Tips for Civilizations with Strong Science Output

[BlessingsBeUponYou]

Blessings be upon you!

I played around 150-200 turns of Babylon yesterday after I randomly rolled them to start. The turns went fine (and I found I actually like Babylon a lot), despite my capital being about 8 tiles from Denmark's capital, but I really struggled with what to do with Babylon's science. It felt like I was racing through the tech tree faster than I could do anything with what I had researched. Between units, buildings, and Wonders, my capital could not keep up with everything available to me. When I finished one unit, I had already teched for a Wonder I wanted. By the time I built the Wonder, two more buildings came up which were important to infrastructure. It felt like a manic circle of unlocking everything and rabidly trying to build it all as fast as possible, and largely failing. I was playing catch-up the entire game to my own science. Obviously the above game is specific to Babylon, but there are a number of Civs with really strong science output.

What is prioritized with such Civs? Do I lean into their science output and get my science as ridiculous as possible as fast as possible and then play catch-up? This is what I did in this particular game, getting Goddess of Wisdom and spamming GS with Tradition. Or am I supposed to invest in other things because the Civ has great science built-in?

 

[andersw]

Tradition have a bit fewer hammers compared to authority/progress.
Its also an issue when you tech very fast, you just have to choose what to focus on.
Building lots of wonders exaggerates this.
With everything into science you maybe struggled a bit with gold?

What difficulty do you play on? this matters a lot when it comes to AI science output.
Korea and Arabia are two very strong science civs, currently also china (ui is very strong).
As tradition you want to be strong on science.
If things were too easy maybe its time to go up a difficulty?

 

[BlessingsBeUponYou]

Tradition have a bit fewer hammers compared to authority/progress.
Its also an issue when you tech very fast, you just have to choose what to focus on.
Building lots of wonders exaggerates this.
With everything into science you maybe struggled a bit with gold?

My main problem didn't stem from gold as much as hammers. I just could not get enough production to keep up. Couple this with a low city count (only 3 by the end) because of how close a militaristic neighbor was and I just soared through techs. I play on Prince mostly, since I'm still learning the game. By the end of this game (~T150-200), I was 5-6 techs ahead at around 28-29 techs.

If things were too easy maybe its time to go up a difficulty?

I wish I could say things were too easy when I play. However, my science just ran away from me and I didn't know what to prioritize as a strong science Civ when more and more options opened up far faster than I'm used to.

 

[andersw]

My main problem didn't stem from gold as much as hammers. I just could not get enough production to keep up. Couple this with a low city count (only 3 by the end) because of how close a militaristic neighbor was and I just soared through techs. I play on Prince mostly, since I'm still learning the game. By the end of this game (~T150-200), I was 5-6 techs ahead at around 28-29 techs.


I wish I could say things were too easy when I play. However, my science just ran away from me and I didn't know what to prioritize as a strong science Civ when more and more options opened up far faster than I'm used to.

On price you dont need to go to any extremes to be on top of science and can choose more hammer (or gold to invest) heavy religious alternatives and prio prouction buildings more.
But Im not used to Tradition so I dont want to lead you too much astray.

 

[CppMaster]

Why is that a problem when you have way more science than production? The goal isn't to build everything anyway. Check how you do with production compared to other civs. If you're behind then you might want to proritize production over science if your science is good enough anyway. Also, invest gold in buildings, so they are cheaper.

 

[Stalker0]

So when you have lots of science, your goal is production. Make sure you work engineers to get some manufactories. If you’re leading in science you may want to switch trade routes to prod ITRs to get even more. You can use hammer religious beliefs as well.

Focus terrain on mining to again get more hammers.

Tech wise, focus on passive benefits. While new buildings aren’t things you can always take advantage of, things like improvement bonuses, new trade routes, era unlocks (that magnify era bonuses), are things you can utilize quickly.

 

[BlessingsBeUponYou]

Also, invest gold in buildings, so they are cheaper.

I think, for Babylon especially, focusing on gold generation would have helped ease my problem quite a bit since they get even more from investing. That sentence alone was eye-opening to what to focus on as Babylon, so thank you! Now I just have to figure out what buildings I should be prioritizing based on what's in front of me.

So when you have lots of science, your goal is production. Make sure you work engineers to get some manufactories. If you’re leading in science you may want to switch trade routes to prod ITRs to get even more. You can use hammer religious beliefs as well.

Focus terrain on mining to again get more hammers.

Tech wise, focus on passive benefits. While new buildings aren’t things you can always take advantage of, things like improvement bonuses, new trade routes, era unlocks (that magnify era bonuses), are things you can utilize quickly.

I've never focused on the passive benefits of techs before, aside from +1 TR, so that's good to remember for the future. My tech choices have been largely based on all the other stuff in the tech, not whether I get +1 hammer from mines, even when I have a ton of mines. The extra yields came as more or less a surprise, if I even noticed them.

I guess that's why I'm a Prince player!

 

[azum4roll]

You also want to prioritize the building that gives your monopoly luxury extra yields.