Science Runaway

Deity Pangea Standard Standard Egypt. I just moved up to deity a few games ago and I have been trying to stream line my science victory times. My empire is doing pretty well, at turn 200 I am hitting 600 beakers per turn and am constructing research labs and I already have factories up and am about to hit the order policy for 25% boost. However Korea has me worried it seems as though the AI has actually figured science out for once. Korea has gone full tradition, rationalism, and 6 into order so far and have even planted some academies which seems really rare to me. Anyways they completed the Apollo program on turn 190 which normally that alone doesn't say much but they are still way ahead of me in tech. I am in second place on tech but they are 10 techs ahead of me including several military techs like flight and artillery. I have paid some neighbors to fight them but it seems like a stalemate. So long story short should I be worried about losing a space race to them? Do I need to do some military intervention? When does the Deity AI typically launch the space shuttle? Thanks.

chimpanzebra said:

...When does the Deity AI typically launch the space shuttle?...

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earliest I recall was probably ~T240 (needs special circumstances - peace fest so AI can sign countless research agreements ).. Getting them involved into wars cuts on the number of research agreements they can sign and slows them down ..

Looking at the screenshots IMO you should be fine focusing on science (no military intervention needed - unless some neighboring AI decides to invade you - depends on how confident you are on your ability to keep the peace with your neighbours (propose stuff they like on world congress , vote for their proposals, denounce public enemy AIs, etc ..) ) ...

chimpanzebra said:

When does the Deity AI typically launch the space shuttle?

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From my experience typically if you do not win by turn 280-300 then you might be in serious trouble

If you see a science runaway you should try bribing other AIs to go on war against runaway to slow him down. And if that fails then do it yourself On the other hand if I haven't won by T300 then I consider that game lost anyway.

Do you have water access to the ocean on the west? Maybe you should have planted an extra city there instead of letting Iroquois fill that space up. Non of these other civs seems bribable so a military intervention from other civs is unlikely. Find uranium and nuke Korea from the sea seems to be the best way. It would be really hard to catch up a rationalism Korea peacefully on more cities than you. Don't quit even if you are about to lose, I'd be curious to know how long it takes this Korea to win.

I almost always have better luck bribing a runaway to war someone else, instead of the other way around. That does have the undesirable side effect that you're paying money to the leader. But, at least I'm able to do it. And even if the runaway just owns the other guy, he's accruing warmongering. You may even get the chance to surprise attack the leader and liberate the (weak) cities that he took. I'll try and do that while the cities are still in fist-pump.

tetley said:

I almost always have better luck bribing a runaway to war someone else, instead of the other way around. That does have the undesirable side effect that you're paying money to the leader. But, at least I'm able to do it. And even if the runaway just owns the other guy, he's accruing warmongering. You may even get the chance to surprise attack the leader and liberate the (weak) cities that he took. I'll try and do that while the cities are still in fist-pump.

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The line-up is Korea, Russia, England, Siam, Arabia, Poland and Iroquois. Russia and England are one of the hardest to bribe in my experience. Korea is also very hard to bribe. Poland and Iroquois are bribable but you won't be able to make them attack a runaway.

In the game Korea is already at war with England and Poland and has denounced Arabia.

Did you win?

Sorry for the late response but I haven't had time to play much in the last few weeks. Anyways I was about 5 turns away from winning my space victory when Korea launched. Turn 264 launch for the AI which is pretty impressive to me as I can usually win deity games as late as turn 315. I was 2 turns from teching the last piece and had an engineer primed and ready. Sort of dissapointed as this would have been my fastest deity science win without using Babylon, Korea, or Poland. I'm sure some of the more experienced deity players would have pulled this game out in the end but this is only my 8th? deity game and I am still learning. Thanks for all the suggestions though!

Also since moving up to Deity I have managed to finish all of my culture and science games without going to war once except for worker stealing in the early game. It seems way too easy to negotiate war bribes and sit around with zero units. I only had 3 composites for defense until the last 20 turns when I bought a nuke and some mobile sams.

chimpanzebra said:

Also since moving up to Deity I have managed to finish all of my culture and science games without going to war once except for worker stealing in the early game. It seems way too easy to negotiate war bribes and sit around with zero units. I only had 3 composites for defense until the last 20 turns when I bought a nuke and some mobile sams.

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Who have your neighbors been though? Just wait until you have Attila and Shaka co-DOW you out of nowhere and send Impis of doom after you...you'll quickly rethink your not needing a military strategy

I have had Assyria once, shaka twice and monty once. I forward settled and worker hunted Assyria so bad they were stuck with 2 bad cities the whole game. Shaka i kept paying off, I had him involved in at least 3 wars at any given moment. That probably would be harder if I was not playing pangea and there werent so many AI all crammed together. The monty game he went piety and he was super peaceful giving me a DOF until very late game. Piety seems like it neuters AI's into doing nothing with there empire and it turned my favorite sociopath monty into a kitten.

It is nice to see the AI playing a reasonable grand strategy wrt to policies.

Looking at the screen shots your science seems to a bit slow or low while your happiness is high. I would suggest an additional city. For example another coastal city to the west of Thebes where you can send sea trade routes to and from Elephantine. You have the burial tombs which helps with early happiness.

You've been lucky with the warmongers there! Sometimes they will take the gold and then DoW you anyway!