@jnebbe I think you are overdoing it abit with cottages on grassland, you need some commerce but if you use up all grassland now you might end up bulldozing alot of those cottages once you need to chain-farm (to irrigate the rice+wheat if nothing else) and to put workshops down.
Thinking specifically on the cottages in wheat/clam city.
I would prefer a lighthouse and just work coast which gives you an unlimited supply of 2F+2C tiles to work right away.
A cottage you need 4 workerturns to lay down, and then you need to invest another 10 turns with the citizens working that tile just to reach coast status.
Only after 30 turns you are actually starting to gain compared to the coast, but only by one coin a turn, and thats 30 turns after you paid the upfront cost of the workerturns, and 20 turns after you "lost" the 10 coins from working the initial 2F1C cottage compared to 2F2C coast.
Ofcourse in a very long game it might be justified, or in a city that you know will be dedicated to high commerce and might get a few multiplier buildings. But that is not the fate of that city.
Thinking specifically on the cottages in wheat/clam city.
I would prefer a lighthouse and just work coast which gives you an unlimited supply of 2F+2C tiles to work right away.
A cottage you need 4 workerturns to lay down, and then you need to invest another 10 turns with the citizens working that tile just to reach coast status.
Only after 30 turns you are actually starting to gain compared to the coast, but only by one coin a turn, and thats 30 turns after you paid the upfront cost of the workerturns, and 20 turns after you "lost" the 10 coins from working the initial 2F1C cottage compared to 2F2C coast.
Ofcourse in a very long game it might be justified, or in a city that you know will be dedicated to high commerce and might get a few multiplier buildings. But that is not the fate of that city.