How not to lose the tech race?

[Kolyana]

Persepolis: Great People factory. Farm those floodplains and grasslands. Get mines on the hills for when you need production and get start producing great people.

Susa: Science city. A really, really, really good science city.

Arbela: Conscription center. Get a barracks then pump out units.

The rest I would have pretty much balanced.

Thank you for the advice!

Persepolis did end up being my GP factory ... quite accidentally, but that's the way it went.

I ended up having quite the production center in another town (Anazzi I believe), so Arbela never really saw it's day ... why would you make this a conscription center? The hills?

And why is Susa a research center over Persepolis? Both have the river, so why is one a GP center and the other science? (I'm assuming that it's because the latter has such a lot of river tiles on which to drop cottages?)

 

[Gufnork]

The river tiles and the Gems. Besides, Persepolis has more food with the flood plains. Arbela has Horses, some extra food to support the hills and not much else it can do. It also shows little promise for anything else, so skipping infrastructure doesn't hurt too bad. I want one city as conscription center and another as wonder builder.

 

[Dog of Justice]

Persepolis: Great People factory. Farm those floodplains and grasslands. Get mines on the hills for when you need production and get start producing great people.

Susa: Science city. A really, really, really good science city.

Arbela: Conscription center. Get a barracks then pump out units.

The rest I would have pretty much balanced.

I completely disagree re: Persepolis. During the midgame, Bureaucracy provides a 50% MULTIPLICATIVE bonus to capital commerce, in addition to a weaker 50% additive bonus to capital production. Because of this, I think the capital should be a commerce powerhouse whenever the terrain allows for it, getting Library+Academy up ASAP and then spamming cottages to make the most out of the enormous +162.5% to research. Every capital trade coin is literally worth more than twice as much as a trade coin elsewhere.

Incidentally, I think this does a pretty good job of answering the original thread topic. Hard to lose the tech race when your capital city generates more research than entire enemy civilizations.

 

[Amenhotep IV]

Get alpahbet earlier and trade tech aggressively

Yeah, but get Priesthood earlier. Build Oracle and get Metal Casting (expensive, so great to get it for free). Then go for Alphabet. Then Education (or Optics if you need to make contact with AIs) and Liberalism. Pick Astronomy or Nationalism as free tech. Then go for Democracy, build Statue (well I just like extra specialists) or go straight for Assembly Line. Build factories. Then go for Rocketry, build Apollo early. Then Robotics, build Space elevator. Be the 1st to get Fusion and you almost won the game... worked on Immortal for a peaceful SS victory (standard map, 8 civs) so should work on lower too... Good luck !

 

[Kemal]

I completely disagree re: Persepolis. During the midgame, Bureaucracy provides a 50% MULTIPLICATIVE bonus to capital commerce, in addition to a weaker 50% additive bonus to capital production. Because of this, I think the capital should be a commerce powerhouse whenever the terrain allows for it, getting Library+Academy up ASAP and then spamming cottages to make the most out of the enormous +162.5% to research. Every capital trade coin is literally worth more than twice as much as a trade coin elsewhere.

Incidentally, I think this does a pretty good job of answering the original thread topic. Hard to lose the tech race when your capital city generates more research than entire enemy civilizations.

Bureaucracy is a very good civic, but always be flexible... for example, if Persepolis would be a great GP factory, and Susa a top-science city.. why not simply relocate the capital to Susa and enjoy the benefits of bureaucracy there? A new palace isn't as expensive as in civ3, iirc, and by no means should one be forced to stick with the original capital until the end of time.

 

[DementedAvenger]

Research cities and GP factories both need a fair amount food to function. If there are not a lot of rivers nearby (or if I'm philosophical), I'm inclined to make these cities GP factories, but if the city is on a river it's usually better to go for research as you want citizens working those river tiles rather than being specialists and letting that extra commerce go to waste.

 

[corruptionsucks]

Back on topic:

On my recent game, I'm nearing the end, though I've been behind in techs the whole time, although only down 3 to the leader. BUT, I am nearing a domination victory, can initiate a diplomatic victory anytime (70% population).

Some tips:

I noticed that the AI doesn't research the gov't civics first (Democracy, Fascism, and Communism). Also, this is my 8th game, and I've always nabbed Military Tradition first. So I was able to use these to barter and get closer to tech parity.

If you get behind, try to research techs that the AI is lacking, and most likely won't research first. (In my games, these were Horseback Riding, Drama, Music, along with the techs mentioned above). Think ahead about the corresponding trading costs -- the AI never trade techs that are equal in cost. They only will trade a lower price tech for one of your higher ones. So let's say you want combustion which is around 4000 beakers. Research something around 4200 or above so you can trade. Don't research some 6000 beaker tech because the AI will just trade combustion for it and you lose out. Or you could combine two 2000 beaker techs and trade combustion for it.

I've found that if you're ahead of your competition in techs by the middle age, then you probably need to play at a higher level. I kind of enjoy the challenge of fighting civs with better weapons than me -- leads to more strategic fighting, rather than a foregone conclusion when one is up in techs.

 

[Heroes]

What hints and tips can you give for staying ahead in the technology game? How do you create large amounts of research and keep it up there?

The best way to me is to kill off all the other AIs on your continent, therefore having much larger area and population than other AIs. You will have hard time in the beginning, like negative income with 0% science , but gradually your economics will be better and better, at last you will outproduce and outresearch others.