Research Lab

[Whomp]

We start with CB and Pottery. Let's discuss our next research.

I think with the start we have we have the potential to run alpha which would help us with early exploration and a potential run at philo. However, my concern is if we build say warrior/warrior/gran/settler there isn't a lot of room for curraghs.

My top pick would be WC. I think it's a necessary tech to protect ourselves early.

 

[Pentium]

WC is a very valuable tech, it gives us the power to attack. But, if we rush towards IW, we might not need it at all. I believe our continent will be large enough to keep expanding at least until we get IW.

However, I don't think we shoulg go for Alpha. 2 civs start with it, and Philo slingshot will proably go to one of them.

My usual policy is to start a 2nd-tier tech. We only have one available, Mysticism. In this case, no one has WC, so we could go for this one too. So WC -> Myst and beee-line to Monarhcy.

We have another option: If we start by Greece or Persia, we should research Myst and trade it for BW+some gold. If we start by Iroquois, we should research it. Either way, we'll go for IW after that.

I lean towards the last option.

 

[MeteorPunch]

Research will be somewhat fast starting on that gold hill. I'd go Bronze Working->Iron Working. That might be all we need to start taking over.

EDIT: with Pottery to start, there are no other essential AA techs, other than government.

 

[barbu1977]

I also say BW and IW, if we are stuck on an island with someone else, we do not want to be week.

 

[Melhisedek]

BW -> IW sounds mighty nice here as well, but do we have any idea what gov will we go for first?

 

[Whomp]

My preference on governments is republic especially with the religious trait. If a war breaks out we can switch to monarchy when we want.
Since other teams will lose a considerable amount of turns in anarchy switching they won't have that flexibility. I think they expect to fight a lot and will chose Monarchy.

Another advantage of going the WC route is no one knows it.
If the Iroquois go alpha-->writing we could be the first to the tech which makes it very tradeable and ?SGL? (I hate the SGL thing) How are they determined?

 

[Pentium]

We only get 3 in 100 chance of getting a SGL.

It's actually weird that there are no militaristic civ in this game.

It would be good to know who will be on our continent. I still think BW -> IW is the best, then towards Rep.

 

[Crakie]

Short version:

I favour WC to start with

Long version:

I'm probably going into too much detail here (I am not talking to n00bs, I know ), but it helps organizing my mind.

Warrior code: no-one starts with it, so has a decent chance of having some trade value. Good for protection against barbs and/or early attacks. Opens possibilities for an early attack on our opponent. Dead end tech unless we favour monarchy because with our UU, HBR is not of much use (assuming we find iron).

Mysticism: almost guaranteed to be of trade value, but only useful for beelining to monarchy.

Alphabet: We can forget about the slingshot or even philo first, but the earlier we send out a curragh to the other continent, the better. The opponents there will likely be more willing to trade! Should be a high research priority.

Bronze working: two opponents start with it, so one will be on the other continent. We might want to hold off until after alphabet while reseaching other techs that give us good trade value.

One problem is that if we start with alphabet, and contact the other continent, we will probably want to have something decent to trade with first (CB will not get us a tech I fear). So there is some time, which we should use for researching higher value techs. Alphabet is a priority, but not the highest priority.

Since we are bound to find one opponent on the other continent with BW eventually, I am reluctant to go for it.

This leaves WC or Myst. Since we are forced into the lower part of the tech tree, I say we go for monarchy. Combined with the short anarchy, we might really profit from an early escape out of despotism. Hence, we will probably research both WC and Myst anyway. WC is to be preferred as the first choice for it will enable us to protect ourselves.

So my basic scheme would be to start with WC, then beeline to monarchy except for researching alphabet somewhere along the way.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

We want to know where the iron is as soon as possible. Anyone close to us will want to keep us from getting iron. That resource is the key to early success for us.

BW=>IW

 

[Daghdha]

We want to know where the iron is as soon as possible

Second that!

 

[Crakie]

We want to know where the iron is as soon as possible. Anyone close to us will want to keep us from getting iron. That resource is the key to early success for us.

BW=>IW

I'm operating under the assumption the mapmaker would not be so cruel as to deny us iron. It's a gamble, I know.

 

[MeteorPunch]

Given the generous start, it's a possibility that the Iron is on the hill right next to the capital...no way of knowing though, of course

 

[Pentium]

So, to make it short, we have 2 basic options:

BW => IW [MP, barbu, Melhisedek, Pentium, Bugs, Dagdha]

WC [Whomp, Crackie]

It's 6 vs. 2 currently.

 

[Crakie]

So, to make it short, we have 2 basic options:

BW => IW [MP, barbu, Melhisedek, Pentium, Bugs, Dagdha]

WC [Whomp, Crackie]

It's 6 vs. 2 currently.

Apart from our pick at the start, how does everyone feel about alphabet being a high priority as well?

 

[barbu1977]

Apart from our pick at the start, how does everyone feel about alphabet being a high priority as well?

I agree, After BW, we could consider doing Alpha before IW depending of the situation.

 

[Pentium]

It depends. 2 civs have Alpha as starting tech, so at least on of them will probably (hopefuly) find us quickly. If no-one does, we should go for it.

 

[Daghdha]

Given the generous start, it's a possibility that the Iron is on the hill right next to the capital

Or far away like the Iro horses from Salamanca and iron from Persepolis .

 

[IroquoisPlisken]

I'm thinking that with this start, everyone else's will probably be good too. Because of this, I expect our UU's resource to be far away. This will lead to a lot of trading (or warring ) which is what a lot of people wanted.

I'm leaning towards BW -> IW (or alpha second). Although our second tech we research will depend a lot on who our neighbor is. We won't be researching alpha if our neighbor started with it.

 

[Whomp]

OK we seem to have a consensus on BW so vote now or forever hold your peace.

My view of the mapmaker's decision on resources is that it will be either
1. Readily accessable (I think more likely this will be the case)
2. Tradeable with the civ on our continent. IE if the Iroquois are on our continent we would have horses and they would have iron so dealmaking comes into play.

 

[Own]

I think we shouldn't go for the philo free tech. As long as any other team starts with alphabet we pretty much have no way to get it.