The "Mad Scientist Trick"

[Arrian]

I think you and I have similar MM tolerance levels. I tend to use scientists early; a mixture in the early and early-mid game; and taxmen in the later game -- although the scientists give 3 beakers instead of 2 gold, excess beakers are wasted while excess gold is always available, and once the tech prices become high enough (and one's research effective enough) it's not terribly unlikely for a good chunk of the scientists' efforts to be wasted whereas the taxmen will usefully be stealing the last gold from widows and orphans.

I think we do, yeah.

True, the beakers are sometimes wasted. Once 4-turn techs are no sweat, taxmen are probably preferable. Fire and forget.

Using scientists, I was able to complete a tech with 0% research spending on the final turn. This was during a war, when I was starving down 5 or 6 large cities using all scientists. That was cool.

I still have most of the specialists in that game set to scientists, but having recently gotten replaceable parts, about half of those in the distant corrupt north have been changed to civil engineers to assist with cathedrals and then hospitals.

-Arrian

[Cort Haus]

Yes, C3C republic unit costs, plus these specialists makes hospitals more attractive for corrupt cities, where irrigation is the way to go more then ever.

What was that old pop-rushing thread from Vel or Aeson - 'The velocity of food production under despotism'? Now we have 'The velocity of food production in the industrial era'.

[Cort Haus]

... or should that be 'The Virtues of Specialisation'

[Tall Stranger]

I have to admit, this thread is giving me the willies. Not because it isn't cool or useful to know, but because it only drives home how bad my MM skills are. It's bad enough that I feel guilty about wasting shields or not going through every one of my cities every single turn to ensure that my WF is optimally placed. Now I have to rethink my general strategy of just turning all surplus population in far-flung cities into taxmen and treating the cities themselves as little more than military outposts.

Now I have to think through civil engineers, scientists, policemen, ...!!! : (I don't know how you builder-types handle the late game. I just tried to play a peaceful, builder-style game up to a SS launch. It drove me nuts! I ended up building the UN, bribing a bunch of states and ending the game early with a Political victory.)

[Exquisitor]

Changing wasted foods into specialists is a sure fire way to get ahead, especially in science. Use F1 to micromanage. Hit F1, select foods, reserve it, then start changing all those corrupted cities into science or taxes. I usually put production on wealth, but I'm a consumate builder and thus focus on aqueducts and hospitals, too.

Wrt to corruption there is one issue. One of the "must-read" strategy threads mentioned that there is a max distance from the capital that when reached won't allow improvement in the corruption-production stream. That is, corruption will always be rampant and production always 1. I believe the engineer and policeman specialists do not contribute in these cities, so focus on science. However, find this distance and you can make your unproductive cities into modest workhorses.