Can't keep up with research on Emperor

[Link Gaetz]

As the title says, I'm having a lot of trouble with technology on Emperor. I don't play much "base" Civ4 (mostly FFH2 in the last decade), but on larger maps I can eventually outgrow all but the most expansive AIs and catch up on their early tech leads. In RFC (base and DoC), I just can't seem to get enough beakers to keep up with anybody. I don't know if part of it is just the AI is maxing out tech trading while shunning me (is tech brokering off by default? can I turn off tech trading entirely somehow?), but either way I can't research fast enough to match newly spawning civs, let alone whichever older civ is expanding most beyond their historical area and leading in score. I've seen suggestions to always bulb with GPs, but I don't see how that would work for any civ with a late game UHV if you're giving up early academies. That's partly a moot point as lately I seem to keep getting engineers whenever I want scientists...

 

[Leoreth]

If you want advice, I think it would be helpful to mention the civilizations in particular you experienced this problem with.

 

[Link Gaetz]

Well... all of them? Base RFC I had trouble with Russia, despite having plenty of room to expand (I imagine it's harder in Dawn with Poland added). I've tried Japan, Ethiopia and England in Dawn. Japan I gave up on quickly because I realized too late that I wasn't going to get 5000 average culture with three cities. Ethiopia I obviously wasn't expecting to dominate, but after nabbing the incense I was stuck spamming shotelai to try to fight off Arabia and had next to nothing left over for research.

England should be easier, but I've had Viking invasions after ~20 turns every start. At first I thought I had to beeline machinery + iron for crossbows, but my last attempt a few war galleys proved to be enough. Still, I always end up falling way behind the tech leader, which is usually whichever one of HRE/France/Spain is strongest. I can occasionally trade techs 1:1 + gold with smaller Catholic civs, but by the time e.g. Italy spawns they start with more techs than me and I have nothing to offer. I got as far 1515 on one start (turn 103, standard speed) and France is at least 5 techs ahead of me (every one I can research and more...) with three cities in Canada already. Sweden is only +2 techs ahead having built a massive army but for some reason only sending one ship at a time to get sunk. For that matter there are only 11 Renaissance techs unresearched.

Things I could do differently: I tried another start with whipping and it got forges built quicker but I had nothing in place for the first Viking landing. Later on I want to switch from Vassalage to Meritocracy but am always short on luxuries to do so before founding any colonies. Getting a fortunate Judaism spread + protestant churches helps, but it's not even enough to keep a three city Southampton + Newcastle start happy.

 

[youtien]

You need spies for emperor difficulty.