I just realized that I calculated Oracle costs all wrong. I assumed that base cost was 100, not 150. Which means that it's 100 on Quick speed, rather than 67. That makes it quite a bit more difficult to get it before Sian does, no wonder he was standoffish about insisting on it. It's probably safe to assume that we'll be teching at same speed and reach the 3 required techs (Pottery, Bronze Working and Priesthood) at the same time. We both have 2 techs on the path. If we want to chop it out safely, we'll be needing 7 forests + 9 hammers. If we were to get Priesthood before Pottery, we'll have extra turns with which to accumulate hammers. The one off-path tech we're considering is Animal Husbandry. How would you feel about bumping it down a little on our list?
The PH/FP location would work excellently for the Oracle. We can put out 5 hammers per turn easily, and it'll take us around 12 turns to research The Wheel and Pottery. With a little overflow from a warrior produced same turn we research Priesthood, that's 60 hammers produced + 39 hammers chopped + at least one hammer in overflow. If we revolt into slavery and grow the new city, we will be able to do extra overflow whipping. One problem with that is that we'll have to spend early production in the expansion on a monument, a barracks or warriors as a worker would prevent it from growing.
If we go for Meditation after Bronze Working, that'll let us land the Oracle at the earliest possible time. That requires us to go for an early settler, although we could delay Meditation when it's almost done and switch to The Wheel. I imagine Sian will be reluctant to grab a religion when he doesn't know which one we're going for.
Sooo..... how about it? Crossposted with you, btw.
I think we may have to sim it out and see who gets the Oracle built fastest. Are you still working on the sandbox? If not, I can try to whip one out tonight.
EDIT: Another potential issue is that we'll also need the worker capacity to chop forests around the capital for a rapid forge. Else the oracle city will pop out a great prophet before we can land the great engineer. Although being Philosophical, that might not be that much of a problem as we'll still get the great engineer quite fast. It'd be all but impossible for Sian to land the pyramids before our great engineer spawns. Is it 67 points for the first GP and 134 for the second? Means it'll take us either 12 turns or 23 turns to foster a great engineer. Sian needs to put out 223 hammers during that time (accounting for his bonus). If he were to chop 6 forests he'd also need to put out 6 hammers per turn for 24 turns. In the unlikely event he makes that, we'd still have a great engineer that can be burned on another wonder. Furthermore, he'd have reason to believe that we're going to land the great engineer. It'd be 17 turns before he finds out we get the great prophet first, I don't think he'll go all out for the pyramids on the off chance that we might screw up on getting the forge early enough.
Oracle city will create GP in 17 turns
Forge city will create GE in 12 turns
Do we know which city will create one first? If it does the capital first, our engineer will have first strike advantage. Regardless, putting up a forge in 4 turns would be perfectly doable if we start planning for it now. With 4 forests chopped, we'd need 7 hammers per turn for 4 turns. That'd require 2 mines.
The PH/FP location would work excellently for the Oracle. We can put out 5 hammers per turn easily, and it'll take us around 12 turns to research The Wheel and Pottery. With a little overflow from a warrior produced same turn we research Priesthood, that's 60 hammers produced + 39 hammers chopped + at least one hammer in overflow. If we revolt into slavery and grow the new city, we will be able to do extra overflow whipping. One problem with that is that we'll have to spend early production in the expansion on a monument, a barracks or warriors as a worker would prevent it from growing.
If we go for Meditation after Bronze Working, that'll let us land the Oracle at the earliest possible time. That requires us to go for an early settler, although we could delay Meditation when it's almost done and switch to The Wheel. I imagine Sian will be reluctant to grab a religion when he doesn't know which one we're going for.
Sooo..... how about it? Crossposted with you, btw.
I think we may have to sim it out and see who gets the Oracle built fastest. Are you still working on the sandbox? If not, I can try to whip one out tonight.
EDIT: Another potential issue is that we'll also need the worker capacity to chop forests around the capital for a rapid forge. Else the oracle city will pop out a great prophet before we can land the great engineer. Although being Philosophical, that might not be that much of a problem as we'll still get the great engineer quite fast. It'd be all but impossible for Sian to land the pyramids before our great engineer spawns. Is it 67 points for the first GP and 134 for the second? Means it'll take us either 12 turns or 23 turns to foster a great engineer. Sian needs to put out 223 hammers during that time (accounting for his bonus). If he were to chop 6 forests he'd also need to put out 6 hammers per turn for 24 turns. In the unlikely event he makes that, we'd still have a great engineer that can be burned on another wonder. Furthermore, he'd have reason to believe that we're going to land the great engineer. It'd be 17 turns before he finds out we get the great prophet first, I don't think he'll go all out for the pyramids on the off chance that we might screw up on getting the forge early enough.
Oracle city will create GP in 17 turns
Forge city will create GE in 12 turns
Do we know which city will create one first? If it does the capital first, our engineer will have first strike advantage. Regardless, putting up a forge in 4 turns would be perfectly doable if we start planning for it now. With 4 forests chopped, we'd need 7 hammers per turn for 4 turns. That'd require 2 mines.
