Dead-end techs

[Judge_Deadd]

What do you think about "dead-end" techs (that don't give you any more technologies?
I think that:

Chivalry: Knights aren't THAT bad, really...
Conscription: While you wait for Mech Inf, Riflemen will defend your cities very well.
Fusion Power: Mmm... If you're psychotic about your Nuclear Plants, get it.
Genetic Engineering: Forget it. Cure for Cancer is just modern Hanging Gardens.
Labor Union: Go for it. Mech. Inf. is the best defense unit. (But I don't know what labor union has to do with mechanized infantry)
Pottery: Well, Granaries can be useful. And maybe Gardens too.
Recycling: If you have problems with pollution - take this. If you don't (like me), stay away from it.
Robotics: Go for it. It gives you Artillery and Mfg Plant. And for Space Ship-ers it gives SS Module.

 

[Frostyboy]

Well Judge Dead, I hope this answer isn't too stupid

I never play Industrial ages since I beat the AI within the Medieval times (and if not, it's too late anyway)
Lots of them you forgot:

Chivalry: If playing a civ with a knight based UU. The Crusades are also GREAT!

Literacy: If playing a SCI civ or on huge maps w/high difficulty (Great Lib)

Military Tradition: YES YES YES!!!! Cavalry

Monarchy and Republic: Of course worth it if you go gor this goverment

Pottery: Its the #1 tech to research. Must have a granary on my first city.

 

[The Last Conformist]

Frostyboy: Are you under the impression this is about CivIII? CivI doesn't have UUs, for starters.

 

[addiv]

Originally posted by Judge_Deadd
What do you think about "dead-end" techs (that don't give you any more technologies?

Good thread idea!

I think that:

Chivalry: Knights aren't THAT bad, really...

No but the cost of researching it outweighs the benefits IMO. I never go on the Horseback Riding - Feudalism track until I have all the other techs, but usually I get them before that from other Civs.

Conscription: While you wait for Mech Inf, Riflemen will defend your cities very well.

Riflemen are great, I go for conscription as one of the earliest modern technologies.

Fusion Power: Mmm... If you're psychotic about your Nuclear Plants, get it.

Indeed. Usually one of the last techs I discover.

Genetic Engineering: Forget it. Cure for Cancer is just modern Hanging Gardens.

Well, I consider Hanging Gardens to be pretty useful, and so is cure for cancer. I don't want to have to worry about my population being unhappy all the time.

Labor Union: Go for it. Mech. Inf. is the best defense unit. (But I don't know what labor union has to do with mechanized infantry)

Labor Union is good, but usually I don't make very much use of it, because by that time I'm already in full offense mode, and don't need to build many defensive units.

Pottery: Well, Granaries can be useful. And maybe Gardens too.

I don't give it a very high priority. I usually make sure I get it from an AI civ or a hut though.

Recycling: If you have problems with pollution - take this. If you don't (like me), stay away from it.

Yeah, I have problems with pollution (I like to build many factories and build them early, to get a feeling of Industrial Revolution going on), but I don't care very much about pollution. If it really gets worrying, I'll make sure to get Recycling though, and begin a massive 5 year plan to provide all my cities with Recycling centers.

Robotics: Go for it. It gives you Artillery and Mfg Plant. And for Space Ship-ers it gives SS Module.

Robotics is good, though the benefit of Artilleries over Armors is not as great in Civ 1 as in Civ 2 (Artilleries being Howitzers there). Still, it's one of my priority advances.

 

[Judge_Deadd]

Whoops, I meant that knights are a pile of crap.

 

[addiv]

But they're cool to look at!

 

[covok48]

Which always made me wonder about this loophole...

You can have chariots before horseback riding? What do they ride on? Llamas?

 

[addiv]

No, they already have horses, they just don't know how to ride on them yet.

 

[muxec]

Chivalry: Never research
Conscription: Good defence, very usefull.
Fusion Power:Rarely.
Genetic Engineering: Rarely.
Labor Union: Yes
Pottery: Always research.
Recycling: Very usefull.
Robotics: Good production facilities. And SS components

 

[Valen]

Chivalry: Last stop before Future Tech - long after automobile, so knights never appear on my "stuff to build" menu.

Conscription: If I have enough of a lead, I delay gunpowder until I have The Republic and Chemistry so I can skip rapidly to riflemen after the 1st generation barracks go away. Best defence for the $$.

Fusion power: Natural end of the line, but I do get it before recycling and chivalry.

Genetic Engineering: I try to get it as soon as possible after industrialization.
The Cure makes it possible to celebrate President's Day at a time when it would otherwise be impossible. Having a lot of cities causes born-content citizens to disappear entirely.

Labor Union: I usually go for robotics first because I want that wall-breaching artillery.

Pottery: Either start with it or trade with AI for it.

Recycling: By the time pollution becomes a real problem, all the recycling in the world won't help. See "Pollution Bug" thread.

Robotics: Best thing since automobile. Maybe even best thing since industrialization.
Manufacturing + artillery + SS Module.

 

[Chieftess]

I always built Knights in Civ1... Then again, I usually never knew what I was doing then... :/

 

[The Last Conformist]

There didn't seem to be any much reason to build them over Chariots, I thought.

 

[Zwelgje]

Their defense is 2 instead of 1.
Especially when fortified on mountains that makes a huge difference.

 

[carniflex]

Is religion not a dead-end tech ?

pottery: dont look for pottery. look for the wheel, and capture Dehli when it is building a granary

chivalry: dont discover horseback, monarchy and feudalism just for chivalry. Buy some more chariots with that gold.

religion: if someone else built the oracle, discover it as soon as possible. If you built the oracle, dont discover religion before having made many caravans in order to build JSBach in one turn to "stand for the oracle" the turn after you discovered religion.

conscription: only if you have ennemis attacking you at this moment of the game.

recycling: if you want more than 40 shields production in size-20 city, mass transit and Hoover will not be sufficient to avoid pollution, you will need recycling center. Else, useless.

genetic eng: Cure for cancer is not necessary (as i read it), but usefull if you want a "we love king" after HG have been canceld by invention.

labor union: Useless. Armors defense is nearly equal (5/6), attacks far better (10/6) and costs also 1 shield/turn to maintain. Moreover, automobile is no dead-end tech.

robotics: Necessary for the spaceship way (module), and usefull for the military way (Mfg plant, artillery)

fusion power: Useless.

 

[Judge_Deadd]

Whoops, forgot religion. Good for unhappiness problems.
Knights are worthless. They require a tech (feudalism) which only allows chivalry and nothing else. Yuk!

 

[Licentia]

Pottery: Its the #1 tech to research. Must have a granary on my first city.

#1? It's good. Really.... But #1?

 

[Licentia]

Which always made me wonder about this loophole...

You can have chariots before horseback riding? What do they ride on? Llamas?

According to this article: http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/essays/cot/t0w04horse.htm
People did ride the horse before they rode chariots. In Civ2 I think you have to discover horse-back riding before you can build chariots - I think.

 

[Licentia]

labor union: Useless. Armors defense is nearly equal (5/6), attacks far better (10/6) and costs also 1 shield/turn to maintain. Moreover, automobile is no dead-end tech.
fusion power: Useless.

I just can't agree with you. Against Battleships Armors suffer badly, in my experience. That's waisted resources considering that Armors take longer to build. The extra defense for a lower build cost makes Labor Union my top preference. For offense I use Artillery, which if I remember correctly is also cheaper to build than armor.

 

[Conrino]

I think potterys got to be the worst because I almost always get masonry and build pyramids long before I bother researching it. Plus with pyramids I get it in all cities for free. Much more useful, and worth waiting on the whole masonry tech chain for.

 

[TopAlwaysDown]

How can you not have problems with pollution so you don't need Recycling? I almost never build factories, and only occasionally build a Mfg Plant in my biggest cities. But I still have a consistent problem with pollution, everywhere. Even if you build nothing, a large population will naturally produce pollution.

Maybe that's why you don't get Pottery? You don't build granaries, so your population never gets big?

I dunno...