Noting the request for developing a strategy guide for ROC, I would like to note my early experience.
First, let me preface by saying that I rarely play maps above standard size or more than 8 civs in the standard C3C game. As such, my comments probably have as much to do with my point of reference as with ROC itself.
[I should also add that I've only played one evening as Germany at Regent level.]
My observations:
1) in standard C3C, there's a big panic early to expand. racing out settlers to the best locations, finding your nearest neighbors, growing towards them, establishing cultural borders to control more territory until you can grow into it.
by comparison, in ROC, the slowed growth due to 3-citizens per settler and increased shields per worker (reducing irrigation opportunities), means you actually have time to develop your cities in other ways. there are suddenly strategic considerations: which buildings to develop, tactically timing that development around popping out workers and settlers.
2) related to this is the slowed tech tree (at the beginning anyway). even a moderately good early development in standard C3C will get you at least even, and usually ahead, in science. more importantly, you're almost always ahead in terms of having lots of things to build.
in ROC, tech developments take quite some time, so balancing new opportunities (eg swordsmen or temples, libraries or aqueducts) against the timing of new settlers and workers becomes serious considerations.
in both these cases (growth and tech), it's not just that the game is slowed down, but rather that you cannot have either running out ahead of the others to the point that you no longer have to include it in your strategic considerations.
3) despite the slow growth, with 31 civs, it's a crowded world. this leads to an increased importance on early game diplomacy.
exploration is quickly curtailed by borders, and maintaining decent diplomatic relations whilst trying to learn as much as you can about the world is much more difficult.
and since diplomacy isnt always successful, this leads to an increased likelihood of early wars, usually over the limited resources on such a crowded planet.
4) perhaps the biggest early impact in terms of limited resources is the scarceness of luxuries. with only 7 in the game, despite generous numbers of each, you're lucky to get 2 or 3 early in the game. as such, happiness becomes another serious strategic consideration. (in the standard C3C game, you can usually get around worrying about by building every building or dominating the luxury resources. here, neither of those solutions is possible).
5) although i'm only about 5 or 6 techs into the middle ages, the restrictions on wonders, with regard to resources has meant that, rather than having extreme strategic flexibility, you really have to tailor your strategies around your civs capabilities. germany has been doing well for me primarily because i'm leveraging their great war-making capabilities. it's not my usual style, but i quickly realised that i was going to be swamped if i tried to play my preferred build/expand game.
6) i should also note that the tweaks to the governments (at least, to monarchy and republic) came as a bit of a surprise. so new players ought to read up on the differences. in my opinion, the changes are an improvement, as they are now distinct enough to make choosing either have serious strategic implications. (in my experiences with the standard C3C, you could pretty much choose either on the way to democracy and play only those two the whole game without consideration for style).
i guess what i'm saying is that all-in-all, ROC has fine-tuned the different elements of the game in a way that requires you to constantly be aware of balancing each. this is a great departure from the standard game which was pretty easy to make a few early moves and discount most strategic elements and focus on a couple objectives.
and if i can make one suggestion, the strategy guide needs to explain some of the finer points of the tweaks, (eg republic vs. monarchy), because these have such major implications on strategy.
personally, i'm looking forward to trying some random map games, smaller sized, fewer civs, to see if the balance elements hold up (without such things as LM tiles). that is, once germany conquers the world
(although, the reason i usually dont play large maps is that i hate the workload of managing a large civ. if this game continues to go well in that respect, you just may have changed the way i view Civ!)
again, many thanks for the work, Rhye. I've put in my two cents over on the job thread, and i hope the above comments help pay back you and the community for what you've given me.
EW