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All excellent points, LionHeart!
I would say, however, that into the mix above, add the following:
The population of the city (assuming that the city was taken by force) is hostile to you, and her citizenry are angry (and will influence the chances of that city falling prey to the cultural power of whomever you took it from). As such, there is a dire NEED to bleed that population down, for the security of the Empire, of course. But pop-rushing has limits, and can only be done sparingly...at least, if you want the city to become productive in a useful time period. By focusing on the (relatively expensive) forge out the gate, you a) rid yourself of a large number of miscreants, b) can assign an engineer specialist to give yourself a hammer boost during those turns when pop rushing (due to the unhappy hit) is too expensive to consider, and c) DURING those aforementioned times, reap a solid hammer benefit while waiting for the next rush.
Doing this will, no doubt, savage the population to near minimum (size one), at which point the city will grow fairly rapidly with or without the immediate granary (which typically sees its biggest turn-saving gains on relatively larger cities), making it possible to delay (slightly) the building of the granary.
Where cultural pressure is concerned, if you just captured a city, then you're on the offensive, and if you're on the offensive, you should not have to contend with cultural pressures for long, because you can either a) advance the front (capture another city, and thus, relieve the cultural pressure on the first), or b) if you're nearing the end of your limits to sustain the war effort, capture and raze the next city, to nullify any cultural pressure at all. Then, when the AI re-settles, you'll be a leg up, because you will have had, by that time, sufficient turns to drop a theater or something down to start making your own cultural claims.
In the case of a peacefully acquired city, or one settled at the border by you, you don't face the happiness issues, and (at least in my experience) you've got at least a bit of chopping that can be done much of the time. This, coupled with perhaps one early pop-rush can plant the seeds of a highly profitable border city, and again, Forge would be my first build choice (in fact, in the late game, I generally open by building ALL of the hammer enhancers first, in newly captured cities...Forge, Factory, Power Plant, knowing that I cannot afford to cash-rush everywhere at once, and even a smallish hpt (hammer per turn) bonus will be greatly improve the overall speed with which those cities can put down infrastructure.
And finally, if you're Industrious, this should be pure automatic (it's good for everyone, but it's fantastic for Ind civs). The enabling power of free hammers is compelling stuff.
This approach can, of course, be further enhanced by ALSO running Org. Rel, which will make the Forge-First option even more compelling. Even without Org Rel tho, I find it to be a strong, strong play.
-=Vel=-
I would say, however, that into the mix above, add the following:
The population of the city (assuming that the city was taken by force) is hostile to you, and her citizenry are angry (and will influence the chances of that city falling prey to the cultural power of whomever you took it from). As such, there is a dire NEED to bleed that population down, for the security of the Empire, of course. But pop-rushing has limits, and can only be done sparingly...at least, if you want the city to become productive in a useful time period. By focusing on the (relatively expensive) forge out the gate, you a) rid yourself of a large number of miscreants, b) can assign an engineer specialist to give yourself a hammer boost during those turns when pop rushing (due to the unhappy hit) is too expensive to consider, and c) DURING those aforementioned times, reap a solid hammer benefit while waiting for the next rush.
Doing this will, no doubt, savage the population to near minimum (size one), at which point the city will grow fairly rapidly with or without the immediate granary (which typically sees its biggest turn-saving gains on relatively larger cities), making it possible to delay (slightly) the building of the granary.
Where cultural pressure is concerned, if you just captured a city, then you're on the offensive, and if you're on the offensive, you should not have to contend with cultural pressures for long, because you can either a) advance the front (capture another city, and thus, relieve the cultural pressure on the first), or b) if you're nearing the end of your limits to sustain the war effort, capture and raze the next city, to nullify any cultural pressure at all. Then, when the AI re-settles, you'll be a leg up, because you will have had, by that time, sufficient turns to drop a theater or something down to start making your own cultural claims.
In the case of a peacefully acquired city, or one settled at the border by you, you don't face the happiness issues, and (at least in my experience) you've got at least a bit of chopping that can be done much of the time. This, coupled with perhaps one early pop-rush can plant the seeds of a highly profitable border city, and again, Forge would be my first build choice (in fact, in the late game, I generally open by building ALL of the hammer enhancers first, in newly captured cities...Forge, Factory, Power Plant, knowing that I cannot afford to cash-rush everywhere at once, and even a smallish hpt (hammer per turn) bonus will be greatly improve the overall speed with which those cities can put down infrastructure.
And finally, if you're Industrious, this should be pure automatic (it's good for everyone, but it's fantastic for Ind civs). The enabling power of free hammers is compelling stuff.
This approach can, of course, be further enhanced by ALSO running Org. Rel, which will make the Forge-First option even more compelling. Even without Org Rel tho, I find it to be a strong, strong play.
-=Vel=-
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