Originally posted by Leowind
Barbs are not a problem, but I still think science is. I'm not quite following Tim's argument about off-track techs helping us get to Monarchy faster when they will increase the beakers we need to research it Perhaps he or someone can explain it a bit better to me?
Until then, the Office of Scientific Research is still recommending to NOT pop the hut until after Monarchy is acheived.
Say our current tech approach is going to be:
Currently researching: Ceremonial Burial ~10 beakers
Next Research: Code of laws ~20 beakers
Then we research: Writing ~30 beakers
Finally research: Monarchy ~40 beaker.
for a total of about 100 beakers to research.
If we get Cermonial Burial from the hut we won't have to finish researching it, and our current beakers will apply to Code of laws, meaning, only 90 beakers to research monarchy (Code:20+Writing:30+Monarchy:40)
If we get Code of Laws the cost of our current research will go up, but again we will have one less tech to research on the monarchy path, so we will go Cer-20, writing 30, monarchy 40 for a total of 90.
But here's the kicker- we're stuck with one off-track tech (currently writing) so even if we get Warrior Code from the hut, we'll be able to
skip writing so our path will be Cer-20, CoL 30, Monarchy 40 for a cost of only 90 beakers. So no matter what scroll comes out of that hut, we get to monarchy in 90 beakers instead of 100. The only difference is we might get something like HBR or War Code instead of being able to pick Writing.
The one thing that might be worth considering is waiting until Cermonial Burial is complete at the low cost of 10 beakers, so we don't incur the extra cost on it, cutting the cost to 10+30+40=80 beakers if we were to get a scroll but this sounds like it's a few turns away (I haven't been able to look at the save file yet) and our archer has better things to do than to wait around that hut.
Sorry for rambling on. I hope that explanation is clearer.