Stopping AI Civ Ahead on Tech Tree

[CharlieM]

Generic question... an AI Civ is ahead in tech, and you are going for another type of victory.

What ways are there to slow or stop their tech progress and catch up?

-put more of your own resources into tech
-pay someone to declare war on them
-use spies to steal gold ... and...?
-declare war on them

In my specific case today, I'm the French going for Cultural Victory, while the Japanese on the other side of the world are up by about four techs about halfway through the game.


But specifics of this situation aside, what are the ways to stop/slow an AI tech victory?

 

[Aden52]

Well all of the four points you listed are solid ways of slowing them down tech wise. If you really want to catch up then turn more cities to science, and build a navy. Declare war on them, then move your fleets onto their dyes/fish/whales etc. This will definitely help to slow them down because they will focus on building units, and put less stress on tech, which means if they work any tiles at all for tech, its probably going to be one with a resource. But if you got your boat there you'll stop them from working that tile.

I wouldn't necessarily use your spies to steal gold, especially if they are winning the tech race. Its likely they don't have many gold producing cities, so you could hurt them more by using your spies to either:

- steal great people (specifically try to get great scientists, and if there are none then try for humanitarians and builders next. humanitarians so their city wont grow as big and therefore works less science tiles, and builder so that you can build a wonder (and add to your cultural victory total). The great people will also help you reach a cultural victory).

- stop production on important science producing buildings, like universities, libraries, courthouses, harbors. While courthouses and harbors don't directly add to science, they let them have more options when choosing which tiles to work.

- demolish a building and hopefully hit a science building? I'm not sure how efficient this would be, but its still better than stealing just gold from a technologically advanced civ.

Also, in your game, if that Japanese are only 4 techs ahead I wouldn't worry too much. I've played games where the Chinese were about 6 techs ahead of me, and I still won the space race. Not quite sure why they didn't go straight for it, as they finally got the tech when I was only a few turns from landing on Alpha Centauri. Also, they might have 4 techs on you, but what kind of techs do you have? If you have less techs, but stronger techs that cost more, than are you really losing the tech race? The techs you have might be more important and more powerful. Whereas the computer might have more techs, but they are older techs that you could research in just a few turns if you wanted to.

 

[Ki Yote]

Another viable option is to try to buy tech from them to see what all they have before you determine they are truly "ahead" of you in tech. Buy research from them/others if you want to keep up, especially anything that will help in your cultural victory.

A tip with spies. Make 1 spy ring and have a few other spies on hand (2-3). Send the spy ring in to take out their spy then send the other 2-3 spies in behind them to do some real hurt. Once their spy is taken out generally the other 2-3 spies can walk in uncontested. Steal 2-3 great people, destroy 2-3 buildings... screw them up!

 

[Rakuen]

one word

Nuke

 

[Smidlee]

.....

- stop production on important science producing buildings, like universities, libraries, courthouses, harbors. While courthouses and harbors don't directly add to science, they let them have more options when choosing which tiles to work.

- demolish a building and hopefully hit a science building? I'm not sure how efficient this would be, but its still better than stealing just gold from a technologically advanced civ.
.....

In case you haven't noticed the AI doesn't seem to build that many buildings. (deity) I find that sometimes the AI (deity) pass me in tech with just a two or three cities without any libraries. I believe the best way is to capture their capital and any of their large cities. I'm pretty sure the AI doesn't need Barracks either in order to build veteran units.

 

[CrimsonEdge]

In case you haven't noticed the AI doesn't seem to build that many buildings. (deity) I find that sometimes the AI (deity) pass me in tech with just a two or three cities without any libraries. I believe the best way is to capture their capital and any of their large cities. I'm pretty sure the AI doesn't need Barracks either in order to build veteran units.

I'm not sure about the Barracks thing, but yeah, they out tech you fairly easily. You've got to take out at least one civ early on in order to stay afloat in tech (unless you are Japan with Republic... just own the oceans) against Deity.

It's a bit of an uphill battle, but it's doable in the early game by spamming nothing but military units.

I've found early devotion to tech to be a waste to be honest.

 

[vinstafresh]

I've found early devotion to tech to be a waste to be honest.

I've found the exact opposite. The first to discover bonuses that add to all your cities for the entire game is huge! I haven't been able to steadily conquer more advanced civs with a big amount of obsolete units. I usually start conquering once I get my naval support up with cruisers. Until then I just stand my ground with up-to-date defensive and offensive units and temples.

 

[Raw Power]

1) Keep at war with the AI, is the best way in the long run to stop them from teching away from you.
2) Stealing their great scientists is one of the quickest ways apart from the nuke.
3) Deny them resources like Dye also helps a lot, and if you have the resources for it, do a full blockade of their sea squares on their main science city.

 

[CrimsonEdge]

I've found the exact opposite. The first to discover bonuses that add to all your cities for the entire game is huge! I haven't been able to steadily conquer more advanced civs with a big amount of obsolete units. I usually start conquering once I get my naval support up with cruisers. Until then I just stand my ground with up-to-date defensive and offensive units and temples.

I think you misunderstood what I was saying.

In the early game, hammers matter much more than beakers and, as such, a devotion to beakers doesn't get you nearly as much as a devotion to hammers. If you devote yourself to teching early, chances are you won't have as many cities for all of those bonuses. The good thing about waiting a bit is that the enemy usually doesn't go for techs that effect all of his cities (I don't know why, on Deity I'm the first to research about 40% of the techs and I put my cities to near full hammers for the majority of the game) and you can take those techs at a later point and have them effect more cities.

Early game devotion to teching really doesn't do you very well in the early game. You need units, buildings, and settlers more than you need quick pikemen.

 

[vinstafresh]

The bonuses that affect your cities for first discovered techs are carried over to cities you build after discovering that tech. So if you discover Literacy with only 2 cities, your entire empire will still have +1 science per city in modern times. Huge!

But you still need production to protect your cities and build buildings and settlers. If you make sure one of your first 2 cities (capitol and free settler city) is a science city and one is a production city (or a very good fast growing city), you can get to code of laws to expand pretty quickly and specialize more. Rush buy a library in your science city, rush buy a barracks in your production city. First to irrigation adds one pop to each city on that turn and boosts science even more.

 

[Jimmy369]

I am pretty sure that some of the bonuses that apply to all your cities only apply to cities that currently exist. I would have to check this but I have seen times where I was first to Printing Press and then built a new city afterwards that did not have the culture bonus.