Pretty new to the game, I have a few questions!

[drowjis]

I have been doing a lot of reading so far the past 3-4 days, I just started playing Civ5 and the last time I played a Civ game was #2 when I was much much younger. I haven't been able to complete a full game yet, I play on difficulty Warlord right now, with 1 game in Prince(which i got wrecked.)

I have absolutely no idea what to rush when it comes to Technology, I find myself always choosing everything from top to bottom with no real idea of what to prioritize my research in. My play style is very passive, I also don't build any military until around turn 250 which is awful apparently. Most videos I watch people have a set goal, and path they're going to rush right before they even lay their first city! Just from the initial tiles around them! What can I do, or read so I can become more knowledgeable in determining what late game path I should follow? So far India has been my favorite civ, Tall and Wall is my preferred play style, I can't win ANY wars with other nations right now, too inexperienced. Thanks!

 

[pilot00]

This might sound like foolish advise and many here will condemn it but Ill throw it anyway:

Play on easy setting. Prince for example would be suitable in BNW as it is now. Play a couple of games and familiarize yourself with the settings, controls and options. What you will see and read here is dangerously close to clipping your wings so to say. You wont win a science victory under 250 turns for example no matter what you read or see. You need experience.

As a general guide line I can offer this:

Populations is Science and Science is victory no matter what condition you pursue.
Try to grow your cities as fast as possible and build the science improvements as fast as possible. Usually this is done either by improving terrain early and beelining (gunning first for) the technologies that unlock the science multiplier buildings (schools, universities etc). Play your first games as a 'Tall empire'. That means around to 4 cities that are superbly improved (buildings/tiles).

Gold is scarce now so try to build caravans and send them for trade.
Rationalism is a SP tree that under no circumstances can be ignored.

Well thats it for now, I am sure others will chip in too, but do you have any specifics in mind?

 

[joncnunn]

Those producing the videos show their best game for a specific victory. (If something has gone horribly wrong; they'll upload a different video instead since watching a war that has degenerated into a long stalemate is boring.)

For actual play, if your only shooting to win; there's no need to be so set in stone.
If you have BNW, you don't even need to think about which form of victory you are going after until the Industrial era for any of the victory conditions. Just make science a priority. (Right now I'm in the Atomic era and I've not yet decided which victory I'll get other than having ruled out Domination. So I picked Freedom which keeps all other options open particularly in light of me filling all 3 level 3 policies under it. (I'm not sure if under the new tree there is enough time left to build the spaceship; nor am I sure there is enough time to become influential over Babylon; but I'm confident there is enough time for a Diplomatic victory and since I'm playing Venice and bought a lot of city states I'm a shoe in for time victory if it comes down to that.)

If not (either Vanilla or G&K); then if going for Cultural victory, then you do need to decide that on turn 1. But if going for any other form of victory; you don't need to decide on turn 1 either.

 

[tomtom5858]

Rationalism is a SP tree that under no circumstances can be ignored.

Not in BNW, and certainly not on Prince. The tree, as a whole, has improved. However, all other trees (with the possible exception of Patronage) have improved, too. Personally, if I'm playing, as, say, Venice, on an Archipelago on Emperor, I got for full Tradition, to Aesthetics in Patronage, full Exploration, and Freedom. If I'm on a Pangea, otherwise the same, I replace Exploration with Commerce. Zulu Pangea takes Honour, Patronage, one misc tree (though I do default to Rationalism here) and Autocracy. I relatively rarely take Rationalism compared to GNK, and still manage to be two eras above the AI by endgame on a difficulty where their bonuses are very high. However, if you're playing on Deity or Immortal, I do admit it is almost necessary. However, to say that you cannot ignore it is simply falsehood, and builds a bad habit of relying on the Rationalism boosts to win.

 

[Moriarte]

Not in BNW, and certainly not on Prince. The tree, as a whole, has improved. However, all other trees (with the possible exception of Patronage) have improved, too.

I fail to see improvement of rationalism tree. Did you mean to say - it is weaker now?

Play GOTM, drowjis, there is a section of this site which hosts monthly games where people play the same map and learn from each other. It is on hold now i believe, but should be BNW compatible quite soon.

 

[pilot00]

I fail to see improvement of rationalism tree. Did you mean to say - it is weaker now?

Actually I agree with that. However the three starting policies and the opener are a must no matter what.

However, to say that you cannot ignore it is simply falsehood, and builds a bad habit of relying on the Rationalism boosts to win.

You do not rely on rationalism to win you rely on science to win and that has been established as the defacto rule. No matter the victory type. Yes on Prince it might be a non issue, but Prince as is now (BNW) is not a challenge if you have a few games under your belt and know the mechanics. Even king is a dubious challenge right now.
Rationalism maximizes the output of the one thing you can never have enough for, therefore is a must.

Consider this: Whether you need weapons, whether you need cultural wonders, whether you need to make more money you need science, to make all those things first and as fast as possible.

EDIT: On a side note falsehood is a strong word for something based on experience. You seem to suggest that I fabricate things (by the way it is written), however I believe a tour on the forum would convince you otherwise.

 

[iconocast]

I have been doing a lot of reading so far the past 3-4 days, I just started playing Civ5 and the last time I played a Civ game was #2 when I was much much younger. I haven't been able to complete a full game yet, I play on difficulty Warlord right now, with 1 game in Prince(which i got wrecked.)

I have absolutely no idea what to rush when it comes to Technology, I find myself always choosing everything from top to bottom with no real idea of what to prioritize my research in. My play style is very passive, I also don't build any military until around turn 250 which is awful apparently. Most videos I watch people have a set goal, and path they're going to rush right before they even lay their first city! Just from the initial tiles around them! What can I do, or read so I can become more knowledgeable in determining what late game path I should follow? So far India has been my favorite civ, Tall and Wall is my preferred play style, I can't win ANY wars with other nations right now, too inexperienced. Thanks!

hi hi welcome to civ v, tis pretty daunting when u first start out but once u get over that first hurdle its all downhill here is some general advice

building settlers will stop ur city from growing for the duration of there build time, early on this can be really bad for u.

when u start of its probably safest to start researching pottery. from there out if u look at the early tech tree it "generally" can be view as thus.

very top -sailing/boats and related tech ( if u start on the coast with sea resources ).
middle top- horses and religious/cultural buildings later on
bottom/middle - war units and happiness building. thats the general gist of it as u play more u will get to know it better.

as far as rushing tech. dont stress about it if ur just starting out. build a library tho. they will give u more science based on ur population so therefore growing ur city early and having a library will be one of the things u will try to do early on.

build a scout early and go exploring. you will get gold form finding city states ( it will make a differance) and some great bonuses from ruins

build a monument next

get a worker asap, build some farms etc.

 

[vanzlmalc]

The tech tree is kinda split into science (top) and military (bottom)

If you're not warring at all go for science techs. (Writing, philosophy for national college, education, scientific theory, plastics)

Read all the tooltips for buildings, wonders etc.. on techs you can get in near future and make decisions based on that.

Some examples:
-construction enables colosseums which give happiness, use it when you know you'll be happy starved soon, same for trapping (circus) provided you have horses or ivory
-wonders: each wonder has a tech requirement, bee line the tech when you want to build a wonder so you don't loose it
-resources: sometimes you might want to get a tech just to see if you have the resource, which you can later sell or use
-eras: sometimes you will want to control how fast you advance in eras. Rationalism social policy requires renesance. Often the goal is to get rationalism opener (10% science boost) asap. Lets say you just finished education and your next social policy comes in 15 turns. To open rationalism you will want to research acoustics (the only available renesance tech at the time ) just to get into renesance in those 15 turns, even tho the acoustics tech itself doesn't provide anything you currently need. If you next social policy comes later you can research bottom techs and enter renesance with printing press. Other times you may want to delay advancing in era a bit to be able to purchase with faith for cheap as advancing will increase the price.