Posts: 7,548
Threads: 63
Joined: Dec 2005
So, given the caveat that the maintenance may be off (And I may go back in to fix it depending on time), and I think some of the teching might be off due to known civs boni in the real game, here's what I found.
Prior to founding 3rd city, 80% science, 16bpt @ +1 (18bpt @ 90% with -1gpt)
Found 3rd city (Montgomery) on Turn 66: 80% - 21bpt @ +1 (24bpt @ 90% with -2)
Found 4th city (Colerain) on Turn 77: 70% - 25bpt @ +1 (28bpt @ 80% with -2)
Found 5th city on Turn 84: 70% - 28bpt @ -1
Found 6th city on Turn 89: go from 60% - 25bpt @ +1gpt to 28bpt and +2gpt
Found 7th city on Turn 93: go from 50% - 24bpt @ +1gpt to 26bpt and -2gpt (gain 2 beakers, lose 3 commerce)
So I think that we can safely say that up to 6 (coastal ) cities is a pretty strong net positive. This isn't nearly as fast as we COULD spam settlers - I didn't whip the capital, and I didn't build settlers out of any of the other cities though of course we could. I did slip in a couple of workers (though we're still probably short) and I did build 3 impis and an axe.