I just started playing vox civ again after a years long hiatus and I'm struggling a bit, especially with science. Back in the day I was an Immortal/Deity player and I'm playing Immortal now, standard size/speed, continents++, no ruins/events/tech trading. I've gotten to roughly mid game 4 times now before the games have fallen apart.
First game was with Indonesia going for diplo. Was wide and controlled CSs and the world congress pretty well but managed to tick too many neighbors off at once and carelessly neglected the bottom of the tech tree at a critical moment and got into a hopeless military situation. I think this game was just me being greedy and careless, though, so no major question here and mostly just glad to see the AI being aggressive and more effective than ever.
Next game was Aztec. Authority->Fealty. Hunted barbarians pretty well, got a religion super early. But again, by mid game fell pretty far behind in tech. It seemed like killing a lot of units and taking cities wasn't really enough science to keep up. This seemed to get exacerbated by the fact that you need to reach for important bottom military techs in order to effectively wage war which delays top techs that are important for science.
Next game was with America. Managed to grab 5 of the Ancient wonders (Henge, Pyramids, Petra, Halicarnassus, and HG) so had a nice start. But by mid game one or two of the AI jumps out to a tech lead and manage to start gobbling wonders going forward before I can get there which is a big problem for me going tall into a culture victory. It becomes clear that I can't find a way to catch up in tech in order to get more of the critical wonders and even a military solution is probably not viable anymore without any military policy bonuses and lagging in tech. In this game I was a bit puzzled how Tradition->Artistry->Rationalism and working science specialists like crazy could do much more to keep up. I was trying to tech steal with spies but not sure what else to do.
Current game is Rome (love their new kit! The conquered CS gives ally bonuses is a cool perk). Authority->Fealty->Imperialism. I've vassalized my continent (Shoshone and Persia) and conquered 7/16 CSs (though only 2 of those were earlier in the game where those bonuses are bigger). But on the other continent the Inca are like 15 techs ahead and fielding units with 1 or 2 upgrades over me. I'm building up a navy to take more CSs and eventually invade his continent but if the tech disparity continues it might not matter. Maybe Autocracy bonuses can even things out? Interestingly, France on that continent vassalized Polynesia and America but the Inca turned around and liberated both and then vassalized Napolean. I feel like Napoleon is in the same struggle as me- you can reach for military techs and vassalize a few civs but eventually you fall too far behind in tech to keep it going and you hit a wall.
Am I missing something important in the science game to keep up? Are others having similar struggles?
First game was with Indonesia going for diplo. Was wide and controlled CSs and the world congress pretty well but managed to tick too many neighbors off at once and carelessly neglected the bottom of the tech tree at a critical moment and got into a hopeless military situation. I think this game was just me being greedy and careless, though, so no major question here and mostly just glad to see the AI being aggressive and more effective than ever.
Next game was Aztec. Authority->Fealty. Hunted barbarians pretty well, got a religion super early. But again, by mid game fell pretty far behind in tech. It seemed like killing a lot of units and taking cities wasn't really enough science to keep up. This seemed to get exacerbated by the fact that you need to reach for important bottom military techs in order to effectively wage war which delays top techs that are important for science.
Next game was with America. Managed to grab 5 of the Ancient wonders (Henge, Pyramids, Petra, Halicarnassus, and HG) so had a nice start. But by mid game one or two of the AI jumps out to a tech lead and manage to start gobbling wonders going forward before I can get there which is a big problem for me going tall into a culture victory. It becomes clear that I can't find a way to catch up in tech in order to get more of the critical wonders and even a military solution is probably not viable anymore without any military policy bonuses and lagging in tech. In this game I was a bit puzzled how Tradition->Artistry->Rationalism and working science specialists like crazy could do much more to keep up. I was trying to tech steal with spies but not sure what else to do.
Current game is Rome (love their new kit! The conquered CS gives ally bonuses is a cool perk). Authority->Fealty->Imperialism. I've vassalized my continent (Shoshone and Persia) and conquered 7/16 CSs (though only 2 of those were earlier in the game where those bonuses are bigger). But on the other continent the Inca are like 15 techs ahead and fielding units with 1 or 2 upgrades over me. I'm building up a navy to take more CSs and eventually invade his continent but if the tech disparity continues it might not matter. Maybe Autocracy bonuses can even things out? Interestingly, France on that continent vassalized Polynesia and America but the Inca turned around and liberated both and then vassalized Napolean. I feel like Napoleon is in the same struggle as me- you can reach for military techs and vassalize a few civs but eventually you fall too far behind in tech to keep it going and you hit a wall.
Am I missing something important in the science game to keep up? Are others having similar struggles?