Playing Catch Up

[Tunnel Vision]

Hello All -

I would like to solicit some ideas...

I am playing the egyptians on a large map at monarch level.

I occupied the middle of a large L shaped continent at the start of the game. I have the French to my north and the Babs to my east. At one point I got caught up in a war with both the French and the babs. The two front war was not going well so I sued the French for peace. Since then I have run rough shot over the babs and have taken all but 2 of their cities.

While I was spending my time constructing Knights to crush the Babs, the french pulled ahead technologically. I am in the middle ages with several sciences yet to research and the French are now in the industrial age. I have the feeling I am close to being hopelessly behind.

The chinese are forking 37 gold a turn over to me for saltpeter and I am using that to help catch up the research. I am also building Universities in every city I can as quickly as possible.

Is this the best way to go about trying to catch up? Or should I send my army at the French next since its built up (they do have riflemen now)?

On a side note, is there any benefit to leaving the Babs in the game as opposed to wiping them out?

Thanks!
Tunnel Vision
Noob

 

[dojoboy]

Try scaling back your research to make money, then purchase techs from France. For a while at least.

 

[praestare]

Buy or steal or bully, by all means. I hate to be technically lagged.

It may not be a good idea to use knights to attack riflemans. you'll lose big time. Get the tech lead first.

 

[Alphons Rodulfo]

Yes, make money and trade for the techs you're lacking. Try to establish trade with as much civs as possible, not just France. You can use aquired techs to trade for other techs. Don't go to war with France until you are certain you got the upper hand.

Regarding the Babylonians, I would destroy them if you have babylonians in you cities. They will be a cause for civil unrest if you find yourself at war with babylon again, which might be a problem if you're fighting other civs at the same time.

If you have razed all conquered Babylonian cities, you might keep the babylonians alive as a vassal state.

 

[Shaitan]

The AI tosses techs around like a hot potato now. France will be selling those techs to anyone and everyone. The more civs that have it, the cheaper it will be. Purchase from the civ that likes you the best and has a smaller army than you - you'll get a better price.