Management of Great Artists, Scientists and Writers.

[andersw]

I wonder how you do with these for bonuses.
(This is for wide play mainly authority conquest but Im happy to read about insights no matter what policy choices are made.)
Here is how I do which could very well be suboptimal which is why I ask.
Scientists
I usually settle all scientists until public schools and then I pop all after that.
Main reasoning is dont pop scientists if Im behind and get a rebate anyway and its supposedly based on current science output.
An option would be to sit on them and pop more when I want to start popping (that means no or fewer GS tiles).
There are rare occations where I would consider to pop earlier to combo with "free tech".
Writers
I pop two sometimes 3 or rarely even 4 writers as great works.
I want atleast one combo and its nice to fill up some for the bonus from Scientific Revolution.
An option would be to always pop them for culture.
Artists
I usually settle 2 for similar reason as writers and I dont want to "waste" golden ages too early, rather have longer ones laters.
Options would be to always pop or to settle even more.

 

[phantomaxl1207]

I tend to wait until I have some Artifacts (Archaeology) to pop Artists for 20k+ GA Points.

I settle my first 5 Great Writers for Great Works (+1 from Heroic Epic).
I like to use the Ampitheatre theming bonus to help Cities grow their boarders.

Great Scientists feel a bit nerfed; they'll still barely give half a Modern Era tech even with 6 Academies.

 

[Stalker0]

I would argue that with the new slower tech speeds in the late game that most people are probably bulbing their GS too early now (myself included). In a typical game you are going to see more GS than you have before just due to a longer game, so a few extra academies generate some very good value.

 

[qwerty4429]

How do I know when it's better to use GW for GWW or Culture? I assumed you need quite a bit of GW before culture plainly because culture growth is quite fast imo, and upside of getting culture is compensated by downside of having next policy more expensive while having same culture output, so its not that good until you've got at least 5 GWW or so.

 

[Stalker0]

How do I know when it's better to use GW for GWW or Culture? I assumed you need quite a bit of GW before culture plainly because culture growth is quite fast imo, and upside of getting culture is compensated by downside of having next policy more expensive while having same culture output, so its not that good until you've got at least 5 GWW or so.

As a ballpark, I think Industrial era is the time when its better to cash in your culture rather than keep building it up with great works. That's not a hard rule, but its a reasonable guideline.

That's especially true if you have the ability to faith buy Gwriters. You can put all of your cities on culture for 5ish turns, start faith buying great writers, and get a very very nice pot of culture to really push you to your ideology.

 

[DeAnno]

With reference to that 5, you definitely shouldn't stop at an odd number of GW, the theme bonuses are quite strong and they also make your GAs hit harder. If you ever are in a situation where one Writing is lonely and unpaired you should always make another work.