For the Renaissance to the Modern Eras, I'm using a timeline to try and place techs relative to each other. I'm not going to insist on absolute adherence to this line, but I like it because it really helps tell what subsection (early, middle, late) of an era the tech should be in. Prerequisites will push some techs up and down the tree, so you will see some techs out of place and some overlap between time periods.
The techs that cover the first three levels of the Renaissance appear historically between 1350 - 1600.
Date Tech Event
1350 Gunpowder Petrarch writes cannons are common
1400 Metallurgy Cast iron cannonballs
1425 Oil Painting Jan van Eyck painting for Philip the Good
1445 Leadership first Western European standing army
1450 Humanism Humanist education common
1455 Printing Press Gutenberg Bible
1475 Matchlock First dated illustration of matchlock
1532 Political Philosophy Machiavelli publishes
The Prince
1543 Astronomy Copernicus publishes
De revolutionibus orbium coelestium
1545 Battlefield Medicine Paré's first book on treating gunshot wounds
1550 Cavalry Tactics Caracole tactics
1560 Jurisprudence School of Salamanca
1569 Navigation Mercator projection
1576 Divine Right Jean Bodin publishes
Les Six livres de la République
1590 Naval Cannon Cannon broadside
1597 Free Artistry Ballet, opera, commedia dell'arte established
This is how it will play out in-game. Renaissance-1 is the starter techs for the era. It gets trimmed down by losing Navigation, Physics, and Political Philosophy, but gains Humanism.
Tech Old Prerequisites New Prerequisites
Astronomy Calendar +
Education
+ Optics
Algebra
+ Calendar +
Compass
+ Optics
Gunpowder Education + Guilds + Invention Education + Guilds + Invention
Humanism
Drama
+ Music +
Political Philosophy
+
Printing Press
Education
+ Music
Oil Painting Education + Perspective Education + Perspective
Printing Press Education + Invention +
Literature
+ Paper Education + Invention + Paper
Changes:
- Astronomy replaces Education with Algebra; I'm pushing Physics farther forward, and I would like to keep the lines from a tech to its successors as short as I can. Compass also gets moved back from Navigation to Astronomy.
- Humanism gets changed the most by dropping backwards. It basically swaps places with Political Philosophy; Pol Phil will require Humanism instead of the other way around. I also dropped Printing Press to keep Humanism at the beginning of the era. Printing Press is still required for Scientific Method. Drama is just redundant with Music.
- Printing Press loses a redundant Literature.
Renaissance-2 changes by losing Divine Right, Humanism and Weather Forecasting, but gaining Free Artistry, Leadership, Navigation, and Political Philosophy.
Tech Old Prerequisites New Prerequisites
Free Artistry
Divine Right
+ Humanism + Oil Painting Humanism + Oil Painting
Leadership
Divine Right
Chivalry
+
Gunpowder
Matchlock Clockworks + Gunpowder Clockworks + Gunpowder
Metallurgy Armor Crafting + Gunpowder Armor Crafting + Gunpowder
Navigation Cartography + Clockworks +
Compass + Ship Building
Astronomy
+ Cartography + Clockworks
Political Philosophy Banking +
Education
Banking +
Democracy
+
Humanism
Changes here:
- Free Artistry didn't seem to fit with Divine Right, so I dropped the Divine Right prerequisite. I think requiring both Humanism and Oil Painting is enough.
- Leadership dates to a century before Divine Right, so I felt changing the prerequisites was in order. I think the pairing of Chivalry and Gunpowder works.
- Navigation had Compass and Ship Building swapped out for Astronomy.
- Political Philosophy changed places with Humanism. I also added Democracy since I pushed Constitution out of the Medieval Era; it's going all the way to the late Renaissance.
Renaissance-3 gets a couple of technologies that were originally much farther along the tech tree.
Tech Old Prerequisites New Prerequisites
Battlefield Medicine Anatomy +
Chemistry + Nationalism
Anatomy +
Leadership + Matchlock
Cavalry Tactics
Flintlock + Stirrup
Leadership + Matchlock + Mounted Archery
Divine Right Chivalry +
Constitution + Gunpowder
+ Political Philosophy +
Theology
Chivalry +
Holy War + Papacy
+ Political Philosophy
Jurisprudence
Divine Right
+ Political Philosophy Political Philosophy
Naval Cannon Metallurgy Metallurgy
Changes:
- Battlefield Medicine is being practiced earlier than the current tech tree places it. Ambroise Paré developed his techniques for dealing with gunshot wounds, therefore the Matchlock technology requirement. Leadership happened to be on the same level as well, so I added it.
- Cavalry Tactics is a hard tech to pin down; I went with the caracole as one of the first examples of using gunpowder weapons with cavalry troops. Caracoles were usually done with wheellock pistols, but that's too narrow for a tech. I like Matchlock (as the first gun technology) and Flintlock (as a major upgrade that served for two centuries), but Wheellock is just too specific for a tech. Mounted Archery lands here too as well.
- Divine Right got redefined. I didn't think Gunpowder was necessary and dropped it. I decided to let Holy War and Papacy land here to work them into the tech tree, and that made Theology redundant. Constitution is on the other side of Divine Right now.
- Jurisprudence lost Divine Right to keep it on the near side of the 1600 dividing line.
Another note: moving Cavalry Tactics backwards means we will probably need to lower the strength of the
Cuirassier unit. I think we should take it down by a point or two, and then give it an equal bonus at
Flintlock. The +X Strength at particular techs is, to me, far more elegant than a promotion-based equipment system.
Let me know what you think of this.