Question about commerce/slavery

[podraza]

In a recent game at Prince difficulty, I found myself very far behind in tech in the mid game. At 1200 AD or so, I was at least 6 techs behind each other civilization, and probably a few more that I couldn't see.

I think part of the reason for this is that I whipped like a maniac. I used hereditary rule to beef up my unhappiness limits and then I whipped until I had 40-50 turns of unhappiness in each city and very low populations. One result of this was that I kept whipping people who had been working cottages, and the cottages then went unworked until the pop grew back. And even then, he would usually be whipped off the tile shortly after.

Anyway, I think this explains my tech problem, too many turns with unworked commerce tiles due to slavery.

My instincts told me that after a whipping, food tiles should get priority over commerce tiles, so I'd put my remaining population on a farm or other food resource. Maybe the opposite is true? Commerce tiles should get priority?

 

[Wodan]

I generally whip selectively instead of "whipping like a maniac" as you did. The strength of whipping is that you get that building or that unit earlier, and thus you get the benefit of it earlier. e.g., whip a Library and you get the tech research earlier. However, if you're whipping your guys off of your cottages/hamlets, then you actually are losing tech because you have less commerce.

Anyway, like I said, early on I whip here and there. But, once I hit happiness or health limits that's when I really start whipping.

There's an exception to this and that's a city with 2 or more health resources. e.g., 2 cows or something. For that city, it's usually beneficial to whip like a maniac early, because it's cheaper (in food) to grow a city from 2 to 3 than it is from 6 to 7.

Wodan