batwood728
Chieftain
I can sometimes overcome being last in technology by brute force, but sometimes not. How can I stay with the others in tech without sacrificing cities and force?
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Why does AI get so far ahead of me in Tech in Monarch level?
- Thread starter batwood728
- Start date
Everkane
Valar Morghulis
At Monarch, if you have a good start building cities and workers, all you need to do is do the following tree tech (with the % you feel you need):
.Alphabet (if isn't already known or there's no neighbour who has) / Writing / Code of Laws / Philosophy
Of course you can hit some techs in huts but if you don't there's no problem at all.
If you did it right, the Philosophy will alow you to get a free tech since the AI doesn't go hardcore for Philosophy, then you pick up Republic as bonus (not exactly for being your Gov, but for bargain purposes. You can play as Republic or Monarchy in the beginning, no problem at all about that. Don't you fixed yourself in a single type of Gov).
Till then you will be a way behind the AI. That's ok, because now you are able to trade every single tech they have for the price of Code of Laws and Philosophy and suddenly you are the tech leader.
Once you are the tech leader at Monarch, build libraries in all your main cities. Don't forget to get out of Despotism as soon as possible. You probably won't lose the status till the end of the game.
Remember, this is just a way in about dozens of ways to do this.
Just try it or - even better - maybe you can find another ways for yourself and post here.
.Alphabet (if isn't already known or there's no neighbour who has) / Writing / Code of Laws / Philosophy
Of course you can hit some techs in huts but if you don't there's no problem at all.
If you did it right, the Philosophy will alow you to get a free tech since the AI doesn't go hardcore for Philosophy, then you pick up Republic as bonus (not exactly for being your Gov, but for bargain purposes. You can play as Republic or Monarchy in the beginning, no problem at all about that. Don't you fixed yourself in a single type of Gov).
Till then you will be a way behind the AI. That's ok, because now you are able to trade every single tech they have for the price of Code of Laws and Philosophy and suddenly you are the tech leader.
Once you are the tech leader at Monarch, build libraries in all your main cities. Don't forget to get out of Despotism as soon as possible. You probably won't lose the status till the end of the game.
Remember, this is just a way in about dozens of ways to do this.
Just try it or - even better - maybe you can find another ways for yourself and post here.
Puppeteer
Emperor
Reduce tech expenses by meeting more civs. If you know two civs with WC it's cheaper for you to buy or research it than if you know one. If the other civ knows 5 other civs an you only know him, at almost no level will you be able to keep up.
Learn to trade with AI civs. There is some technique and some art, but mainly just experience. If you start to properly guess what they are going to research next you might research an alternate tech and trade up skillfully. At Monarch the AI gets a 10% tech cost discount. By learning effective trading you can turn the AI advantage into your advantage and consider them your research consultants.
Keep your non-research expenses low (relatively speaking, and appropriate for the situation). This may include not building too many buildings or expanding quickly enough to keep more free unit support.
Increase your income by ensuring worked tiles have roads, take advantage of rivers, coasts and other commerce bonuses, expanding and growing quickly.
Learn to trade with AI civs. There is some technique and some art, but mainly just experience. If you start to properly guess what they are going to research next you might research an alternate tech and trade up skillfully. At Monarch the AI gets a 10% tech cost discount. By learning effective trading you can turn the AI advantage into your advantage and consider them your research consultants.
Keep your non-research expenses low (relatively speaking, and appropriate for the situation). This may include not building too many buildings or expanding quickly enough to keep more free unit support.
Increase your income by ensuring worked tiles have roads, take advantage of rivers, coasts and other commerce bonuses, expanding and growing quickly.
Tani Coyote
Son of Huehuecoyotl
- Joined
- May 28, 2007
- Messages
- 15,191
Puppeteer's posts addresses the crux of the issue, but I think I'll add some more specifics that have worked for me.
First and foremost, I'd download the CivAssist program. It's enormously useful, helping you determine your excess research (make sure to turn down your slider when you're in the last turns of researching a tech; it saves a bundle and every penny counts at higher difficulties!), while it will also let you check all AI civilizations' trading abilities without manually checking it. If you see one or two Civs has an advance and the others do not, be sure to buy it with accumulated gold; offload it to any wealthy backwards civs. This will often grant you a good profit. If nothing else, offload a tech to whoever has the Great Library; they're going to get the tech for free when you end your turn anyway, so may as well profit from it.
If you want to even the odds, play Mass Regicide. Use your Kings as scout units; it's a tad risky, but their high movement rate is invaluable in the Ancient Age, and will allow you to rapidly cross a continent if you send out one in every direction. You can also use them to pop goody huts; while the chance of barbarians is higher with higher difficulties, the fact you only need one King to survive mitigates this, plus you can stage your exploration of villages in such a manner that will let your King run away (have one movement point). Since barbarians fight with Warriors anyway that are equal to the King in power, you have a good chance provided you're up against only one.
The Regicide Scout strategy is definitely one of the most useful in advanced difficulties, allowing exploration of new city sites, meeting with new civilizations, and possibly allowing you to pop all the goody huts before the AI even knows what hits them. Plus, if you're not against save scumming, you can just reload until the backwards folk in the huts give you tech.
Provided you get an early enough tech lead, you have much more of a shot of maintaining it to the end of the game, as you can regularly buy technologies and sell them off to other parties. You cannot really hope to outdo the AI short of invading them, but you can most certainly keep up with them if you spot the niche each civilization has versus the others.
First and foremost, I'd download the CivAssist program. It's enormously useful, helping you determine your excess research (make sure to turn down your slider when you're in the last turns of researching a tech; it saves a bundle and every penny counts at higher difficulties!), while it will also let you check all AI civilizations' trading abilities without manually checking it. If you see one or two Civs has an advance and the others do not, be sure to buy it with accumulated gold; offload it to any wealthy backwards civs. This will often grant you a good profit. If nothing else, offload a tech to whoever has the Great Library; they're going to get the tech for free when you end your turn anyway, so may as well profit from it.
If you want to even the odds, play Mass Regicide. Use your Kings as scout units; it's a tad risky, but their high movement rate is invaluable in the Ancient Age, and will allow you to rapidly cross a continent if you send out one in every direction. You can also use them to pop goody huts; while the chance of barbarians is higher with higher difficulties, the fact you only need one King to survive mitigates this, plus you can stage your exploration of villages in such a manner that will let your King run away (have one movement point). Since barbarians fight with Warriors anyway that are equal to the King in power, you have a good chance provided you're up against only one.
The Regicide Scout strategy is definitely one of the most useful in advanced difficulties, allowing exploration of new city sites, meeting with new civilizations, and possibly allowing you to pop all the goody huts before the AI even knows what hits them. Plus, if you're not against save scumming, you can just reload until the backwards folk in the huts give you tech.
Provided you get an early enough tech lead, you have much more of a shot of maintaining it to the end of the game, as you can regularly buy technologies and sell them off to other parties. You cannot really hope to outdo the AI short of invading them, but you can most certainly keep up with them if you spot the niche each civilization has versus the others.
If you have difficulties keeping up in research in Monarch you are probably ramping up your level. You are probably trying to research as fast as you can but you are beaten to the techs by the Monarch AI. At the start of the medieval age, you are left behind in tech and with a lack of gold.
Please consider that gold you spend in research cannot be used to buy techs. Therefore, a solution could be to research less. Invest gold into basic techs like Alphabet, The Wheel or Horse Riding, avoid techs the AI always prefers - e.g. Map Making - and then start saving some gold by researching Literature or Monarchy with a 10% spending.
You can use Literature for trade or to build the Great Library which gives you free techs until you get Education. To do so, start a prebuild of some other Wonder or the palace, then switch the build to Great Library once you get Literature. If you aim for Great Library, don't sell Literature unless you actually have the Great Library. BTW, the Great Library is not necessary.
With the gold you save by researching on a minimum budget, buy other techs, preferably those you can sell to a third party to refund your deal. That's called tech brokering.
Using a utility to get all info needed at a glance is a good idea. If CivAssist is a bit of an overkill in this regard, you might want to try MapStat from the CrpSuite.
Please consider that gold you spend in research cannot be used to buy techs. Therefore, a solution could be to research less. Invest gold into basic techs like Alphabet, The Wheel or Horse Riding, avoid techs the AI always prefers - e.g. Map Making - and then start saving some gold by researching Literature or Monarchy with a 10% spending.
You can use Literature for trade or to build the Great Library which gives you free techs until you get Education. To do so, start a prebuild of some other Wonder or the palace, then switch the build to Great Library once you get Literature. If you aim for Great Library, don't sell Literature unless you actually have the Great Library. BTW, the Great Library is not necessary.
With the gold you save by researching on a minimum budget, buy other techs, preferably those you can sell to a third party to refund your deal. That's called tech brokering.
Using a utility to get all info needed at a glance is a good idea. If CivAssist is a bit of an overkill in this regard, you might want to try MapStat from the CrpSuite.
Without seeing a save, it's hard to give a precise answer. However, if the AI is out-researching you at Monarch, I suspect that what you have is basic empire mismanagement, likely in the early game. I've been AWOL from CFC for a while, but here's what I remember from seeing a few dozen other threads like this one:
1) Trading -- others have already hit on this, but I would agree with them that trading is an important skill.
2) Roads -- Every road adds +1 gpt to a tile. More gold = more beakers. No worker should ever leave a tile without building a road, if possible.
3) Government -- Republic adds +1 gpt to every tile already producing at least 1 gold. That means that adding a road and switching to Republic adds a total of +2 gpt to a tile. Expand that theory to a hundred tiles and it adds up quickly.
4) Structures -- Just because you can build a structure doesn't mean that you should. One of the most common mistakes that I recall seeing in new players (and I did this, too) is to build every structure in every city. Just about every building requires upkeep, which costs gpt and is taken away before science is calculated. Do not ask "what does this city need?" A city needs nothing to survive. The question you should ask is, "What does the empire need for this city to have?" Streamline your buildings and you'll see research speed up and your treasury grow fatter.
5) Units in every city -- unless you're in a gov't that uses MPs (like Monarchy), having units in every city doesn't do you any good. If you're in Republic (which really shines for speedy research), keep just enough units for warring and for defense of the homeland. Keep units around the perimeter of the empire, and fast units for warring. Those Reg Spears sitting in the capital aren't making any one happy, and they're not defending anything. Either scrap them or send them to the front lines, because every unit over the support limit is costing you money and beakers.
1) Trading -- others have already hit on this, but I would agree with them that trading is an important skill.
2) Roads -- Every road adds +1 gpt to a tile. More gold = more beakers. No worker should ever leave a tile without building a road, if possible.
3) Government -- Republic adds +1 gpt to every tile already producing at least 1 gold. That means that adding a road and switching to Republic adds a total of +2 gpt to a tile. Expand that theory to a hundred tiles and it adds up quickly.
4) Structures -- Just because you can build a structure doesn't mean that you should. One of the most common mistakes that I recall seeing in new players (and I did this, too) is to build every structure in every city. Just about every building requires upkeep, which costs gpt and is taken away before science is calculated. Do not ask "what does this city need?" A city needs nothing to survive. The question you should ask is, "What does the empire need for this city to have?" Streamline your buildings and you'll see research speed up and your treasury grow fatter.
5) Units in every city -- unless you're in a gov't that uses MPs (like Monarchy), having units in every city doesn't do you any good. If you're in Republic (which really shines for speedy research), keep just enough units for warring and for defense of the homeland. Keep units around the perimeter of the empire, and fast units for warring. Those Reg Spears sitting in the capital aren't making any one happy, and they're not defending anything. Either scrap them or send them to the front lines, because every unit over the support limit is costing you money and beakers.
'tis better to build settlers from a 6 pop town than from a 3 pop town.
That was a big one for me. I always had 3 population, made settler and then started again with 1 population and made the settler when I got to 3 population.
After hitting my head on the marble table I realized what an idiot I am. I should have the city at 4 (or 5) and the moment it turns to 6 (or seven) it should build the settler. It really doesn't matter where as long as you time it nicely so not too much goes to waste.
The idea is better explained here: (but I don't really get it either)
http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3/strategy/settler_factory.php
That was a big one for me. I always had 3 population, made settler and then started again with 1 population and made the settler when I got to 3 population.
After hitting my head on the marble table I realized what an idiot I am. I should have the city at 4 (or 5) and the moment it turns to 6 (or seven) it should build the settler. It really doesn't matter where as long as you time it nicely so not too much goes to waste.
The idea is better explained here: (but I don't really get it either)
http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3/strategy/settler_factory.php
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