I'm similar to you, Ballardian, I enjoy the product chains and having multiple uses for certain produced items.
I'd have to do the research to know all the differences between CC and MegaMod 8.01, but there is a PDF provided with MM to help a bit, but doesn't really explain anything in detail, only lists the mods included. MM includes CC and many of the mods by the people in these forums.
With MM, you get all kinds of production chains, but none that go extremely deep, more spread out needing many things in supportive roles. One of my favorites is making Bronze Tools because they last long and it's a large chain to employee my people with. Doesn't take any coal, which I hate dealing with. You need a tin ore mine, copper ore mine, fuel refinery and foundry to make bronze. I usually make two of each mine, but 1 of each is fine until population increases. You need 3 times as much copper so it's usually good to have 2 copper mines with 1 tin mine. Each can have 6 workers. Put 4 workers in tin mine and 6 workers in each copper mine. You will also need a lumber mill because several of these buildings require lumber to even build.
I migrate as quickly as possibly to using charcoal (Stacks burners) to fuel my entire town and ditch firewood all together. I use charcoal to make the furnace fuel for the foundry to use. Stacks burners require constant flow of logs so I usually place a log dealer next to them so they keep logs nearby at all times. To keep logs flowing, I setup an industry port and tell every trader to that port to bring logs. I auto trade however much charcoal I want for however many logs I want as demand increases.
You will then need lots of candles to upgrade each copper and tin mine when they run out the first round and then lamp oil for the next round after that which makes them unlimited. Candle maker will need beeswax, whale blubber or tallow! Obviously you need those refined from a butcher or beekeeper. Lamp oil requires ships or refined from a crop like flax or canola (several others) that are turned in to seed oil and then seed oil refined in to lamp oil. Flax works good because it's not edible and it's only used for other things if you decide to, so it can be used only for making seed oil and not have to worry that it's going anywhere else. Now, seed oil is edible... soo... you will compete with peeps eating it and going to your lamp oil press. That's where the whale blubber from ships comes in handy. I think you can trade for blubber as well. Whale blubber is not edible so it won't go anywhere except your oil press for making lamp oil.
Now... to build the wharf you need hull components, for hull components you need shipyard that requires building supplies to build. Building supplies are made from numerous other things. Building supplies first requirement is either bricks or glass... needing sand or clay.... and then several options from there. I prefer bricks and lumber! I already have lumber in the chain. Brickworks can also do charcoal, so they are a great multipurpose bldg. Just need some sand and your bricks are off and running and bldg supplies will soon be made.
You will want a central industry market to handle all these transactions as well. I tend to use the Thadd Industry Market for this.
Basically... just keeping bronze tools going requires a lot of stuff and a lot of jobs! It's one of, if not the most, involved product chain. Lots of ways to go about it also... You can obviously trade for many items, but as you clearly stated, you enjoy the product chains. Logs is the hardest thing to keep supplied, which is why I change from forestry to trading for them. You can still have forestry as a backup, obviously, but not necessary once you get the one log port established.
