[BTS] Elepult tech line

[lindsay40k]

So, if you get Elephants and you want to crush some rivals, you need Construction and Horseback Riding. On the way, you’ll need Mathematics and Masonry. Which do you get first? Do you beeline Construction?

I guess for me it depends. If I’ve got unfriendly neighbours and horses but neither copper nor iron, I’ll generally make HBR a high priority. If I’ve got metal - and especially if I’m AGG - then I’ll first get Mathematics for better chops. If I’ve got stone and/or am IND, then I’ll have Masonry early on; Mids and/or HG for their benefits or failgold might be on my itinerary as well, so a Con beeline makes sense. If I’m Greece or Maya, then Construction might come before HBR, for a load of extra happiness in my good cities. If I’m Mongolia and have Horses, then I’m not waiting for Elepults before I start on a victim.

Buuuut if there’s no low hanging wonders or failgold and security isn’t an issue, I do prefer to get HBR before Con, so that I can get the stables online and start producing 5XP Elephants as soon as they’re available.

 

[sampsa]

It's hard for me to fathom circumstances where going HBR first is better. Putting into stables is often a mistake as going constr first allows you to put those into cats. So building cats first leads to an earlier attack date in my experience.

For elepult the tech path for me doesn't vary much, definitely want whips so I'll have pottery+BW and then beeline construction. For HA-rushes tech path can vary a lot depending on how much , and you have. Sometimes skip pottery, writing or both. Probably always want BW for chops.

 

[Fippy]

HBR first only if waiting for maths bulb, imo.
On very poor maps you might actually like the scientists beakers output as well (no rivers..and not even mentioning gold, gems ).
Unless really pressured thou (not happening in maps like NC), see Sampsa

 

[Fish Man]

So, if you get Elephants and you want to crush some rivals, you need Construction and Horseback Riding. On the way, you’ll need Mathematics and Masonry. Which do you get first? Do you beeline Construction?

I guess for me it depends. If I’ve got unfriendly neighbours and horses but neither copper nor iron, I’ll generally make HBR a high priority. If I’ve got metal - and especially if I’m AGG - then I’ll first get Mathematics for better chops. If I’ve got stone and/or am IND, then I’ll have Masonry early on; Mids and/or HG for their benefits or failgold might be on my itinerary as well, so a Con beeline makes sense. If I’m Greece or Maya, then Construction might come before HBR, for a load of extra happiness in my good cities. If I’m Mongolia and have Horses, then I’m not waiting for Elepults before I start on a victim.

Buuuut if there’s no low hanging wonders or failgold and security isn’t an issue, I do prefer to get HBR before Con, so that I can get the stables online and start producing 5XP Elephants as soon as they’re available.

"Load of extra happiness" - what happiness? 1 isn't definitely worth 80, and you especially don't have 80 to spare when racing the AI to longbows.

Stables are useless. Remember what the previous sentence said about not having hammers to spare...yeah. The main promo you want on phants is shock ASAP but that can be achieved with barracks + literally any ONE battle. The you sink towards any of these marginally useful buildings can be used to double or even triple the size of your army by the time of the 500BC rush date that I aim for. One stable and one colosseum every one of your, say, 4 cities - that's 560 hammers. Enough for 11 cats...

Besides that...construction first, for math chops and what sampsa said, but also trade bait. If you can trade around construction you might be able to "convince" the AI to build catapults that are useless as defenders instead of more nasty things like spears, swords, or hilltop archers.

 

[lindsay40k]

Well yeah, BW is on my route 99% of the time, I did mention my having or not copper was a factor I consider.

I hadn’t considered Construction as trade bait. Usually I’m avoiding giving the AI military techs. But yeah, them building catapults will barely affect my elephant-led army if they attack, and will give me easy kills if they just sit in the city. Hmm.

And extra units over extra XP, and math bulb sprint over academy marathon also hadn’t really occurred to me. My elepults generally face walls and barb-promoted units and it hadn’t really occurred to me to just Zerg Rush.

Also when I mentioned happiness, I was specifically thinking of the UB’s that give even more happiness. ...Waaait. Odeons don’t do that, do they? Huh. There’s a load of misinformation on the civ wikis. I didn’t spot it as I don’t often play as Greece. The articles must have been based on the ball court entry? *shrug*

 

[Archon_Wing]

Math is too valuable due to the enhanced chops. In fact I never realize why I never make it a priority since the AI is such a jerk about trading it anyways.

The other thing is it leading to currency. If you research Horseback Riding, you've basically committed.