Multiplayer tech strategies

[BaaBoom]

For those of us that frequently play multiplayer team games there are some different ways to advance through the tech tree… in my early games I often went (and tried to convince my team to do the same) for machinery/crossbows... but in later games I noticed some real advantages in researching civic service first... (I know there are a lot of prerequisites to take into account but I still think it would be interesting to hear other opinions, also including other tech area advancements or paths)

What would you say is the most interesting tech tree path, also- is the great library really worth going for etc...

regards

 

[Innawerkz]

Pretty much the standard issue tech path for 95% of games I have played in - omitting the basic prerequisites - is:

Bronze Working, Animal Husbandry, Archery, Iron Working, Polytheism, Priesthood, Writing, Masonry, Monotheism (Monarchy - Free Tech), Mathematics, Construction than Horse Back Riding

Than it FINALLY gets interesting... and comes down to the now famous "it depends". I am curious to hear other approaches.

 

[BaaBoom]

This is exactly my point- everyone goes for early war techs to be able to either defend or attack- but i know some games where teams went directly for feud, which proved a very hard nut to crack becouse of the vassalage/serfdom civic which givs them troop bonus and improved worker rate! if you den manage to get theology- well then it get really interesting...

 

[Innawerkz]

I have had similar games where we have beelined. This is typically only due to extenuating circumstance:

• We all have Elephants, so we would favour HBR & Construction more.
• We had China playing with us so we worked Machinery in earlier than usual - or we were against Rome and expected the Praet-zergling build-up.
• Two of the three of us were Industrious so we took Metal Casting in lieu of Monarchy.

These are the 'it depends' factors. Beelining Feudalism seems risky - depending on how 'direct' we are talking. No doubt getting it before your opponent is ideal. Resource-less units with no natural counter except the elusive War Elephant and your entire team gaining an experience bonus and requiring half as many workers to stay competitive is massive.

 

[BARBEERIAN]

Bronze > AH > Archery > any worker techs needed (wheel, agri) > Iron > Medi/Poly > maybe masonry if someone has accessable marble (if not after pottery) > Priesthood (Take Monarchy with Oracle) > pottery then:

If there's lots of horses on the team, or a Mongol with horses: HBR > Writing > Math > Construction

If there's limited horses, but a fair amount of elephants for the team: Writing > Math > HBR > Construction

If your team has basically no horse / elephants:
Writing > Math > Constuction

Then go for Feudalism next. Vassalage rocks in teamers if you have a few nice production cities, and Longbows are really tough to take down.

Beeline for Knights if you haven't finished the game yet, and have at least 1 horse on the team.

 

[Innawerkz]

This is exactly my point- everyone goes for early war techs to be able to either defend or attack- but i know some games where teams went directly for feud, which proved a very hard nut to crack becouse of the vassalage/serfdom civic which givs them troop bonus and improved worker rate! if you den manage to get theology- well then it get really interesting...

So this particular manoeuvre was pulled off amazingly well last night against my team. They went Bronze, Mysticism, Archery, Polytheism, Priesthood, Writing, Monarchy and got Feud with the Oracle.

We had them on their heels trying to 'pin' them as best as possible and deny resources - however Longbowmen don't need resources - and they soon used their Guerrilla II Longbowmen to reverse the pin pretty quickly. They skipped all non-essential techs in the early going, had Industrious (with Augustus) and managed to get Stonehenge and the Oracle pretty easily.

I only really see this working on a bigger map (this was a Small Donut map with High Water) because we were only able to get 3-4 units each into their lands (with moderately fast expansion) before they got out the Oracle and started on their Longbows.

Great to see a different tech path becoming more popular.

 

[illram]

I've been seeing (and have successfully used) the Oracle--> Feudalism maneuver on quick duel 1v1 maps. Getting more and more popular lately.

 

[UnnamedPlayer]

after animal + bronze working (in either order or skip 1 if fronts have a resource), you need to go for priesthood asap or else the enemy gets metal casting for free

the 8 turns it will take to get you to priesthood are more important than anything else you can do because you will need to get those techs anyways later in the game, so might as well make the most of it