DeletedUser31392
I started two cities at once. One following this guide as exactly as possible, another building a well rounded city as I normally would. (Well rounded meaning 2 of each goods building I had a boost for, some military, some supply buildings, some houses, etc...) All buildings serviced by roads. I did guild-hop, because that early on, it is hard to be effective in GE or GvG, and Guild Hopping can set you up for success down the road. I did not rely on 24-hour recurring supply quests. I did not build a SoZ in either city, so I'm not exactly sure which city COULD have gotten two GBs first. However, my well rounded city ended up with the LOA and TOB two days before the one using this method (13 days for well-rounded, 15 days for this method). I kept the experiment up for a month. My 'well-rounded' city had far more supplies, comparable goods*, comparable coins. The big difference- I had way, way more FPs in my inventory in my 'well-rounded' city, because I pushed it to the Iron Age and started contributing to Great Buildings for rewards. (We are talking over 300 FPs stored up compared to just the 50 or so I earned from quests.)
So, the method worked. Effectiveness would vary based on playing style.
*Regarding the comparable goods- the city using the method outlined in the guide had far more Bronze Age goods. The goods were also much more 'even', requiring less trading. My well-rounded city had more Iron Age goods, and less Bronze Age goods. The goods tended to be more lopsided, favoring the ones I had supply buildings for. Overall total goods were about the same, with my method being slightly less. But if I were to trade the IA goods down, since the rate would be 2:1, I would have ended up with more.
Interesting result. A question about it though. You said that in the experiment city that you used Guild hopping early on. How long did you continue to do so, and did you keep it equal/greater than/less than the Glarg/Algona method? I could see how this could skew results if the IA city used this method more than the BA city. The BA city method relies on using the 24hr productions in conjunction with Guild Hopping all day long. If you were to take the take out of your day to focus more on the IA city and guild hopping then yes you would likely receive better results than if you spent the majority of the day doing so in the BA city, while only collecting from buildings and Aiding all 3 lists once/day in the IA city.
Curious to know, for future experiments of my own. I myself started a second city a week after I started one with the Glarg/Algona method. In it I will be keeping to 1 guild, keeping all buildings connected (when possible), and using 24 hr productions for RQs, while having 1 of each Good Deposit building. Not focusing on GBs at all though. Its more of an experiment to see what happens when I focus on doing the techs in each line to get me to the next age, ending when I reach the end of HMA with the goal to determine exactly when the 2nd RQ questgiver shows up (since there is substantial knowledge of when and why it can disappear and how to retrieve it back, or avoid losing it altogether advancing too far in the IndA map)
My fps for that city will only go to tech tree, so any bps I recieve will be from completeing RQs as I go from Coin collecting, Aiding 3 lists once/day, and 24hr supply productions. I will store all fp packs and will only trade goods around when necessary to complete a tech. Will post results comparing both cities when I reach that stage in City 2.