When to Oxford?

Wuddel

Warlord
Joined
Sep 7, 2010
Messages
290
Location
Zürich, Switzerland
So in vanilla and G&K I saved oxford for the very end of the game. Since the beakers you get from a late free tech are way bigger than that of an Renaissance tech + whatever you can accumulate from the +3 beakers. But with 2 GWW slots plus a theming bonus which is easy to get and happniness from National Wonders it made me think if I shoud oxford immediately.
 
I guess it depends on your cultural game. If you are focusing heavily on culture, and popping Great Writers left and right, then Oxford earlier is preferable. If not, then there's little use for the two slots, and +1 :c5happy: is not substantial, so having a bigger research bonus is better...
 
Almost always use it to slingshot into Industrial era, usually Industrialism.
Otherwise, other beelines like Radio are useful for Ox. But i almost never leave it late. Is that wrong?
 
You should probably build it as soon as you get a chance.AI now acts very aggressively when it comes to wonders (even those who are not cultural ),if you wait too much you will regret it.Of course it depends from game to game (if you get all nation that tends for cultural/diplomacy victory ) than you can save it for later,but if you get Civ's which are very competitive when it comes to science to try your luck.
 
I guess it depends on your cultural game. If you are focusing heavily on culture, and popping Great Writers left and right, then Oxford earlier is preferable. If not, then there's little use for the two slots, and +1 :c5happy: is not substantial, so having a bigger research bonus is better...

Actually if you do not run at least the great writers continuously you will be in trouble later. So you will already have 2 swapable GWW. So its an easy theming bonus when you do NOT go for a culture victory.

Plastics, Radio and Industrialization are good suggestions though.

(I usually saved it up for satellites or something like that.)
 
I usually bulb Plastic with it.
Plastic is usually a bit longer than most techs you have at that point, so you get a head-start for those labs.
This is what I do too. It works well for any victory condition, but especially well for Science victories. Once my Labs are up, I bulb a bunch of GS to get into the Atomic Era and start building SS components.
You should probably build it as soon as you get a chance.AI now acts very aggressively when it comes to wonders (even those who are not cultural ),if you wait too much you will regret it.Of course it depends from game to game (if you get all nation that tends for cultural/diplomacy victory ) than you can save it for later,but if you get Civ's which are very competitive when it comes to science to try your luck.
I think you might misunderstand the difference between a National Wonder and a World Wonder. You can always build Oxford, the AI cannot beat you to it. Being a National Wonder, one copy of Oxford can be built by every player in the game.
 
You should probably build it as soon as you get a chance.AI now acts very aggressively when it comes to wonders (even those who are not cultural ),if you wait too much you will regret it.Of course it depends from game to game (if you get all nation that tends for cultural/diplomacy victory ) than you can save it for later,but if you get Civ's which are very competitive when it comes to science to try your luck.

Oxford is a national wonder.

I like it for a push into economics or industrialization (depending on when I get it).
 
I wait until after plastics. I first build it in a non-capital city, but stop it 1 turn away from completion. That way, when I need it later in the game I just have to press a button to earn my free tech. This way it also makes it easier to time so that you get the free tech without putting any beakers into it.
 
I find myself using it for biology or electricity frequently. I'm on the way to plastics, but am more impatient than everyone else here. :D
 
I've often used it for early access Scientific Theory (Public Schools).
 
The amount of turns saved by free tech rarely changes significantly from Renaissance to Information. So, I suggest to pick it earlier. Don't forget it also has quite rare Great Writer theme bonus.
 
This is what I do too. It works well for any victory condition, but especially well for Science victories. Once my Labs are up, I bulb a bunch of GS to get into the Atomic Era and start building SS components.
I think you might misunderstand the difference between a National Wonder and a World Wonder. You can always build Oxford, the AI cannot beat you to it. Being a National Wonder, one copy of Oxford can be built by every player in the game.
And you would be right ... man i feel so :blush:
 
Almost always use it to slingshot into Industrial era, usually Industrialism.
Otherwise, other beelines like Radio are useful for Ox. But i almost never leave it late. Is that wrong?

Slingshot into the Industrial is almost always how I use it as well.

The only times I can think of why I would wait is because I'm expanding through conquest and am getting cities faster than I can build it.
 
If I'm playing for a scientific victory, I like to beeline and use the Rationalism finisher plus Oxford University to slingshot into Rocketry and Satellites, then my two hammery cities build Hubble and Apollo while I go back and catch up on all the techs (probably Refrigeration).
 
Sometimes to navigation because I don't always play pangea. :rolleyes:

Otherwise to open Industrial.
 
Top Bottom