Is it better to get math before you chop a large forest.

[CivIVMonger]

The +50 production yield would for spamming. but getting those shields early is good for early production, and there are not usually endless forests so you kinda have to pick.

[nbcman]

Usually hammers immediately are better than waiting for math.

[Laurwin]

i try to save woods especially if theyre not around river or on top of hills until the time I really need to chop them, which is usually after math

[Jet]

Chop them before Mathematics as long as the build is important:
A. units if you're attacking
B. workers/settlers/units if you're expanding and haven't crashed your economy yet
C. important buildings if you're expanding:
C.1. monument if you need faster culture for blocking or to get resources.
C.2. library if you need it for culture (same reason) or if you want to run scientists there soon
C.3. granary if you have an early high happy cap
D. important early wonders (not wonders you don't really care about)

Occasionally you can get Math while you're still buidling an early wonder - then you might want to prechop and then finish the chop after you get Math.

[Maronae3]

I never 'save' forests. I might not chop all of them, but I won't ever keep them for when I can make use of the math bonus.

Similarly, I never prioritize math for the chopping bonus, or for any reason at all for that matter. Math is usually a backfill traded tech for me, unless I'm making a beeline for construction.

[FlyinJohnnyL]

Early hammers usually win out, but if you want to put some chops into something like the Great Library, you're usually better off just waiting. Pre-chop them so you can turn those hammers in as soon as math is researched/traded for.

[TheMeInTeam]

Early hammers win, but keep in mind I do save a fair bit of plains forests for use later, since early on plains tiles (that aren't hills) don't help a lot anyway but the health bonus frequently does. Later on they can be given lumbermills and function as the equivalent of a hammer-efficient grass hill mine.

But if I want a wonder or city site ASAP and I'm out of grass forests, I still might chop those. I pretty much ignore math in this consideration, but the tip about pre-chopping if near it is a good one.

[CivIVMonger]

I really think (along with you guys.) that the early hammers are better because you can spam settlers and since the early game, (pre math.) is an investment, it's worth it to just go ahead and spam those settlers/workers.

[zyphyr]

I'll only 'wait' to chop when I am researching math (or am about to). Otherwise it isn't worth it.