While thread-trolling I found the triple wonder idea is not new. One possible side benefit of the Pyramids is the option of running
Universal Suffrage to rush courthouses. Unfortunately, even once you put some hammers on the courthouse, you still pay 3
/1
. Neglecting the
and representation-
, that means a merchant in an established city can effectively contribute 1
to an outlying city. So you run merchants for a while under Rep, and then cash in courthouses under US. Or a Great Merchant's trade mission can build a bunch of courthouses. The anarchy would still suck, so it's hard to see this idea working. Or we could use it as the first part of our Golden Age as we switch into war mode, to buy some theatres for access to the Globe Theatre, or barracks for
in draft cities, or whatever seems vital at the time.
Note that if we continue running a specialist economy through the science and war phase, we should be planning to tech Drama to use the
slider for
. This is a silly proposition in a cottage economy because each slider position costs you 10% of your
. However running Rep+Caste we're only going to be getting a fraction of our
from the slider. Theatres double the effect, of course, and we'll probably have at least six of those. Colosseums work on each 20%, so not so useful for us. The limiting factor now becomes food. Suppose we've got 12 cities, and four of them are
-limited, with excess
. (Remember, we haven't been whipping out markets and forges for happiness, Rep only works in 5 cities and is only worth 3
...) The average city is only pulling in 8-12
from trade routes and a few tiles (most of which is going into
to pay the bills), so losing 10% of that
to run four extra merchants (12
12
12
) is a clear gain. Obviously you might prefer other specialists given the right conditions. Even in some crappy city where all you can do is run another person working a coast tile for 2
2
(with lighthouse and not Colossus) you've shown a small profit (and have another draftable dude!). Concentrating the theatres in the high-food cities is best, because now each 10% slider allows two more specialists. Colosseum maybe, and only in the best such cities if the slider will get to 20% or 40%.
If we don't go for the Pyramids (i.e. don't tech Masonry), then the Great Artist from Music can be used to bulb part of Nationalism. That's 1400
to get back about 2400
. Free 2400 if we actually want Military Tradition later. That might free up Liberalism for popping Steel or something.
A Great Prophet is useless for bulbing because they go straight down the Mysticism+Masonry line for ages.
Fast Astronomy to steal the Great Lighthouse city in a surgical strike could pay big dividends.
If we plan to run a heavy espionage economy in the lead-up to a war phase, then we may not need to worry (as much) about siege units. Use a spy to cause a city revolt to get rid of culture bonuses, muskets ignore walls and castles =>
BAM. Perhaps this is only realistic for war-opening "critical strikes" on strategically important cities.
Alternatively, muskets + cuirassiers might be more effective (i.e. faster-moving) than muskets+cannons. That said, the fast-moving UU is great for covering a straggling stack. You can leave some siege to heal up in the last city, and until the AIs get knights or muskets, a fortified musket is fine siege cover as the late-arriving siege move up. The extra movement of the UU allows one or two of them to join in the attack a turn sooner than you would otherwise suppose. The UU is also great sitting in a stack outside a city while the AI straggles in more defenders past the stack (e.g. a coastal city with limited land routes to it). You can pick off all medieval units at acceptable odds, and can move back into the stack after cleaning up the last target.