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I'm wondering if anyone has done any analysis of the effectiveness of the various strategies on different speed settings. From what I've noticed, the "builder" strategies seem to work better on the slowest possible speed (Marathon).
There's a few different reasons for this that I see:
1. If you crank out a few extra workers, you can finish all of your terrain improvements in about 2 or 3 turns per tile despite the extra cost. So while the build costs and research costs have all gone up, the time for terrain improvements essentially remains fixed (after the initial extra investment in workers). So from a relative standpoint you have access to those terrain improvements sooner in the Marathon game than you do in the faster speed games. This adds up to a turn advantage for the builder.
2. Movement costs remain fixed so it doesn't take any longer for your military units to go on their conquering spree than it did on the faster speeds so it's much more viable to build up a large, advanced military and then send them out on conquest. On the fastest speeds, by the time your units reach their destination they're already obsolete so in that case you're better off just churning out units as fast as possible and sending them off conquering immediately before they become irrelevant.
3. Rushing a wonder with a Great Engineer or using any GP to gain a free tech still only takes 1 turn regardless what speed you play on so this translates into a much greater turn advantage on the slowest speeds than it is on the faster speeds. The builder is going to generate GPs faster than the conquerer is.
4. Poprushing and/or buying buildings with cash if you use that civic allow you to complete your buildings at breakneck speeds relative to the massively increased research costs so the slower the speed you play on, the more likely it is that the builder can fully take advantage of all of the city improvements that become available with each tech before that next tech arrives. On the faster speeds it's common for the techs to roll in so fast that it's not possible to build the last city improvement before the next one becomes available so you quickly wind up with a huge backlog of buildings that you don't have the time or resources to complete.
There's a few different reasons for this that I see:
1. If you crank out a few extra workers, you can finish all of your terrain improvements in about 2 or 3 turns per tile despite the extra cost. So while the build costs and research costs have all gone up, the time for terrain improvements essentially remains fixed (after the initial extra investment in workers). So from a relative standpoint you have access to those terrain improvements sooner in the Marathon game than you do in the faster speed games. This adds up to a turn advantage for the builder.
2. Movement costs remain fixed so it doesn't take any longer for your military units to go on their conquering spree than it did on the faster speeds so it's much more viable to build up a large, advanced military and then send them out on conquest. On the fastest speeds, by the time your units reach their destination they're already obsolete so in that case you're better off just churning out units as fast as possible and sending them off conquering immediately before they become irrelevant.
3. Rushing a wonder with a Great Engineer or using any GP to gain a free tech still only takes 1 turn regardless what speed you play on so this translates into a much greater turn advantage on the slowest speeds than it is on the faster speeds. The builder is going to generate GPs faster than the conquerer is.
4. Poprushing and/or buying buildings with cash if you use that civic allow you to complete your buildings at breakneck speeds relative to the massively increased research costs so the slower the speed you play on, the more likely it is that the builder can fully take advantage of all of the city improvements that become available with each tech before that next tech arrives. On the faster speeds it's common for the techs to roll in so fast that it's not possible to build the last city improvement before the next one becomes available so you quickly wind up with a huge backlog of buildings that you don't have the time or resources to complete.
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