since i was able to get sushi/mining very early, i had to consider when to obsolete my religous combo (uos/spiral/apo). loosing the monastries in most of my cities (around 30 at that point) would be around 100 gold and close to 200 beakers. considering that the 100 gold at that point would be 20% research rate and each 10% research rate were around 250 beakers, we are talking about a net loss of 700 beakers.
another very important point was the exec-production. that early in the game, i didnt see any realistic way to get around 35 execs. out in a timely manner, nor to get the wallstreet up in time. so i did some calcs and came to the conclusion that libbing steampower and getting levees up in my core-river cities and the soontobe headquarter of the corps would not only allow me to get enough cities for 1 turn exec spamming but also for finishing the wallstreet in time.
the third point was the dire money situation i was facing. around 600 AD, i cashed in around 1000 gold from the NE, followed by close to 1500 gold around 800 AD from the moais. still, the turns from 800 AD to 900 AD were really bitter, because spreading 2 corps at max. speed and STILL maintaining research at 100% became a real challange. i managed to do so, because i did use the smallish helper cities to produce wealth right after they got mining, making a surplus each turn of 30*1.25(mining)+12(HQ)-30(costs)=around 20gold.
still, at a certain point in the 900th century, i was forced to leave merk and go into FM, for the 25% saving on corps. it did cost 200 beakers, but reduced the costs by 350 gold per turn.
in parallel, i switched out of org.reli and into FR. that gained around 150 beakers, but i lost the boni from UoS and Spiral for temples and cathetrals although (didnt know that). only apo hammers remained, so i payed around 100 gold for said 150 beakers... ...well, a mistake at the given point for sure, but nothing crucial, so i played on (if it would have been crucial, i would have reloaded).
then i followed the adived given by wastin, and went for assembly line right after mining was in (after mining + astro was in actually, because i already had played 2 turns more before getting said advice). with my small helper cities building wealth, my super-levee-cities spamming execs and settlers i put all the other cities to get factories and coalplants up, to increase the bonus from hammers for future wealt/research building.
that allowed me to keep research up as fast as possible and to get sushi only a few turns after mining was in (11 turns to be precise, with the detours of astro and assembly line included already)
...
here you see my corps HQ delhi the turn mining was in:
102 hammers without ov and the wallstreet just finished. plan was working very well so far. the other exec cities were setup also in time, so i managed to build not only all execs in 1 turn, i also managed to spread the corps in most cases the same turn said exec finished due to the rr network getting up fast.
and to answer the question wastin posted:
i indeed had a lot of new cities founded up to 1000 AD (some 15-20 i guess), because part of my overal strategy was to use ics (infinit city spam) which basically means to settle as many cities as possible without caring of resources and city placement (just get as many as possible):
some unimportant new helper city founded in 720 AD:
already in the green, right after founding it with 20 research and 10 costs
another unimportant new helper city in 1000 AD:
in 4 turns all needed infra will be up and with both corps, the city costs 30 gold more then it brings in so far. with factory+cplant + a bit more pop, it will soon produce around 100 beakers/gold per turn, turning into a gain per turn of 70 gold/beakers without counting the extra research any suhi-scientist will bring.
i stopped settling at 1000 AD, because with each turn passing, rentability drops, but up to 1000 AD, i spammed settlers and cities wherever i could
...
in the next post i will explain a bit my thinking about how many turns later i would have reached sushi and mining if i would have gone the other way around and how many turns i calculated i would loose by not beeing able to produce and move my execs in 1 turn to the destination