OK, but I dont think we should whip either city at least until they grow one pop point.
Petro grows in 1 turn and will then be working 1 unimproved tile as you pointed out. It is not working an unimproved tile now. If we wait for the city to grow to pop 3, then we will at least be whipping away an unimproved tile rather than an improved one.
Assuming that we stay running 3 priests in Aktau:
If we do a 2 pop whip in Aktau, it goes down to pop 5 which means it needs 30
to grow to pop 6. Aktau has 19 stored
now. At pop 5, Aktau will require 10
. With 3 priests running, we can produce a maximum of 12
, so 2 surplus per turn.
With only a 2
surplus it will take 6 turns to grow back to pop 6.
During those 6 turns, we will not be able to run 4 priests, because we will not be making enough food to spare either the 6
corn, or the 4
sheep (the only tiles that we will be working after a 2 pop whip).
So we will be whipping a temple that we cannot use.
The only way to grow faster, would be to run less priests. That is obviously not the way to go, because we should not whip a temple to work less priests. The point of getting a temple is to run more priests, not less.
Finally, the GProphet in Aktau (19 turns) is Only 5 turns ahead of the next Gsci in Haz (24 turns), and Haz already poduces GP points faster (20 to 19 in Haz's favor). We cannot slow Haz's Gsci, because the points come automatically from the Wonders. So if we give up Gprophet points in Aktau, Hazrate will catch up and produce the Gsci first, defeating the whole point of running priests. Also, the GP point requirement will increase again, further delaying our Prophet.
I would not whip a the temple until we could do so without sacrificing any priests, and still be able to run 4 priests. A 1 pop whip at pop 8 for example, would do it and this may be available when Aktau reaches pop 8 (3 turns).
At any rate, I will be out of town this weekend, so I probably won't be able to take the next few turns. I will finish our current turn, and leave the rest up to you Cavscout. Just remember that HUSch is sending 75GPT automatically, but we have to request an additional 40-50 Gold EVERY TURN via PM / in-game request to stay at 100% tech.