I'm playing Suleiman right now so I'm particularly curious about its use in the NC rush.
I'm feeling like rushing the NC and then filling up the specialist spots deprives me of so much growth at the early game. Just from building the GL rushed, I starve my city at 4 pop up to 0 food. By that I mean 2 mines are worked with 1 mine worked even up to starvation as long as it doesn't kill a citizen. At this point, is the free Library supposed to be worked? I think it's probably not, but idk.
Then comes the NC, where without much time to replenish food, we start to rush production again. The tough part about it is that yes, we have the NC (3 scientist slots available), but we don't quite have enough food to support those specialists and grow. We are also deprived of a lot of hammers and gold.
Rushing the GL seems necessary to prevent other civs from building it and getting it for yourself. Rushing the NC, however, seems much like a gambit, especially if our intention for rushing it is mainly about using the 2 slots.
Generally speaking, how much of the strategy is about just getting the passive effects of having the buildings and how much of it is using those specialist slots for maximum use?
As of now, I tend to delay building the NC until the 2nd expansion is up.