Eureka!

[craney1987]

Playing at emperor I've always sort of appreciated Eureka's, but never hunted for them. I've not needed to. Ive always achieved a tech lead in a reasonable timeframe.
I played my first deity game over the last few weeks (I've found it hard to make time around work lately) and was amazed by just how my lack of efficiency in this area slowed me down. For my next game I'll probably drop back a difficulty and train to exploit Eureka's more.

How aggressive is everyone else when it comes to Eureka's? Do you make a concerted effort to tick them off? Or are they a nice bonus that helps when you happen to get them?

 

[Victoria]

How aggressive is everyone else when it comes to Eureka's

Very aggressive early but once you get enough science and culture going they are less important.

So for example getting an early builder so you can get the craftsmanship eureka as well as improving your city and also gaining other eureka's from the builder seems straight forward but you naturally have to measure that up with how many eureka's you can get off other civs by taking their cities early. It gets more complex.... so if my scout finds a goody hut with craftsmanship I'll still probably build a builder but now have the advantage of being able to harvest that wheat for more early pop. You also have to look at your land and say can I use a builder at the moment? its all jungle and I see no barbs nearby for help with bronze working.

Some just are not worth getting (the euraka for finishing construction) and if you get them in goody huts then thats great.

Some like building an encampment can tick off 2 eurekas as well as giving you a chance at great generals and +1 production to an early trade route.

Bronze working is an important one but when you are surrounded by CS and civs you often get little chance to kill em.

Getting high culture is very important for reaching government, feudalism, mercenaries, enlightenment. The higher your culture the less time you have to get the culture eurekas but that does not mean you do not try.

Its the same with science of course with a few key beelines... I'm always trying to make sure I build 3 mines

I used to think there was only the difference of a few turns but Feudalism is a good example.... If you do not try and do not get too aggressive you will get it at turn 100 while this vital cog can be got at T60 with some luck and certainly you should aim at 70. That is a lot of a difference

 

[Xur]

I mod eurekas out. Agendas, eurekas etc all make for tedious simular games. You either handicap yourself or you play in a very simular way each game. Damned if you do, and damned if you dont.

 

[Rosty K]

Recently I started to enjoy using eurekas for timing (half-research certain things and then trigger eurekas at the right time so I can upgrade units, change the government and put away the 50% upgrade discount card all in one turn, for example).

Some of them are indeed quite useless - you'll spend more time getting the requirement (which you probably don't need either, e.g. 2 forts by a military engineer, I've only built an engineer once, I think) than just researching the tech.

Also, a lot of eurekas are tied to civics, and a lot of inspirations - to techs, so to 'effectively' use them in mid-late game you need to keep your science and civics at the same pace. As this rarely happens (my civics always end up running ahead by an era or so), after the Renaissance I care much less - if I know I'll eventually satisfy the requirement anyway, and the tech/civic can wait, then I'll half-research it, or even leave it alone until I get an eureka.

Oh, and them eurekas and us exploiting them is probably the reason why the 'game clock' is 'broken'

Speaking of Feudalism. Did anyone notice that conquered farms don't count towards the inspiration? Or is it just me?

 

[Olleus]

Conquered farms do count, as long as they are not pillaged. But repairing farms are buggy: if the sixth non-pillaged farm you acquire is by repairing, then it doesn't trigger the eureka. If you repair 5 farms and then build one, it does count however.

 

[UWHabs]

I will try to get as many eureka as possible, however some of them just simply don't make sense to "try" for except for other reasons. Like, I would like to build an industrial wonder to trigger for flight, but I will not build a wonder just for that bonus. I do like that some eureka will essentially force me into a playstyle - for example, if I have 2 musketmen sitting around, the cost to buy a musketman is worth it for that eureka, especially when I can then likely combine some of them into an army, which helps towards that eureka, for example.

 

[craney1987]

I used to think there was only the difference of a few turns

This.
I've paid almost attention prior to this run. But the fact I never actually took a science lead tells me that I was doing something wrong

Some of them are indeed quite useless - you'll spend more time getting the requirement (which you probably don't need either, e.g. 2 forts by a military engineer, I've only built an engineer once, I think) than just researching the tech

These are some things I was wondering about. Weighing up whether to build things I would likely never otherwise build, just for the Eureka's. I guess it's just which is greater cost or benefit

 

[Victoria]

But the fact I never actually took a science lead tells me that I was doing something wrong

The AI also gets eurekas but not as many.
If playing on king they get 30% science on top of they 0.7 per pop and they do like to push pop.
Playing them at their own game is a fail, they do not build many campus and so building them is important.
A 13 pop city will create roughly 12 science on emp to your 9 so you need to get +3 science at least per city as well as play catch up.

 

[craney1987]

How do they go in deity? Emperor isn't a problem for me and maybe that's why I'd ignored Eureka's at that level. It was the deity jump that surprised me. I managed to keep within 5-8 techs of the leader from midgame on. But think on reflection, that I definitely could of been leading had I hit more Eureka's especially in the early game

Also, a lot of eurekas are tied to civics

I've always spammed science districts and commercial hubs and let my population worry about culture. Another inneficiency I'll look to remedy before attempting deity again.

For the record I won by domination. Which was always the plan. But I know I would not of won had I attempted any of the other victory conditions that don't rely on poor AI combat

 

[UWHabs]

How do they go in deity? Emperor isn't a problem for me and maybe that's why I'd ignored Eureka's at that level. It was the deity jump that surprised me. I managed to keep within 5-8 techs of the leader from midgame on. But think on reflection, that I definitely could of been leading had I hit more Eureka's especially in the early game

I've always spammed science districts and commercial hubs and let my population worry about culture. Another inneficiency I'll look to remedy before attempting deity again.

For the record I won by domination. Which was always the plan. But I know I would not of won had I attempted any of the other victory conditions that don't rely on poor AI combat

Old habits die hard, so yeah, I struggle with culture most games too, unless if I happen to have Kumasi or another big external source of culture. Part of it is always that theatre squares almost never have good adjacencies, as I don't tend to build many wonders, so it's hard to justify building a whole district for maybe +1 culture. I tend to rely on the +1 culture per district card to fund a majority of my empire's culture most games, which isn't nearly enough. At least, I use that until I conquer a neighbour with a bunch of great works I can claim.

 

[Rosty K]

Old habits die hard, so yeah, I struggle with culture most games too, unless if I happen to have Kumasi or another big external source of culture. Part of it is always that theatre squares almost never have good adjacencies, as I don't tend to build many wonders, so it's hard to justify building a whole district for maybe +1 culture. I tend to rely on the +1 culture per district card to fund a majority of my empire's culture most games, which isn't nearly enough. At least, I use that until I conquer a neighbour with a bunch of great works I can claim.

I'd usually leave a spot between other districts (and sometimes adjacent to a city center as well, although those can be precious, so have to think twice) to stick a theater district there later and get the adjacency (also may add a bonus to those initial districts too).

 

[Victoria]

You really only need the culture for than knight Dom burst early, I would definitely not go near theaters early.
The following culture areas should be cultured early

Finding a culture CS
Trade route to culture CS
Building and capturing monuments
Natural culture wonders
Culture pantheons
Culture tiles

Apart from the first 3 CH, place a campus as soon as possible in each city but do not build it... wait for feudalism.
At feudalism or a little way after chop in your campuses, lib and uni's
Most importantly find every science CS and concentrate on their tasks and get your envoys there. These seriously up your science.
Science cards are a must and early culture gets you closer to them

 

[stinkubus]

For those of you who don't mind building on the coast Nan Madol is capable of rivaling Kumasi in terms of culture output if you are its suzerain.