BornInCantaloup
Agent of Chaos
^ Hum... so, you mean we don't have the beakers to go AH -> Mining -> BW if we settle on the gold (and go worker, farm, pasture, chop) ?
That could need some consideration
Inserting The Wheel is always a possibility (SIP vs 1N) but certainly comes at a hammer cost.
The issue with SIP is the low production (yes we have a forest spam but that means we need to burn through them faster and less efficiently), the inability to share the gold (3N spots do not show promise) and, thus, the difficulty to grow onto tiles (likely requires to stop working the gold for a number of turns to go past size 3 and maybe even some more).
The gold spot, otoh, gets an easy 12Hpt towards settlers, which is extremely convenient with double chops (5T settler).
To be honest, I'm not sure about the tech timings. I was more focused on the growth and production side of things.
There could be something to be said about "what's in the dark". I don't mean BFC but potential city locations. I think that, generally speaking, working the gold tile itself would be most missed in the case of a poor and/or cramped map, whereas a richer and more open land area would compensate for it (+ faster expansion / easier growth). You know, the tile doesn't have the same importance in a 3-4 cities breakout as it does in a 8 cities REx.
It would seem to hamper a REx but you make a very good point about timings

That could need some consideration

Inserting The Wheel is always a possibility (SIP vs 1N) but certainly comes at a hammer cost.
The issue with SIP is the low production (yes we have a forest spam but that means we need to burn through them faster and less efficiently), the inability to share the gold (3N spots do not show promise) and, thus, the difficulty to grow onto tiles (likely requires to stop working the gold for a number of turns to go past size 3 and maybe even some more).
The gold spot, otoh, gets an easy 12Hpt towards settlers, which is extremely convenient with double chops (5T settler).
To be honest, I'm not sure about the tech timings. I was more focused on the growth and production side of things.
There could be something to be said about "what's in the dark". I don't mean BFC but potential city locations. I think that, generally speaking, working the gold tile itself would be most missed in the case of a poor and/or cramped map, whereas a richer and more open land area would compensate for it (+ faster expansion / easier growth). You know, the tile doesn't have the same importance in a 3-4 cities breakout as it does in a 8 cities REx.
It would seem to hamper a REx but you make a very good point about timings

