Interesting stuff wodan.
I am definitely of the 'stuck tech path'. Usually, and I'm not certain we should be spamming aelf's thread but there is some relevancy with the 'power' of janissaries here, I go for:
Metal Casting slingshot via the oracle
Alphabet and go trade happy backwards with MC to anyone and everyone
Code, CS, Math, construction, engineering, then work toward Liberalism for Astronomy as I usually play continents. After that, things go different routes but playing on monarch, the game is won and always won.
Since the AI usually follows certain tech paths consistently (financial civs follow a space race path, aggresive follow a military path), based on my opponents I usually follow a tech path that yields me the best trade value. Since I know what they'll have, I have a pretty good idea of what I should go get, all the while forming a plan based on what techs I acquire.
However, as I've stated, this pattern or style yields a 100% victory chance on monarch. Each game presents a little variety but for the most part the pattern is similar. I haven't yet made the jump to emperor, though I should.
Anyway, these most recent posts have been an eye opener. Even before settling into my ways, I found that most new things attempted worked well. It's simply a means of identifying the progression of making a single aspect of the game very strong with a few side benefits along the way. I too am a liberalism junkie and miss out on things like a gunpowder beeline not to mention hordes of other things not yet discovered. Have you read the new 'bigger is better' challenge thread here. what some of those players accomplished is quite impressive and seems the games are quite winnable even though they were perfecting an oddball objective.
Appreciate the comments wodan. I feel enlightened.
Apologies aelf if your thread feels hijacked. Still, I find this oddly related in the fact that while a particular UU may seem underpowered, there is a particular angle where they can excel.