National College or Oracle?

[Ceterius]

Building the GL and choosing Philosophy opens the possibility to build these two good wonders. Which of them is a better choice?

I favour the Oracle because NC can be delayed. Oracle needs to be built immediately or someone else may get it first, and the free SP benefit is permanently lost.

 

[Tabarnak]

The AI doesn't like to build Oracle very early. I prefer going for NC before Oracle. I usually try Oracle in my 2nd city.

 

[Civsassin]

Building the GL and choosing Philosophy opens the possibility to build these two good wonders. Which of them is a better choice?

I favour the Oracle because NC can be delayed. Oracle needs to be built immediately or someone else may get it first, and the free SP benefit is permanently lost.

This also depends on the level at which you play. Wonders are difficult at Immortal - which is where I play - in the early game. If you can get a tech lead, you can snatch up some of the mid and late game wonders, but I find they cost too much time early on.

 

[MadDjinn]

NC first, as you'll need the tech earlier.

Getting the Oracle on top of the GL is nice, but it can seriously mess with your timing if you're running a tight Liberty/HS beeline to education/Astronomy/Rationalism.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

Well if cultural game... Oracle, otherwise College is probably better

 

[vonbach]

It depends on the level your playing on I suppose. If you can get the NC without
losing out on the Oracle by all means get it. But I normally go for the Oracle first
just because the NC cant be stolen from me.

 

[Trik]

I prefer the NC if any because there's not really any SPs worth sacrificing my military for (if i go Liberty). That's just me though.

 

[ahawk]

I probably play on your level (Prince/King) and my advice is that if there isn't a social policy you pre-planned being in your overall strategy, then skip the Oracle. On Prince/King, you very well can pick up both the NC and the Oracle at a fairly early point (without being beaten to the Oracle), even without delaying the NC; you can usually build the NC first, then still get Oracle. And the hit you take to military or whatever else at that level is not usually enough to permanently set you behind.

The question then becomes:

How big of a headache will winning be?

With an OCC strategy, at least there's no time lost in relation to pumping out settlers (since you won't have to), and often OCC is science/culture oriented (or geared to puppet other civs, which Oracle doesn't help you with).

If you plan on having other cities, though, it's going to be an uphill battle figuring out how to both keep happiness up as well as keep military up, seeing as how you've lost time that could have gone toward building workers, etc.

Only if you really need the SP, or are going CV from the get-go, should you take the Oracle. Even with a cultural victory, it's debatable, since an early boost in science means you're the first one to get a crack at later wonders.

My advice: NC all the way and skip Oracle, unless you're going cultural victory.