Hi again
My idea bout the auxiliary cities is to build them all as soon as possible.
- First of all, this way I can claim prime land with them, getting more resources and -above all- more food (that will get transformed into GreatArtists later on).
I think here is a clear difference in our playstyles, and I'm thinking that my approach regarding those cities is actually the better. I wait with founding the auxhiliary cities basically until they're really needed. I let the Legendary cities first grow to a size of about 6, which goes along with the usual Happiness-limit very well. Whipping Settlers from 6 -> 3 is very efficient and gets yourself OF into the next Settler, I then regrow to Size 4, and then whip the next Settler 4 -> 2, which again is very efficient, this is baiscally the way to produce 6 Settlers from 3 cities in the shortest amount of time possible.
Of course, only 5 are needed, so the city hanging back the most must only produce 1 Settler.
There's nn to claim prime land with the settings I used, because the map is just so big, and there's also little need for resources, basically connecting the Gold / Gems is everything I need for long. Important is only that Food at that time as you say yourself. Resources come later and good coordination is needed then, but in the very beginning, I just try to get out 3 cities into good locations, let them grow, build some basic Cottages to enhance Commerce, and I build Granaries in all of those cities to make whipping the Settlers efficient and to maximise their growth, and I try to get the NE up as early as possible and also the sixtine and (that's hard though) the parthenon.
The advantage of this is, that all auxhiliary cities get founded at the same time and as late as possible, this leaves the Legendary cities in the best possible status / best possible size, and really only those cities count. Helper-cities have little to do / build, basically only some Missionaries and temples, they don't even need Granaries because those buildings can often even be chopped, so what they need are workerturns. Getting those then is easy, because the L-cities are well improved at that time and don't need the Workerturns anymore, so I'll move the Workers over.
- Secondly, with non-Spiritual leaders, you need to move from slavery+OR to Castes+Pacifism in all cities at the same time. So I don't like to have laggard cities that haven't had the time to whip their granary and some of their temples by the time I switch cities. I always try to pop at least one GreatArtist from every city.
Granaries in Helper cities must be calculated, they're not needed when Forrests are available, and 1 GA from every Helper city is not bad, but I somehow suspect that you're not effective with generating GAs from the GP-Farm, because in your "bible" you wrote about 10-12 GAs iirc, and that's a number that can come from the GP-Farm alone (if being PHI) .
The main problems with my approach are:
- I can't afford to divert resources towards WW in the early game
- Research rate suffers (maintenance costs)
I don't know if this really helps, but I see neither of those things as problems. I only got the Oracle + the sixtine in this game. I'd liked to have gotten the Parthenon too, but past that, I see nn for any more WWs.
EDIT: I'm really time pressed lately. Could you please put together a few key data to understand your game at one glance?
I'm referring to #wars, Liberalism date, #religions, key early WW, number of cottages, number of GreatArtists, raw culture per turn at 1000AD, and the like...
This writeup is really very short (it's not even 1 page long) , so you might really want to quickly fly over it, but as you asked:
# of wars: 0
Liberalism date: 530 AD (bad)
WW: Oracle + Sixtine
# of religions: 4
Number of Cottages: Very many... very many... Both Legendary cities were basically size 20 in the end and worked nothing but Cottages which all had grown into Villages with having PP available of course.
GAs: 7 or 8 (non-PHI leader, with a PHI leader that would have been 12 probably, and with getting maybe 1 or 2 GAs from Helper cities on top, it'd even have been like 14) . Missed Music because of stupidity.
Raw Culture / turn at 1000 AD: 800
/ turn in the Cottage-cities.
Important tactic: Coldwhipping Missionaries / Temples at a rate of 1 / turn.
General strategy is already compiled in the 1st post, its basically found 3 cities 'til 1000 BC (this can probably be done a lot better and earlier like you said) , build Infrastructure, grow, wait, then fast-expand and settle all Helper cities at the beginning of the research of Education. Build Cottages like crazy, whip as little as possible, mainly get 3 really good Locations (+10 Food upwards) . Spread Religion as fast as possible to switch to Caste + PHI as early as possible, prioritize Cathedrals over everything, build every building that gives Culture when there's the time.
Don't know if this helps, but hope so.
Best Regards.
Make sure though to post a link of the next replay in the strategy forum as I am not much in the HoF Forum. Good luck.
you Wastin for posts like this.
. To me, that's an invitation to disrupt, though I think, that it's ment differently :> .
. Ok, but I also "destroyed" your game, means I'm further than you were then 
