Yes...a good point...I find I'm still trying to adjust to some of these new realities....and the Great Library seems to be one of those that doesn't seem quite as critical as it once was.... Though the free library is nice to get if you factor that into the expenditure of hammers. Even Oxford I now seem to view as less urgent...though partially because you know that no one can scoop it from you.....
I almost always take Oxford late - usually accidentally, but it does mean I can get a bigger beaker bonus from it.
I've taken to seeing GL less in terms of including a Library in its cost, and more in terms of the consideration that, for the extra it costs compared with a Library, it doesn't give you a great deal. When you build GL, you'll have a pop 3-4 city, and growing as you build. If GL takes 10 turns more than a library (which is common with a moderate production start and 3 citizens), that's 30-40 hammers you aren't getting from the library while you add the 'Great' bit. And the bonus you'll get from the thing is at most 100 hammers at the time you're forced to build it to stop the AI getting it.
There are other things I still need to adjust to....and after reading one of today's other threads, I think I need to focus more on micro-managing my specialists.
I've been doing a lot more of that recently, and it makes a huge difference. I'm still in the mindset that the main role of a specialist is to add specialised production - and as a result I rarely put people in Workshops or Markets because they don't add any production you can't commonly get from working tiles. At the same time I tend to add scientists and artists wherever I can because they provide a bonus I don't get from working tiles. The result is that I get unspecialised cities that produce the same couple of GP types, and I rarely spawn Merchants or Engineers. Since changing my practice I'm spawning GSes every few turns in the late game, Artists uncommonly, and Merchants somewhat frequently. I still neglect the production buildings and in any event rarely want engineers in quantity.
Also I seem be getting more interested in trying to smooth out productivity a bit better among my cities....such as having Iron Works in one of the lower productivity cities.... In vanilla I generally focussed on having my main city as the cultural and productivity "powerhouse"....G&K seems to call for a bit more flexibility....
I try to heavily specialise production cities, but I am coming to realise I need at least two in most games, rather than focus all my production in one city. My capital will usually tend to have respectable production even if I don't specialise it, so I tend to try and make that my gold city if I have the terrain/resources.
The AI shoots for Civil Service and imo often ignores the top and bottom techs. I have rarely ever seen them build colossus, and never steal it from me.
I haven't seen the Colossus prioritised, but different AIs certainly follow different tech paths (and the Lighthouse is always highly prioritised by the AI, so some at least take the top path). This is partly why Wonders are harder to grab the more civs there are in the game - if they all took the same tech paths, it would be as easy to get the Lighthouse with 12 civs as it is with 2.
