We have reached a crossroads. We can either go to the Monarchy path and pursue the Hanging Gardens and the government for of the Monarchy or the Republic Path and pursue the Great Library and the government form of the Republic.

Monarchy Path: Cer Bur (have)->Mysticism->Polytheism->Warrior Code->Monarchy

Wonders Available: Oracle, Hanging Gardens

Republic Path (with literature interlude) Alphabet->Writing->Literature->Code of Laws->Philosophy (REMINDER: This is Vanilla Civ. There is no Philo Gambit) -> Republic

Wonders Available: The Great Library (Great Lighthouse available if detour is made to Map Making)

Also available is the Currency Path, which is Masonry, Mathematics, and Currency

Wonders Available: The Great Wall

This poll will run for 24 hours and it WILL be public. Please choose from the three path choices above.

Deputy Science Minister SaaM

edit- related discussion can be found here (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=95925)

I don't see a poll.

I don't see a poll.
Wait a few seconds, It takes a while for the poll to show up ;).

I assume that Iron Working is factored in before this takes place?

Please take note that this poll is common effort by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Science.

We're just trying to adapt our wonders poll with the techs.

This is without factoring Iron Working. This is to choose a path. Iron working would most likely find itself somewhere in the Monarchy Path, should we follow it.

I assume that Iron Working is factored in before this takes place?

Yes, it is imperative that we know where the iron is. No iron = No Samurai!

Samurai are not until the middle ages. We will have to had to research Iron Working by then, and we will know where it is.

Samurai are not until the middle ages. We will have to had to research Iron Working by then, and we will know where it is.
Thats true, The Samurai will only come after the discovery of Chivalry.

Samurai are not until the middle ages. We will have to had to research Iron Working by then, and we will know where it is.

True... but if we expand in the wrong direction because we couldn't SEE the Iron (not due to fog but due to tech), and thus lose our Iron, we would be severly crippling ourselves.

Edit: I dislike the format of this Poll, what if I want to research Masonry -> Iron -> Monarchy line.
Pyramids seem destined to win, however, if we follow this format we will have to defy this poll if anything but the Currency path wins.
What happened to polling the techs one at a time? Unless this is only intended to be informational, and thus gives us no definate awnser on what we should research after the current tech.

Sure, but I find it best to make sure you know where the iron is anyway. (And don't forget we'll need Swordsmen, too)

I don't like the format of this poll either. You say it's a Tech path choice, but you promote Wonders as a basis for choosing. What seems to be the most popular Wonder (The Pyramids) is not mentioned in this poll. What seems to be the most popular Tech (Iron Working) is not mentioned in this poll. Then there's the fact that you use the Great Lighthouse to promote the Republic path, but don't include Mapmaking in the path (kinda sneaky). Overall, the poll needs to be rethought and reworked. This is bad logic, Stuck.

One thing I do like about this poll is that it shows the different lengths of time we will be STUCK in Despotism. With the Monarchy path, we're looking at 4 techs (160 turns). With the Republic path, we're looking at 6 techs (80 turns more), unless you're going to add Mapmaking (seeing how you use it to promote the Republic path), then it's 7 techs worth of time (120 turns more). If this is the path that the AI doesn't take (info supplied by CT), then the amount of time spent on each tech will be maximized. Not a good thing.

So even though we don't know where the heck Iron Working fits into the hellish poll, I'm still going to vote Monarchy as we need to leave this form of government as soon as possible.

True... but if we expand in the wrong direction because we couldn't SEE the Iron (not due to fog but due to tech), and thus lose our Iron, we would be severly crippling ourselves.

Capping a neighbor city with iron or trading for it are also possibilities... It could wind up that there is no iron near our starting loc or someone will already claim it by the time we get there.

So even though we don't know where the heck Iron Working fits into the hellish poll, I'm still going to vote Monarchy as we need to leave this form of government as soon as possible.

I was undecided about what to vote on in this poll, but your reasoning has swayed me. I still believe we have to fit IW in there pretty quickly, but Monarchy always works for me.

Not enough wonders were listed for the republic path. The Great Library is in there, not to mention a good number of improvements, and diplomatic abilities that come in handy.

I would claim iron working to be distinct from the Monarchy path, there are to many subjective leads in this poll, as if meant to overtly pacify Japanatica. Iron Working will under all circumstances be needed to protect the national interest, especially with the less troops Republic has to offer. I am also surprised that my very assisitant is siding up with a poicy shift that may cripple or diplomatic choice of action severely. We have a ravaging barbarian level, only one set of luxury, diamonds some distance away, and a city that begs for political stabilization with temple and wonders.

So, do not bundle Iron Working with Wonders OR Monarchy with the intent to cripple that option. Besides city placement will heavily rely on if we have iron or not.
Without Iron, we know we have to produce a larger amount of low quality troops which is costier in order to maintaint the same level of security.

With ravaging barbarians, it is not enough sending a lone warrior scouting, we need combined battlegroups, as Sarevok and Falcon02 has written long threads about, if they are not given the means to do their job right, I cannot see why all of you voted for them wit such an overwhelming majority. As Foreign Minister I need all culture, science, economy and the military to work together, but right now science and culture seems to have forgotten our fundamental security needs.

If there is no iron within our sight, I may even consider The Republic Route and The Construction Route in order to secure Great Wall, until the time we have more modern
weapons, and dig in if we cannot build our UU. Iron will decide a lot, and Iron was one of the top three issues in all of the election campaigns but in culture.

Rik Meleet was also voted in for the Iron Route as Science Minister, something I hope the Culture folks have not talked SAAM out of.

When I think Japan, I think Monarchy. :ninja:

Plus while this info can be construed as informational, I would rather see techs polled on an as-needed basis.

I like the idea of starting off by polling which branch of the tech tree people approve. The format of the poll may not be as crisp as it could be, but the general idea is a good one. Why, you might ask, when we have a long history of polling techs one at a time? This is one of the few places I've seen truly strategic questions being asked of the citizens.

Wonder discussions aside, this poll can be reduced to, do you want to go for Monarchy, Republic, or tech trading?

Stuck, when I said it would be a good idea to poll a path, thought it was in addition to the next tech to be placed in the instructions. You still have time to also run a next tech poll. :D

Monarchy is teh best!!!

I'll vote Monarchy path, but I believe our next tech should be Iron Working

Capping a neighbor city with iron or trading for it are also possibilities... It could wind up that there is no iron near our starting loc or someone will already claim it by the time we get there.

Trading for strategic resources is expensive, and has no garentees, and obviously NOT the prefered way to go if possible.

The point is to get the tech so we can make informed decisions, even if that decision is "We've already got it so no need to worry any more" or "We've explored everywhere and we ain't gonna claim the nearest one anytime soon."

We can't ignore something based on the possiblity there's nothing we can do about it.

I'm not neccisarily saying Swords should be researched NEXT... but we shouldn't delay too long on researching it.

The best choice for Japanitica is too take the currency/construction route. The simple fact that we get our Pyramids and Great Wall, one of the wonders that will help up get a golden age. Considering we already can build, when we found a coastal city, the Colossus, we get the other half of our needed Golden age. A Golden age even in despotism is better than going for the other paths. The fact that we also get Pyramids means we can get fast expansion if we build it in time. So my choice was the currency path with Construstion and Iron working being research aslo.

EDIT. I forgot that Pyramids would also give a GA requirement

Iron Working then Republic. Republic is the only form of gov we should ever need.

Abstain, public poll.

-- Ravensfire

You have the most ridiculous position I have yet to see (hmm, thinking...thinking) Yes, most ridiculous. If you don't want your opinion heard because your name will be public, so be it. It doesn't affect anything anyway in these types of polls. Except, of course, that if you have an opinion, nobody will know 'cause you haven't stated it.

Masonry is cheap so we should get it after bronze working is finished (unless it is decided to change to something else before its done). I would like to go for republic but i don't want to research alphabet, it takes ages. If we somehow could trade for alphabet? Now i don't know what to choose. I definatelly want Great Library before Hanging Gardens becase of culture value and additional techs are cool.
Someone help me decide where to put my vote :).

invy, if we take the Monarchy path, we will be able to change governments quicker. This means we will be able to develop our civilization faster, as our production and growth will increase faster. In doing so, it will generate income at a quicker pace. Plus we will be able to spend gold to rush items that much quicker. Because of a much improved society, we will stand a much better chance of trading for Alphabet.

invy, if we take the Monarchy path, we will be able to change governments quicker. This means we will be able to develop our civilization faster, as our production and growth will increase faster. In doing so, it will generate income at a quicker pace. Plus we will be able to spend gold to rush items that much quicker. Because of a much improved society, we will stand a much better chance of trading for Alphabet.
I was just playing my game on emperor and i went directly for monarchy. I played earth standard scenario and had USA position only for myself, so i had quite many and good cities for early game.
The point: Oracle was built in no time by AI, i lost race on pyramids and wasted 70 shields, i first got to polytheism for 20+ turns and traded for wheel and alphabet. The i go for 40turn monarchy at maximum science (so i lower to 10% because 100% didnt make difference,and i collected about 150gold until i could make faster research). Couldn't buy any tech for gold :/. I got first monarchy went revolution and building Hanging Gardens in 28 turns.
Now i don''t want to trade Monarchy because i want wonder and AI has Writing, Iron Working, Map making and who knows what else.
I can trade Monarchy for either Iron Working or Writing, not both. I can't even think of Great Library. I need 5 turns to Iron Working.
Tho this is at Emperor level Monarchy really takes time and is not so profitable.
Maybe researching more cheaper technologies to republic would improve trading and at least we can try Great Library (anyway we have libraries before).
I will vote for Republic then we can trade for monarchy and do quick anarchy.

i believe masonry should be the first tech we try to trade for if we dont research it...