I am also a fan of the little to no research strategy. But this is how I've been working it...
In the early ages, there is massive techno trading amongst the civs, but not a lot of gold. If you build up a treasury, you can trade for some of the basics while you build out your own infrastructure. Techs are pretty cheap when most people have them already. The tricky thing here though is the Great Library; if you're set on getting this wonder, you'll want to put a little bit into tech and then do a sprint (raise up to 90%) for the tech. Better yet is to focus on getting those units up to Elite in your combats and get that Leader so that once you buy the tech you can build the GL in one turn.
Whether or not you have the GL (I didn't in the last two games I played with this strategy), you can still follow just behind your opponents in tech as you keep pace with them through to the next age. Once you get to a monarchy/republic (depending on your war status) and can start spending to build those city improvements, make marketplaces (and later banks) to really kick your income into high gear, as opposed to libraries and universities. As your production improves, maybe even as late as factories, you can catch up/buy those research improvements.
Somewhere around the beginning of the third age, you can turn on the juice. Either maximize your science spending and live off the fat of your treasury, or push it up until you're barely still in positive cash flow (usually 50-70% range). With your infrastructure in place, and you already keeping pace with the rest of the pack, you'll suddenly be shooting ahead with 4-6 turn research times and begin to leave them in the dust. A space victory is nearly assured.
I've won consistenly on Monarch (well, except for that disaster of a GOTM5 game I had) with this strategy, seeing roughly the same results, and am about to start trying it on the next level up...
In the early ages, there is massive techno trading amongst the civs, but not a lot of gold. If you build up a treasury, you can trade for some of the basics while you build out your own infrastructure. Techs are pretty cheap when most people have them already. The tricky thing here though is the Great Library; if you're set on getting this wonder, you'll want to put a little bit into tech and then do a sprint (raise up to 90%) for the tech. Better yet is to focus on getting those units up to Elite in your combats and get that Leader so that once you buy the tech you can build the GL in one turn.
Whether or not you have the GL (I didn't in the last two games I played with this strategy), you can still follow just behind your opponents in tech as you keep pace with them through to the next age. Once you get to a monarchy/republic (depending on your war status) and can start spending to build those city improvements, make marketplaces (and later banks) to really kick your income into high gear, as opposed to libraries and universities. As your production improves, maybe even as late as factories, you can catch up/buy those research improvements.
Somewhere around the beginning of the third age, you can turn on the juice. Either maximize your science spending and live off the fat of your treasury, or push it up until you're barely still in positive cash flow (usually 50-70% range). With your infrastructure in place, and you already keeping pace with the rest of the pack, you'll suddenly be shooting ahead with 4-6 turn research times and begin to leave them in the dust. A space victory is nearly assured.
I've won consistenly on Monarch (well, except for that disaster of a GOTM5 game I had) with this strategy, seeing roughly the same results, and am about to start trying it on the next level up...
)
