Ren. & Industrial: Or How I Keep Getting Stuck In All The Shinies.

[Cpt Oblivious]

Despite the fanciful title, I wanted to ask for a general feel (both from individual preferences and from a stategic standpoint), how do you- yes, you- handle Renaissance and Industrial Eras? For the AI, and for many players, these two eras seem to define a lot of the game, if not take up a large bulk of it. Were you may have had a little over a hundred turns before these two eras, invariably after you pass them you'll have not nearly as many until the game is either won or lost. The AI spends a lot of time in these eras as well, and with good reason: a goodly many UUs are tied to the techs of the eras (I'm looking at you, Gunpowder, Metallurgy, Navigation, and Military Science). It's the time when the World Congress first comes into play, overseas exploration is in high gear, and Ideologies are formed.

With regards to the Tech Tree, it's also one of the most divisive times. It seems that these two eras are the most wide open for how you traverse the tech tree, and it's often the point where you can get slowed down with "backtracking." And most of it comes down to... well, just about everything in these two eras is good, and so it's hard to decide what to stop for (or backtrack for), and when to push forward to the end.

I had originally written a much longer iteration of this, but second-guessed it to only do the smaller wall of text (I was late to Engineering, so couldn't get the Great Wall of Text built in time), but it boils down to: Most of the techs are universally good for all VCs. We see science ramping up from the previous era with Universities and RA's paying dividends to either vault the tech game ahead or catch up those lagging behind. Happiness and Gold both get a boon, and a chance for those who were constrained by it before to finally get out from behind their limiters and actually shape up their game. Culture gets to set the groundwork both for offense and defense, while allowing you the full options of all of the social policies- and the move into Ideologies. The contests for city-states becomes stronger as players have more means to get the CS allies that provide the benefits they want, as well as contest them for diplomatic use. Exploration, and the options of the full world (provided you're not on Pangaea) are finally open to all players, both for trade and war alike, instead of being constrained to your near borders. The "military techs" see a large jump over their predecessors, and can either shore up the defenses or provide the tools to steamroll opponents. And Production and Growth options, and the new set of strategics unlock to help fuel the endgame.

In short, it's the point where players generally shift from "managing their cities" to "managing the world". And at least on higher difficulties, it's also around this point that the players- who have probably been behind for the whole game- actually catch up to and pass the AIs; similarly it's one of the first times they can actually contest strong/key wonders without having to overstretch or beeline crazy tech paths. Which brings the real question: with a much as these eras open up the game, and with so many good options that are appealing to just about every VC, how do you navigate it? How do you decide when to focus on key items (techs/buildings/wonders) to help your VC versus pushing for certain things like World Congress, Ideologies, or even the push into Modern Era? I hope I'm not the only one who gets bogged down in this part of the game- not that it's necessarily "falling behind", since the AI spends forever in Ren/Industrial as well- just because there's so many good options. It seems really easy to get stuck because you "want it all", and not know when to move ahead, or to keep grabbing more of these eras' goodness.

So specifically with regard to Renaissance/Industrial and technologies: Is it better to just narrow your focus on one goal to the exclusion of everything else during this chaotic time to get an edge? Or with as much as the techs give a holistic boost to rounding out many needed aspects- and you're finally catching and surpassing the AI- is it worth staying around and getting the broad foundation so that you can do your focused run later without backtracking? Just wanted to hear some general opinions/strategy.

[Also apologies if this should have gone in the strategy forum, but I figured since this equally asks for just preference/playstyle commentary in addition to strategic/tehorycraft, that General would be more fitting]

 

[Dgodus]

Remember the old history channel show "Battles BC"? If I'm in win win win mode that's me, a good classical era war to boost my empire and give it a real solid base on which to build (ie two Capitol cities at least). Sure people may hate you, just go liberate some stuff, they'll come around.

I know you didn't want an answer that basically said nail the earlier eras but there is a saying when it comes to building a house "spend your time on the structure or spend your time on the finish work". Meaning if you perfect the structure the finish work is cake easy, neglect the structure and you'll be fighting it the whole time you're doing the finish work.

 

[Rooftrellen]

My real problem with these eras is that there's so much to get to really set up everything else, and I wanted it all right away.

I have learned, basically, to ignore that.

My personal way though now (for reference, I generally play large, continents, emperor) is to forget about the world congress. I'll generally work the upper part of the tech tree. If I'm after space, I want Scientific Theory and then Plastics ASAP. Even for domination, I find that getting those techs is more reliable (if a bit slower in general) than pushing the bottom of the tree. Infantry can normally take on cities if you hurry to them.

For domination, I can then get Dynamite, or I can skip it as I'm just one tech away from Flight and two from Electronics (which is game over if there are many coastal capitals), assuming I have been able to get close to Biology.

For science, there's nothing like artillery to make up for not having Biology. I'll want those hospitals.

For culture, I want Archaeology fast, and Radio is the next key tech. Again, since Plastics is right there, I'll normally just grab it, before or after Refrigeration.

I normally don't find myself spending much time in these eras. Except for domination, I'll even rarely research Steel myself (the AI loves it so much, I just steal it from them). For culture, diplo, and science games, I'll normally tech to the modern era for my ideology (from Scientific Theory, it's just 2 techs to Radio, which is nice for space and key for culture and diplo, anyway.)

For domination, I have a harder time. I don't need Radio, so it's hard to justify investing in those extra techs, and Industrialization is between Scientific Theory and Rifling and has a different prerequisite tech. Depending on the situation, I may just hit Radio anyway (I need it for Plastics regardless) if I feel like I'm ahead. I can hit it after Scientific Theory (if I feel even with the AI and have enough money to rush at least 2 factories) or after Rifling (if I need to save money to buy factories anyway). If I feel like I'm behind, I'll go for Dynamite first (ideologies aren't worth not being able to take cities).

For culture, I'll push ahead into the atomic era, unless I feel I really need to cripple another civ or take some wonders that I missed. Most of the time, for any other victory, I'll go back and fill in the tech tree to get Biology and Railroads (perhaps after Electronics and/or Flight for domination).

The effect, of course, is that then I end up spending a lot of time in the Modern or, rarely, Atomic era, rather than Renaissance/Industrial.