Most important technology? (Medieval Era)

[Nick723]

After victories for bronzeworking and currency, now it’s time to advance to the medieval era. For some the dark ages, but certainly still many interesting technologies to be found. But which is the most important?

As before, you get up to 3 votes each - and give your reasons

 

[Lennier]

Some of this is map dependent. Optics is good if you're on a watery map--gets you a shot at the circumnavigation bonus and meet the AIs on other land masses. But if you're on a Pangea, you get access to whales and not otherwise interesting.

Philosophy is going to be popular for enabling Pacifism and on the road to Liberalism. Civil Service enables Civil Service and Macemen (with Machinery.) And if you're able to be first to Music, you get the free Artist (for GA or if you're going culture.)

 

[SittinDown]

I voted for Philosophy, Civil Service, and Engineering.

I feel like on most maps, I'm usually deciding "am I going for Cuirs, or am I going for engineering", and that dictates whether I go for philosophy / music, or engineering / machinery / guilds. Civil Service is almost always a high priority.

Optics is very map dependent. When isolated it's a high priorty, and usually coupled with philosophy so I can get to education / liberalism / astronomy.

The others are usually just along for the ride for trading, and back-filling.
Divine Right is pretty pointless, and I almost never research it.

 

[elmurcis]

Civil Service and Optics
Chain farming (to finalize cities food surplus - it MUST be even number!) and mapping every accessable tile (from Caravel viewpoint) on map. Without these things done properly I will drop game without any regret

 

[Quintillus]

I agree with elmurcis on chain-irrigation making Civil Service a top-tier Medieval tech. That can really transform some maps and is almost always at least somewhat useful.

Feudalism is next for me. Yeah, I know, everybody whips, but I like my serfdom for faster workers, and combined with newly being able to chain-irrigate, it can speed up the transformation of the empire into an agricultural wonderland. Vassalage can be nice for the XP, too, it can mean an extra promotion which is quite useful. And while I'd rather not be on the defensive, when I am, Longbows are a game-changer.

Conversely, Feudalism also wins points because when the AI gains it, they become much tougher to conquer. It's about at that point that one could really use...

Engineering, for Trebuchets to take cities more easily. Faster roads are nice, too.

Didn't vote Philosophy as many have, as for me it's more the means to an end (Liberalism) rather than an end in itself. I'm rarely fishing for a religion by the time Taoism arrives, rarely have enough Priests to bother building Angkor Wat, and Pacifism is situational. Certainly there are a fair amount of times I'll research it relatively early, but not for the sake of researching it.

I agree that many of the others are situational in priority, and Divine Right is usually the least important.

 

[Fippy]

Izzy says Divine Right - and if you don't agree her Grand Inquisitor stops by for a visit
Or actually..Theo would also be acceptable.

 

[sampsa]

Picked music, optics, philo. Engineering and CS are good too of course. Anyway music pretty clear number 1 for me, as that first golden age is a massive springboard in many games.

 

[civac]

Guilds and Engineering as the most important warfare techs and Civil Service for the economy. I wonder if picked a bit too warfare-centric in this and the Renaissance poll.

 

[Fippy]

Guilds and Engineering as the most important warfare techs and Civil Service for the economy. I wonder if picked a bit too warfare-centric in this and the Renaissance poll.

Hmmm are knights popular in MP? They are really expensive and cannot move on their own against humans.
I know maces are always well liked (so CS really becomes the most important tech imo).

 

[sampsa]

Why are maces liked btw? They seem like decent base units, nothing more.

 

[civac]

Yes, knights are the apex of medieval warfare. And indeed they cannot move on their own (neither can Cuirassiers in MP btw). I should mention we are playing with 7 strength war elephants. With widely available full power war elephants medieval warfare in general is much less common.

Knights are expensive but also absolutely excellent both as hitters as well as high base strength stack defenders. Their speed does have several advantages. The opponent always has to respect the threat of the knights making a run for something. Usually this remains an option rather than an actuality but the threat has power. If the enemy commits and loses the knights can fan out and take cities much faster than macemen could. (That's more valuable than it seems at first. Cuts down the cost of offensive quite a bit.) Also they can reinforce faster (6 tiles movement per turn at home is a lot) and are more likely to be able to connect to the advancing stack.

Strong as they are as offensive units, they are absolutely incredible as defenders. Especially, against a dogpile of several enemies which are unable to combine their stacks.

 

[civac]

Why are maces liked btw? They seem like decent base units, nothing more.

They aren't really. If you can rush them they can be good but that requires very strong early commerce or some kind of bulb play. Otherwise, they are overshadowed by elephants (assuming not nerfed, available) or by knights.

 

[PPQ_Purple]

They aren't really. If you can rush them they can be good but that requires very strong early commerce or some kind of bulb play. Otherwise, they are overshadowed by elephants (assuming not nerfed, available) or by knights.

I would imagine knights more so than elephants simply because in my experience (and yes, I know I am a sample of one) horses and iron both are much more common than ivory.

 

[Plains-Cow]

Philosophy because of the free tech Lib race!

 

[lindsay40k]

Civil Service, the raw commercial power of bureaucracy with an academy and faster production of a handy wonder or two does as much for the lib race as phil does whilst also bringing farm chains and S8 city raiders

 

[ArchGhost]

Hard to beat Philosophy. Powerful unlocks, easy to acquire, and it's even great trade bait if you don't care about the Lib race because most AIs tend to delay it a lot. Runner up would be Civil Service, mostly for being a gateway tech and irrigation chaining, which depends on a lot on the map and game in impact.

Why are maces liked btw? They seem like decent base units, nothing more.

CR promos on the 8 strength really improve their staying power beyond Axes/Swords/Elephants and they out do Knights on anything that's not a longbow when attacking cities.. Awkward to tech and add them though (IMO because of Machinery, which you can avoid a long time if not needing Optics or using Knights), which is why elephants are more attractive due to their earliness as 8 power unit..

 

[sampsa]

CR promos on the 8 strength really improve their staying power beyond Axes/Swords/Elephants and they out do Knights on anything that's not a longbow when attacking cities.. Awkward to tech and add them though (IMO because of Machinery, which you can avoid a long time if not needing Optics or using Knights), which is why elephants are more attractive due to their earliness as 8 power unit..

Sure, I understand how it's kind of an upgrade from an elephant when attacking cities, however... It's a time where catapults can do most of the hard work anyway, so having a slightly better unit attacking cities seems very underwhelming.

 

[Fippy]

My maces comment was just for multiplayer, i like reading some game stories now and then.
And the pics often include them..axes & some spears are essential early in MP, and they can at least be upgraded to maces.

I understand that knights are better base units, but they need horsies & iron & feuda & guilds extra.
Having all of that (in time) isn't guaranteed at all when playing games with / against many others.

 

[6K Man]

Civil Service - Bureaucracy capital + Maces. Chain irrigation is nice, but I seldom do much of it in the Medieval period.

Music is nice for that free Artiste.

 

[Tecumseh1]

I like CS, Phil, and Music. CS is almost always important. Phil and Music because I love culture victories. But I think Eng and Guilds is prob better longer term as you need to war in the Renaissanceera to win at higher levels.