OK, I've been playing around a bit.
Griff was able to build Oracle on turn 20 in his test. However, he made a trade for a tech which saved 3 turns. This may not be possible in the real game since at the moment Gandhi won't trade. Griff also picked up some commerce from pillaging French improvements. This might have allowed him to run at 100% research an extra turn (not sure about this). So, he gained 3-4 turns from those actions which may or may not be possible in the real game.
I've developed a plan that will build Oracle in St. Pete around turn 24. I did no tech trades or pillaging. If these are available in the real game, it could certainly save some time. Bottom line, I think the timing is about the same as Griff's test, maybe mine is 1 turn slower. However, it keeps the prophet points out of Moscow. In my test, I finish with 4 cities built and had a settler almost to all the way down to site 5 (down by the pigs).
The big question... whichever approach we use, we are looking at ~22-24 turns to Oracle unless we get a tech trade. Also, one caution... while Griff's end date shows as 1000 BC, the test save we are using starts at an earlier year than the real game. So we are actually looking at a target date of 500-600 BC to finish Oracle. In normal emperor games that is too late, but with the fallout situation, who knows?
Bottom line for me: As has been pointed out, we need Masonry for Construction anyhow. And one way or the other, we will need to research CoL and CS. Since we are at war with most AI's, I suspect we will need to self research the religious techs to get CoL. So we are not risking too many beakers in the chase for Oracle. Also, I was able to hold off building Oracle until fairly late in my plan, then chopped it out on the last turn with two marble-powered chops. So not all that many hammers at risk. The plan allows Moscow to keep the REX going. All in all, I think the risk is not huge, I recommend trying for CS-sling.
My recommendation for the turnset plan:
City builds:
City 3 will now be Marble site. Per my previous dot map, I propose building this site 1 NW of the rice (marked as city 6 on the dot map). This will require a border expansion to get Marble, but since we will need to scrub the marble, there is time for it.
City 4 is the site 1 NW of cows that used to be city 3. This site will be unimproved initially because the 2 workers need to head for marble city site immediately to scrub. However, we need to settle the site so that its borders can connect marble city to St. Pete. City 4 can be delayed a bit, just needs to be in time to border pop before the Marble is quarried.
City 5 will now be the prod site 1 E of the pigs (marked as city 4 in my dot map).
Research:
Finish Myst, then Masonry -> Meditation -> PH -> CoL. The only reason for Masonry first is a slim hope Gandhi might trade Medi to us.
Worker 1 and worker 2 (currently scrubbing what will now be City 4)
- Finish scrub
- Immediately move to marble city (the new city 3)
- Scrub marble city site. Settler timed to arrive on the turn the scrub is done.
- Move to marble
- Scrub marble
- Quarry marble (city will expand before scrub is complete)
- One moves to deer and scrubs, the other moves back to city 4 and improves the cows.
Worker 3 and 4 (both built in St. Pete)
- Scrub and mine copper (will not road yet so we can still build warriors). This will allow St. Pete to get more hammers (once Moscow grows large enough to use both golds).
- Pre-chop and road the two forest tiles that are not shared by Moscow.
- Eventually chop both tiles to finish Oracle.
Moscow builds:
- Settler: Whip the settler on the turn the workers start to move to the marble city site. This times the settler to arrive on the turn the scrub completes. Hopefully, this will be a 1 pop whip.
- Settler for 1 turn: This takes the overflow from the whip into a settler.
- Change build to Warrior(s): The new city 4 is not needed right away. A couple of warrior builds will allow Moscow to grow out in pop. Moscow needs one for an MP right away, if we finish another, can move it to St. Pete.
- When pop grows out, resume building Settler: This settler heads to the cow site. Hopefully, no whip is needed.
- Chariott(s): Try to grow Moscow pop again. Will need an MP for city 5.
- Settler: For city 5 (edit: probably will need to build a worker unless we've been able to send another worker to city 5 site to scrub)
St. Pete builds:
- Worker (already underway)
- Worker
- Oracle
City 3 build:
City 4 build:
Diplomacy
Take any opportunities to trade techs for peace.
Griff said:
IMO, if we try to build The Oracle in St. Pete, we need to let it start growing. Perhaps let it complete the current Worker in 1 turn, and build one more Worker, then build a Granary. By then we might be ready to start The Oracle. The Workers can pre-chop trees around St. Pete, then scrub and mine the Copper and scrub and Farm the Rice. With tree chops and maybe a one whipping, we should be able to build Oracle fairly quick.
By getting the copper mined and starting Oracle after the 2nd worker, I was able to get Oracle done on the turn CoL finished with two chops. With marble, these chops are effectively delivering 80% of the hammers needed.
for the nice work Griff.
We also hope to trade to get some religious techs to help the trip to Priesthood. Other than CS, whatever helps us get to Construction, and Cats, would be useful. Is there anything else that should be on a wish list? Are there any techs we want to hold from the AI?
