Falling behind in the tech race...

[Al Fredo]

I've been experiementing with a lot of different Civs lately, trying to see if I can win with anyone. I have been playing on Monarch and have moved up to Emperor - and can win, though it'd usually a grind out. Also, lately I've been using the "Apolyton University" mod, which balances things out a bit more, i think. Anyway...

So I get up the desire to go for a huge map, all Civs. I pick the arabs or someone expansionist, cause I want to scout around on the big map.

Get going, scout around, pop some hunts, a maybe a tech or two. Meet some people - each Civ is around 5-7 techs AHEAD of me - even with the huts poping. I played about 80 or so turns about 4 times with the same setup, and everytime I thought I had lots of contacts and a tech lead due to huts, i was, in fact, waaaay behind.

What's the point of being expansionist...anyone ever find themselves ahead in tech in the early game on Emperor?

 

[sadu]

Maybe it's just me, but I find the AI skyrockets ahead with the early techs, but then slows down at the beginning of the Middle Ages.

I could be wrong, but I suspect this is to do with the 2 most important Ancient techs, Literature and Republic being optional (and therefore low priority for the AI).

I will always beeline for Literature then republic (unless war dictates otherwise), and focus my efforts on getting luxiries connected. Get libraries installed where needed, and switch to republic soon as you can. This is where you will start catching up in technology, while the AI lags in despotism.

 

[Blackbird_SR-71]

expand expand and lets see expand.

the more cities the more gold, the more gold the more science.

change to republic as fast as possible
go on military conquests to knock the AIs and demand techs from them for peace

 

[Tomoyo]

As Inca, in my most recent game, I led in tech the entire game, researching key techs and trading them for others the whole AA, and leading in research the rest of the game.

I went on to a Space Race victory in 1285AD.

 

[Tatran]

I went on to a Space Race victory in 1285AD.

Great performance,maybe you could also tell the viewers
next time on which map you played it?
(Research on smaller maps is cheaper.)

 

[Hyronymus]

And on what level. In my first standard Monarch maps I discovered the use of establish embassies. I stole 3 techs from the enemies which altogether saved me about 12 turns of research .

 

[Tomoyo]

Great performance,maybe you could also tell the viewers
next time on which map you played it?
(Research on smaller maps is cheaper.)

Standard, 60% water, pangaea, all others default.

 

[Hyronymus]

Warlord, Chieftain, Regent, Monarch, Prince: what difficulty level?

 

[a space oddity]

I believe it was Emperor, if I understand correctly that he's talking about his recent 'Hall of Fame' game.

 

[QuantumEleven]

Get going, scout around, pop some hunts, a maybe a tech or two. Meet some people - each Civ is around 5-7 techs AHEAD of me - even with the huts poping. I played about 80 or so turns about 4 times with the same setup, and everytime I thought I had lots of contacts and a tech lead due to huts, i was, in fact, waaaay behind.

I'm not familiar with the Apolyton University Mod, but in an unmodded game, having a tech lead on Emperor before the Middle Ages is pretty much unheard of (even with the Expansionist trait). There are two main reasons for this that I can see, one is that the AI gets significant discounts on tech research at the higher difficulty levels. So they don't take anywhere near as long as you do to research the same technologies, even though your empire may be bigger and better developed than theirs.

Secondly, an AI civ will trade with other AI civs like there's no tomorrow, usually under extremely favourable terms. Because of this, you'll find that, as a whole, the AI will leap forward in tech at a pace you can't possibly keep up with, because it exchanges knowledge so much.

I am no Emperor expert by any means, but it seems to be common advice that the only way to get ahead on Emperor is to set the science slider to 0% and buy techs from the AI. Okay, you won't be in the tech lead, but you'll be at most two or three techs behind...

 

[Tomoyo]

The AI does not get a reduced cost for technologies. The player need to pay more for them. I usually end up riding the coattails of the leaders in a normal game, but I could take the lead by sacrificing military if I tried.