How can I achieve faster science victories?

[ifinnem]

I've heard that it's worth it to make academies with your GS's before the Industrial Era. Is that the way to do it, or should you save them up until Research Labs?

Pre public schools is the rough guideline - feel free to check the in depth discussion out
here

 

[Ribannah]

Strongly disagree - 4 cities is more than enough for a quick time.
Puppets are not bad on top of that if necessary but you want to make sure you can still get 4+ RAs per wave

But for an even quicker time you need more cities.

Puppets are a poor asset in a science game. Annex them and buy a courthouse asap if their location is any good. Otherwise, sell or raze.

 

[Tabarnak]

6 cities is the ideal i think.

6 cities before NC is slightly stronger than anything else but you need to be lucky with happiness availability. Best done under Liberty of course. A 4 cities Tradition set-up then NC then 2 more cities can do the trick too.

Or simply annex juicy AI capitals/cities like Rib said.

 

[Tich]

6 cities is the ideal i think.

6 cities before NC is slightly stronger than anything else but you need to be lucky with happiness availability. Best done under Liberty of course. A 4 cities Tradition set-up then NC then 2 more cities can do the trick too.

Or simply annex juicy AI capitals/cities like Rib said.

How often do you get 6 cities on Deity and still maintain the happiness to grow? Are the last 2 delayed quite a bit or do you just take the early growth loss and try and feed maritime and mercantile CSes to make up for it? I've been playing a lot of 3-4 base science games that win turn ~255 on average on Deity (when I do win). I feel like I could win faster but I'm usually pushing the happiness boundaries and past a certain point I can't seem to keep CSes as my allies since comps with 15k gold just buy them all up or coups them out every turn (ok that's an exaggeration but that's what it feels like sometimes).

Legitimately asking since I've always wanted to try getting more bases going, but I always find it way too hard to maintain the happiness needed to keep growing. I could easily be doing something wrong which is why I'm asking. There aren't enough quests to fight past the raw gold that comps can throw at CSes and my money is tied up buying units for wars, Research Labs, etc. It's also not only super tough to get my religion up, but also to get the good bonuses for it. Even when I do get one I usually get shafted on them and wind up with things that aren't very useful at all. I would love to get happiness from that, but like I just don't get the good bonuses when I play as Korea or Babylon or whatever. The comps have gobbled all the good ones up long before I ever get there. As such, I usually just forgo religions altogether.

Also, how does that affect your ability to acquire policies? Can you finish Tradition and Rationalism and get the good polices in Order? I'm guessing no right? Maybe I'm wrong, I won't pretend to know the math on it, but it seems like it would be tough (to me anyways). Just wondering since I've never tried it myself.

 

[ifinnem]

6 cities is the ideal i think.

6 cities before NC is slightly stronger than anything else but you need to be lucky with happiness availability. Best done under Liberty of course. A 4 cities Tradition set-up then NC then 2 more cities can do the trick too.

Or simply annex juicy AI capitals/cities like Rib said.

What policies are you getting with that many cities in a science game?

 

[Tabarnak]

What policies are you getting with that many cities in a science game?

How often do you get 6 cities on Deity and still maintain the happiness to grow? Also, how does that affect your ability to acquire policies?

We all know that if we finish a game under the 240 mark you probably need to finish either Tradition then Rationalism for the 2 free techs finisher.

There is many ways to ''accelerate'' the processus. The key here is culture. Allying cultural cs and build some nice culture UBs or amphitheaters are very useful to jump faster through trees. Patronnage opener to maintain cs allied is helpful too.

Now for getting 6 cities you have to block land in manner to let place for extra cities or going for a huge CB rush(deity) and get 2 extra cities right away. A late rush can do the trick too(around Plastics).

There is no magic formulas. Sometimes you are lucky and get a religion. Sometimes you are not and your land stinks like garbages forgotten in an alley.

But if i personnally play at Deity, I will ''likely'' stay with 3 cities instead and CBs rush the closest opponent. NC--->annex everything

 

[Tich]

There is many ways to ''accelerate'' the processus. The key here is culture. Allying cultural cs and build some nice culture UBs or amphitheaters are very useful to jump faster through trees. Patronnage opener to maintain cs allied is helpful too.

Doesn't that wasted point in Patronage come back to haunt you, especially at 6 cities? Aren't you fairly screwed if you don't go Trad -> Rat immediately? Also, even with the culture buildings, isn't the %policy increase of 30% a bit oppressive?

Now for getting 6 cities you have to block land in manner to let place for extra cities or going for a huge CB rush(deity) and get 2 extra cities right away. A late rush can do the trick too(around Plastics).

Yeah space wasn't my concern, it was mostly about when to get them since happiness seems to be a big issue when you're trying to grow that many cities constantly.

But if i personnally play at Deity, I will ''likely'' stay with 3 cities instead and CBs rush the closest opponent. NC--->annex everything

See that's mostly what I've been doing. I don't usually get the 4th expo either since it feels like it's too hard to support. Always depends on the map though. I'd rather play as China/Korea, grab some early bases, knock out Machinery, and upgrade my Comp Bows into some Cho-ku-nus to start tearing some comps down. Throw in some Cannons/Hwa'chas and you have yourself one heck of an army when it comes to taking cities down.

 

[Moriarte]

Doesn't that wasted point in Patronage come back to haunt you, especially at 6 cities?

There are ways to accelerate culture @ any point. Amphitheaters, the Oracle, Opera houses, museums, etc.. Your raw science should make up for a couple lost policies, i guess.