I am falling behind technologically - advice

[Rosicrucian]

Here is the scenario I am in. Regent level. Chinese. 1820 AD. Monarchy. Taxes at 5.5.0. Discovering Mass Production, just discovered flight. Treasury 1176. Net Gain +84. Expenditures:
-339 science
-0 Entertainment
-92 Corruption
-242 maintenance
-43 unit costs
-60 to other civs (for some tech I bought a while back)

I am involved in a war with the Indians, who are the only other civ with a strong presence on my continent. I am easily winning, but I am using a combination of Artillery + Infantry which makes it slow going. I am going to take two more cities of theirs (joining my main empire to an offshoot where I get my rubber). My entire continent is railroaded and my average city size is 16 and growing.

The problem is, I am falling behind technologically. Of course the AI is trading amongst itself, so everyone has 3 techs I don't have. They want exorbitant prices from me for a tech, think my entire treasury +40/turn. Man!!! What are some good ideas for me to catch up on tech? I have tried extorting from the Indians, but they won't give. Should I enter a period of peace and become a democracy? Should I screw tech completely and just pay through the nose? Will Communism make me discover more?

I need some advice here. If you want any other info about my game that will help you to give advice, I will give it!

 

[Rosicrucian]

P.S. this is my first regent game ever and I really want to win! I was ahead of everyone in tech through the middle ages, but now I fall behind, arghghghg!!!!!

 

[Zamuri]

My humble advice: Conquer as much of India as possible and get those new cities producing...FAST. If you totally wipe out India, you'll have no War-Weariness from your new Indian civs.

When I moved from Chieftan to Warlord, I found my 'lazy builder' approach was no longer viable. I always try to wipe out the nearest civ, keeping all cities and making them my own.

 

[Rosicrucian]

Thanks. How do I get the new cities producing fast, though? Buy them factories + cathedrals? I don't think I want to conquer more of India than I am planning on, though, because all they will have left is mountainous filth, that wouldn't add much to my civ.

I am thinking of pumping science down to 0% and just buying tech and screw the cost. What does everyone think of that?

 

[Matt_G]

Do you have librarys in all your cities? Uni's, marketplaces, banks, Wall Street, etc?
Librarys and University's are key to research. I have played a few games at regent and when I have the infrastructure built it is not a problem to have a tech lead at this level. I usually have a lead of half an age at most times, and a minimum of 3 or 4 techs. It takes a lot of money to do this though.

 

[Mephisto]

rosicrucian, there are many little things you can do, it's hard to point out one thing and say 'this' is what will help you.

i remember that i struggled in my first regent game, too. b/c i did not understand the importance of trade. do you have some luxuries or extra resources in your territory that you can trade, but have not? i hope you don't feel insulted, but that's what i did. anyway, there are many good advices on how to get tech through trade that i've learned from other people in this forum. and now i can keep up w/ ai even at deity level. so you might want to check those out.

are you looking for domination/conquest victory, or space victory? i think w/ what you have, you can achieve military victory w/o worrying much about tech. railroad and artillery is a perfect combination. if you win enough wars, you can force the ai to give you techs.

also, it's no shame to lose your first regent game. i lost, too. but i won the second one.

 

[MirandaCore]

Frequently used strat in Monarch and Diety games: pump up the tax to 90 or 100 percent. Than buy the techs from the other civs. Its a lot cheaper to buy the techs at the higher levels than research.

(P.S. something is wrong with your playing style if u have tech problems on regent. You should easily be able to stay level with the AI.)

 

[Rosicrucian]

All my cities are fully improved (except for the ones I have just captured, and my one rubber outpost). Marketplace, library, uni...I have the works. Hey, I think I will upload my game!

By the way, I went ahead and pumped up tax to 100% and bought 2 techs. Now I have 0 gold and am making +98/turn, with science at 0%. The game I will upload here is before I did this.

Ok, I am going to upload my game here Maybe then you could give me some more specific advice? Thanks!!

 

[KDan]

Easiest solution:

The AI researches in strata - ie it will research first all the basic techs of an age, then the slightly more advanced ones, etc... it doesn't beeline for a more advanced tech. So getting a tech that the computer doesn't have is not too hard, as long as you neglect all the other techs (ie go straight across the F6 screen, not up and down and up and down like the computer).

Once you have that tech, trade it to everyone in the same turn - starting with the most powerful. You'll find that they give you very handsome rewards for that tech... usually including other "lesser" tech that you neglected, and vast amounts of cash.

It's called tech whoring I think. A good way to get yourself rich and advanced while keeping the computer poor and at your boot.

I'm doing that in emperor right now and it's working damn well

Daniel

 

[Mephisto]

kdan has the general idea, trade something you have for someting you want 'effectively'. as for your pressing need, these are my suggestions after the first glance at your saved game; keep in mind that they are by no mean the best way, or even the correct way to do things.

i guess you want to get the tech for tank, which nobody has yet. so you are not too far behind. i see that you have 3 silk, 1 iron, and 1 coal that you may want to connect, someone may want it. or you may invade the city orlando, there are two dye there that you don't have.

i think if you want war, do it and finish it quick. avoid long war. swich it to mobilization mode, and concentrate on wiping out india so you won't worry about them. unless you intend to take out america, there is no need to build naval force.

you have about 50 artillery, which is nice. there is a very good article in war achedemy where you can learn about how to use artillery effectively. if you want, you can wipe out india quick, just keep building artillery and infantry. personally, i am not a big fan of bomber. (or any air units for that matter) therefore, i also think airport is useless since all your cities are connected w/ roads. if there is nothing to produce, produce wealth.

but you don't have to have war. in which case, you might want to switch to democracy. but the concern is you have a lot of troops and they will cost you money in democracy. but i think you could still get more money out of democracy than monarch.

as miranda said, you may not have played in an effective way. you've build a lot of wonders, but missed out hoover dam. no, wonders won't make or break your game, but it's a conspicuous omission given you have so many wonders. it's late in the game, and you may not win a military victory if the game keep going on like this. a space victory is still very achievable though, if you can keep up the tech.

i'll suggest that you switch to democray in the next opportunity, maybe after take out orlando for the dye. (???) and get as much money as possible, and shrewdly use trade to gain tech parity. after that, concentrate on researching stuff that will get you space victory. that way, you really don't need to wipe out india. your strong point is you have many productive cities. so i think i would set space victory as my goal if i were you.

 

[Mephisto]

i just see that you still don't have electronics, so hoover dam is out of question anyway. so ignore that comment i made.

still, you have a very winnable game. i think peaceful rout is the way to go at this juncture, though i am sure there are many people out there who can easily turn this into a military victory. it's just that my impression tells me that you are more a builder than a warmonger.

switch to democracy should help if you decide to go for space victory. you may need to build marketplace in all your newly conquered city though.

and yes, if it unfortunately happens that you don't have unranium, and nobody would trade that w/ you... go to war! it's something worth fighting for, you can't build spaceship w/o it.

 

[kb2tvl]

ok, this is my opinion:
assuming you have marketplaces and banks and wall street and factories, set your slider to atleast 90% tax. Think of libaries as anti culature flipping buildings. Build them to only prevent flipping in captured cities and to have a solid culature base.

Next, with the gpt you get buy tech on gpt. You can also go to war time status. The advantage is having cities produce 50% more shields when producing military units. The down side you can only produce mil units or barracks or harbors or airports or wealth or workers/settlers. Depending on how long the fight looks, you can really pump out units. OR you can try to buy (with gpt) motorized transport and then go to war time production.

You can also sell off any horse resources you have with will help get motorized transport.

 

[Jodien]

In my regent game with Babylon I just experienced Rosicrucian's dilemma in about 9th and 10th centuries. I was way behind in tech race and was unable to improve my army and gold income.
My neighbors Persia and Greece were happily sharing their newly discovered techs as brothers while they wont sell a single territory map to me. But I was lucky, I had furs, gems and silk in my territory to keep my citizens happy. I also had iron and saltpeter and was ruling 20 cities by 900 AD in my monarchy.
But I was going bankrupcy fast. All the civs were refusing to trade anything with me. Then I decided, I had to get rid of unnecessary weights on my shoulders.

There was a city I built on my southern Greek border. It was not growing because of deserts and there were some culturally big Greek and Persian cities nearby. I suspect I would eventually lose the city to their culture. So I sold the temple and library there, removed the garrison and sold the city to Germans who were on the other end of the continent. They gave me 1000 gold, two techs, wines, along with their world map and contact with 2 other civs!!!
It worked great as I was able to sell my newly acquired world map to my new contacts and get hefty amounts of gpt. I signed lots of trade agreements in just one turn taking my balance +56gpt.

My army was still very weak in numbers but I didnt mind and switched to Republic instantly. The income boost was impressing.
I pumped tax to 90% and bought 3 techs in 4 turns. When I equalized in tech i switched to rates which would give me a tech every 4 turns.
(Be sure to use this trick: At the time when 1 turn left to discover a given tech, pump up tax rate as much as possible without delaying the tech which you will discover next turn.)
I chose a reasonable tech path in the F6 screen which would take me directly to Education and University. I ignored all the wonders, instead scheduled Physics and Newton's Univ. for the future. Immediately I started to build a palace in a city with most shields, so I would be ready switching it to Newton's Univ. once I discovered Physics.

When that time came I really felt that I would eventually win this game. I finally got Physics and the other civs flocked to my door to get it. I refused all and within 4 turns when my palace construction became a huge Newton's Univ to be completed next turn, I sold Physics to all the civs earning a big fortune. And the Newton Univ started my Golden Age (1300-1400 AD)

Now I lead the world in tech, researching Flight in 1570 AD, and the army is modernized with infantry, cavalry, destroyers and artillery. I will surely go for a space victory.

 

[Neomega]

$40+ a turn is nothing, pay it. Buy the techs. Think about it this way, when you jack your science down 10%, how much gold does that make you? If you can trade gold for tech it's a good deal.

 

[A.H]

Originally posted by MirandaCore
Frequently used strat in Monarch and Diety games: pump up the tax to 90 or 100 percent. Than buy the techs from the other civs. Its a lot cheaper to buy the techs at the higher levels than research.

(P.S. something is wrong with your playing style if u have tech problems on regent. You should easily be able to stay level with the AI.)

I'm a newbie, how can I control my taxes?

 

[KDan]

F1

Daniel