Slingshots vs. Expansion: a comparison

[couerdelion]

Looks a very viable alternative

I have to say that I like the quick slingshot through Myst/Med/Priest/Poly although this would leave worker jobs for much later unless you are fortunate to have a site that fits your civ (fish and gems with Lizzie anyone )

Otherwise the tech investment would seem to be too slow. Then again, you don’t have to invest in CoL since this is where you throw your GP so you can then work on those useful early techs for worker improvements.

All in all it’s a slower start but quicker finish for the CS sling. The downside is that you have to wait a while for your academy and might be unfortunate to generate another Prophet.

I’ll definitely have to investigate. Even if it works out a little weaker than the traditional approach, you will gain from the insurance that the approach is more likely to succeed. I know we all like to think of ourselves as risk-takers but I imagine that this does not apply to races to build wonders

[Cadarn]

I've found it exceptionally hard to get to CoL quickly enough through research to be able to get CS via an Oracle build. (Epic, Prince sometimes Monarch, Large or huge maps, 9-11 civs)

Getting muchos techs via goodie huts was the only way I could get it done on the one success I had

Still, no drama. To answer the thread title, I have gained big tech leads in the early to mid games by expanding fairly agressively and terrain improving like mad. I can sometimes net Hinduism first but then always get CoL via The Oracle, Theology via Great Person and Divine Right thanks to a big tech lead and high commerce income from several well-developed cities. As the Great Prohps pop (after Theology, naturally) the Holy City Shrines get built, stacking the income and helping me keep the research up. Of course, the diplomacy advantages to religious monopoly are nice!

CS is nice to have early, but I much prefer having the production base and land/resource coverage.

[gus_smedstad]

Originally posted by Cadarn
I've found it exceptionally hard to get to CoL quickly enough through research to be able to get CS via an Oracle build. (Epic, Prince sometimes Monarch, Large or huge maps, 9-11 civs)

There are two main ways of doing it. Get lucky with a gold mine in your initial radius, or build a library ASAP and assign two scientists. Either method gives you a bit over twice what you can research in the early game while expanding. Civil Service of course adds some on top of that, though it doesn't multiply the specialist beakers.

CS is nice to have early, but I much prefer having the production base and land/resource coverage.

Part of the point of the comparison is that Civil Service gives you enough of a hammer boost that you're not really at an overall disadvantage. You don't cover quite as much territory, so resource availablitity can be a problem. On the other hand, you probably lose roughly one city site by delaying expansion, which isn't terrible.

Read Vel's CS slingshot 1a for an idea what the overall effect is.

- Gus

[smbakeresq]

I am an expansionist, and with Ghandi, you can really get the cities out due to the fast worker. Without the slingshot, you do give up some in the early game, but can get it back later with bigger size cities and empire.

It all depends on your situation, but this is stil a good study!