Great Works of Art vs. Artifacts

[Bojmir]

So from what I understand the benefits of going Artifacts over Artwork for a Level 2 Theater Square is that they have higher tourism when themed, have a specific Great Person bonus and you get to choose the types when you excavate. But this comes at the cost of Archaeologist production, archaeologist travel, limited supply, and randomness of excavation causing potential space and theming issues. Outside of playing as Ethiopia and maybe the Kongo, do the pros outweigh the cons in general or is Artwork generally the way to go? Thanks.

 

[Kwami]

I almost always go with artifacts. Artists are competitive, but artifacts rarely are. So, artifacts are more reliable, provide better raw bonuses, and have better extra bonuses from great people and cards and whatnot.

The only real downsides are that you have to spend some gold to purchase the archaeologists and that it's hard to keep track of which artifacts you have without writing them down. Once you open the popup to select an artifact from a dig, you can't go and check what you already have.

 

[Cpt Chaos]

I'll just tend to go with both. I figure that if I'm having to choose which one to delay, I haven't built enough cities.

 

[tedhebert]

I mostly go with just enough museums to fill what I'll be able to get as Great Artists, and make all the rest Archeologist.

 

[Archon_Wing]

Because you can't get artifacts until Natural History, I usually make 1-2 art museums until then. Maybe not if it's Donatello and his useless sculptures.

 

[Tech Osen]

Because you can't get artifacts until Natural History, I usually make 1-2 art museums until then. Maybe not if it's Donatello and his useless sculptures.

Yet building an archeological museum is the inspiration boost for Natural History. I never understood why you can (and apparently are supposed to) build those an era before you can actually put something in it. Makes absolutely no sense.

 

[Archon_Wing]

Yet building an archeological museum is the inspiration boost for Natural History. I never understood why you can (and apparently are supposed to) build those an era before you can actually put something in it. Makes absolutely no sense.

They seem to have really overestimated the potential of theater square yields. Weirdly enough it gives the same artist points as the art musuem.

 

[enKage]

Great work of art is around 20 gold per turn from friendly AI
Artifact is around 30 gold per turn from AI
(though both may vary depending on civ focus, I just noticed this is kinda average)

Buying great works of art one by one you can easily theme at least one museum, the same goes with artifacts, much later and for higher price AND you must buy all 3 artifacts! otherwise your archeologist would have less charges.

Archeologist is 1600 gold. Buying 3 great works is total around 1800 (buying artefacts 2400). So basically you are forced to wander around in search of artifacts for many turns or immediately get filled museum for slightly higher price than archeoligist alone

Artifacts are created where battles happened. If you go tourism victory, probably you are peaceful. It means only barb and your civ artefacts to dig around (or a long journey for you)

To theme archeo museum you need at least 2 full museum to swap artifacts and it takes so much time... Because artifacts from one archeologist land at one specific museum, if you want to theme it either your one archeologist make a grand tour around many civs, or you send 3 from 3 museums in every direction and swap when full museum. But still not a guarantee to theme.
With pieces of art it is easier


Summary
Art museums and fill in as soon as build (AI would always have some to sell at that time)
Later some archeo (if really needed).
Early 1 archeo bought for inspiration, that's all. I tend to go with 3-5 filled art museum before I am able to excavate enough artifacts to make a ull exhibition in archeo (and not always even themed)

Even as Ethiopia I would rather spend faith on national parks / bands and suicidal apostles

 

[8housesofelixir]

Artifacts are created where battles happened.

I think now I understand why the ability of "having archaeologists move freely across the border" is tied to a military wonder.

Buying 3 great works is total around 1800 (buying artifacts 2400). So basically you are forced to wander around in search of artifacts for many turns or immediately get filled museum for slightly higher price than archeoligist alone

Well, you can always use what the artifacts you already have but hard to be themed to exchange for AI's artifacts that can be themed with yours.

I always do that, and in this way I often only need to pay less than 300 golds - sometimes the AI don't even ask for extra gold - for each exchange. Saved a lot of money.

 

[Pietato]

Depends how much you fought early, size of the map, whether AI will sell you any art, building versus buying, and ultimately whether you are roleplaying as Britain and pillaging the history of the world.

 

[japanesesamurai]

I hire at least 1 archeolosist because when digs are revealed it blocks unimproved tiles making them worthless for districts/improvements

 

[AriochIV]

I hire at least 1 archeolosist because when digs are revealed it blocks unimproved tiles making them worthless for districts/improvements

Same. Even if I'm not concentrating on culture, I generally build one or two Archaeological Museums just to clear tiles with artifacts on them so they can be developed.

 

[IsabelBraganca]

Trading artifacts is really annoying. If your artifact will help the AI get closer to theming, he will trade with you. However, if you have a full museum and another with empty spots, the trade artifact goes to the museum with empty spots. And you end up with two incomplete museums and have to build an extra archeologist to dig up just one artifact.

 

[Shadowstrike]

it's hard to keep track of which artifacts you have without writing them down. Once you open the popup to select an artifact from a dig, you can't go and check what you already have.

This. I don't get why the popup doesn't include "you have X other artifacts from this era from the following civs", so you can see which option you can theme with.

 

[Oberinspektor Derrick]

It depends on how many GWAM points I have per turn, mostly.
If I have a ton of points per turn (say, if playing Russia, I'm the suzerain of Bologna, or otherwise just have a ton of points over the competitors), I'll go for art museums hands down.
Easier to rake in at a steady pace and easier to theme.

This is however overly simplified.
Usually there's a degree of how much I'm ahead on GWAM points over my competitors, and if I'm not sufficiently ahead (and might lose out on quite a couple artists), I'll gradually fill in with artifact museums just in order to fill all my theatre squares.
The most important thing is filling those museums, and it's usually safe to assume that I'll eventually theme half or more of them.
Having a bunch of half empty museums of either type is just a waste of culture and tourism, so usually it's a mix where I'll decide the ratio between the two as I go.

 

[Victoria]

Well if you seriously want culture and also going for drama for the culture benefits then the inspiration is useful. Also as stated a couple do not hurt. Great artists are not as great but themed earlier so why not but do not go overboard. I did an analysis a while ago
https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/civ-vi-great-artists.27731/
The coloured table halfway down is all you need to see really, it shows to go for religious works. If you are really pushing artists then you could go for 4 museums maybe.
I feel the degradation of art by the same artist ruins it a bit, firaxis do seem to be art snobs despite all their fancy art.

 

[kaspergm]

It also depends on what AI is in the game. If Kongo or Russia is in the game, that's even more incentive to go for Archeology.

I really think the two museums are poorly balanced. As mentioned above, between competition for great artists, decreasing yields for same artist works, repeated era score for archeologist and (one of my favorite pet peeves) the fact that archeology museum gives the same amount of great artist points as the art museum, there's really not a lot of incentive to go for artists in most cases.

 

[CoconutTank]

It also feels really weird to be awarded a Great Artist but have no slots to put their work. So am I going to make another Theater Square and Art Museum just for art slots? Or will I delete the GA so it isn't taking up a tile somewhere?

Archaeologists being able to free up a tile and not overstay their welcome makes them much more appealing to me, and subsequently makes Artifacts more appealing.

 

[Tech Osen]

I hire at least 1 archeolosist because when digs are revealed it blocks unimproved tiles making them worthless for districts/improvements

I often miss the civ 5 landmark improvement.

 

[CoconutTank]

I often miss the civ 5 landmark improvement.

In addition to that, I miss being able to use GWAMs for things besides great works