In Vanilla, the civ-wide Culture-win value was/is 100K on all map sizes. In C3C, it scales with map size, and on a small map (like you're currently using), it is indeed 80K. But I usually play on Standard-size maps anyway (my comp struggles at Large+, but ≤Small maps have fewer civs = less interesting games).
Even in Vanilla, the Cultural advisor (F3) will tell you your current total Culture, and how much CultPT you're making, so you can figure out the number of turns you need to win (although working out the exact year would require knowing by heart the years per turn at all stages of the game -- or looking at the .bic file in the Editor). In C3C, the Victory status/histograph screen (F8) will also tell you how close you are to a Culture-win (and who your nearest rival is). But yeah, CAII does make everything easier -- and yeah, Culture wins take a long time... Domination/ Conquest games will certainly be quicker.
This article by the venerable Bede discusses use of Specialists in depth (almost too deep for me, TBH!). Re. Farming -- I was referring to
all the possible benefits: the increased GPT/BPT, the increased no. of free units, and the increased no. of supportable Armies (
every town, no matter how small/crappy, count towards the '1-Army-per-4-Towns' rule). But specifically, the idea of Specialist-farming is based on the fact that (barring Mountains/Volcanoes) you can place 1 town per 4 tiles, as follows ('scuse the crude graphic):
Cx|Cx|Cx|Cx|...
xx|xx|xx|xx|
--------------
Cx|Cx|Cx|Cx|...
xx|xx|xx|xx|
--------------
Cx|Cx|Cx|Cx|...
xx|xx|xx|xx|
Since the city-tile always gives 2 FPT, so long as
at least one of the 'x' tiles can produce
at least 2FPT, you can build an MM-free Farm, with 1 citizen (working the 2 FPT tile) supporting 1 Specialist (who eats the 2FPT surplus). The ideal would be a Pop6 town producing a net 12FPT (2 FPT from the City, 10FPT from the terrain), which (without food bonuses) could support 3 citizens and 3 specialists with no improvements needed (because in 1-shield towns, imps are sloooow to build, and even a 1GPT maintenance cost will be a net drain on treasury unless you're using a Taxman or running 0% Sci+Lux, i.e. 100% Tax). Other examples:
- A Farm surrounded by railed+irrigated Plains would give 11FPT (2 FPT from the City, 3*3=9FPT from 3*irPlains), supporting 3 citizens and 2 Specialists, and can use the 1 FPT excess to grow Workers (for adding to the core towns, or pumping up other Farms).
- A Farm surrounded by railed+irrigated Grass would give 14FPT (2 FPT from the City, 3*4=12FPT from 3*irGrass), supporting 3 citizens and 4 Specialists (although such a town would also need freshwater or a 'Duct -- in the latter case, one of those Specialists might need to be a Taxman).
- A Farm with freshwater -- or a 'Duct (e.g. a captured AI town which had already built one -- which you can't sell) -- could even be allowed to grow up to Pop12, with 5-7 citizens supporting 5-7 Specialists.
If you add food-bonuses into the mix, you can support even more Specialists per citizen:
- Imagine a riverbank city with 4 irFloods in its radius, just one of which has a Wheat = 2 + 3*5 + 7 = 24 FPT from 4 cititzens, supporting 8 Specialists!
And even marginal terrain can be Farmed:
- A coastal Tundra-Farm could use a CivEng(s) to build a Harbour (60s to build -- or 30s for Mil-/Sea-Civs -- and needs 1GPT maintenance) to get 2 FPT per Coast-tile (or 4FPT if there's a Fish).
- (If you can stand that level of MM), a Farm with only a single 1FPT tile in its 3*3 grid could work 1 tile for 20T to fill the food box, then convert that citizen to a Specialist for the next 10T while the foodbox empties.
So even at worst, your Farms can support around 0.3 specialists per citizen -- if you add food-bonuses into the mix, you could support up to a 2:1 ratio. And you don't really need to worry about unhappiness either: Specialists are always Content, and even in a Pop12 Farm you'll almost never have more than 5 or 6 working Joes, so even at high difficulty levels where everyone's born miserable, you'll really only need 3-4 Luxes (or 2-3 Luxes plus 10-20Lux%) to keep all the Farm-pop Happy/Content.
The downsides of ICS farms are:
- Gameplay-related, because more towns =
- More IBT processing time, since food/gold/beaker/pollution/flip-risk calculations now need to be done for dozens/hundreds of small/crappy towns = longer games
- More town management = more tedious games (or switch on the Governator, and take your lumps...)
- Subjective/ aesthetic (ICS'd maps look horrible, IMO).