Emperor: What tech do YOU choose with Liberalism?

[mercury529]

I generally play on Emperor-level Pangea maps. Generally, I aim to get Steel using GSs to bulb Education/Chemistry. The edge of upgrading cats to CR2 Cannons gives me a major advantage. If it looks like I won't make it, I usually take Nationalism.

What about you? What techs do you try to snag with Liberalism on Emperor+?

 

[Shadzy19]

Continents maps its usually astronomy.
On 1 big land mass it will most of the time be 1 of the techs that lead to rifling , nationalism in the worst case.

 

[Still_Asleep]

Continents maps its usually astronomy.
On 1 big land mass it will most of the time be 1 of the techs that lead to rifling , nationalism in the worst case.

Astronomy on watermaps, nationalism on all others. Nationalism is simply the most expensive tech you can get, and leads to some more useful stuff.

 

[Zanttu]

I take nationalism, build taj, beeline to grenadiers or rifles and wipe out my neighbours.

 

[tycoonist]

Astro on water maps, printing press if one of the english girls (early redcoats) but normally nationalism for a democracy rush

 

[Squarg]

I only have played Emperor once but I researched Nationalism and took constitution.
Of course I had a tech lead so i guess it wouldn't be totally aplicable.

 

[shyuhe]

On emperor, I normally take democracy or astro. Occasionally I'll take MT or rifling. If you concentrate on teching and bribe AI-AI wars, it's not that hard to get a good tech off of liberalism. Of course in my recent immortal game, I didn't look at the tech screen and Gandhi stole liberalism while I was busy teching replaceable parts

 

[SnowlyWhite]

pp or replaceable parts; wherever I am in the path for rifling. Any lvl. for that matter.

 

[gopher666]

Astronomy on watermaps, nationalism on all others. Nationalism is simply the most expensive tech you can get, and leads to some more useful stuff.

+1. This is what I do routinely as well. Rarely, I'll take Printing Press, if i have tons of towns and villages, given that the economy boost gives me a more immediate advantage.

Edit: Didn't notice that the OP asks regarding Emperor+. As I've never been able to succesfully playing anything above Noble (Trying my hand at Prince these days) feel free to disregard.

 

[BalbanesBeoulve]

Nationalism. To get a better tech pretty much requires you to reload an auto save right before someone else discovers it. That's kind of cheesy and kind of cheating.

 

[JBossch]

Most of the good options have been mentioned but I will go ahead and second Astronomy on continents maps and PP on Pangaea. Even though I nearly always run an SE, its needed for those rifles. However, I recently grabbed nationalism on my way to curraissiers. I had started with a stable-making quest and had a horse-heavy army. Ended up working pretty well with an emperor domination victory in 1908.

 

[Betruger]

on emperor I tend to take Radio

 

[mercury529]

Nationalism. To get a better tech pretty much requires you to reload an auto save right before someone else discovers it. That's kind of cheesy and kind of cheating.

I have found on Pangea maps (or any map where I have met all my opponents), that I am fairly consistently able to get enough of tech lead to get Steel on Emperor. This is especially true when I am running a SE with a philosophical or spiritual leader, but it has worked running CEs with financial leaders, and even in my last game running a hybrid with Zara (Creative/Organized).

 

[Pe Ell]

Nationalism most of the times. I then proceed up towards rifling for redcoats and crush my least liked neighbor. Taj is built if I have marble, I almost never built wonders unless I have a resource to boost it, GL and oracle being exceptions.

 

[futurehermit]

i'm another one for nationalism->taj->rifling beeline

 

[mercury529]

Is there any reason most of you seem to favor a rifling beeline to a Steel beeline? Is it purely for millitary purposes? Are there trade advantages to the rifling beeline over Steel?

Obviously, the draft cannot be used to get cannons, however I have found it is usually pretty easy to amass a stack of 20-30 cats by the time I pop steel with liberalism. I usually have my treasury at capacity to upgrade 15-25 of them within a few turns of getting steel. Then I usually wage war with CR2 Cannons. The walls go down fast, and CR2 means that about 90% of my cannons live on. I then run cleanup with other units (maces, muskets, or even axes). It doesn't really matter what I clean up with, because with city defenses down and all defenders down to 80% of max, even chariots can handle cleanup. My favorite combination yet has been Drill 4 Oromo Warriors with this attack strategy. The insane number of first strikes of the Oromo generally result in taking no damage when taking on the damaged defenders.

 

[mike p]

In my current game, I just chose Astronomy. There are several islands I would like to settle, so it was an easy decision. Observatories are just gravy.

 

[Abegweit]

Edit: Didn't notice that the OP asks regarding Emperor+. As I've never been able to succesfully playing anything above Noble (Trying my hand at Prince these days) feel free to disregard.

So long as it truly is a race, it make no difference what level you're on and IMO, the emperor qualification was unnecessary.

If Betruger is really able to take radio, kudos to him. But he's not answering the question.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

Replaceable parts. Printing press if the race is really tight.

 

[shyuhe]

Rifling > steel in most cases for liberalism because of drafting. The 1 pop --> 1 rifle conversion is one of the most efficient conversions of a pop in the game (of course it comes with a stiff penalty). If you can nab the GM from economics on the way to liberalism, then steel may be a more attractive option.