Hehe, it is true that slavery isn't amazing before granaries, but I still feel it has some uses.
To grow from 1 to 2 Population takes 22
To grow from 2 to 3 Population takes 24
To grow from 3 to 4 Population takes 26
To grow from 4 to 5 Population takes 28
1) Quick barb defense. "OMG barbarian walked out of the one fogged tile and is headed for my corn" is a cry heard in many Civ 4 games. Slavery is a great counter. It is less dramatic on normal where a unit can be built in 2 or 3 turns, but it still works.
In our game, with good fogbusting on our peninsula and normal speed, barbs should not be a problem.
So point to Mabraham against slavery.
Slavery does allow rapid conversion of food to hammers, and where the alternative costs a lot (like an important improvement being pillaged) then clearly you want to be able to whip.
2) Whip a monument. If the first thing you build is a warrior or monument, whipping that monument when you grow to size 2 turns 22
into 30
instantly. It also lets you grow to size 2 again on an improved food tile while the worker is busy improving the 2nd tile. You get the monument and border pop sooner rather than later.
Yep, an early 1-whip followed by a 2-whip of a granary is normally good management. A worker supplied by the empire is obviously best for kick-starting things.
3)A new city can quickly create a military unit and a worker if it has a good food tile.
Start the city building a unit while growing to size 2, then switch to a worker at size 2. Use the first worker to improve the food and then chop a forest. When the +20 hammers goes into the city, whip the worker complete using 1 population. The #2 city can have another worker and unit out very fast using this method, and it quickly grow back to size 2.
4)Build granaries the turn after researching them 
Yes, that's another example. Of course, completing a granary is only a high priority if the food box is just under half full. Then it has time to fill during the subsequent growing turns. Completing the granary earlier than this offers no advantages - you may as well not have finished the granary yet, as have it fill early and have to wait for the food box to fill. You still might wish to whip the granary, but doing so immediately might not offer an advantage over a slightly later whip.
5)Whipping at 4 population with a full food bin can also be useful. A 2 pop whip at 27/28 food will reduce the city to size 2 and change the food bin to 27/24 food. The next turn you are size 3 and well on your way to size 4 already thanks to the food overflow. This is mainly useful if the workers are not improving tiles fast enough.
Yes, but had you not whipped you'd be at size 5 the next turn. If the fourth and/or fifth population are not working good tiles (e.g. they are working Gforest) then one may as well whip them.
The main thing is, you can have stuff now rather than later. Sometimes such a thing cannot have a hard value assigned to it. How do you quantify an axeman army taking an enemy's capital the turn before they get longbows thanks to slavery?
Yup, tough.
A good question to ponder is how much natural production a city can have to outshine slavery both before and after granaries. Is it +12
per turn? +16
?
Whips are most efficient at quick and marathon when whipping down to even city sizes, but we're at normal.
Otherwise, I think this question should be addressed in terms of the food-to-hammers conversion rate of a given city size, rather than in terms of the raw hammer output of the unwhipped city. Food is the basis of the whole multifaceted Civ4 economy.
Lets consider a candidate city that is at size 6 working a wet grassland corn (6
), 4 Gmines (each 1
3
) and 1 Pmine (4
). Including the central tile, that's sustained 12
17
1
per turn - however it is the hammers that interest us here.
Now suppose we wish to sustainably whip military units using 2-population whips every 10 turns, regrowing working the corn, a stray Gforest and then the Gmines. (Doing sustainable 3-population whips would require higher base food.) Starting from a turn upon which we whip with a half-full food box (i.e. 16 food) and assuming we have a full granary, the city looks like
Code:
Turn Size Food Hammer Food Net
Rate Rate Box Hammers
0 4 12 8 20 68
1 4 12 8 24 76
2 4 12 8 28 84 (growth occurs after tiles are worked)
3 5 13 11 14 95
4 5 13 11 17 106
5 5 13 11 20 117
6 5 13 11 23 128
7 5 13 11 26 139
8 5 13 11 29 150 (growth occurs after tiles are worked)
9 6 12 17 17 167 (grow onto Pmine, switch Gforest to Gmine)
So this city is a break-even proposition for 2-population whips from size 6 to 4. Key in this result is that working a Gmine provides 1 food, and converts a food produced elsewhere into 3 hammers. This efficiency is needed to overcome the need to work a Gforest just to get food into the system. If more Pmines were being worked, you'd need another food supply.
I can't see the above does much more than point out that a city needs to be more efficient than 4 Gmines and 1Pmine plus supporting food to benefit from not whipping.
and the creative leaders still had +2
and the charismatic leader still had a free +1
.
intensive wonders like the Great Library is more useful.
