Destroyers Without Astronomy

covok48 said:

So my destroyers were snacking on some Mongol Ironclads, caravels, and galleys. Mongols hadn't researched Astronomy yet so I was confident I could press this advantage.


Next turn I see dozens Mongol transports and destroyers next to me. I check and they STILL haven't researched astronomy.


There is no tech trading or brokering, no other civ is advanced enough to gift them these units.


What am I seeing?

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pigswill said:

Looking up tech tree destroyers and transports don't have astronomy as a pre-req (unlike frigates and galleons). You'd need scimeth for oil but otherwise steel and steam.

Could be exploitable if you want a late naval war and want to keep Colossus.

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traius said:

Destroyers require combustion (prereq tech) and sci meth (to see oil) at minimum. Transports same. Sci meth CAN use astronomy, but is not required (astro or chemistry). Combustion requires chemistry, but not astro (not the immediate prequisite, but a bit farther back). As such, destroyers do not need astronomy. This can be useful on games where navies aren't super important but can be useful-ish, and you want to hold on to the colossus for as long as possible.

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