How Am I doing? Fractal Map

Hi, This is my first post. I love this game, but I have never been good with science. I have played this game for months but I have never achieved a science victory. One way or another I always end up going for a conquest victory.

So I decided to dedicated a game to a science victory. I just picked up the Expansion BNW, this is one of my first few games with it. How am I doing? Do you have guys or gals have any tips for making this a good science victory?

I only have 3 Cities is that enough? I am making a ton GPT, how can I use that for more science?

ALSO I am pretty sure japan is about to try and sneak attack my ass, and the huns, are will being huns in the south east.

Take a look at my save.

Thanks,

Zenwalker20.

Overall, it's not bad.

Science doesn't scale according to population like culture does, so science victories are usually easier with a wide empire. I typically try to get three cities with universities as soon as possible to get the National College, and then settle much more aggressively afterward. I would have skipped the Tradition policies in favor of Commerce.

Also, your religion seems kind of unfocused. Peace Gardens or Pagodas are good for happiness, and I find they compliment food-based beliefs nicely. However, Interfaith Dialogue and similar beliefs work best if you are generating a lot of faith, which you don't seem to be. Also, you missed out on all that gold near Lhasa, which would have been a boon to faith/culture.

Going forward, I would recommend settling a city near Lhasa, one east of Seoul (on the coast between the incense and the horses to the south), and one a little later near Mombasa to take advantage of all the jungle tiles. Jungle + Trading Post + Free Thought is a good combo. And try to keep Japan happy

@hangman: I have to question that first sentence above. Science most certainly does scale with population and culture most certainly doesn't. Look at the library and public schools. Both give 1 base science per 2 population, which means +1 science per population with both. Then you add the multipliers for universities, observatories and labs. Without a good population, they go to waste. Though with more cities, you gain more specialist slots and there is some small bonuses on a couple buildings. Also, it only takes libraries for the NC, not universities.

Culture is based on buildings and works of art/writing/music and unrelated to population. Perhaps you meant the reverse of what you said.

Total population is the primary focus for science, with tall being easier in the sense you don't have to build as many buildings, though wide works too, but be ware of the 5% increase in tech costs and great people costs for every additional city added.

@zenwalker20:

Alright, what I see is going to take much longer to victory than you probably want. You are not focusing on the right things. Here is a few observations that could speed you along to victory a lot sooner.

1) You have 3 cities and have finished Liberty and not Tradition. Liberty is for empires with a lot of cities, Tradition is for small empires with tall cities. You should have finished Tradition, and opened up Rationalism as soon as you can. While waiting on Rationalism to open, you might even spend a few in either Patronism or Aesthetics.

2) Your populations are low, especially in your capital. I usually like to see double the population of your capital at that point, if not higher. The more population you have, the higher your base science is, which multiplies with universities and research labs. For the most part, you want to focus your cities on growth. While it may seem like their production and science output is lower than focusing on production or science, as many are set to atm, they grow rapidly, and as they get larger, those other two things also grow rapidly, making it easier to fill out your specialist slots and gain more science.

3) You do not have aqueducts made, had you finished out tradition first, you'd get them for free. This speeds up your cities growth a ton. You end up cutting 40% of the time to grow the city every population.

4) You have 5 or 6 trade routes going, and none going between your cities. You can send trade routes to your own cities with growth, to help rapidly grow your cities, and again, gain more science as a result.

5) You have just 3 cities. Even as tradition, that is probably fewer than you should have at this point. 4-5 would be better, especially with all that happiness you are sitting on.

You may still be very capable of winning the game on Prince, but if you try grow your cities more, and add at least 1 more, it will go much faster.

Uzael36 said:

@hangman: I have to question that first sentence above. Science most certainly does scale with population and culture most certainly doesn't. Look at the library and public schools. Both give 1 base science per 2 population, which means +1 science per population with both. Then you add the multipliers for universities, observatories and labs. Without a good population, they go to waste. Though with more cities, you gain more specialist slots and there is some small bonuses on a couple buildings. Also, it only takes libraries for the NC, not universities.

Click to expand...

Right, I meant it doesn't scale according to cities, but I forgot they had patched that, so it's no longer true anyway. In any case, I still find that wider empires tend to generate more science in general.