WillowBrook
Lurker
Plans for the Culture War
In the interest of spurring more discussion, creating a coherent plan, increasing our spam count, and distracting myself from studying, here's an outline of how I envision the Culture War proceeding. I've pretty much brought us into the first phase by rushing so many temples. I see three phases with slightly different emphases, though they will blur together somewhat. Please evaluate, criticize, say what you agree with, offer alternatives, insist on something completely different, etc, as you see fit.
Phase One
Current phase, lasts until we've ICS'd all productive land under our control. The following applies to non-productive cities in despotism; all cities in Communism.
Temples: every town without a temple starts one, and rushes it when there are 10 shields in the box. Towns that will not grow in 10 turns or less should build a harbor first, which should be rushed 20 turns later, and then a temple; we should not build land-locked towns that will take 20 turns to grow at this point. We will gain about 40 temples over the next 10 turns by this method.
Libraries and Settlers: after the temple, start a library. BUT if the town has reached size 4 by the time there are 10 sheilds in the box, rush a settler. Looking at the current builds, we'll only get about 20 settlers by that method over the next 10 turns. But our growth rate will skyrocket with granaries and no food penalty, so I think this will fill in our land at a quick enough pace (see also end of this section). Once a settler is built, restart a library and repeat.
Cathedrals: We won't build many libraries in this stage, but when a city does build one, start a cathedral and treat the same as a library (i.e., rushing settlers where possible).
Universities: Some cities may make it to universities. Partial rush as appropriate.
Post-university: The towns (mostly those in our current cores) that have all four initial culture builds should rush an aquaduct if needed and then start drafting. When a town reaches size 7, a citizen should always be drafted, as it takes much longer to grow from 7 to 8 than 6 to 7. When unhappiness becomes a problem, rush a marketplace. *Note that Adam Smith's is in Paris, so marketplaces will soon be free.
Use of Drafted Rifles: The first priority at this stage should be helping to rush settlers; pick towns that have enough food to build the settler but not enough to rush the settler on their own. Second priority is helping with harbors where needed. No other uses at this point.
Phase Two
When our productive land (i.e., wherever there are tiles that can produce more than two food) is filled, we move to this phase. We still build settlers, and ICS the rest of our territory.
Temples: same as above
Libraries: Complete library builds; don't change to settlers as in Phase One.
Cathedrals and Settlers: Start a cathedral when library is complete, but treat like Phase One libraries - rush a settler when possible.
Universities: Nothing special
Post-University: Same as Phase One
Use of drafted rifles: First priority is rushing temples and libraries in towns that don't have them. Find the slow-growing towns and help them out. Next priority is rushing harbors where needed. Any remaining rifles can help rush settlers.
Phase Three
Once most towns have a temple and library and we've ICS'd just about all our territory, we've reached this phase.
Temples and Libraries: these should be rushed ASAP
Cathedrals: complete cathedrals; don't switch to settlers.
Universities and Settlers: after the cathedral is built, start a university, but rush a settler if possible as long as we have any place we can possibly build a town. (a temple plus library only costs 6 rifles and gives 5 cpt costing 2 gpt, while a university costs 10 rifles and gives 4 cpt costing 2 gpt)
Post University: Same as previous phases
Use of Drafted Rifles: Completing temples and libraries is definitely on top, but I'm not sure what priority we should give to the other possible uses: rushing harbors, helping rush aquaducts and marketplaces, rushing or helping rush cathedrals and universities.
General Guidelines and Techniques to Note
1. If a citizen is working a <2 food tile, partial rush if at all possible.
2. If a town is making 10 fpt (i.e. one-turn growth), don't rush anything until it reaches size 6 or (if possible) 7. But make sure it continues to make 10fpt as is grows (lots of MM!!!)
3. If a town/city is in the drafting stage, AND it has neighbors that can use the food, set it to two-turn rather than one-turn growth. This will delay the point at which the town becomes useless due to unhappiness.
4. A size four town can rush a library or cathedral in one turn with the help of a rifle - rush a cannon first, don't forget to switch to culture build, then disband the rifle, then complete the culture build.
5. A size 6 town can rush a marketplace or aquaduct in one turn (cannon, cavalry, target build), but if there's a spare rifle around, use it to keep the population at 2, since growth from size 1 to 2 is often slower than at larger sizes.
Okay, I really must get some studying some.
Comment away!
In the interest of spurring more discussion, creating a coherent plan, increasing our spam count, and distracting myself from studying, here's an outline of how I envision the Culture War proceeding. I've pretty much brought us into the first phase by rushing so many temples. I see three phases with slightly different emphases, though they will blur together somewhat. Please evaluate, criticize, say what you agree with, offer alternatives, insist on something completely different, etc, as you see fit.
Phase One
Current phase, lasts until we've ICS'd all productive land under our control. The following applies to non-productive cities in despotism; all cities in Communism.
Temples: every town without a temple starts one, and rushes it when there are 10 shields in the box. Towns that will not grow in 10 turns or less should build a harbor first, which should be rushed 20 turns later, and then a temple; we should not build land-locked towns that will take 20 turns to grow at this point. We will gain about 40 temples over the next 10 turns by this method.
Libraries and Settlers: after the temple, start a library. BUT if the town has reached size 4 by the time there are 10 sheilds in the box, rush a settler. Looking at the current builds, we'll only get about 20 settlers by that method over the next 10 turns. But our growth rate will skyrocket with granaries and no food penalty, so I think this will fill in our land at a quick enough pace (see also end of this section). Once a settler is built, restart a library and repeat.
Cathedrals: We won't build many libraries in this stage, but when a city does build one, start a cathedral and treat the same as a library (i.e., rushing settlers where possible).
Universities: Some cities may make it to universities. Partial rush as appropriate.
Post-university: The towns (mostly those in our current cores) that have all four initial culture builds should rush an aquaduct if needed and then start drafting. When a town reaches size 7, a citizen should always be drafted, as it takes much longer to grow from 7 to 8 than 6 to 7. When unhappiness becomes a problem, rush a marketplace. *Note that Adam Smith's is in Paris, so marketplaces will soon be free.
Use of Drafted Rifles: The first priority at this stage should be helping to rush settlers; pick towns that have enough food to build the settler but not enough to rush the settler on their own. Second priority is helping with harbors where needed. No other uses at this point.
Phase Two
When our productive land (i.e., wherever there are tiles that can produce more than two food) is filled, we move to this phase. We still build settlers, and ICS the rest of our territory.
Temples: same as above
Libraries: Complete library builds; don't change to settlers as in Phase One.
Cathedrals and Settlers: Start a cathedral when library is complete, but treat like Phase One libraries - rush a settler when possible.
Universities: Nothing special
Post-University: Same as Phase One
Use of drafted rifles: First priority is rushing temples and libraries in towns that don't have them. Find the slow-growing towns and help them out. Next priority is rushing harbors where needed. Any remaining rifles can help rush settlers.
Phase Three
Once most towns have a temple and library and we've ICS'd just about all our territory, we've reached this phase.
Temples and Libraries: these should be rushed ASAP
Cathedrals: complete cathedrals; don't switch to settlers.
Universities and Settlers: after the cathedral is built, start a university, but rush a settler if possible as long as we have any place we can possibly build a town. (a temple plus library only costs 6 rifles and gives 5 cpt costing 2 gpt, while a university costs 10 rifles and gives 4 cpt costing 2 gpt)
Post University: Same as previous phases
Use of Drafted Rifles: Completing temples and libraries is definitely on top, but I'm not sure what priority we should give to the other possible uses: rushing harbors, helping rush aquaducts and marketplaces, rushing or helping rush cathedrals and universities.
General Guidelines and Techniques to Note
1. If a citizen is working a <2 food tile, partial rush if at all possible.
2. If a town is making 10 fpt (i.e. one-turn growth), don't rush anything until it reaches size 6 or (if possible) 7. But make sure it continues to make 10fpt as is grows (lots of MM!!!)
3. If a town/city is in the drafting stage, AND it has neighbors that can use the food, set it to two-turn rather than one-turn growth. This will delay the point at which the town becomes useless due to unhappiness.
4. A size four town can rush a library or cathedral in one turn with the help of a rifle - rush a cannon first, don't forget to switch to culture build, then disband the rifle, then complete the culture build.
5. A size 6 town can rush a marketplace or aquaduct in one turn (cannon, cavalry, target build), but if there's a spare rifle around, use it to keep the population at 2, since growth from size 1 to 2 is often slower than at larger sizes.
Okay, I really must get some studying some.
Comment away! 
You might want to wait for someone like Gyathaar to critique the plan before spilling any ink over it. For example, we may want to be emphasizing settlers over even temples at this point (like by using drafted rifles to complete settlers in size 3 towns with at least ten shields in the box even before they build a temple), as once we switch to Communism, if I understand correctly, our income will esentially be equal to the number of cities plus taxpayers.
)
And Adam Smith's! 
Any chance that we're strong to them yet?
