http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=182895&page=6
damn I suck at finding the threads related to this debate about the oracle sling. but there are a few key points that factor into it. hopefully this will clear up points that others are percieving as negatives for this gambit.
1st you MUST have pottery as pre-req for metal casting. so before oracle finishes you have to have researched ag, wheel, pottery, plus BW.
there's usually time to research AH, or fishing. so part of this gambit makes you research ALL of the early worker techs.
you usually put the oracle in the capitol and the forge in city #2. I find it good to do that if you find a really high food source for your 2nd city. but given the way this area is layed out, I would suggest the oracle in the 2nd city and the forge in the first if at all possible..
oracle is 2GPP w/ philo it becomes 4. 25 turns to the first prophet
an engineer is going to produce 6 GPP.. 17 turns to engineer.. leaving you a gap of only 8 turns (7 really) to get that engineer running.
the hard part is making sure you can start running it intime. but if you do you have a 100% chance of getting an engineer as your first.
the forge is a brutal 120 hammers at this point in the game. on normal your chops are only good for 20 hammers. I would anticipate running the engineer in the capitol if at all possible, it is more likely to have the pop nessessary to rush the forge for another 30-60 hammers
I'm hoping futurehermit sees this and can weigh in, but I would suggest teching:
BW, Ag, wheel, myst, poly, priesthood, pottery, masonry, AH, and then from there
pottery needs to finish BEFORE the oracle is built. and you want masonry finished before your engineer spawns.. he will need to rush the pyramids that turn.
to do in the meantime.. looks like you can sacrifice a couple of forests, I would chop a settler and get him over to wherever the oracle is going to get built. while you are finishing priesthood have that city build a 2nd worker
I'd build nothing but warriors in the capitol after that to bulk up defence. on that note if you don't find copper I'd grab archery or earlier AH and prey for horses.
the worker that chop rushed the settler is going to need to hook up the corn (duh) and the cows if you get Ah early enough. otherwise you have some important micro to do. each forest needs to be pre-chopped to within 1 turn of completion. zip your other worker down there and try to finish off the forge in 2 turns (finish 2 forests, finish 2 forests, whip 2 pop)
I don't have a turn counter to add up the research times, but I have done this before several times with germany and hit the pyramids consistently before 1000bc. you have a better start than most, this gambit should be doable, and as you can see you won't be neglecting early techs at all to do it
(bw, ag, wheel etc)
if you DO pull this off.. 1st GP will be an engineer. 2nd will be a prophet. 3rd will be an engineer or scientist if you have a library up in the capitol by then (running 3 specialists there) since you can probably hard build the library its up to you if you want to risk running scientists w/ the engineer.. but a 2nd free engineer would mean free GL as well
NaZ