Thanks for an interesting thread Selrahc 
I think you've isolated the tree main reasons your game didn't go as well as it might have. A) Your lack of workers and forgoing Aristograrianism hurt your economy, and prevented you from really making the most of your PoW rush.
B) you built too many cities too fast compared to your workers, that gave you cripplingly high maintenace costs and shaped msot of your game, including your decision to go light on the military.
C) Your weak military made it difficult/impossible for you to keep using your PoWs when they were at their strongest, to raid and possibly cripple/kill some of your rivals. Your economic troubles might have prevented you from seizing their cities instead of razing them, but continuing your offensive might have secured you even more land. IMO, that was also a good part of the reason you ended up giving concessions to pb, because for a long time he had an army stronger than yours, quite capable of running circles around your Priests.
The timing of Stasis and your PoW rush was quite solid, but you really didn't get as much out of it as you should have, IMO.
***
I think that Aristograrian really is the correct choice in almost all situations in the game. In this game, running Aristofarms would've gotten you a lot of commerce immediately, which you could then compound by running scientists/merchants.
In general, the ability of Aristofarms to provide commerce and food (and thus indirectly hammers) *immediately* really allows ones economy to snowball, if you'll pardon the term. Cottages take a number of turns to get to where Aristofarms start commerce-wise, and they will always provide less food. With the possible exception of a plains-heavy start, running mixed farms/cottages damages your production potential compared to Aristogratrianism. Cottages will always provide less food than farms, and since they provide no hammers it'll take longer to pump out workers. That can delay your infrastructure for quite a bit, which tends to snowball quickly. You'll also have less surplus food for running mines, which further damages your hammer output.
I think one of the few places where FFH modmods such as Wildmana have improved balance is by eradicating Aristofarms. Of course Master of Mana have gone and reintroduced them, which is a
move balance-wise if you ask me.
I think you've isolated the tree main reasons your game didn't go as well as it might have. A) Your lack of workers and forgoing Aristograrianism hurt your economy, and prevented you from really making the most of your PoW rush.
B) you built too many cities too fast compared to your workers, that gave you cripplingly high maintenace costs and shaped msot of your game, including your decision to go light on the military.
C) Your weak military made it difficult/impossible for you to keep using your PoWs when they were at their strongest, to raid and possibly cripple/kill some of your rivals. Your economic troubles might have prevented you from seizing their cities instead of razing them, but continuing your offensive might have secured you even more land. IMO, that was also a good part of the reason you ended up giving concessions to pb, because for a long time he had an army stronger than yours, quite capable of running circles around your Priests.
The timing of Stasis and your PoW rush was quite solid, but you really didn't get as much out of it as you should have, IMO.
***
I think that Aristograrian really is the correct choice in almost all situations in the game. In this game, running Aristofarms would've gotten you a lot of commerce immediately, which you could then compound by running scientists/merchants.
In general, the ability of Aristofarms to provide commerce and food (and thus indirectly hammers) *immediately* really allows ones economy to snowball, if you'll pardon the term. Cottages take a number of turns to get to where Aristofarms start commerce-wise, and they will always provide less food. With the possible exception of a plains-heavy start, running mixed farms/cottages damages your production potential compared to Aristogratrianism. Cottages will always provide less food than farms, and since they provide no hammers it'll take longer to pump out workers. That can delay your infrastructure for quite a bit, which tends to snowball quickly. You'll also have less surplus food for running mines, which further damages your hammer output.
I think one of the few places where FFH modmods such as Wildmana have improved balance is by eradicating Aristofarms. Of course Master of Mana have gone and reintroduced them, which is a
move balance-wise if you ask me.
![[Image: Civ4ScreenShot0083-2.jpg?t=1301092881]](http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g276/SelrahctheEternal/Civ4ScreenShot0083-2.jpg?t=1301092881)