CS Slingshot?

[berserks01]

Hey y'all,

Can someone fill me in on what this CS slingshot everyone's talking about? I've been gone from this forum for a couple of weeks and you've already found some slingshots and no one's sharing?

Thanks.

 

[DaveMcW]

It's not exactly a new strategy.

1. Research Code of Laws
2. Build the Oracle
3. Choose Civil Service
4. Switch to Bureaucracy

 

[Pantastic]

For the full slingshot effect, you also want to get a great scientist so you can super-charge your capital with Beurocracy + academy + library for +125% science.

 

[nealhunt]

You can also use a Great Prophet to provide research for Civil Service if you keep your tech tree lined up right (i.e. don't open up too many religion paths).

If you are really lucky and time it just right, you can even do:

Research Code of Laws.
Use Prophet to hit CS.
Use Oracle to hit Nationalism in BC era.

 

[berserks01]

What does this civic useful for really?

I've never used Bureaucracy civic before to really know the benefits.

Thanks for the infos, btw.

 

[QuixotesGhost]

Basically, you get some nice research capability going in your capital, that's why someone mentioned the Great Scientist for the academy. Then with Bureaucracy you really start flying techwise.

 

[scienide09]

Bureaucracy is a must for any OCC games. You've already got a super-city as it is, and that extra kick makes it that much better.

 

[Gherald]

For the full slingshot effect, you also want to get a great scientist so you can super-charge your capital with Beurocracy + academy + library for +125% science.

Actually it's +265% science from commerce, because bureaucracy modifies your base commerce before any science/gold multipliers are applied. It is +75% from other sources, namely specialists.

 

[Sisiutil]

Bureaucracy gives you +50% production and commerce in your capitol. That city is probably your most developed city at that point, and is probably your science city, and you may be building Wonders there. So getting the bureaucracy boost to hammers and coins can really accelerate you into the lead.

You also get the ability to chain farms early, which can be handy, and you're only one tech away from Macemen.

 

[n0xie]

Also the way the random map generator works, your capital is most likely to have 'better' tiles than your other cities. All this contributes to the 'bureaucracy' effect.

 

[Cam_H]

I can't claim this approach, but to add to nealhunt's post;

Stonehenge is an alternative (or additive) to The Oracle, in that if you avoid Masonry and research Priesthood, Meditation and Polytheism, your first Great prophet can be burned on Code of Laws, and the next on Civil Service. Better yet, if you found a religion or two, you can build Temples and allocate a Specialist Priest to add to your Great People Points to hurry the process along.

 

[VirtualM]

I have written something about it in the past. Here is an extract:

CS Slingshot:
Step 1: research Bronze working (for Chop Rush)
Step 2: research Pottery (you can get Pottery through 'Weel'+'Fishing' OR 'Weel'+'Agriculture'. By default the computer choses Fishing, which is a stupid if your first city is not near water. Chose wisely!)
Step 3: research Writing
Step 4: build a library in your capital and assign 1 or 2 scientists to it. You need them to grow a Great Scientist. That Great Scientist is used to build an Academy in your capital. (don't forget to remove the scientists afterwards)
Step 5: research Priesthood and start building the oracle.
Step 6: research Code of Laws
Step 7: the difficult part You want to finish the Oracle just after you got Code of Laws AND you want them as soon as possible. You can speed up research by using scientists in you capital (see Step 4); and you can speed up the Oracle by chop rushing. (You can also pre-chop forests: start chopping and cancel on the turn before finishing. You can then use those forests as an immediate boost later on.)

PCS Slingshot
The idea is the same as CS Slingshot, but now you want to use a Great Prophet to invent Civil Service and use the Oracle to get Nationalism immediately afterwards.

Step 0: DO NOT GET MASONRY! If you happen to get it from a gooddie hut, change strategies and go for CS Slingshot.
Step 1: research Bronze working (for Chop Rush)
Step 2: research Mysticism if you need to chop rush Stonehenge.
Step 3: choprush Stonehenge to get the 2 Great People Points for a Great Prophet.
Step 4: research Writing
Step 5: build a library in your capital. You may assign 1 scientist to it BUT know that there will be a chance that you'll get a Great Scientist instead of a Great Prophet. If you do, PCS is not viable anymore (go for CS instead).
Step 6: Start building the Oracle (DO NOT FINISH IT) and/or start pre-chopping (the time frame for finishing the Oracle will be very short (see Step 11))
Step 7: Research Code of Laws
Step 8: Do whatever you like until your Great Prophet is finished.
Step 9: Use your Great Prophet to research Civil Service.
Step 10: Civil Service will not be finished. You will still need one or two turns to finish it. Do it, switch technologies if you need to.
Step 11: Finish the Oracle and get Nationalism for free.


Keep in mind that these slingshots won't help you on the higher levels!

 

[Lord Chambers]

This PCS slingshot is interesting, but what good is Nationalism so early? Also, is it a bug that you can get it with the Oracle even without its preresquites Divine Right or Philosophy?

 

[Daked Derb]

I believe with Nationalism as your civic you can draft troops, for fighting early wars.

 

[DaveMcW]

Also, is it a bug that you can get it with the Oracle even without its preresquites Divine Right or Philosophy?

You need at least one of them to get Nationalism.

If you can afford to do such fancy slingshots, a better tech would be Education for universities (and Oxford in an OCC).

 

[caraldur]

BTW, I made a list of GP discovery preferences. It's been extracted directly from the XML file by a program, so there should be no errors.
Available here or in the attachment View attachment gp-tech-1.61.pdf.

 

[Zombie69]

I didn't think it was possible, but i just did a CS slingshot on Immortal. I was playing Inca (which means easy free stolen workers), had two gem resources in my capital and one gold resource at my second city, founded hinduism, judaism and confucianism, and i'm on my way to founding theology. The fact that there's no civic upkeep anymore on Emperor and above was also crucial.

Sadly, i'm still stuck at two cities, which is not something i expected playing Inca (i had to gift one city to Mansa Musa because i didn't have anything to counter his charriots since i have no bronze and no archery tech). I don't have any seafood or even lake, haven't build a single cottage yet (in fact just discovered pottery after civil service).

Quite a weird game. Seriously, i didn't think such a thing could be done at this level.

 

[DaveMcW]

BTW, I made a list of GP discovery preferences. It's been extracted directly from the XML file by a program, so there should be no errors.
Available here.

That doesn't quite match the list I got here.

I don't think the game sorts by tech cost.

 

[caraldur]

It seemed to do that in my tests (ie: among all the techs with the same flavor value, the cheapest would be discovered). Do you have a test case handy where my list is incorrect?
Maybe they changed some of the flavor values in the latest patch?

EDIT: No, you're right. Not all techs with the same flavor value are sorted by cost. I will look into it.

Ok so all the differences between our prophet lists can be solved if we sort the techs with the same flavor not by cost but by appearance in the XML file.
That's unexpected, but OK

I will verify this for the other lists and update the pdf by tomorrow.

Thanks for your link, I wasn't even aware someone already did this.

 

[caraldur]

It should be fixed now.
And it does match your list, so appearantly 1.61 did not introduce changes here.