Backfilling(experienced players answer plz)

OK so lately ive been playing and I will be winning the tech race at the beginning. I will get mansonry, then irrigation first, maybe even code of laws and currency(which i like to tech to get the free market).

And I will notice that my opponent (h2h) is way behind. I have seen them be at 2 techs, when Im at 8 or 9, then all of the sudden the next turn, they will have 11 or 12 techs. How is this possible? I understand backfilling, but I dont understand how they could be getting all these techs? I have seen it happen to me against multiple civs, so its not civ specific. I want to know what they are doing so I can do it.

I have done something similiar with the chines on a couple of occasions. I would build settlers(one grassland two forests) with every new city, including the first city, waiting until all but one of the first tier techs are teched, then tech the one that hasnt been teched, and I would backfill all the first tier techs, and with writing would then get literacy, and be on my way to code of laws.

I have to assume its something similiar to this, but I dont understand how they are doing so late in the game. Can someone explain to me how they are doing it and give an example so I can try it myself?

If you are playing H2H with one human opponent and three Ai opponents, the human may be buying tech from the AIs. Or they may have completed the Great Library, though for the life of me I cannot say why.

There's a really good article that explains everything here:

http://forums.2kgames.com/forums/showthread.php?18743-Technology-Tree-An-In-Depth-Look

In terms of the specific case, what some players do, especially in H2H games, is tech up to CoL, switch to gold and pump out as many cities as possible, then switch to science and get Literacy and Democracy, basically going from 0 beakers per turn to over 100. 100 beakers per turn will backfill the first three tiers and Currency so if anyone else has those techs, you'll get them. Then obviously additional techs will go down at a rate of one every two turns or so.

The most efficient tech path is to tech Code of Laws and go Republic until you can do 70 trade per turn. Get Democracy and switch and now you earn 105 beakers per turn which is how many you need to use a Great Scientist on Industrialization with only the Banking pre-requisite. Then you tech University and build Oxford University, which gives you Advanced Flight. Now you blow up your opponent's archers and horsemen with bombers. Works like a charm.

When I play against a good opponent, I find it can actually be damaging to spend too much time teching the lower techs. They can be nice, but getting to Industrialization and bombers is just so crucial.

elthrasher said:

There's a really good article that explains everything here:

http://forums.2kgames.com/forums/showthread.php?18743-Technology-Tree-An-In-Depth-Look

In terms of the specific case, what some players do, especially in H2H games, is tech up to CoL, switch to gold and pump out as many cities as possible, then switch to science and get Literacy and Democracy, basically going from 0 beakers per turn to over 100. 100 beakers per turn will backfill the first three tiers and Currency so if anyone else has those techs, you'll get them. Then obviously additional techs will go down at a rate of one every two turns or so.

The most efficient tech path is to tech Code of Laws and go Republic until you can do 70 trade per turn. Get Democracy and switch and now you earn 105 beakers per turn which is how many you need to use a Great Scientist on Industrialization with only the Banking pre-requisite. Then you tech University and build Oxford University, which gives you Advanced Flight. Now you blow up your opponent's archers and horsemen with bombers. Works like a charm.

When I play against a good opponent, I find it can actually be damaging to spend too much time teching the lower techs. They can be nice, but getting to Industrialization and bombers is just so crucial.

Click to expand...

I can understand how to do this later in the game, but how is it, that they go from 1 or 2 techs, when Im at CoL to 12 techs the next turn?

ImmortaI Reborn said:

I can understand how to do this later in the game, but how is it, that they go from 1 or 2 techs, when Im at CoL to 12 techs the next turn?

Click to expand...

Are you seeing that a lot? It's possible to expand a lot in ancient and then backfill up the first few tiers, but I don't think that's a very good strategy. Still, there are several civs that can do this with some effectiveness. Rome starts with Code of Laws. China makes 3 pop cities. Spain has whales. Any civ could do it in theory, but I'd consider it pretty inefficient. I think it's probably more common for someone to shoot from 5-6 techs to 12+.

Great Library is a great Wonder to have, you can also trade or buy techs from AI Civ's. I have done that to my friends to catch them in H2H games before. Also by taking cities you sometimes gain techs. I try to capture cities from different people to have a better chance.

GooseTheHutt said:

Great Library is a great Wonder to have, you can also trade or buy techs from AI Civ's. I have done that to my friends to catch them in H2H games before. Also by taking cities you sometimes gain techs. I try to capture cities from different people to have a better chance.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately the Great Library doesn't work very well. It only gives you techs that are earned by two other civs after you build it. For example, if everybody but you has Democracy and you build the Great Library, you won't get Democracy. I tried it once to catch up. It doesn't help you catch up. It only helps if you are somehow even in tech with two other civs and want to stop teching for a while. That's not the kind of help that is worth 150 hammers.