How to use my Great Scientists?

In my current game as Pericles (Monarch level, Pangaea) I've built a specialized science city in which I've built the Great Library and run 6 scientist specialists as well in Representation. So not only is my science booming, but I'm also producing Great Scientists at high speed. The first one was used on an Academy in the aforementioned city, but what should I do with the next ones? Should I settle them in my science city, or bulb them on techs?

 

That depend on the overall situation.

If you can bulb somthing giving you a good immediate benefit (a important economic tech, atech towards liberalism) and if there is a good trading potential (multiple AI beeing advanced and nice enought to actually give you useful techs), a bulb should be worth it.

If bulbing does not open a nice opportunity, you might be better off settling or - sometimes - making a additionla Academy in another good scientific city.
If you not boost the benefit of a bulbed tech by trading or a heavy economic benefit, the long term profit from a settled scientist is often better.

 

A golden age (or two if you can manage to generate a non-scientist great person) are helpful as well.

 

I like to settle them once the liberalism race is done (and bulbing only saves me a few turns on a tech). Keep in mind that settling not only gives you the beakers, but one raw hammer as well!

 

Early in the game unless bulbing will give a really important tech, I'll always build an academy. I think the long-term benefit outweighs any thing else you can do.
Dick

 

If you have another scientific city with good potential, I think academy always give you more in a long run, however, since you have Pyramid and is running representation, settling is actually not a bad option. Need to do a bit math. It depends on your research scale.

Since you're playing pangnea, if you think about expansion sooner or later, lightbulbing the liberalism path to get nationalism early will help a lot.

 

Yep and pretty much guarantees being able to build the Taj for a free golden age to kick off the war.

 

I usually build Academies unless all my other cities are crap. Though like someone else said, as cities grow, so will the number of beakers and the 50% bonus from the Academy. Unless I'm doing Representation, in which I settle all my GS's after the 1st in my science city.

 

I'll build an academy in my best science city first, then bulb my way to liberalism, then maybe build more academies or settle depending on what's the most beneficial. Academies are probably the best bet after liberalism.

I always set it up so I get mostly great scientists.

 

I tend to builds academies. They seem to always deliver me much more beakers than settling as a GS.

 

Bulbing may only save you a few turns of research late in the game, but the settled great scientist will only be a marginal contributor as well.

 

Yeah, a settled scientist is very hooked on civics. It is only worth to settle scientists in an oxford/academy city if you are planning to run the representation civic. Then this scientist might deliver 9*(1+0.5+0.25+0.25+0.25)=20.25 . If you are running a CE then you have a heck of a lot of cities, where the base yield is larger than 50, which causes an academy to deliver always more beakers than a settled scientist.

 

I would use your Great Scientists to develop weapons of mass destruction under the nose of that weasel, Hans Blix. TAKE THAT UN!

 

It's more than that. You forgot the 1 from oxford, so it's actually 29.25, 30.15 with free religion.

Anyway settling is almost never a good idea unless you're doing a OCC. Academies will always yield better results. It's not hard to get a city that's putting out more than 60 base beakers, especially if it's a CE and you can run US for the extra hammers instead of rep.

 

Science academies generate 4 culture per turn on marathon, and Military academies 3 per turn, so it's well worth creating both a science and military academy in each of your 3 culture cities if you are going for a culture victory, as the culture multipliers from cathedrals, certain wonders, Free Speech, etc all go to make the base 7 culture well worth the investment. Two academies generating a base of 7 culture is more than double the culture of most national wonders and even more than certain world wonders.

Even if you are not going for a culture victory, the additional culture they generate can help in the early / middle period. Example: you may have an important border city with a key resource that can't hold it's borders, because it's to culturally weak, but you are not in a position to go to war.

Aside from the culture benefit, you have to think carefully about creating academies in the early / classic period if you plan on having an early war as your economy will probably crash. If it does crash your economy may result in 0% science, in which case you are far better off settling an early scientist, because of the 6 beakers it gives you, (more with Representation). So, if you are in the early / classic period, have a scientist to use, and are about to go to war, fiddle about with the science slider and your crystal ball and try and work out if you are better off with an academy or settling him/her.

The first scientist in the early / classic period may be better spent on that first Golden age, if you are wonder building. If you follow the top of the tech tree, and chop libraries + run 2 scientists specialists in your cities, then there is a strong chance you will get an early Great Scientist at circa Aesthetics, which has 3 wonders to attached to it.

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The combined power of the Great Library + the scientist specialists will generate so many great person science points that you are guaranteed more and more Great Scientist. This can be a good thing if you want more of them, but it will get in the way of your producing different types of Great People from other cities. With the Great Library under your belt at that stage of the game, and some interesting wonders just up ahead, you may want to think about easing up on the scientists a bit, so as to give another city a chance of producing a Great Engineer. As you are running Representation, you have the Pyramids, so providing that it's not in the same city as the Great Library, then you do have the capacity to pop a Great Engineer just when you need one. If the Pyramids is in another city, then in your shoes I would ease up on the scientists and go for a Great Engineer and pick up one of those wonders before you hit the the long dry spell when there are no wonders to buld.

Regards -Mr P

 

..........nvm

 

My bad, but still academies yield better results. I have the impression that settling a great person as a great specialist is a completely underdog last resort thing you want to do with them. I tend to collect the "junk" great people - who don't have a building, like great merchants, prophets, artists in the later game and use them for golden ages.

PS I don't run for cultural victories, so artists are junk great people for me.

 

ACK! Did you just say "Great Artists" are junk people?! Don't forget about Civilized Jewelers. I usually want both "Sid's Sushi" (Great Merchant of course) and "C Jewelers" in my late game for some bone-crushing financial/population power....

Of course, I read that a lot of you better players win your game long before you get to this point in the game...


-- SJN

 

I love Great Artists in the late game conquests to 'culture bomb' newly conquered cities.

 

I like to send the merchants on distant trade missions to pay for modernizing my army or navy.