Well, we need a border pop before we can mine the copper. Pottery comes in T45 and we'll immediately 1-turn the Terrace in Silent Neighbor. That'll get us our border expansion on T51. We could stack workers for the copper to be mined and roaded by T52. If we go for Hunting after Pottery, I'm sure we could micro things out so that a spear will complete on T53, but really all we need is a couple hammers into a spear to open the option of whipping it out if necessary.
Since Quechuas are our UU, we can continue building them even after researching Hunting, so I'm 99% sure that any quechuas in production would not auto-upgrade to spears.
I'm not sure how long Archery will take us, but I did take a look at the research screen and Hunting is 4 turns at 100%, and AH is 9 turns at 100%. I imagine Archery would be somewhere around 5 or 6 turns? So, if we go for Hunting after Pottery, we'll get that on T50 (after saving gold for one turn), and then Archery maybe around T56?
Writing it out like this, the security that comes with Hunting might be worthwhile for a short delay on AH, especially since it'll provide a research bonus. But then I don't think we'd need Archery on top of it. Axes + Spears should be enough to keep us safe from anything the Gladiators can throw at us for now.
Until then, we can juggle Quechuas to try to keep our cities safe from any potential Roman invasion. They start with the combat promotion and get +25% bonus for sitting in cities, so 2 quechuas should be able to hold off a single chariot.
Since Quechuas are our UU, we can continue building them even after researching Hunting, so I'm 99% sure that any quechuas in production would not auto-upgrade to spears.
I'm not sure how long Archery will take us, but I did take a look at the research screen and Hunting is 4 turns at 100%, and AH is 9 turns at 100%. I imagine Archery would be somewhere around 5 or 6 turns? So, if we go for Hunting after Pottery, we'll get that on T50 (after saving gold for one turn), and then Archery maybe around T56?
Writing it out like this, the security that comes with Hunting might be worthwhile for a short delay on AH, especially since it'll provide a research bonus. But then I don't think we'd need Archery on top of it. Axes + Spears should be enough to keep us safe from anything the Gladiators can throw at us for now.
Until then, we can juggle Quechuas to try to keep our cities safe from any potential Roman invasion. They start with the combat promotion and get +25% bonus for sitting in cities, so 2 quechuas should be able to hold off a single chariot.