CS Slingshot, is it worth it?

[Andrei_V]

I guess I can stop here. Out of 10 attempts, 7 successful.

The key is food for growth and commerce, commerce, commerce. That means, cottages from the very beginning and farms/fishboats, then mines.

On Standard map Epic speed the Oracle is worth 225 hammers. You have 100 - 110 turns, and about half of this time you can spend on building the Oracle. As long as you make 5-6 hammers per turn, you are fine with production. All you need to do is to maximize commerce as to be able to research Writing+CoL on time.

In the rare occasions when you have excessive commerce, but few hammers, you can always research BW after Priesthood and help the Oracle with a few forest chops.

If you lack the commerce as well (like in my cases with poor food), you can try the modified version of the Slingshot: research BW and Writing, help the Oracle with forest chops and get the CoL, then research Meditation, skip Masonry, and use the Prophet for the CS.

Of course, if you have problematic neighbors like Monty, you'll be better off with BW first and Axemen rush instead of Slingshots.

 

[Tavenier]

I always go for Theology for my Oracle. Gets me a new religion and I want to build the Sistine Chapel. It's not a mush-have tech, but it is a real nice one. Especially since I use so many specialists.

 

[malekithe]

I always go for Theology for my Oracle. Gets me a new religion and I want to build the Sistine Chapel. It's not a mush-have tech, but it is a real nice one. Especially since I use so many specialists.

What is the utility of the Sistine Chapel outside of a cultural victory?

 

[Lord Chambers]

What is the utility of the Sistine Chapel outside of a cultural victory?

Or inside of one. Or ever really.

 

[malekithe]

Or inside of one. Or ever really.

It gave me quite a boost in a recent experiment I was trying. In a cultural victory with no cottages, increasing the cultural output of artists by 50% is a very big deal. Granted that's not the average cultural victory, I still very much appreciated the boost.

 

[cabert]

sistin chapel is a must for a specialist based cultural victory.
It's also very powerful in combination with mercantilism, in the same way that representation is, more see if you have both : every specialist is potentially giving you 8 commerce (bonus not applied yet)!

In a culture win with sistin chapel, you have the possibility to leave your culture slider at a low level (just for the happiness) and work specialists in the wanabee legendary cities only.
Thus leaving research in effect in every other cities.

Obviously, it's not the typical "9 cities, 100% culture slider with cottages everywhere" strat