Hi Doshin, those are interesting points you make
City 2: contesting the Western pigs or settling commerce tiles:
Pigs city has 0 hammers in the first ring and needs culture to protect its food. So, depending on the tech path, it may be a risky choice. Losing the pigs tile would be bad... Haha! It might even be a good idea to hire non-specialist citizens to hasten the monument.
It is, however, a convenient location for both trade network (instant connection) and to support expansion (7H/turn at size 1 into settler/worker ~~ 11-12 turns settler).
Settling a commerce site first would load Moscow with the whole burden of expansion. That would seriously delay cities 3-4. Also, without Sailing, it means Tachywaxon will have to spend more time roading (not ultrabad but a penalty this early).
Depends on the food source & the need for culture, I suppose.
Parthenon.
No, I wouldn't rule it out. Parthenon is a nice bonus but it doesn't do anything special. I don't think the tech path should be affected by that wonder. Also, I don't consider it an “early” wonder. In my mind, “early” stops in the Ancient Era.
Parthenon shines for culture wars in border cities, or at least that's what I like to do with its 10 culture/t.
Oracle vs GLH.
I don't favour the Oracle very heavily, here. See me contradicting myself:
“For that matter, I think Oracle > GLH but, in fact, both are very desirable.
[...]
If we assume that Oracle and GLH are equally good”
I did mention that Metal Casting Machinery Compass & Optics would be the main obstacles on the way to Astronomy. Extra commerce from the GLH would help the most for that matter.
GLH also is a more secure target than the Oracle. Its merchant GPP are finally more useful than the prophet points from the Oracle.
Maybe it's plain wrong to favour the Oracle, here. My main issue with the GLH is a little childish: I find it redundant to have researched both The Wheel and Sailing that early.
So, pros: - better research on those expensive techs that can't be bulbed.
- Merchant GPP >> Prophet GPP. Best case scenario: the first GP is a merchant that bulbs Metal Casting.
Against GLH: -No islands spotted, yet. Trade routes from Cyrus will be limited.
- It can be captured later on (but would obsolete soon after).
Oracle Aesthetics:
The big question, here, is: how many turns earlier can you build the Great Library if you do Oracle Aesthetics? Maybe it is more, maybe it is less: I'd say around 20 turns... it is a lot.
Especially when early wonders accumulate GPP and the leader is Philosophical: 20 turns after the first wonder is built, it has already produced 80 GPP.
So... early wonder = 1st GP won't be a scientist. Great Library really needs to be built fast if the scientists aren't to cost 400+ GPP.
Also in favour of Oracle Aesthetics: Code of Laws is useless as a prerequisite to Civil Service if we want to bulb Astronomy. And Metal Casting... Metal Casting is best bulbed. Oracle MC would offer very little economic benefits. Colossus is nice but we aren't FIN to fully take advantage of it.
Value of Philosophy.
It wouldn't surprise me if I overrated it and I didn't mean to imply bulbing Philo would result in a faster Astro.
My line of thought, here, is more that PHI leader + wonder spam may result in a GP overload. In which case, bulbing Philosophy is fine, better than saving the GP for later.
You did mention Music and I think it plays in the same league as Philosophy. However, it is a lesser player
The Great Artist is good but Nationalism/Liberalism provide much better bonuses.
Astronomy from Liberalism?
Definitely a possibility but a) it isn't the cheaper option and b) I think that approach would benefit from a stronger commerce capital: picking Astronomy from Liberalism means you get early Civil Service/Education. It would make sense if Cyrus is invaded early and Persepolis has grown into a fine Russian capital...
As it is, I haven't given much thought to Liberalism targets. I think Communism and Biology are contenders. A military tech is also a nice option.
Getting Astro via bulbs saves Lib for the juicer target & lets us explore the map some more to assess the better target.
Production from Granaries. Moscow can easily grow to 5 without a granary. Extra production mostly comes from Slavery and... seeing how expensive BW is... eek!
Mysticism after Masonry? Maybe... This isn't the kind of thing I do... Just like Fishing after Pottery... If there's no need for monuments and Tachywaxon forgets about the Oracle... maybe. Mysticism will be backfilled not long after, though. Still sounds like a waste to me.
@ All those wonders:
1 city won't host them all. Need more (productive) spots!
In Moscow, size 5+ : GLH is 14 turns; ToA is 12 (marble); Oracle is 10 (no marble), Great Library is 12. For popping the right GPs, building the GLH first is best.
from lakes. That means,, ingnoring commerce, for the 60 
invested and 2/60 return, I need 30 turns of continuous lake working to get back my investment. Perhaps actually 20-25 thanks to desperate needed commerce.
) because the deadline was yesterday. Sometime, I wonder if I should start a thread on culture games as it is an orphan game victory whose optimization is hard to define. Jesusin is still learning despite being the guru... Now I can see this thread today later or tomorrow. But it is hard on a laptop. Not only I'm not used to write on a english keyboard, but internet is slower and the game too...a tad not to much (still better than Cseanny's computer 
).
