Chillaxation
Warlord
Blkbird said:First, there is a contradiction: If you want to chop, you need Bronze Working. Second, you need to elaborate why the other benefits of Currency (plus the other benefits of Math) can wait.
Yes, going for the Oracle might best be done while researching Bronze Working, and I think the two are of a piece with a longer term goal I've read people writing about - shooting for Confucianism. They also synergize well with Metal Casting, which should be, if I may say, our real goal. But it's off in the future, so I'm a little leery of making huge predictions. What if it turns out there are Horses in the nearby south? Being the first civ with a working force of Horse Archers, to say nothing of our capacity for War Chariots, would be even more desirable. In either case, I really think mining will be useful in the short term.
As for Math/Currency, it's a tossup, but I think Bronzeworking/Metalcasting win out following Priesthood - having gotten whatever land development techs we think are essential. Personally from the map, I think Mining's the only essential one left. To me, Masonry and Fishing can wait. We'll have the capacity - with careful planning - to get an extra happiness out of Gems in Forges a ways down the line. Math allows us aqueducts and forts, but it seems to me like even with a Forge, Boaring Wallow will still have the forests, fresh water, and food capacity necessary to sustain growth without unhealthiness before unhappiness sets in. Currency...well, I think it benefits us more when there are more trade routes.
You might well respond that early trade routes = early raw commerce - which is a valid argument. But I think that gunning for a resource/building combination to net us +2 happiness in cities with Forges will do us more good. Early happiness and population increase = early raw -everything-.