Beelining to Specific Technologies: why and how?

[ditchhook]

Quite often in different instructional posts, there are references to the importance to 'beelining' to specific technologies. Often these technologies are abbreviated to a couple letters, making the message even more obscure and implying it is something everyone understands.

The latest one I've read implied one, of course, would naturally 'beeline to Liberalism slingshot'.

Please, could someone write one of those encyclopedic essays advising us relative newbies on tricks to work their way up the tech tree?

Of course I can civilpedia which techs give some special award for being first, but which of those are important to exploit, and why?

 

[motivez]

It really depends on what your trying to do. There is no universal combination of techs, it all depends on the terrain around you, the civilizations around you and how you want to get along with them, and what your traits are.

For example, if your economy is struggling, or you know you're going to need to expand so you'll need certain techs to ease your economy, you would go a certain direction with research.. if you're planning on conquering another civ and you will need a certain unit to do it (seige units, for example) then you'd beeline for that tech. I find it all very situational, which makes this game great

By the way, somebody better might completely tell me I'm wrong, but this is my .02. I'm only inbetween Prince and Monarch level (prince is too easy, monarch I'm just starting up but its probably going to be a . .. .. .. .. . haha).

 

[MrWhereItsAt]

As a primer, since I'm lazy and don't actually beeline myself, there are a few points I've picked up.

Techs that are important to get to are 1. those that are considerably more expensive to research compared to their pre-requisites and surrounding techs; 2. techs that the AI prioritises, therefore are easy to trade for lots of other techs; 3. techs that give some kind of major benefit, especially if you get to them first. Here are some examples of the above...

Philosophy is quite expensive, the AI likes to trade for it and it gives you the option for the Pacifism civic (much much faster Great Person generation rate) as well as a religion if you get it first.

Code of Laws is relatively easy to get to, and is/was popular for players who would use the Oracle to get a free tech. It gives you a religion as well, and makes Courthouses available. This building is really important for keeping down costs of founding new cities if you're expanding, and can give you an edge if you get it before the AI.

Liberalism is a classic one, chiefly because if you are the first to get it, you get a free technology. You can make this something quite expensive, giving you two good techs to trade around. Also, there is a civic choice or two with this that is a big boost to the economy.

Construction is one the AI goes for like a rabid dog, so if you somehow get it first you can trade it around really happily. It gives you the Great Wall, which is invaluable as it prevents barbs from entering your land borders, freeing you up from having to look out for them. Also, any experience you get from battles on your own lands counts double for generating Great Generals. Finally, this tech allows you to build the first siege units - Catapults. Once these come along heavily defended AI cities are much more easily overcome, and they can save you lots of real highly promoted ground troops.

As for how to beeline, you can do that easily enough by identifying a tech you want to beeline to, then by going into the Science Advisor - either just as you've discovered a tech or whenever you like - and clicking on the tech. The tech tree automatically shows you which techs are the pre-requisites and will research them automatically for you until you choose to research something in particular. Great People are pretty good for beelining techs, since they can each 'lightbulb', i.e. instantly discover, certain techs for you. If you know which techs each type of Great Person can research and in which order (there will be a list somewhere here if you search for it), you can make sure that you lightbulb an expensive tech that gets you an advantage.

Hope these intro points help somewhat, and that someone who actually DOES beelining will be along soon.

 

[TigerBotHesh]

It sounds like Mr. WhereItsAt covered everything. When someone says 'beelining,' think about it instead as 'prioritizing.' If I beeline (prioritize) to Rifling, that just means that I'm making Rifling (and any earlier techs that enable Rifling) my No. 1 research priority.

 

[jason77024]

Construction is one the AI goes for like a rabid dog, so if you somehow get it first you can trade it around really happily. It gives you the Great Wall, which is invaluable as it prevents barbs from entering your land borders, freeing you up from having to look out for them. Also, any experience you get from battles on your own lands counts double for generating Great Generals. Finally, this tech allows you to build the first siege units - Catapults. Once these come along heavily defended AI cities are much more easily overcome, and they can save you lots of real highly promoted ground troops.

The Great Wall (and its benefits) require Masonry, not Construction. But AIs do indeed prioritize it for the catapults.

 

[DilithiumDad]

Ther are good reasons NOT to beeline for specific techs.

1. If you research allt he pre-reauisites forst, your research will go faster. It's more efficient in terms of research point spending to get all the pre-reqs first.

2. If your research is unbalanced, you will pay a penalty. Unbalanced means that you skipped over ancient techs and are now researching medieval techs, for example.

 

[MrWhereItsAt]

The Great Wall (and its benefits) require Masonry, not Construction. But AIs do indeed prioritize it for the catapults.

EEP! Whoops - my excuse is I haven't managed to build the damn thing since going up to Noble difficulty.

 

[Joshua368]

One useful tool on the military side is to beeline a valuable military tech and then go to war right after and use your advantage while it lasts. Iron working, construction, machinery/civil service, gunpowder, rifling, physics, assembly line, flight, industrialism, robotics... it gives a huge edge in the beginning of a war, which is very important. I don't like going on an offensive war without a new tech lead... I can, but I prefer not to. The sooner I get it before my opponent, the better.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

You don't need a textbook.

- If you're playing a low difficulty or getting good beakers, just research what you need since the AI won't get there in time to help you with trades.
- At higher difficulties, research something the AIs don't have so you can trade it, which can multiply the "effective" beakers from a tech several times over (trades are very powerful).

The only times you'd "beeline" something other than for trading purposes is to grab the free tech from liberalism, secure a military advantage which you'd then use to attack someone, or as part of a strategy that can benefit strongly from a wonder or tech.

Bulbing strategies are a little more complex and are a bit beyond the scope of the OP question, but checking out GP bulb priorities would be a good reference for beelining something more quickly if you're playing way up in difficulty.

 

[GooglyBoogly]

Ther are good reasons NOT to beeline for specific techs...

...
2. If your research is unbalanced, you will pay a penalty. Unbalanced means that you skipped over ancient techs and are now researching medieval techs, for example.

I am unsure what you mean by penalty. As far as I know, there is no direct penalty for having your tech tree lopsided. I.E there is no penalty for researching gunpowder before civil service or music.

However....
1. Every other civ that you have met that has already researched a tech reduces the cost of that tech (or gives a bonus to research, you can look at it either way)

2. The higher techs are generally more expensive - you could research scientific method or ALL of the ancient techs combined and then some.

 

[jason77024]

One useful tool on the military side is to beeline a valuable military tech and then go to war right after and use your advantage while it lasts. Iron working, construction, machinery/civil service, gunpowder, rifling, physics, assembly line, flight, industrialism, robotics... it gives a huge edge in the beginning of a war, which is very important. I don't like going on an offensive war without a new tech lead... I can, but I prefer not to. The sooner I get it before my opponent, the better.

Just want to add Guilds to this list. At lower and middle levels, knights plus spies can do a lot of quick damage. Barracks + stables means your knights can start with Shock, no other exp. bonuses needed. Plus the AI isn't all that fast about researching Engineering for pikes. Sometimes you'll get really lucky and an AI won't have longbows yet. (Btw, research HBR first for building stables while you research Guilds, then research Engineering for road movement after Guilds (i.e. while you are building your stack of knights).

Same goes for MilTrad and Cavalry.