Details of Assyria tech steal on city-states?

I just recently read on this site that Assyria can steal techs when taking over city-states; that's super cool and it makes me want to try the again as a civ.

How is the tech level of the city-states determined and how can I tell what they're at?

Basically, I'd like to "know" ahead of time that they have something to steal before I attack them, are there any tricks to getting this info?

I'm playing a game with Assyria right now, and as far as I can tell, you just automatically steal a tech since City States don't really have a "tech level". I could be wrong on this though, and I'd welcome any information to the contrary (I've also been consistently behind in tech due to early warring, so I'm not sure if average tech level plays a role with this.)

I can't give you a great answer but I do know that CS tech level is based on the average for all major civs in the game.

I guess if you have a lot of high science achievers in your game you could reasonably assume they would have dragged the average up a bit but otherwise maybe try spotting their units to get an idea.

Luckily you can afford to be a bit lazy in tech with Assyria, in fact it pays to be!

Jimjemael said:

=Luckily you can afford to be a bit lazy in tech with Assyria, in fact it pays to be!

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The point with Assyria isn't really to be lazy with techs, but to make not going for a traditional tech line viable. The general tech start is to beeline writing/philosophy, rather than military techs. With Assyria you can bee-line military techs, and just invade your way through the science techs.

However, if you're so far behind that even City-States out tech you, then I don't think playing as Assyria is going to help...

Talcove said:

The point with Assyria isn't really to be lazy with techs, but to make not going for a traditional tech line viable. The general tech start is to beeline writing/philosophy, rather than military techs. With Assyria you can bee-line military techs, and just invade your way through the science techs.

However, if you're so far behind that even City-States out tech you, then I don't think playing as Assyria is going to help...

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Why aren't you a troublemaker!

CS Have their own tech level based on tech leaders in the game. You can easily tell how advanced they are from their units, other techs are harder to figure out. Strategics can indicate tech level too. And yeah being behind in science is nit the point, but you can focus on other things and let warring catch up your techs. Assyria can work it by beelining let's say arty and then stealing the rest, or even earlier in classical own few civs with towers and CB/XB.