The Research Agreement "slingshots" thread

Bibor

Bibor

Doomsday Machine
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Guys, please post your RA slingshot strategies so we can group them up into a single, sorted thread.

Obviously, tech pats or stalling techs depend on your wishes and needs.

Legend:
Spoiler :

Rationale: the why
Additional techs acquired - techs granted by RAs unlock other techs instantaneously, before the second RA (even if it was on the signed same turn) is applied. If all other techs in the tech tree are ineglible (i.e. at least one turn of research was put into them), the second RA will treat the first RA tech as the only one eglible.

Target era - era you'll end up in when the slingshot completes (for example, Renaissance).

Requres techs - prerequisite technologies for the technology you're aiming to discover.

Required RAs - the number of Research Agreements you need to sign, simulatenous means they need to be signed on the same turn

Requires locked techs - Research Agreements grant only technologies that have 0 :c5science: put into them (i.e. they were never researched before). To prevent getting unwanted technologies, you need to research them for at least 1 full turn. Sometimes beaker overflow (leftover research from previous technology) can fool you into thinking you already invested into the new technology. You didn't. And you still need to invest at least 1 turn into researching that tech to lock it out.

Suggested teching path - Research Agreements take 30 turns to complete. If you signed three on turn 60, they will "mature" on turn 90. During that period you need to research techs other than the ones you want to granted by RAs. No matter what you resarch during that period, 1 turn before RAs mature all other techs need to be locked out (see above). You can research whatever you want, but my suggestions try to focus on technologies that have only one successor, thus eliminating the need for locking out additional technologies (while still enabling you to get some techs).
For example, Bronze Working has only one successor, Iron Working. Researching Bronze working will take around 11 turns, Iron Working around 22 (total of 33 turns). By the time your RAs mature, you'll have Iron working almost researched (3 turns to go), thus you can't get it from the RA. Technologies that open up more than one tech (for example mining opens both masonry and bronze working) you need to lock out one and proceed teching the other.


Civil Service Slingshot

Rationale: Faster population growth, new unit, new era
Additional techs acquired: -
Target era: Medieval
Requres techs: Pottery, Animal Husbandry, Writing, Trapping, Philosophy
Required RAs: 1
Requires locked techs: Sailing, Archery, Mining
Suggested teching path: The Wheel, Archery, 1 turn into Horseback Riding; stalling with Mathematics.


Theology Slingshot

Rationale: Gets you to a new era, prerequisite for Education
Additional techs acquired: -
Target era: Medieval
Requres techs: Pottery, Calendar, Writing, Philosophy
Required RAs: 1
Requires locked techs: Sailing, The Wheel
Suggested teching path: Archery, Animal Husbandry; stalling with some turns into Trapping, The Wheel and Mining


Chivalry Slingshot

Rationale: Songhai, Mongolia, Siam, Arabia, Spain benefit greatly from UU, knights, new era, plus all the Civil Sevice and Currency benefits
Additional techs acquired: Civil Service, Currency
Target era: Medieval
Requres techs: Pottery, Animal Husbandry, Archery, Mining, Calendar, Writing, Trapping, The Wheel, Philosophy, Horseback Riding, Mathematics.
Required RAs: 3 simultaneous
Requires locked techs: Sailing, Theology
Suggested teching path: Mining, Bronze Working, Masonry; stalling with some points into both Iron Working and Construction


Education Slingshot

Rationale: Opens up Universities, opens up a direct slingshot to Acoustics, all the benefits from Civil Service and Theology
Additional techs acquired: Civil Service, Theology
Target era: Medieval
Requres techs: Pottery, Animal Husbandry, Calendar, Writing, Trapping, Philosophy.
Required RAs: 3 simultaneous
Requires locked techs: Sailing, The Wheel, Archery
Suggested teching path: Mining, 1 turn into Masonry, Bronze Working; stalling with Iron Working.

Astronomy Slingshot
(by biohazard72)

Rationale: Enables intecontinental trade, opens up a direct slingshot to Navigation, enables Observatories
Additional techs acquired: Civil Service, Education
Target era: Renaissance
Requres techs: Compass, Theology, Philosophy
Required RAs: 3 simultaneous
Requires locked techs: Horseback Riding OR Currency
Suggested teching path: Can't really tell your tech pace at this point (early writing and such), but either the masonry line or the metal working line.

Globalization Slingshot

Rationale: Opens up the UN diplomatic victory wonder
Additional techs acquired: Refrigeration, Plastics, Penicilin, Ecology
Target era: Modern
Requres techs: Electricity
Required RAs: 5
Requires locked techs: Radio, Telegraph, Dynamite, Replacable Parts, Railroad
Suggested teching path: Open up any of the locked techs, but make sure to lock out new branches.

EDIT: Corrected topic Typo
EDIT2: Added legend
 
The only true slingshot I do is Civil Service - Education - Astronomy (also grabbing Compass by RA if I'm on a 5 civ continent). That requires an earlyish RA (turn 35?), followed by a later RA (giving you enough time to tech Theology), followed by a later RA (allowing you enough time to tech Compass). I did this first by accident, lol, and I believe Martin Alvito came upon this beeline as well, and I thank him and alpaca for posting a slightly more refined way of doing it as well as their benchmarks.

From there I sign every possible RA at the earliest moment, which means I can't really time the rest of them to accomplish a specific slingshot (but I do time them to grab a specific tech I want).

That said, I do try to force them up to Rocketry ASAP if I'm going for the Spaceship (requires blocking Telegraph, Mass Media, Combustion, Refrigeration).
 
"Blocking" is putting one turn of research into the tech to prevent it from being selected by the RA?
 
Nares said:
"Blocking" is putting one turn of research into the tech to prevent it from being selected by the RA?
Click to expand...
That's right.
 
biohazard72 said:
The only true slingshot I do is Civil Service - Education - Astronomy (also grabbing Compass by RA if I'm on a 5 civ continent). That requires an earlyish RA (turn 35?), followed by a later RA (giving you enough time to tech Theology), followed by a later RA (allowing you enough time to tech Compass). I did this first by accident, but I believe Martin Alvito came upon this beeline as well, and I thank him and alpaca for posting a slightly more refined way of doing it as well as their benchmarks.
<snip>
That said, I do try to force them up to Rocketry ASAP if I'm going for the Spaceship (requires blocking Telegraph, Mass Media, Combustion, Refrigeration).
Click to expand...

You could do a triple Theology-Civil Service-Education slingshot first, immediately followed by double Compass-Astronomy or Single Astronomy slingshot. Not unrealistic considering Classical RAs are pretty cheap. You'd simply need to lock HBR and stick to the bottom of the Tech Tree (locking out The HBR and Mathematics?). The Rocketry one is good.

I'll post your slingshots tomorrow.
 
Bibor said:
You could do a triple Theology-Civil Service-Education slingshot first, immediately followed by double Compass-Astronomy or Single Astronomy slingshot. Not unrealistic considering Classical RAs are pretty cheap. You'd simply need to lock HBR and stick to the bottom of the Tech Tree (locking out The HBR and Mathematics?). The Rocketry one is good.

I'll post your slingshots tomorrow.
Click to expand...

Not a bad idea. You could grab Theo and Civil Service by signing RAs around turn 35, and use their re-ups (along with the other 1 signing on a standard 4 civ continent) to grab Education, Compass, and Astronomy, around turn 95. The only thing that makes me wonder about the feasibility of that is the cash constraint.

To be honest, I'm really not sure what's ideal here. If cash isn't a problem, what I detailed above might leave you with the best overall tech position, but it's probably not the fastest to the Renaissance (for overseas RAs and to make your 2nd policy a Renaissance one in an NC-first game). Playtesting might reveal an optimum, but I think game conditions will dictate how to get it done.

BTW I used RA abuse to grab Railroad, Artillery, and Combustion for Tanks (blocking off Electricity and Flight). It's not a really a slingshot in the classic sense because it doesn't push very much further ahead in the tech tree, but it was by all means a beeline. And a very important on
e for warmongering Mongolia.

BTW don't credit me for the Astronomy slingshot - I may have done it without knowledge of it, but I didn't post it first so it feels wrong to take credit for it.
 
I feel like this is an exploit that will be patched sometime soon...

So I'm going to exploit it mercilessly while I can.
 
By the time your RAs mature, you'll have Iron working almost researched (3 turns to go), thus you can't get it from the RA

This is not true. You won't get the techs you blocked with the one turn of research in each but if you are curently researching a tech when your RA pops you can still get that tech regardless of how much research you put in it. In other words just cause you are researching ironworking when your RA pop doesnt mean they won't give you ironworking as one of the RA free techs. Its happened to me multiple times. Might want to edit original post so people don't get confused.
 
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