First of all, roster duties. I "just" played, so I can't be up, sturick.
According to the posted roster, with the (for us) unfortunate exit of Ororo, Sengir would be up and pigswill on deck. However, I'm fine with whomever has the time, energy and dedication taking next set, in case Sengir is low on time (because surely he has the energy and the dedication
).
Then on the game itself. I'm also now inclined to wait for catapults. Without siege the axes will need the spy revolt in Kyoto, but by Sengir's numbers it seems that we won't have enough EP on time. It might be done with 10/15 turns of full EP slider, but that sounds like a risky strategy this early on. The GWall is not going to help with this. It takes 25 turn after building it to get the GSpy, which is too long. Infiltrating in an AI we're about to destroy will probably mean a lot of EP-waste, while settling the GSpy will only make it longer before we can attack. So all in all, probably better to grow first and go to cats asap. I'm also thinking that neilmeister's remark is an indication we'd better not be too bold too early... Also looking at the graphs there's no indication any team went for early rushes as yet.
So in general terms I guess a plan would be to (not saying much different from what has been said, just spelling it out):
- Oracle CoL, which means:
- Initial tech path: masonry, PH, writing.
- Follow up to catapults asap: math, construction. Likely squeeze in pottery.
- Build mids.
- Focus on growth/infra instead of on axes (as compared to Ororo's runs)
In a bit more detail city by city.
Stone Hill: Whip settler, follow up with worker like before. After worker, immediately build mids and grow meanwhile from size 2 to 5. At size 5 it can work 3 GH mines and bronze plus a farm (has to be built yet), freeing up corn+FP for quick growth in Marble city. After mids it could build a settler for northern city and/or start focussing on military.
Golden Fleece: Finish worker, continue Oracle, at least 2 forests chopped into it. Hoepfully grows to size 4 while building Oracle (largely depends on getting corn). At size 4 I'd probably try to get a settler from here for deer/cow. However, ideally grows to size 6 for working gold/sheep/corn + 3 scientists (or 4 dropping gold).
Pearly Swine: Starts with warrior, builds library when possible. Long term commerce city. However, I'm thinking with pig, gem, grass farm it has 12 food so could sustain 3 scientists at size 6. So maybe early on put some farms there instead of cottages. No cottages means we could skip pottery, though otoh granary would help growth ofc.
Marble Hill: I'd keep the city on Marble first of all, I think Ororo made good judgement on that. I'd start of building a barracks here and pump some units. Gradually the city should be able to get corn/FP from cap for growth. With both these tiles at size 5 it can also hire 3 specs.
So I think we can have 3 cities having a spell of working 3/4 caste scientists, while having a 4th (the capital) for producing stuff, while in this scenario I think it should be possible to squeeze out 2 more settlers for our cities #5 and #6.
Timing wise ideally we are in rep when we get caste (or get them at the same time). Of course it helps that now we'll have mids a bit earlier than with immediate axe rush.
Microwise let me repeat that farms might be surprisingly effective. This whole rep/caste approach benefits enormously from quick growth, obviously. A 3f tile might well be better than 1f3h tiles. Ideally we chop after we get maths. That doesn't apply to Oracle though, not sure about mids (don't know now how long maths takes). Chops in MarbleHill and PearlySwine probably better wait until after maths however.