After having had him for several years, I finally had a legitimate use for the Mad Scientist general where he was actually the best choice for the situation (at least that I could figure out).
A few weeks ago I was chasing down the Third Thief achievement to get the Noble Bookbinder Tribute. Since you can't use recruits for this achievement, I had planned to run the whole thing using mainly soldiers instead. For 3 of the attacks, the Mad Scientist turned out to be a better solution than the Major General, and some of the other options I tried. For some attacks in which (non-achievement) guides called for using a Major General with cannons, I ran sims starting with cutting the number of cannons in half for the Mad Scientist, and then adjusting the numbers between cannons and soldiers and any other troops until the attacks made sense. If the enemy had flanking, I used Militia instead. Since Mad Scientist carries a more compact army than the MG, using soldiers with a smaller number of cannons seems to work naturally for that general. I found that usually I could add more than half the number of cannons for the attack, meaning greater overall firepower compared to the MG.
Yeah, I know… a really limited situation, but it seemed noteworthy for a general that I've hardly ever used otherwise.
How about you? Have you found any unique uses for Mad Scientist? Or any other generals that don't get much attention for that matter?
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(For anyone interested in the details, these are the specific attacks I had him make. The first one didn't work out quite like I thought, and I lost a few more cannons than I'd anticipated. I probably made an error running the sim somewhere. The other two attacks ran as planned.)
11. 80 Sword Clasher, 70 Dune Marksman, 70 Horseman
250 - 250 Cavalry
250 - 250 Cavalry (500 C)
Mad Sci. - 140 Soldier, 20 Elite Soldier, 40 Cannon (140S, 20E, 1 Cannon)
13. 50 Desert Marksman, 50 Sword Wielder, Boulder Worm
270 - 270 Soldier (270 Soldier)
Mad Sci. - 50 Militia, 150 Cannon (50 Militia)
32. 90 Dune Marksman, 90 Stone Cannon, Snooty Thief
250 - 250 Longbow
Mad Sci - 110 Soldier, 90 Cannon (250 Longbow, 80 Soldier)