Whats the best use for a Great Scientist?

[Murky]

Can someone give me a few quick hints regarding their best use.

I have just built Great Library in a commerce city and so far got 2 Great Scientists (plus a GE I fluked with a 6% chance).

I used them to build Academys in my two main science cities. I has beelined to alphabet, mathematics then literature.

What I would like to know is:

a) Was this the best use for them? I decided the long term gain was better than the immediate popped tech. the 50% extra is already worth about 15 beakers each and will obviously grow.

b) What is the best thing to do with the next one? Settle as a great scientist or start pooping out tradeable technologies.

If it helps I'm on Monarch and with the GS help have managed to pull myself into a slight tech lead.

I think it depends on what goal you are aiming for.

I send my first scientist to the capital for an academy. My capitial is typically a good science city with lots of cottages so the +50% science makes a big difference. What happens with the rest depends on what my end-game goal is. If I'm going for a quick conquest/domination game I might lightblub them for a tech. If I'm going for space race then they are either used for another academy or are joined to the capital as a super specialist.

 

[blitzkrieg1980]

I started a new game last night as Alexander (AGG/PHI) and I beelined for literature after founding Hinduism. Grabbed the great library and expanded to a decent size. in 1750AD, I am by far the most technologically advanced, but my army is lacking. Basically, I started the game in an area of the world that was pretty devoid of hills and my captial (also Super Science city) is focusing on GP Farming. I couldn't get involved in an early war because all 3 civs on the continent were Friendly (thanks to Hinduism). How can I expect to survive if someone declares war on one of my Defensive Pact friends? Is it too late to build up an army to go for a domination win? I have turned off Space race, so being this tech advanced really only helps if I apply it to an army. Should I focus everything on building a huge inter-continental invasion force, or try to grab cultural vic?

 

[UncleJJ]

I started a new game last night as Alexander (AGG/PHI) and I beelined for literature after founding Hinduism. Grabbed the great library and expanded to a decent size. in 1750AD, I am by far the most technologically advanced, but my army is lacking. Basically, I started the game in an area of the world that was pretty devoid of hills and my captial (also Super Science city) is focusing on GP Farming. I couldn't get involved in an early war because all 3 civs on the continent were Friendly (thanks to Hinduism). How can I expect to survive if someone declares war on one of my Defensive Pact friends? Is it too late to build up an army to go for a domination win? I have turned off Space race, so being this tech advanced really only helps if I apply it to an army. Should I focus everything on building a huge inter-continental invasion force, or try to grab cultural vic?

I think this might be the wrong thread to ask that question... but I'll answer it anyway. If you are short of hammers you can use Slavery to whip and Nationhood to draft a decent army. All you need is food and if you are running a specialist economy that should be plentiful especially after Biology.

Edit: I missed the option that is good if you have a lot of towns. Adopt Universal Sufferage and buy hammers with gold. Just lower the research slider and make lots of gold. It costs you 3 gold for each hammer when you rush buy a unit with hammers already applied and if you can build the Kremlin this cost drops to 2 gold per hammer.

 

[Wodan]

Is it too late to build up an army to go for a domination win?

It's never too late to build up an army and go for a domination win, especially since:

I am by far the most technologically advanced

So, now that we've agreed you can do it, the question is how. Several good ways.

My personal suggestion is all or nothing. Based on what you've said, you've probably got Infantry and others have Maces, maybe Rifles.

Switch to police state, vasslage or nationhood, slavery, state property (if you have it), and theocracy. Ignore research. Yes, like a Cultural victory game, ignore the research slider and crank up the culture slider (for happiness) and gold slider (for money to support).

In your cities that have high food and low production, start whipping and/or drafting like mad. Cannons/artillery and infantry. In cities that have high production, just produce like normal, don't whip, though you can stop working cottages to focus on farms and production.

Once you have enough for local dominance, go ahead and declare war on a single front. I'd suggest letting them invade YOU first, so you can wipe out their non-garrison units.

good luck!

Wodan

 

[Pogel]

Being well ahead on tech and likely to stay there is usually a space race game, but you have turned that off. It's probably too late to try a cultural win. I would use military, spies and diplomacy to get me a diplomatic win. If you build up your population (Biology helps), get yourself a vassal or two and use spies & trade sanctions to cripple your rival's health/happiness then you should get a quick diplo win.

I presume you're in the industrial age? If so, you can build up a decent military pretty quickly by building barracks everywhere and then switching to nationhood for a draft of Rifles. Draft in three cities each turn until each city has produced a Rifle. If you have barracks and Hereditary Rule then the happiness penalty won't be a problem. Each point of population will be giving you a 110 hammer unit, which is a good trade (better than the whip). Build regular units (cannon, cavalry) in each city as well to make full use of theocracy before you change back. Upgrade any CR troops to grenadiers.

 

[blitzkrieg1980]

Thank you everyone for your help! I don't want to lose this one, because I feel like it's the first time I've really been THE #1 tech leader in the world on this difficulty setting. I'll try these strats tonight Thanks again!

 

[Thedrin]

That sounds highly unlikely... Personally, around 450 beakers/turn in a city is the most I've managed, but I am not a very advanced player...

A guy over at Apolyton recently put up a screenshot of a city with 2000+ beakers per turn.

 

[acidsatyr]

i'd like a link to that page please

 

[bassist2119]

My vote: first GS makes academy in city that will become SSC. Thereafter, bulbing is better in a few scenarios, but settling them in SSC is often best. Regarding how much you'll get by settling w/o rep, it's simple: drag the cursor over the beaker icon at the top right, look for the multiplier, and apply it to 6. As for long term, a settled GS w/o rep will produce 19.5 beakers (library/university/observatory/academy/oxford) + 0.6 beakers per religion (monastaries, but these do obsolete). I would recommend only settling scientists in the SSC, less bang for the buck elsewhere. Regarding academies in other cities, determine/guess if the short term gain scientific progress will outweigh the long term fact of more beakers, but note only extremely heavily cottaged cities/multiple gold resource cities will even bear short term fruit.

 

[Thedrin]

Last screen shot. Played with the deliberate intention of creating a city with a huge science output so it's at settler. As far as I can tell that difficulty reduces the costs of technologies, it doesn't give direct bonuses to output.