???? I'm an unrepentant Civ warmonger, but did I read that right? Are you referring to mass murder from the sky, racial cleansing, extermination, genocide?? Methinks you couldn't have really meant that... right?
Uhm, yes I meant that. I don't think it's a good thing or something. It's a war crime in my opinion.
But it's historical. The firebombing of Dresden caused 25000-35000 civilian deaths. The firebombing of Tokyo caused about 100000 civilian deaths. Those numbers are comparable to the nuclear strikes on Hiroshima (140000 if those killed later due to radiation poisoning are counted) and Nagasaki (74000).
These kinds of massive bombing raids have not occurred in recent history. Maybe the agent orange attacks on large areas of forests where the Vietcong and civilians were assumed to be located come close. Somehow the Vietnam war has resulted in many hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties and I don't think they were all an accident. The more recent Rwanda genocide shows to me that the human race as a whole has not really improved that much. About 1.000.000 casualties by using chopping knives while the rest of the world watched and did nothing. If a total war situation would arise again between equal strength opponents, then I do think civilians would become a target again. And with the weapons that we have today, the civilian casualties would be tens of millions easily (by nukes in majority).
The nuclear weapons we have today are about 1000 times as powerful as the ones used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And we have many of those weapons. In the game we can use nuclear weapons on cities and we can completely destroy cities with an army, so why not use bombing raids on civilians. Of course, the war weariness effects and diplomatic reactions should be similar. It was possible in civ3 by the way.
In OCC to what extent should you prioritise farms (in order to run more specialists) over cottages. I know the farms versus cottages debate is as old as the ages, but I'm kind of thinking OCC is a more exact science and could possibly reveal more exact answers. Of course it depends on the land and perhaps other factors as well. Also I guess the 2 methods peak at different times. I should note that I play MP and we use a super balanced C4F map. This can have anything up to 5 food in your fat cross and every resource you require. Therefore it is certainly possible to do both, but when cottaging, less specialists can be used.
Also do you think it makes sense to use specialists to bulb techs, jeapordising your long term science rate?
If you have such high food in your OCC, then the farms might be unnecessary. The city can use the food sources to become a great person factory and use cottages for the rest to become a commercial powerhouse. It will take a long time to get so many buildings that allow specialists that you don't have enough food for all of them. Only if you use the caste system civic, you can get more specialists. But then you're missing the pop rushing allowed by the slavery civic and with so much food, you would like to use pop-rushing.
Also, the specialist economy is only really strong if you can use the representation civic early in the game by obtaining the Pyramids. However, only one of you can get the Pyramids and it is a huge investment.
If you are in constant war, then the cottages might be pillaged often if you can't protect them. In that case, cottages might not be the best option.
In the early game, using a great scientist for an Academy or adding him to your city will give you a huge science output bonus throughout the game. However a short term rush to a certain technology that allows you to defeat an opponent could also be worth it. Usually, I would go for the long term goal as you're playing against more opponents. Killing one, while the other continues to grow in strength might not be so useful. You may only control one city, so you do not benefit from it. Late in the game, the effects of adding another Great scientist to your city might not be worth it as the number of turns that you can enjoy the increased output of the city do not compare to the immediate huge science boost by lightbulbing a tech.
I missed quite a lot there actually. 
Your culture in that one city (from the multiple wonders that you will most likely build) will be high enough to produce a big movement barrier for any invading forces, and your worker(s) should have built plenty of roads while they've been waiting to allow your troops good movement. Now, just as long as you've been sensible and have built a few "offensive defence" units, those attacking forces won't stand any chance to get near enough to start pillaging. 
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