My new approach to space race

[futurehermit]

I tried something different for space race last night and it seemed to work out quite well as I shaved around 3-4 decades off my average finish time. I'll describe how I teched as that is the main point of the space/tech race. (Monarch/Hemispheres/Normal)

Early game:

-Worker techs (ag, pott, mining, wheel, etc.) and resource techs (bw, ah, iw) first; cottaged up the capital

-Then monarchy for HR; grow the capital as much as possible. I had it well over size 10 prior to 1AD

-Then math-col-CS to get bureaucracy for the capital; generate a GS asap for an academy in the capital

Mid game:

-Liberalism race: tech paper/phil/educ/lib lightbulbing as much as possible; in this game I didn't get the GL/NE set up early with castesys and pacif, but that is the ideal way to go

-Took nationalism with free tech and managed to get music first so I was able to trigger 2 rounds of golden ages to expand my tech lead; I had 8 cities and was in the midst of conquering Ramesses with elephants and catapults and he had around 7-8 cities as well to bring my total up to 15-16 cities around 1500 AD.

-Then beelined Democracy for the CE civics and switched out to FS/Em/FR during golden age (needed HR still so no US).

-Then beelined Astronomy for overseas trading (trying to get enough to switch out of HR) and more importantly the observatories

Late Game:

-This is where I really changed things up from what I normally do

-First I beelined superconductors for the labs; I noticed that some good techs are on this beeline, including biology

-Then I beelined industrialism to look for aluminum; I needed to invade backwards HC to get it, so then I went for combustion to hook up oil for tanks to make it quick; it was; the industrialism beeline took me through assembly line which allowed me to get factories and coal plants hooked up.

-Then I went for rocketry; I got into US and FM during another golden age

-Then I went for the two heaviest ship parts: satellites and fusion iirc

-Then just teched out the remaining parts and built them during a final golden age

Some things I would change:

-In general this approach seemed to work better than what I normally do, which is the haphazard approach

-I had hoped to pick up Steel in a tech-trade, but it didn't work out. I would tech it prior to Industrialism so that the IW city is ready to go if and when aluminum is revealed to start on the heavy lifting projects: Apollo and the 2 heaviest pieces

-I would've switched back out to bureaucracy late-game and plowed under some cottages for workshops to have another heavy-lifter; I also would've plowed under some more cities to help with production; my production lagged a little at the end and cost me some turns; I had Mining Inc., which helped but SP could've worked just as well I think

Thoughts?

 

[madscientist]

I agree with your description, especially the lat egame part.

Superconductors can be obtained via Biology/Electricity/Refridgeration beeline which opens up the supermarket for the extra health from livestock and the +1 food (BTS rule).

I also will get rocketry off of flight rather than artillery. You lose some military units options but gain access to airports and the extra trade route which speeds up teching.

Depending how stronge the IW city and Bureacracy capital are in production (and access to resources) I may opt for composites before fussion.

 

[futurehermit]

Yeah, I got rocketry off of flight as well and yeah getting that supermarket is quite nice, especially in preparation for factories and coal plants which are now super-polluters

 

[Kennigit]

Generally I like getting fusion before satellites: Dockingbay is cheaper than the engines IIRC (maybe only with aluminum bonus). So dockingbay would go in my 3rd city while production cites 1 and 2 get the two engines, and finish those before they switch to the stasis chamber (genetics) and life support (ecology) to quickly finish things up.

Another generalization: I think the switch to enviormentalism is enough to cure health problems, so I like getting the factories/coal plants up then go on to medicine before going for superconductors for the labs. The production comes first, then the health, which generally is more effective for me (you can build military or wealth/research to make things go faster in the end).

 

[AlessioCerci]

I like to get electricity/radio for the happiness wonders and Christ the Redeemer. The extra hit singles/musicals can be very helpful in trades with other civs, especially if you have a small empire and therefore not many surplus resources.

 

[Cookie Crumbs]

The late-game is more or less what I do now, though before I used to leave Fusion last which didn't really work out as well. The Engineer is useful for triggering a Golden Age at the end if you're missing a GP.

With Liberalism though I don't understand why you just grab Nationalism. It's not hard to self-research it and it's quite possible to get Democracy or better on Monarch.

One thing I like to do when I have corporations in space race games is get Broadway/Rock n Roll for resource to trade for a bunch of seafood/metals.

With Golden Ages, I normally use four. The first two are from the Taj Mahal and the GA from Music; these serve to help build all the essential buildings like Factories and research buildings. The second two are during the spaceship builds, but the fourth golden age isn't essential because on several occassions I only got a few turns of it until I launched the rocket.

 

[futurehermit]

Yeah, I know it's possible to get better than nationalism on monarch. I'm usually just lazy

 

[lilnev]

I prioritize Assembly Line quite highly. Often before Astronomy, even. The production boost is huge. And having access to infantry is a good thing, even if you aren't planning to use them.

And I tend to save my Golden Ages for the later game, once Universal Suffrage is giving hammers to all my towns. (Unless I'm facing lots of anarchy). Not sure if this is correct, though -- the commerce boost becomes proportionally less impressive. Shrug?

peace,
lilnev

 

[Cookie Crumbs]

You're quite right, the commerce boost does become proportionally less impressive per tile. Later in the game you're working many, many more tiles so you get more out of GAs later in the game, even if early in the game it might double your commerce. Also, late-game you get Levees and Universal Suffrage, and a GA automatically doubles the hammer output for those tiles (assuming grassland plains).

 

[obsolete]

Generally I like getting fusion before satellites: Dockingbay is cheaper than the engines IIRC (maybe only with aluminum bonus). So dockingbay would go in my 3rd city while production cites 1 and 2 get the two engines, and finish those before they switch to the stasis chamber (genetics) and life support (ecology) to quickly finish things up.

This one made me laugh, because I got a little stumped on it too in my last game. I included a shot in another thread yesterday where it costs more to sabotage the DB than the SS. I believe the reason, is the base hammers is 2K for DB and SS is 1600 a piece. However, we are (Obviously) going to use aluminum to cut that 2K down to 1K for the DB. This puts SS at 600 more hammers after all is said and done which is more than 50% harder to build. And is why we tend to think the SS-Engines are the real beasts.

One thing I didn't verify, is if the sabotage price drops depending if your opponent has aluminum or not. I'm guessing no here.

 

[Thrar]

However, we are (Obviously) going to use aluminum to cut that 2K down to 1K for the DB. This puts SS at 600 more hammers after all is said and done which is more than 50% harder to build. And is why we tend to think the SS-Engines are the real beasts.

You're simplifying a bit too much here, the real difference is nowhere near that when you include all the other bonuses you'll get.
A city working on SS parts will usually have forge, powered factory and a laboratory - that's +150% right there. For having resource access you'll get another +100%. Let's do the math:
Docking Bay at 2000 / 3.5 = 572 raw hammers.
Stasis Chamber at 1600 / 2.5 = 640 raw hammers.

The SS still takes a bit longer, but it's a mere 12% extra cost - nowhere near the 50% mentioned above. Of course, the resulting espionage priorities remain.

 

[futurehermit]

Stasis Chamber? Aren't we talking about the engine here?