I'd like to start debate on the science and entertainment sliders. What is the best way to use them early? Obviously, we'll know more once a save is in our hands but I'd like to get a kick start on this. I've seen a few strategies work. Perhaps you have your own to add. Remember we are on Emperor difficulty:

High Science
Research as fast as possible and not make much money. Perhaps we race to a certain key technology for a special unit or wonder.

Low Science
Research slowly or even every 40 turns using as low science as possible or even a science specialist. Extra money could be used to buy technology or upgrade units.

Entertainment
Keep those citizens working. With a military police limit of 2 early on, we can use units to keep citizens from being too unhappy but sometimes those units are needed at the front.

I like using the entertainment slider to make sure all the citizens are working if the military police is not enough. 1 or 2 gold seems very much worth the extra production and food growth.

As for science, I've seen both work. I've only tried a few games with 1.29 and I know they changed the AI science values. What do you think?

I think we should go High Science straight for the Great Library, then we can relax a vit and make sure our production is tiking over and the citizens aren't too dis-content.

Low science. Like zero. We can't directly compete with the AI on this level. The cost to research is a magnitude higher than purchasing tech. Use our money to create a highly productive and militarily supreme nation.

I agree that the GL is a godsend but this can be prebuilt and planned for without expending resources on research itself.

Sure, maybe scale back the science once we have the GL, but we must assure that we get it, with so many other civs it will provide us with the BEST way of keeping up.

I have a feeling that the strategy we employ on science will have to complement our military and wonder building programs.

As you'd probably guessed, I advocate using the "low science" strategy. This will allow us to field a larger military, which in turn will make us more effective at extorting techs from rival nations. In the long run, this is likely to provide us with faster tech acquisition than the "high science" method. In addition the extra military units would up our chances of generating great leaders, which I think is our best chance of snagging wonders such as the Great Library.

I still think we should make a real effort to get the GL (and the pyramids) as it is a matter of staying in the game!! Yes, a strong millitary is vital (i FOUNDED the hawks :)) but we need to be able to keep up in science as well, or our thousands of spearmen won't mean squat against their tanks.

If we're taking plenty of tech research from the civs we fight, then that ought to keep us in the tech game almost as effectively as the Great Library. I'd also point out that their tanks "won't mean squat" if we've crippled their production base in the ancient or medival eras :D

I'm for keeping science research up there. Other civs don't part with techs easily, and there's no guarentee we'll even make contact with another civ until galleons come along. Remeber, this is a random game.
It is entirely possible for us to get stuck by ourselves on an island. If we go for more money over science, we could get stuck with a completely useless pile of gold, and no technology.
We, therefore, need to keep research high until we know our situation with other civs.

Contrariwise, we must assume we are next to other civs. If we are isolated we will have nothing but time to max our science when that's all we have to spend on. The safest course is also the most aggressive.

i think we should maintain a policy of 20 percent luxuries and then keep science as high as possible without creating a deficit. civil disorder is costly and im afraid we cannot rely on the willingness of the computer to trade with us, especially on emperor difficulty.

neutral leader is a good, responsible provincial governor

Our words are backed with NUCLEAR WEAPONS!!!

I agree with keeping everyone happy enough to work. (BTW, I need a job.) I think we should research iron working as fast a possible then we can use our armed forces to gain our techs.. ;)

But if it comes down to making 0gpt and researching Iron Working in 36 turns or making 2gpt and researching it in 40 turns, wouldn't we be wise to take the latter?

@donsig: play ambassador in the civ2 demogames here and on apolyton ;-) this is a office-head job!
maybe you could also talk ct into having a news-office responsible for doing the writeups (or history office) and making the cfc-newsannouncements

@topic:
* keep all happy to work
* high as possible upto gl
* after gl almost no research (if we know more than 2 civs)
* slide-back strategy when 1 turn before new tech

Originally posted by disorganizer
@donsig: play ambassador in the civ2 demogames here and on apolyton ;-) this is a office-head job!
maybe you could also talk ct into having a news-office responsible for doing the writeups (or history office) and making the cfc-newsannouncements


I need a job in this game to make gold. Planning on making some serious real estate purchases down the road. Don't want to be a government news-person since that would compete with my private business!

Back on topic: I see your point CP. I guess it would be worth 72 gold to wait 4 turns for iron working. We'll have to see what the numbers really are though. :)

I am with CP to go for max gold with 40 turn research. We need the gold for military upgrades. It never pays off to research a second generation tech at max science in the beginning of the game. It is simply too expensive!

Of course increase luxuries when needed to keep the citizens at work

@josh- were most likly going to capture the gl, not build it.
@everyone- how about we pump out iron working, then relax.

@donsig: an ambassador gets 2 gold per turn... same as every other office head. if you become a deputy somewhere also, you could add 1 gold/turn to total up to 3 gold per turn... if you then also become a chat-representative for a department or province, you could total to additional 6gpt, which will be a 16 gold per turn net income without holding a business ;-)

Getting back on topic.... in my opinion, we should go for mid-level research on Iron Working (30-something turns with +1 gpt) to get it quickly while still making money for a warrior-swordsman upgrade for the first- or second-strike. After that, we ease of to 40-turn research and build a military that we can use to ransack all the gold and force the surrender of all the techs we need from our neighbors.

On this level, my recommendation would be low-science / high-gold. My reasoning is the same as stated by others above.

i see 2 strategies here:
1) no science
this would be best if we have close neighbors, as they will easily outrun us in science at this level
2) full science
this would be best if we are alone and dont make contact soon

now the question is: are we alone? or can we risk speculating on not being alone?

i see it this way- race to the gl, build it, and kill all science funding. we then reap the benifits of everyone else's hard work.
and to are we alone- the truth is out there *do do do do do dooo*

During the chat, it was determined that no matter what we put the science slider on, Iron Working was going to take 40 turns. So we went with 20% to make 2gpt. As we build more roads, we can take a look again.

I think we need Iron Working to be able to compete militarily. I think we should try to eventually pre-build for the GL, but otherwise science on low as others have stated.

my strategy- keep getting those people happy, but dont overdo it.
keep science on none, and.........entertainment on 20-50
that way, when we really need to research techs, we can push the slider nearly all the way, because we have the money for it