for it but I aggree with ElliotS that it is quite late for using GS for TI. But probably I would not use GS at that moment and keep some in hand that after you finish all your public schools or resarch labs, I mean after you reached to a max. scienece output that you can reach for a while, then GSs would give quite more research and you can use them at that moment for bulbing.

 

[CrazyG]

I am not sure about Vox Populi, just too new for it but I aggree with ElliotS that it is quite late for using GS for TI. But probably I would not use GS at that moment and keep some in hand that after you finish all your public schools or resarch labs, I mean after you reached to a max. scienece output that you can reach for a while, then GSs would give quite more research and you can use them at that moment for bulbing.

I think in this mod, Great Scientists give an amount of science based on your science when they are born, so you can't gain additional science by waiting to use them

 

[vyyt]

@CrazyG: Correct

 

[tu_79]

I think in this mod, Great Scientists give an amount of science based on your science when they are born, so you can't gain additional science by waiting to use them

This is one of the things I like in Vox Populi. Whenever we spot an exploit, something is done about it. No cheap victories, folks.

 

[M45T3R5W4G3R]

I've just seen your answer, I was new in Vox Populi and didn't knew about it at that moment, sorry about the misinforming and thanks for your clarification. Indeed, it is quite nice actually that they've removed this exploit.

 

[tu_79]

I've just seen your answer, I was new in Vox Populi and didn't knew about it at that moment, sorry about the misinforming and thanks for your clarification. Indeed, it is quite nice actually that they've removed this exploit.

Also check new feature of latest beta:
Bulbing scale with number of Great People Tile Improvement. With 2 Academies, your next tech research will be better.

 

[M45T3R5W4G3R]

Also check new feature of latest beta:
Bulbing scale with number of Great People Tile Improvement. With 2 Academies, your next tech research will be better.

Whoa, that sounds quite nice. I'll give it a try when I find time for Civ.