I want to be tech leader (Emporer level)

[crashnation]

I play China(Qin Chi ..),continent. setup 4-5 cities. develop with cottages,
after getting uu, fight with neighbor, then score will be top 2, 3. problem is that every time I'm beyond at least 5-6 tech.I hate gandi.

can you tell me key point for tech leading? ( until monarch, cottage & expending was enough)

 

[hands]

go wack gandhi

 

[sandman_civ]

Well it's impossible to get tech lead early to midgame on emperor even with financial. This is why the levels emperor to deity are there, it's meant to be challenging and they do this by giving the AI production and money bonuses/cheating. And it's a BIG jump from monarchy to emperor. If you choose your science upgrades carefully after initial war (let's face it you have to wipe out at least one neighbor) then it's possible to catch up after midgame but so far I've only managed to catch up approaching modern era with Qin Shi my current favourite. At some point you have to throw everything you got at science upgrades, make sure you beeline for the "free tech" upgrades such as building oracle, and liberalism. Build observatories and universities before the money upgrades. Of course if you can get oxford university this would be great and funny enough in emperor I've managed to get this twice with Qin Shi, but lost most of the other wonders along the way including oracle.

 

[kamigawan]

Of course if you can get oxford university this would be great and funny enough in emperor I've managed to get this twice with Qin Shi, but lost most of the other wonders along the way including oracle.

Just a note, oxford is actually a national wonder - although it is certainly in your best interests to get this built as early as possible, it can be built by all the civs who have 6 universities even if it has already been built by another civ.

 

[the_dong146]

tip -qin sounds great - one of my favourite trait combos in the game (other is elizabeth's philosophical/financial). Try and build the pyramids, industrious trait helps, try to find stone, and chop rush! This way you can adopt representation very early which will not only help you with happiness problems in 5 cities but with science! (+3 happy in 5 largest cities, +3 beakesr per specialist) Gives a huge tech advantage

 

[sandman_civ]

Just a note, oxford is actually a national wonder - although it is certainly in your best interests to get this built as early as possible, it can be built by all the civs who have 6 universities even if it has already been built by another civ.

Of course, sorry about that oversight, no wonder I've been managing to build it every time (wrote this when I woke up, still asleep, and I even wrote an article on national wonders)

 

[crashnation]

Ok. I'll try pyramid & Oxford.
my early wonder was henge & oracle.
representation looks very good.

 

[baboon]

Ok. I'll try pyramid & Oxford.
my early wonder was henge & oracle.
representation looks very good.

If you want to skip Stonehenge, Catherine is a nice option, because of her creativity. Pyramids is pretty impossible though with her if you don't find any stone (you'll need to chop something like 6 forests).
The cossacks are great for conquering.

 

[colony]

I think one of the most important things about keeping up in tech on Emperor seems to be to start conquering early, and to find the other continents as soon as possible, to give you more trading partners, and to reduce the cost of techs. In my current game I only founded 4 cities (including the capital, I was stuck on a peninsula and got boxed in quickly), taking the rest off Frederick as soon as I got Praetorians. I used the Oracle to get CoL for the cheap courthouses. I also took a couple more cities off Mansa Musa, stopping when the maintenance cost got too big, and I'm currently at the same tech level as the tech leaders (Mao and Roosevelt IIRC), despite not being Financial (which would help a lot, maybe I'll try the Incans next game )

Of course all this expanding left my military in a very stretched out state, and of course Mao declared war as soon as he saw this, taking 2 German cities (using Chu ko Nu ). I've retaken one, but the AI seems to be a lot more aggressive than on Monarch too, and I'm starting to think it might not've been a good idea to get Monty to declare war on Mao (he was behind in tech, and has already lost one city, but it did take the pressure off me)

 

[sandman_civ]

Colony, at what year did you get to the same tech level as the AI? Was the AI at war with each other during the game?

 

[colony]

I reached the same tech level in the medieval age, not long after feudalism. Looking at the saves I do have it seems like it was around 1000AD before I was fully at the same level, mainly through checking trades constantly, and trying to get monopoly techs. Also I'm playing on Epic speed, which might change things compared to Normal speed (I know it seems to make fighting wars easier).

There were two continents with civs starting on them, on mine there was me, Mao, Monty, Mansa Musa and Frederick. On the other one there are Roosevelt and Huayna Capac. The Americans and Chinese are both at the same tech level, with me, around the chemistry/mil trad/liberalism stage. The others are starting to fall behind at different rates (and the Inca seem to be the most backward).

I don't know if there were that many wars on the other continent, and the land there is split about half and half. On my continent there have been a few. The Aztecs have been fighting on and off with the Chinese for a while, and are down to 3 cities. Apart from that I don't think there have been any AI vs AI wars, it's mainly me starting them. This is without aggressive AI on though. But I think one of the reasons the Chinese aren't more developed than they are is that they could have overexpanded at the beginning, as from the city names it looks like the Aztecs were sealed off early, giving them a huge area to expand in (about 1/4 to 1/3 of a huge continent).

Edit: I forgot to add that getting such a decisive war early on probably wouldn't have been possible without having such an (relative to the others) overpowered UU, and I also might try playing as the Inca next game (a good early UU and Financial)

 

[Gufnork]

Well it's impossible to get tech lead early to midgame on emperor even with financial.

Pfft! :shakehead

 

[sandman_civ]

Pfft! :shakehead

I should rephrase this a bit. I really think it's impossible early game, if anyone has tech lead on emperor by 1AD then let me know and will bow down deep and admit my inadequacies

I should not have said midgame I probably meant about 1000AD, the era before renaissance, can't remember the name. It also depends on whether you're playing epic or not it seems. I always play the normal default settings and everything I post assumes this.

 

[Gufnork]

I should rephrase this a bit. I really think it's impossible early game, if anyone has tech lead on emperor by 1AD then let me know and will bow down deep and admit my inadequacies

I should not have said midgame I probably meant about 1000AD, the era before renaissance, can't remember the name. It also depends on whether you're playing epic or not it seems. I always play the normal default settings and everything I post assumes this.

You may kiss my pinky ring.

 

[Gufnork]

Here's a save as requested. I would have taken the barbarian villages sooner, but I didn't have the energy. I only played to get the tech lead by 1AD.

View attachment 108281

 

[sandman_civ]

Seems rather contrived to me. Towns by 1AD and gold and lots of forest to get those tech wonders. Quechas to handle barbs of course. And you are last in points but that's normal I guess. I didn't think it was possible to get towns by 1AD - now that means you went for pottery first.. and how many turns does it take to get towns?? And you still got oracle despite early pottery?? "canna understand it, cap'n" as Scotty would say.