im scientifically backward

[benjy]

first up, im not very good at this game. im playing on the 2nd easiest level, and i (blushes) cant keep up with the AI.

latest game: i started as the greeks. i wacked up the science rate to 90% (for the first few turns anyway) and then found 2 advances in goodie huts. by the time i met the next civ a few hundred years later (it was a large map) i was 3 techs behind (and that having got 2 free ones, so you could say i was 5 behind).

i only had 3/4cities - i guess this is the problem? but i only had a small amount 'cus i was moving my settlers way up the land to try and cut off the civ i knew would be in the north.

how do you guys ensure you keep up in science in th early game??

 

[TrailblazingScot]

100 percent allocation of taxes to research...roading all squares I let my people get food/production from...building cities preferentially to get high commerce producing resources...

Getting in contact with as many civs as possilbe and swapping/buying technology...

 

[Spamman_Canned]

I think the problem is with your number of cities ( im also fairly new at the civ games). That 90% research is how much of your income your spending, if the other civs have more cities, then even at 50% they could be making more than you.

Plus: i think, depending on how far your sending your settlers, that you might run into some nasty corruption problems unless you build the forbidden palace by them.

 

[Ferd]

I wouldn't be too worried about being behind at the beginning. Every civ comes with two techs, and they're different depending on what the civ advantages are. When they meet each other, they immediately trade techs. Sometimes I'll be lucky and be the first one to bump into e neighbor, and I can trade techs with them first. Other times, by the time I find anyone, they've already traded all their techs and I'm the only one behind.

I usually crank my research down to 1 for the first tech. It's going to take me 32 turns anyway, and I usually end up with enough gold to buy a tech or two from the other civs. I also put some of my cities on wealth early on. If I'm going to use a city for rush building something, I have it produce wealth until one turn before the rush. It's a little bit of a micromanagement pain, but doing it in enough cities has given me significant gold increase.

 

[tetley]

Buying techs from friends is cheaper than researching them yourself. If you're behind, I'd suggest actually putting 0% into research and using the spare cash to buy techs from other civs. It's cheaper & quicker. Plus, once you get the hang of that, you'll soon be ready to start reselling those techs to other friends. Someone recently dubbed this the "Science Broker" strategy. It's a key to winning.

 

[jc011]

At the start, I will set my science rate just at the lowest to still be getting techs, since it always comes at 32 no matter what...I will go straight for Monarchy, then after I revolt, I set my science to the highest, without losing to much money. Meet other civs and try to buy some of them since they will already have some that you don't. Try to trade with gold per turn. Once I gave the Japanese Space Flight for 80 gold per turn, from this, I jacked up my science rate. Keep doing this to other civs and you can then set your science rate to 100%.