Best Tech up Strategy

[Rustypipe]

Hello All,

I was just wondering what the best Tech up strategy is in Civ 5 so far? I usally like to play the style of expand fast in the begging and then mass Tech, once I get a good tech advantage I crush the rest of the AI with superior units.

I know there is no "one build" however I'm just looking for a basic guide line for example:
Which tech to start off with or bline to? Which social polices to work with? Is it better to have lots of happiness and golden ages or just more city / research points?

Also is the only way to get more research points in Civ5 with more population / buildings ? How does one acquire more beakers

 

[Shillen]

Hello All,

I was just wondering what the best Tech up strategy is in Civ 5 so far? I usally like to play the style of expand fast in the begging and then mass Tech, once I get a good tech advantage I crush the rest of the AI with superior units.

I know there is no "one build" however I'm just looking for a basic guide line for example:
Which tech to start off with or bline to? Which social polices to work with? Is it better to have lots of happiness and golden ages or just more city / research points?

Also is the only way to get more research points in Civ5 with more population / buildings ? How does one acquire more beakers

I'm still trying to figure this out too. I feel the tech victories are very deep in this game and full of strategic choices.

Do I spend my gold allying city-states or doing research agreements?
Is it worth it to gift an AI gold just so he has enough to do a research agreement?
Are you better off expanding through military or settlers?
Is it better to put farms everywhere for max pop and max research or should you focus on gold for allying with city-states and research agreements?

Lots of stuff to think about.

 

[fugazi]

It depends on your situation I guess. Do you start with a ton of happiness resources and lots of food? Get the necessary resources, liberty and expand. Do you get limited happiness and lots of hammers? I'd limit it to a few cities, get a few key wonders and tech up to units which let you take a capital and at least another city pretty easily.

One favorite of mine is to use the great library to grab civil service. On prince it seems to work everytime I attempt it.

The Wheel isn't as important anymore, as you don't need to hook up resources and it takes ages to construct a traderoute - time often better spend getting other improvements up. Archery depends - if you're in a crowded spot, barbarians should disappear soon and spearmen can handle what barbarians do spawn.

 

[taltamir]

1. +research buildings are RIDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE
2. +research buildings require high levels of tech to unlock
3. you get 1 research per every citizen in your empire, including puppet cities.

the key to teching up is to expand, expand, expand... the bigger you are, the faster you research tech... conquer everything, build lots of settlements...
the tradeoff is in tech vs culture... the more cities you have, the more culture costs (puppets don't count / don't count as much, yet still produce culture).

So basically, if you want to tech up you should conquer, conquer, conquer.

The exact order of early tech depends entirely on your situation... if you are sitting next to horses, then developing the tech to use them gives an early boost, if you are sitting in tons of plantation-able stuff... well... get that first. got some off shore resources? get that tech.
As for military vs domestic tech... again, situational.

 

[aryah]

1. +research buildings are RIDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE
2. +research buildings require high levels of tech to unlock
3. you get 1 research per every citizen in your empire, including puppet cities.

this seems pretty much similar to other civ games - granted a citizen had to work a tile to give science, but there were fairly universally spammable improvements to give them a tile which when worked gave science.
the genre is not called 4x for no reason, but this is not in itself sufficient argument against improvement buildings generally.

 

[taltamir]

this seems pretty much similar to other civ games - granted a citizen had to work a tile to give science, but there were fairly universally spammable improvements to give them a tile which when worked gave science.
the genre is not called 4x for no reason, but this is not in itself sufficient argument against improvement buildings generally.

oh, I am not saying NOT to get them... I eventually build a good amount of them... key word is eventually... if I can build a library or a granary, I will choose the granary, it will actually provide me with more science via increase in population
And why build a library when I can build an army and conquer some research producing cities...
Or a settler... or a worker (to build farms, to increase population)

Now, I DO build libraries, etc... eventually. I am just saying you get more out of conquest and colonization than you do out of those...
Also, MOST of the research buildings are multiplicative, and provide compounded bonuses... library gives 1 science per 2 people (base is 1 science per person)... university +50%, public school +50%, research lab +100%, and if you are near mountains observatory +50%.
Those are compounded bonuses... So a city with 10 people and all of those will produce
(10 (population) + 5 (library)) *1.5 (university) * 1.5 (public school) *2 (research lab) *1.5 (observatory) = 101.25 research... you would need 100 citizens without improvements to match this... but by conquering a whole lot you DO get 100 citizens, you also get a bunch of puppet cities that DO build libraries and schools on their own, and they give you extra money to buy those upgrades in your major cities.
Also notice that going from 10 to 20 population in that city will increase my overall research from 100 to 200 for that city...

 

[Teejvan]

Don't build a granary, waste of time. Don't build anything that increases food, the maintenance cost makes it unworthwile.

Instead, make allies with as many Maritime City States as you can find, you can be making as much as +5 food in your capital and +3 in all your cities in later eras per allied Maritime City State!

 

[taltamir]

Don't build a granary, waste of time. Don't build anything that increases food, the maintenance cost makes it unworthwile.

Instead, make allies with as many Maritime City States as you can find, you can be making as much as +5 food in your capital and +3 in all your cities in later eras per allied Maritime City State!

why not do both? Yea it costs money... but the extra people more than make up for it... plus more food = more people = more research... Also more people = more production.

 

[Teejvan]

why not do both? Yea it costs money... but the extra people more than make up for it... plus more food = more people = more research... Also more people = more production.

The reason to not do both is that you are wasting a massive amount of gold for absolutely little benefit. I will put down a Trading Post on anything that isn't a resource tile or a river tile, in which case I'll put down a farm (Civil Service gives +1 to farms on river tiles). The gold that generates from the Trading Posts pays off the City States and coupled with the Patronage Social Policy, you can get 33% of the Science each City State would generate for itself.

Now do you understand where I'm coming from? If you have lots and lots of cities, the cost of the Granaries etc in each one is too much for the incredible small benefit you recieve, where as the Maritime City States effect all your cities for the same 500g bribe!

 

[taltamir]

The reason to not do both is that you are wasting a massive amount of gold for absolutely little benefit. I will put down a Trading Post on anything that isn't a resource tile or a river tile, in which case I'll put down a farm (Civil Service gives +1 to farms on river tiles). The gold that generates from the Trading Posts pays off the City States and coupled with the Patronage Social Policy, you can get 33% of the Science each City State would generate for itself.

Now do you understand where I'm coming from? If you have lots and lots of cities, the cost of the Granaries etc in each one is too much for the incredible small benefit you recieve, where as the Maritime City States effect all your cities for the same 500g bribe!

And again... I understand the sheer awesomeness of the strategy of paying off the maritime CS... I don't see the reason why granaries IN ADDITION are bad? a granary is -1 gold +2 food. thats 2 more citizens per city, generating more of everything you need. you are absolutely right that the CS is better... but I see no downside to having both.

 

[breakdown]

usually i go straight for writing -> civil service and build a river/island city as one of my first on grasslands/plains/floodplains, build farms on everything nearby and get library +2 scientists early game the city is used to build settlers but its production never really gets past like 10 hammers until i get the hydro plant.

i suppose due to unhappiness it's really only worthwhile having one of such high pop science cities such that you can maximize the % based bonuses of tech buildings. i guess having 1 library on a 10 pop city is better than having 2 libraries on 5 pop cities.

of course on one prince game i had a small island all to myself. built 5 such science cities on it, statue of liberty, isolated myself from everyone else and won space race in like 1880 AD.

 

[Vordeo]

Best tech strat I've found so far is play China and spam Paper Makers.

They're available pretty early and make you a profit, plus working them will get you Great Scientists for even more research.

Tech quickly to Chu-ko-nu, crush.

 

[aryah]

.
Also, MOST of the research buildings are multiplicative, and provide compounded bonuses... library gives 1 science per 2 people (base is 1 science per person)... university +50%, public school +50%, research lab +100%, and if you are near mountains observatory +50%.

Oh, very interesting, thx, I presumed they were just additive!

 

[bengarrr]

I usually go AH...look for horses. If I find horses relatively near by, I go mining, then straight to wheel and HBR. Then I build my horseman, and while I'm waiting for them, I pick up honor as my first policy, and then insta Great General or Discipline; maybe Liberty if no other Civs are close by. At the same time teching to writing, so i can get my Great Library; hopefully. By this time im ravaging and pillaging all the other lands unlucky enough to be on my continent with my 4 horseman of the Apocalypse. Then trapping and philosophy, and then use great library for CS. After that its all situational. I usually go for Metal Working so I can get Workshops, but sometimes, calendar or sailing if the map dictates. Chivalry is nice to have cause Knights are beast, but Astronomy is good if your playing on islands or Small Continents.

 

[Rustypipe]

How do you pass the food from the martine CS to your capital ? I had one of these on Friendly and I wasn't getting any extra food it seemed ? My main city which was a production city as it was around mountains only had like 18+ hammers even with a workshop along other add on's. Part of the problem was I couldn't take people off food to work all the mines in the area

How do you get around this ?

 

[slobberinbear]

Population is the easiest way to improve base beakers. Growing your population is easiest via REXing, especially with the Liberty social tree ... cheap settlers and fast growth to size two is nothing to sneeze at.

REXing is more sustainable than conquering, especially before you have Mathematics and can't build courthouses in annexed cities. If you REX carefully you can add happiness resources to offset the unhappiness caused by settling another city.

Writing gives you Libraries and the ability to run specialists. Set up a mini-GP farm or two for this purpose to boost beakers.

 

[Cyberian]

How do you pass the food from the martine CS to your capital ? I had one of these on Friendly and I wasn't getting any extra food it seemed ? My main city which was a production city as it was around mountains only had like 18+ hammers even with a workshop along other add on's. Part of the problem was I couldn't take people off food to work all the mines in the area

How do you get around this ?

look at the main city tile of your capital before and after you ally with a maritime city state...

the food bonus is actually there

In my last game I had 3 maritime city states right next to me and was even placing unemployed specialists for +1 hammer early on for extra production.

Everyone that values gold more than production: Be reminded that 1 hammer is still worth a lot more than 1 gold cause of multiplied costs once the 1000-1500 gold for scouted maritime CS are spent. It is better to build weak units and upgrade them then rush buying advanced units btw...

 

[bhavv]

Don't build a granary, waste of time. Don't build anything that increases food, the maintenance cost makes it unworthwile.

Bad advice. +2 food is worth -1 gold. You can use that food to work a +3 or better gold tile instead of normally having to work a farm, immediately paying back and making a profit over the meager -1 maintenance cost of the library. Or it can help to feed an extra specialist.

The granary is still as important as it ever has been, the only problem is that they have made it too expensive, it should cost the same as a monument IMO.

 

[MkLh]

The reason to not do both is that you are wasting a massive amount of gold for absolutely little benefit. I will put down a Trading Post on anything that isn't a resource tile or a river tile, in which case I'll put down a farm (Civil Service gives +1 to farms on river tiles). The gold that generates from the Trading Posts pays off the City States and coupled with the Patronage Social Policy, you can get 33% of the Science each City State would generate for itself.

Now do you understand where I'm coming from? If you have lots and lots of cities, the cost of the Granaries etc in each one is too much for the incredible small benefit you recieve, where as the Maritime City States effect all your cities for the same 500g bribe!

Granaries may still be more cost effective in early game, where there aren't many cities and when Patronage-policies aren't unlocked. Granaries are better in short term, since you don't need a massive chunk of gold to get them working.

 

[MkLh]

Hello All,

I was just wondering what the best Tech up strategy is in Civ 5 so far? I usally like to play the style of expand fast in the begging and then mass Tech, once I get a good tech advantage I crush the rest of the AI with superior units.

I know there is no "one build" however I'm just looking for a basic guide line for example:
Which tech to start off with or bline to? Which social polices to work with? Is it better to have lots of happiness and golden ages or just more city / research points?

Also is the only way to get more research points in Civ5 with more population / buildings ? How does one acquire more beakers

One thing to notice is that all science multipliers, except research lab, can be acquired early. And like in Civ4, science multipliers are extremely powerful. Bulbing key techs with GSs and building multipliers is probably a key to fast research rates. Writing is obviously the first (libraries, National College and the Great Library which gives a free tech and GS-points). Education is the next very important tech - universities (+50% and a scientist slot), Oxford (free tech) and Porcelain Tower (free GS).

Education can be researched quite early. It can even be taken from the GL, but because this is quite risky, I would rather take Theology from the GL and bulb Education with my first GS. After that there are Astronomy (Observatories, +50%) and Scientific Theory (public school +50%). After some backfilling you can mostly bulb these techs with Oxford, Porcelain and your next GS.