Lord_RichJP, using the Thor mine right away will allow you to use your initial dwarves on the resource that they are best at right away. Thor dwarves can be used on any resource early on, but remember that they train 2 seconds longer in return for having an extra-fast gold gathering rate, while on the other resources even Thor dwarves barely gather (almost) as fast as gatherers. So by not using your initial dwarves on gold right away, you give away their advantage, even though you did not have to wait the extra 2 seconds for them.
Also, by using the Thor mine near your TC you can afford getting another ox cart far later, meaning that you can get more vills earlier. Gathering from stragglers is a poor alternative: 2 vills with a cart already gather wood faster than 3 gatherers on a nearby straggler, but without cart.
Later in the game, you will rarely encounter situations when you actually need the Thor mine, despite the fact that it will contain more gold then. There are enough gold mines out there that you can gather from, and when you have been contained by your enemy to an extent that you can no longer gather safely at any remote mine, then you are pretty much done for anyway, and the Thor mine will only delay your doom.
Lategame, when gold mines are becoming scarce, you should set up a proper trading route anyway. A pack of 20 dwarves with all gold ups kill a 6000er mine in no time, and you typically have high expenses in mythic age, so the gold will be used up quickly. The mine is nice to have, but you will have to set up proper trading anyway if you hope to prevail. It is usually no problem to do it early enough so that you can do without the Thor mine. Most often you will forget to cast it anyway when (if) you hit mythic age. The gain is simply in no healthy relation to doing without the far better economical start that the archaic mine allows for. Mark my words: If you do not use it in archaic age, you will not use it at all in more than 50% of your games (i.e. waste it).
Quoted from Lord_RichJP:
Edit: What is the gather rate for dwarfs on gold and how much can they carry?
Search this forum for threads of the author xentelian, then follow the link in his signature to his AoE3 page. Search this page closely for the link to his AoM package (yes, it is there!), and download it. You will find an excellent Excel sheet with all sorts of statistics on AoM, including what you are asking for, as well as invaluable other stuff for AoM (including TT).
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