Well, i reloaded some 5 times to correct stupid mistakes, trying to play the tests as if they were the real game.
To answer to your answer
:
No, i don't think there's any difference here, just the approach. Aside the GS (and the library) our approach is the same. The real difference is that you privilege the long term benefits of an academy (say, after CS and when the cottages will mature) to the short term benefir we have by the Oracle. MC is worth 702 beakers and before an Academy pays for that in a half-crappy city like Paris is we'll arrive to the middle ages.
Fact is that i think that sooner rather than later we'll move the Capital, probably South, if Brennus and his cities are far south. At that point we can be tied by the academy and be lazy at least to move it. My thought is that we're plenty of time to pop that GS before an acdemy can be of real use. +50% research in a city is huge if you have good commerce. A coastal city with foreign trade routes and a Harbour will surely be far better than an inland city with a few cottages. ATM even the GLH won't be so great, with only 2 coastal cites out of the 4 already planned.
BTW, Paris is not food rich and it needs to work the corn and the farmed FP to work the mines, thus we probably need to farm all or almost the riverside tiles and cottage the non riverside. I'd say that Lyons or pig/gems would be better for an Academy, being coastal and with many possible cottages to work. But they will never become the Capital, which will be south. We don't know where Bibracte is, but maybe it can be a good Capital.
I do not think another city has a chance to develop into a capital in time to be relevant - it absolutely has to be ready (with several villages, etc) to build Oxford when we hit education, and then its usefulness declines into the industrial age because our other cities can all suddenly produce 50-100 bpt.
We don't need to work the hills, most of the time. I see us working corn, FP, and then growing onto as many cottages as our happy cap allows. We work the hills for a few turns at a time when we need to build wonders. Our other cities are not hammer-poor, and can take up the slack.
I also don't care how many beakers MC is worth. It could cost 7002 instead, and be no more useful to us. Forges are the third improvement we need in a city, even when they are cheap (Granary and Library take precedence). If it slows our other tech goals down by very much then those 7002 just aren't worth the cost.
I absolutely agree that this has to be played like a Space game, but often my best Space games are the ones where i privilege expasion and early wars. Growth is power. And, being this like a Space game, early does not necessarily means an axe rush, but even a Mace or a knight rush.
My best Space games are the ones where I get to the Industrial age (read: Communism or corporations) the fastest, while also having a military to capture my way up to 20 cities at the same time. You don't get much extra benefit from having held them for 50 turns, because they develop so fast with big food and production tiles available.
The timetable would be Ancient->Alphabet 3 cities; Classical techs -> Buro->Oxford 6-7 cities (unless there are more really good sites), then right before Comm/Corp 20-25 cities. With the Corporation route the expansion is even then a little later.
BTW2, i disagree about "way too slow on research". We're more or less to the same point on turn 65 and you were using 2 hired scientists, which i don't. The library in Paris gives +4 beakers at most without them. and +6/7 with them. 100 turns to have the payoff for a successful Oracle, 50 with the Academy.
Theorical, because we'll be around 40-50% break even with 4 cities.
How many beakers past Writing do you expect to be at t65? I gathered from your report that it would be very few. Please correct me if I'm wrong on this. (Or did you accrue rather a lot of failgold from Stonehenge?)
Let's set a target Alphabet date. From the save I posted, I expect to start tech trading on t76 (yes, firing the scientists when the GS pops).
Four cities are too many I think. Especially when we haven't even researched Fishing.
Gem-Pig-Clam is a goldsink and nothing else before Fishing, and only of blocking value before IW. With three cities (and a bit of focus on science in the Academy city
) the Academy is worth 5bpt @60% at size 4, and growing as more citizens and cottage growth happen (the 5th citizen pushes it up above the 6bpt of a settled scientists). That's not to be sniffed at when your overall research rate is low like ours will be, and will grow quickly.
You get 100% research from the Academy for quite a few turns, not 40-50% because you can save up gold beforehand, and then turn research up to 100% when the GS pops. That is a big boost. I just didn't do it in my test because I thought beakers invested in Alphabet would be more comparable.
