Can someone give me the the general strategy on bulbing to liberalism?

I read a few posts from Deity games and they seem to go something like this:

Athesics, Literature, Chop for Great Library.

What do i do after that? (Assume I don't have pyramids. Also assume my leader isn't Philosophical or Spiritual)

Do I go straight for philosophy? When I get it should I look to convert to Pacifism ASAP?

What do I do with my first Great Scientist? Academy on the city with the Great Library?

Which of the techs that lead to liberalism should be the ones I'm bulbing? Also do golden ages come into play?

Sorry if this is old-hat but I never really considered this strategy until I read it on these forums.

1. Bulb Philosophy
2. Academy
3. Bulb Education

1. Bulb Philosophy
2. Academy
3. Bulb Education

Most of the time i find that i can build an academy first and still bulb philo for the religion...

1. Academy
2. Bulb Philosophy
3. Bulb Education

Most of the time i find that i can build an academy first and still bulb philo for the religion...

But Philo will faster GS's. thus quicker bulbing for edu

if you skip machinery, you can bulb liberalism with a GS.

Or if you skip fishing and pottery. :)

Typically you won't need to bulb Liberalism...I've never done it myself personally.

bulb philosophy and bulb education

Deity? :mischief:

I will win on deity someday. Soooner or later. I will!! :gripe:

If you are say a philosophical leader and want liberalism asap then you can bulb: philosophy (need medit, math, and col/drama), paper (need CS), education (need paper; you need 2 GSs to get the full thing and some top players have done this), and liberalism (you need to avoid machinery and you need to have metal casting, compass, and calendar). That's 4-5 GSs which isn't too hard for a philosophical leader to get in a reasonable time frame. The tough part is getting through CS.

There are a few different paths to Liberalism and it kinda depends on what you plan to take from it. Usually, an early GS will build an academy before you start bulbing like crazy. The prime targets for bulbing have already been mentioned:
1) Paper - a bit of a waste because of the extra beakers but it can be bulbed if you have a lot of GSs. I usually just self-research it and save them for
2) Education - This is probably the most important one because of its enormous cost. It can be double-bulbed with very little waste.
3) Philosophy - gives access to Pacifism for an even better GP rate. Just make sure you have state religion in your GP farm(s).
4) Liberalism - If machinery is avoided (unlocks PP which is high on the bulb list) you can partial bulb Lib.

I have also heard of other routes that involve bulbing through printing press (I think Dirk1302 was talking about this) but they can get a little tricky and, like I said, it depends what you are trying to take. When going for steel, for example, you will need to go through machinery at some point, often before Lib. Another trick is to leave Lib with 1 or 2 turns left while you tech other stuff you need so that you can grab it quickly if you see an AI getting close to it.

Good luck!

^This seems like a good path to me. I often expand to the max early game and prioritize cottages to some extent meaning i'm often a bit late bulbing everything for lib, OTH i have usually good research at that time so i can afford to self research (parts of) some techs. I typically bulb philo most of the time, never bulb paper (waste) bulb half of edu and often wait with machinery till i have lib bulbed to 1-2 turns. The fact that i bulb PP and Chem often is because at that time my GPP farm is fully online. So there's not so much strat involved in my bulbing PP often, it just comes along and usually the tech is really helpful for my empire at the time. Same goes for chemistry, i favor workshops around 1000 AD and often go for steel.

I often change my path according to what the Ais are doing, if i'm way ahead i just get machinery early and self research lib for instance double bulbing chem later. And if i plan to play a peaceful science game i self research almost everything and build academies with the GS. Bulbing techs and getting to lib first doesn't mean so much in itself if you're not planning something specific since all the fast techers are usually more or less equal anyway around 1500 AD due to trade, big differences come later.

Well on my latest Deity, normal speed game, I double bulbed Education, then bulbed Liberalism. With 5 turns left till Liberalism and no one with education i figured I was alright to trade education to Gilgamesh for some back techs but he somehow beat me to it by one turn. Ug.

^ As stampy's game points out, the AIs can bulb too.

I don't think Gilg bulbed lib since he's sure to have had machinery by that time. A deity AI is certainly capable of researching lib in 4 turns though and Gilg probably switched his research right away.