If the math is outdated (which I grant it could be), show me the new math.
Specifics... not just comments about stale ideas... to prove the point. You could very well be right, but I am curious how you came to this conclusion of your suggested way being better.
Perhaps someone smarter than me could probably figure this out, but it seems to me there are way too many variables to make the 6-7 city question a mathematical exercise or proof. The math on timing of getting the first settler out is probably pretty easy, and I know it'll prove that w/w/s gets the settler out first...but on getting 6/7 cities out and the tech position of the player at that point in time as well? I'm not smart enough to factor in all the variables that come in for that analysis, like the capital's resources, barb defense, diplomacy, opposing civs and overall tech choices.
A lot tougher to simply turn into a mathematical equation, and it also doesn't take into account another key variable, beakers per turn in the early game. While the worker/worker/settler start sits at size 1 (and 9 beakers per turn?) for an extra 25 or so turns, the worker/growth start gets to size 4 and generates more beakers per turn for most of those 25 turns - so there's another tradeoff to somehow factor in. What food resources does the capital start with - that's another variable. It's a totally different analysis with wet corn and pigs than it is with cows, spices and wine.
You ask how I concluded worker/growth is better - right or wrong, i came to that conclusion by observation. I've wasted far too much of my life reading about A LOT of games posted on this site by a lot of advanced players, and don't see players using this strategy regularly if at all. Again, I'm not disputing the point that w/w/s gets to two cities faster, as I'm sure even the updated math would prove that, but the tradeoff is that the capital is size 1 for a long, long period, and those forests that could be 30 hammers later are chopped for 20 hammers earlier. Trying to prove or disprove which theory gets to 6-7 cities faster has to have way too many variables to be a simple mathematical determination.
When I get back to my home PC in a week, I'd be happy to shadow or generate a test map to test it out - we could post a game and ask a few people to play a set number of turns, and maybe post an update at 40 turns, 80 turns and 1 AD on an isolated landmass with no barbs or something like that, to try to limit the variables that impact it, and compare expansion at some set points. It'd be interesting to test it as Joao and as someone who's not IMP or EXP, as I'd actually be interested in comparing the two ideas as Joao, where I do think w/w/s could potentially be a better opening.
