At the risk of double-posting, I'll put this in a separate post, since it is OT from my reply to matt94:
A few things I want to add:
-According to the Wiki's strategy guide (which is admittedly rather out of date), you can found Judaism on turn 38 on Monarch. (I think Viceroy has cheaper techs? I can't remember)
-If you're going for Judaism, you're going to stop by Masonry - perhaps building a worker might be worth it. Doubling the speed of Stonehenge can definitely help.
-If you manage to pop Agriculture, you might also want to build a worker. You can then run more scientists after finishing Stonehenge.
-When should you build a worker? You could try doing it after Lahore hits pop 2 (either build warriors or start building Stonehenge first). You could also try doing it after you research Mono. Or you could not do it at all.
-Don't forget to send a warrior off to Europe at some point! You can pick up quite a few essential techs from the Romans and Carthaginians, and perhaps the Greeks too.
These are excellent points, and are well taken. I don't mean to be argumentative, only analytical, if tussle with them.
The Greeks don't show up until around turn 50, and tech trading won't be available for quite a few turns after that. Given that five of the seven religions will almost certainly be founded by turn 80 at the latest, I'm not certain tech trading is going to be helpful during the initial religion rush.
(Of course, that doesn't mean you shouldn't be sending out your warrior ASAP to pop huts and get in position to act as a rather scruffy ambassador to the European courts; quite the contrary. But the Indian game breaks into two parts, and the Europeans are useful only during the second part, after you've
not lost the UHV during the religion rush.)
As for a worker being useful during that initial rush ...
Well, your rush is either going to be for Judaism or for the Chinese religions (so-called because China in RFC virtually beelines them). But you're not going to get both; you can't get both Judaism
and Confucianism. So you are either going to rush one or rush the other, but not both.
If you rush the Chinese techs, then Masonry will be a fatal distraction. If you rush Judaism, is there any point in getting Stonehenge ASAP?
Well, maybe, if Stonehenge and Caste System can guarantee that a Judaism rush won't cost you Hinduism, and if you can pop a GS who will be useful later on.
So I decided to try modeling a best possible early game for such a strategy. I decided to move my warrior around to pop huts, but instead of popping them I used WB to give myself the preferred results. These were: pop a worker from the Indian hut; pop Animal Husbandry from the Afghan hut; and pop Agriculture from the Siberian hut.
I made these assumptions because popping a worker would "save" me the trouble of building one; if popping a worker doesn't guarantee a payoff, then I doubt building one would be all to the good. Moreover, by giving myself techs that would let me improve the cow and wheat squares in addition to the Marble tile, I would be that much better able to exploit Stonehenge.
Basically, if the Best. Possible. Run of Luck. Ever. for the Indians doesn't materially improve the Stonehenge strategy (on a Judaism rush), then I'm not sure I see the point in going for a worker.
Herewith, a report on what happened.
1: I found Lahore on the sugar square. I start Stonehenge; research path is Masonry - Polytheism - Monotheism. I decide to slightly emphasize production over food; every worked square will have a hammer, but I will work the 2F1H1C Wheat before I work the 1F2H Forest/Hill/Grassland tile.
6: I "pop" a worker in central India.
8: The worker arrives at the Marble tile, and has nothing to do for 4 more turns.
11: Lahore hits pop 2. I am working the Marble square and the Wheat square.
12: Masonry discovered. Quarry work begins.
20: I "pop" Animal Husbandry in Afghanistan. Quarry comes online.
25: Polytheism discovered.
27: Cow is pastured (though not connected; no Wheel); Lahore hits pop 3. Tiles worked: improved Marble; unimproved Wheat; improved Cow. I could work the forest/hill/grassland tile instead of Wheat, and this would get me Stonehenge one turn quicker, but by working the Wheat I will put Lahore 6 turns closer to pop 4 when Stonehenge. Moreover, by working the Wheat I will build Stonehenge one turn before I hit pop 4, which means if I choose I can draw down on a nearly full food bank when I hire specialists.
28: My "luck" continues; the Siberian hut yields Agriculture just as my worker had run out of things to do.
36: Wheat is farmed, and because it's by a river, it is connected to Lahore, yielding a health bonus. The extra food nearly wrecks my plans for a full food bank, and I have to shift a laborer to set my population growth back by a turn.
37: Stonehenge is built, and 3 Scientists are hired. With 33 food in the bank, I can run the max number of scientists for 11 turns before I run out of food. I do pop one scientist onto the Wheat field for two turns, though, to stretch things out so I can secure my GS without losing population in Lahore. While I am doing this, I am dropping one hammer per turn (from the city square) into Barracks.
39: Monotheism discovered. Meanwhile, while I wasn't looking, my Warrior, returning from Siberia, gets hilariously lost in Tibet. (The barbarian city of Afrosiab sent him astray, apparently.)
44: Confucianism founded in a far off land. Well, the GS won't be useful there.
46: Meditation discovered, and Hinduism founded.
51: Great Scientist popped; I set him aside. With 1 food in the bank, I return to working the Marble and Wheat, but keep one scientist working.
53: Priesthood discovered, and Buddhism founded.
At this point I've secured my two necessary religions, and also Judaism. This is more due to luck than the strategy, I deem, because Hinduism can be discovered as early as turn 37, 9 turns before I got it. I don't think I could have pushed the Stonehenge-Judaism strategy any harder. I rushed it almost as fast as I could, holding back only so that maximize the turns I would have to run scientists. I had three scientists running for eleven turns. Moreover, from turn 20 onward, I was drawing three coin from the improved Marble square, which for research purposes made Lahore after turn 27 into the equivalent of a pop 5 city.
Now, if all these advantages still left me with (let us say) a 40% chance of losing Hinduism, then I think we can conclude that the Stonehenge strategy does not materially improve your chances of saving Hinduism after a Judaism rush.
I decided to press on, though, because I wondered if it might yet be useful for snatching Taoism from the Chinese. So I kept maximizing out my lightbulbs as far as I could without losing population, turned to building the Oracle, and set the research path for Writing - Fishing - Sailing. My plan was use the GS to pop Math, and once I had Sailing use the Oracle to sweep up Calendar. With micromanagement, I would be able to time it so that I could (in theory) build the Oracle one turn after discovering Sailing.
Well, I got Writing and popped Math. But the same turn I got Fishing (turn 68), the Chinese founded Taoism. I pressed on, and would have gotten Sailing on turn 76, but something weird happened on turn 75: the cost of Sailing leaped from 192 lbs to 275 lbs. I've never seen this before; is it common?
Anyway, I had to do some rejiggering, but I wound up getting Calendar on turn 80, which is about ten turns too late.
against 'that particular civilization'), although I doubt the Embassy system connects them with any civ.
