Industrial Age Slingshot to Victory - How many of you use it?

[tofe99]

Originally posted by Brewster
I play on Monarch and use this strategy to stay a few techs ahead of the AI for the rest of the game (I doubt it would work on the higher levels though).

Most of the time it works also on emperor... Of course key factor is if there are at least two more or less powerful civs ready to pay you huge amounts of gpt, and also the river...

Btw almost always I have well-timed prebuilds for both ToE and Hoover, so Industrialization can wait some turns.

 

[Park Ranger]

My slight variation on the ToE slingshot:

Try to research/trade for communism, sanitation and espionage before researching SciMeth. I usually research Replaceable Parts right after electricity, then go for Sci Meth.

During construction of ToE wonder, research Atomic theory. Usually a few turns left over for setting research to 0 and getting some cash. With ToE take Electronics and Radio as free techs, then go and research sanitation or espionage if AI's still don't have it. Then when the other research leaders all bottleneck after the corporation, I may set research to zero again and try to steal tech. If not then Atomic theory, Electronics, and Radio techs guarantee me good trading for some time to come.

Also I usually start wars right after finishing ToE. With radio towers, the slight edge is enough to let me push through even infantry defenses with arty and cav.

 

[marioh]

That's exactly the strategy I use. I always go straight for TOE and Hoover Dam, and I set the research to 0 when I see that the TOE will be completed before the next tech advance. I'll always use that strategy, regardless of the victory type I'm going for. And once I get TOE, I usually trade Scientific Method for exorbinate amounts of GPT (or industrialization or medicine if the AI beats me to it) from the bigger and more advanced civs.
It definetly seems to work well and puts you into great position (tech lead) once the Modern Age rolls around.

 

[Eyeoftiger]

I always research Steam Power first (unless I'm a scientific nation and I get Medicine for free, and then I go for Sanitation if I can "afford" the 4-6 turns), Electricity and then RP. Something about getting those fortified infantry in my cities, guerillas to attack with and artillery to bombard at an early point in the game.

 

[Renfield]

I have the same issue as Zier.

I get the tech lead in the industrial age but the AI never has more than 50 gold and never forks out GPT for me.

I play on Regent.

I read somewhere that this meant I should bump the difficulty level up. Thoughts?

 

[microbe]

Originally posted by Renfield
I have the same issue as Zier.

I get the tech lead in the industrial age but the AI never has more than 50 gold and never forks out GPT for me.

I play on Regent.

I read somewhere that this meant I should bump the difficulty level up. Thoughts?

Play on a higher level. On low levels AI is mostly broke due to less trading.

On Emperor in my current game the tech leader (Babylon) has 13K right now.