Oracle or Mids?

[Supr49er]

As Ramesses or Hatty however, Stonehenge is a must.

Stonehange is my first priority Wonder. One of the few I make a point to get.

 

[lutzj]

I like the oracle because you get a free tech.

Really? I always liked it for the culture bonus...

 

[Angst]

Stonehange is my first priority Wonder. One of the few I make a point to get.

The special thing about Rammy or Hatty is that they get Priests in all cities even w/o temples. It's insane earlygame.

 

[AfterShafter]

Stonehange is my first priority Wonder. One of the few I make a point to get.

About your thoughts on the Egyptian UB being not so hot, think of it this way... With Stonehenge, I'm often getting two great prophets and making a very solid start on a third in time to nab at least one religion with lightbulbed Theocracy and Code of Laws... Add in Pyramids (I get both with Ramses 95%+, without crippling my expansion, on huge 14 civ emperor games, no stone required) and you've got a very, very solid tech income from them. The Egyptian UB gives you a *huge* early tech advantage, a religion, and a religious special building if you play your cards right. I've found it to be one of the most game influencing UB's.

Not to sound like a salesman... But just about everything about Ramses comes together spectacularly for his early-mid game.

 

[magichj]

I normally build the GW with a large monkey butt carved into it.

 

[Supr49er]

About your thoughts on the Egyptian UB being not so hot, think of it this way... With Stonehenge, I'm often getting two great prophets and making a very solid start on a third in time to nab at least one religion with lightbulbed Theocracy and Code of Laws... Add in Pyramids (I get both with Ramses 95%+, without crippling my expansion, on huge 14 civ emperor games, no stone required) and you've got a very, very solid tech income from them. The Egyptian UB gives you a *huge* early tech advantage, a religion, and a religious special building if you play your cards right. I've found it to be one of the most game influencing UB's.

Not to sound like a salesman... But just about everything about Ramses comes together spectacularly for his early-mid game.

Sold! I'll play Ramesses in my very next game, just as soon as I finish playing as Huayna.

 

[lutzj]

mids and monkey butt are making a comeback vs oracle

 

[Astax]

Eh how is representation better than monarchy in classical era? You guys ever get your city past size 8?

 

[CoZe]

what's better than ramses is playing ghandi as egypt. IF you can rush the stonehenge (ghandi is not ind but phi/spi) those obelisks become a prophet factory ! I my latest game I founded 5 religions, and it's an emperor game (funny cause I missed the first two early religions, but got all the rest.)

 

[Bhruic]

If you're doing "unrestricted leaders" with Egypt, Lincoln is a much better choice. Allowing for +2 city size in the early game means you can afford more priest specialists, which means faster GPs.

Bh

 

[Rathelon]

I almost always get the Oracle. I play Hereditary Rule most of the time also, so not worried about the Pyramids. Usually get Oracle and take Metal Casting so I can start building forges and workshops.

 

[GoodGame]

Personally the mids aren't worth anything to me except, Police State, when I conquer the mids from another civ. Philosophical Mids might be crucial for some though.

Oracle is a general purpose free tech boost if you're Industrial, feel like wasting forests, or have marble and good production. It's not crucial, but is nice for an immediate work around issues without doing the research yourself, like unhappiness (monarchy), philosophical without mids (Code of Laws), e.g. forge/colossus (Moai+Colossus is a nice isthmus capital), etc..

So really, neither is vital to my games.

 

[GoodGame]

The beauty is in great people farming, especially as a Philosophical leader. The free happiness of Representation isn't why people want the mids, its to make big leaps in science. Usually they're farming the great people to lightbulb techs anyway, so the overall strategy is to get a huge advantage in tech over the AI.

Eh how is representation better than monarchy in classical era? You guys ever get your city past size 8?

 

[sylvanllewelyn]

I've said it, and explained it, multiple times: the pyramids is simply a bad wonder for its cost, if you don't have stone (and questionable even when you do). It's:

- very expansive; delays your settler production
- requires masonry; only useful early for pyramids and GW. A tech not useful in BC years otherwise. Same with hunting: just not a priority
- most of the time hereditiary rule is used for diplomatic modifiers and a large hapiness bonus in your GP farm.
- In BTS, if hereditiary rule doesn't give you more hapiness than representation, you WILL be pwned by <insert aggressive leader>. 3 untis per city is minimum, 4 is my usual amount under pacifism.

The uses?

- if you start with stone
- if you're a hardcore specialist economy
- if you're going for a cultural victory

The oracle, on the other hand, is much more generalist as even getting iron working from it is worth it. An extra technology that's expansive in the early game is ALWAYS welcome. True, marble may or may not make a difference, but seriously, this poll is not even a contest.

Oracle hands down, even when you only got stone but no marble.

A better contest will be oracle or GW: free tech or great spy.