Has anyone else had trouble w/ getting some technology maybe too early? In a game I'm playing, I had trouble once I unlocked Machinery, when my cities were not yet ready for the Hammers needed to produce Longbowmen viably. By that, I mean I'd rather be building Archers then upgrade them to Longbowmen, than build the upgraded unit from the start. It just felt kinda wrong for me to want to hold progress on the higher tech. Is there quite a good reason for unit obsolescence? How do we assess the length of time needed to make a certain unit obsolete?
I started playing as England (Epic Emperor Small map) with a domination victory goal with the idea of trying to use Longbowmen. I found myself in a good starting position w/ 2 cotton 1 pearl + 4 cattle in close proximity on a coastal/grassland terrain.
After exploration I found 2 great spots for expansions-the first one had 1 dyes and Cerro de Potosi and the second one had 3 silver, 1 marble and later on turned out to also have Iron. I then rushed to get both expansions up by buying settlers using gold from trading and the boost from Cerro de Potosi. From there, I've secured a very good flow of Gold, which I planned to use for upgrades later on while gaining units, and boosting culture and growth for the time being in order to set up the war machine.
I also figured that since my plan of using Longbows will set my warmongering somewhat in the middle game, I should try to build Libraries and possibly NC and possibly Stonehenge, and then build up on units once the third expansion (w/c had a lot of possible Hammers) kicks in. The second expansion could give some help too having some plains around. Btw, the terrain on the Capital was kinda short on hammers so I thought I'd find better use of it for other things rather than using it to build units, until maybe the sole forest/lumber mill and production buildings could help.
Then, I actually managed to get all 3 Libraries, NC (on the capital even) and Stonehenge (plus Monuments, Granaries and Lighthouses built or bought) which felt like an awesome start thinking that the earlier I could get Machinery the earlier I'm ready for any opportunity for war.
Just before I researched Machinery, I think I was set to produce an archer every 12/13 turns, and smoothly move to 6/7 by the time my investment in food kicks in and allow more Mines to be worked, but when I got Machinery, unit production just plummeted to one every 38/39 turns.
I felt couldn't get units out quickly enough early enough and find good use of my Gold rather than buy units at a much higher price (gold/hammer ratio). I started to get tech beyond what I really needed which also affected what was supposed to be my supply of spearmen/horsemen, and basically the plan was ruined.
From this experience, I think Longbowmen (or Crossbowmen) making Archers obsolete so quickly is kinda iffy. In this game too, my civ was actually behind the other civs in Science output even if no one has produced Great Library yet, so I think wasn't really that fast in getting Machinery. Maybe this could be a case for Archers getting obsolete some other time later than Machinery? Or maybe Science is still too fast to research? Or maybe citizen growth is too slow? What do you guys think?