Best Starting Techs?

[TheMeInTeam]

I used to think AG/Mining but now AG/Wheel. Wheel is more expensive than mining and having it lets you play flood plain pottery openings or set up a chariot rush more rapidly. AG means you have or are within 1 tech of all land food.

Researching mining if you need it soon is easier than grabbing the more expensive wheel technology.

 

[Archon_Wing]

I like Myst/Hunting. That way I can found a religion, then go for Archery to be relatively secure against barbs and warmongers and all I miss is some stupid worker techs, who needs them anyway?

Don't forget you can build stonehenge right away!

Clearly, the world will be impressed with the pile of rocks that is your capital. Who needs to eat?

 

[Clam Spammer]

OK, I can see this "best starting techs without being restricted to the first column" thing is worth its own thread...

Sounds alright, but you'll still have to research some Worker techs for City growth, since you can't draft until, what, 5 or 6 population points? You'll probably also need to connect some Happiness Resources in order to be able to grow that much and still not be bogged-down by Drafting Unhappiness.

6 pop isn't that hard to reach, and even then it doesn't need to all be happy. Plus the barracks gives you +2 under Nationhood to cover most of the draft . And as for Monty picking a fight, even archers can hold him back pre-construction (when used wisely), let alone rifles.

rocketry and fission. who cares if i can upgrade my warriors if i have nukes?

That'll work great when you can't see Uranium (Physics)

 

[ABCDPuppies]

Agree with TMIT and others on supremacy of TW over Mining. You're going to want both early, and given that you can self-research either before your first worker is even out, I'd prefer to have the more expensive one as the freebie.

Having the wheel early also encourages you to road ahead of time to future city cites, which is an important thing to do for quick expansion and early trade commerce. But if I don't start with TW I often find myself neglecting it in favor of researching things like BW or Writing and building all manner of improvements in the capital.

 

[civvver]

Fishing + Mining, because that's what rome starts with!

Seriously though, agriculture and wheel. Wheel just takes too damn long to research at the start. Mining is cheap. Fishing isn't really superior to agriculture even if you start coastal because you're going to want animal husbandry as one of your first 5 techs or so and agriculture leads to it.

 

[Ramesses-Rules]

generally ag/mining is hands down the best. Ag/Wheel though does work quite well for the Egyptians though as it's 1 tech to their awesome UU.

Very true. I have Horses and Cows in my fat-cross in today's game. Life is good!

 

[Kid R]

Sorry I don't buy the wheel > mining, just because it's 1 turn more to get and occasionally you have floodplains making early pottery sweet, and occasionally you have BFC horse (and some livestock which made you research AH) for instachariots.

Don't get me wrong I like TW a lot, it's always solid and occasionally great, but mining is great more often than just occasionally.

Taking a comparison just between those two techs clearly it's possible to get either one in plenty of time for the first worker to do something with it, so we have to look at the second level techs which are made available straight away. Now IMO cottages and granaries are later considerations than whipping, chopping, and copper discovery in most games.

Put another way if I don't have the wheel it's not uncommon to leave it till 3rd or 4th choice. If I don't have mining, I will quite often be going mining first.

 

[Clam Spammer]

Dragging this slightly off-topic now, but I tried Nationalism/Rifling on a small Pangaea (edit: on Monarch level), with predictable results (conquest win in 400BC). I never even lost a battle. So... yeah.

 

[vranasm]

Ag+wheel over ag+mining over anything else ;-) for me.

interesting enough ag+wheel is paired with my favorite leaders (hatty, mehmed, gilga)

 

[ABCDPuppies]

Taking a comparison just between those two techs clearly it's possible to get either one in plenty of time for the first worker to do something with it, so we have to look at the second level techs which are made available straight away. Now IMO cottages and granaries are later considerations than whipping, chopping, and copper discovery in most games.

Well you can also usually go mining+BW in the time it take you to build a worker and improve an AG resource, assuming you've got one. Additionally it's notable that starting with TW+AG open up a quick path to Writing via Pottery. But I agree that both combos have considerable strengths.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

Dragging this slightly off-topic now, but I tried Nationalism/Rifling on a small Pangaea (edit: on Monarch level), with predictable results (conquest win in 400BC). I never even lost a battle. So... yeah.

Hmmm, it is interesting to note that if you have Rifling, you don't even need the knowledge of Gunpowder, since Gunpowder only act as a pre-requisite for Rifling, instead of an enabling-tech for Riflemen (like how Gunpowder is an enabling-tech for Cuirassiers and Cavalry).

It might be fairer to also give the AIs Feudalism and Rifling... Feudalism because they are unlikely to use Nationalism but they will almost certainly use the Feudalism-enabled Serfdom and Vassalage Civics.

Better yet, give the AIs Military Science and Feudalism, so that they will have the potential advantage of +50% bonus versus Riflemen should they not be too stupid to be the ones to attack first.

 

[avw94]

Well you can also usually go mining+BW in the time it take you to build a worker and improve an AG resource, assuming you've got one. Additionally it's notable that starting with TW+AG open up a quick path to Writing via Pottery. But I agree that both combos have considerable strengths.

But, like TMIT said, if you have AG, than you either have a land food resource, or it's in your BFC.

 

[avw94]

I do like having early pottery with the wheel/ag for graineries, and generally if you start w/mining, there's either gold or silver nearby, but that's no always the case.

 

[awesome]

rocketry and fission. who cares if i can upgrade my warriors if i have nukes?

That'll work great when you can't see Uranium (Physics)

fuuuuuu

 

[MarigoldRan]

If I couldn't get the military techs, I'd take currency and corporation. Then... war!!! Without having to worry about Strike.