Tech path brainstorming

[Khaim]

Most of us don't have the game yet, but that shouldn't stop us from obsessing about how we're going to play once we do. So post ideas about what order to research techs, with what traits, going for what kind of win, etc.

My first idea was to play as India and try to grab as many early religions as you can. Meditation is cheap, and you should be able to snag it without difficulty. Or you could take Polytheism first, then go Masonry > Monotheism. Or you could do Meditation > Polytheism > Masonry > Monotheism, which is rather risky if someone beats you to Polytheism. But if it works, you control all the early religions, which should be quite useful.

 

[TreeFoot]

I'd rather grab one then go on to more military endevores. Saladin seems the best one to me, best traits, pretty good UU. I follow Sella's strategy in the walkthrough.

 

[Gato Loco]

Well let's look at previous games...

Civ1 - rush to Monarchy
Civ2 - rush to Monarchy
Civ3 - Republic slingshot
CTP - rush to Theocracy

Somehow I think that the best tech path will be to rush for whichever early civic is the most indispensable, grabbing an ancient religion on the way. In Sulla's preview, he talks up Organized Religion, so maybe it'll be a rush to Monotheism.


On a side note, the "best" religion will probably be determined by whichever one's on the best tech path. Christianity and Islam will probably be used by players on the most advanced levels where you can't catch up with the AI until later in the game and therefore can't found the earlier religions.

 

[Pragmatic]

There are multiple threads in General Discussion that have a link to the PDF file of the Tech Tree (for those folks who mistakenly got the French tech tree). Might help those of us who won't have the game for a week or so.

 

[mudblood]

So far, I like the rush to Alphabet strategy in Civ IV. Get there fast and then trade for the advances you missed along the way, confident that no one else can do it.

 

[Wlauzon]

So far, I like the rush to Alphabet strategy in Civ IV. Get there fast and then trade for the advances you missed along the way, confident that no one else can do it.

It may not work the same in Civ4, but what I did a lot in Civ3 was research techs that the AI's did not like, and then traded them for others. Worked fairly well there, since it seemed the AI always went for certain techs and always left others for last. If you were the first to get one, you could often trade it to 3-4 other civs, getting 4 techs for the price of one.

 

[Pinstar]

Rush to Code of Laws worked really well for me. It's a useful tech and gives you a religion to boot.

I really think your starting techs could depend more on your starting terrain. What good resources you have can help determine what woker techs you pick up.

 

[CitizenCain]

I've so far had the most success by rushing to Polytheism (someone invariably beats me to Meditation, so forget that) for the early religion and then Monarchy so I can use troops presence to reduce the number of unhappy citizens in my cities and therefore be more productive.

There are probably much better straegies out there, but this is the only one that I seem to be able to pull off so far.

 

[JavalTigar]

I think with all the new concepts that they have added (new tile improvements, fluid tech tree, great leaders) there isn't going to be one key strategy anymore. It will depend on map type, leader advantages & resources avaliable.

 

[lordqarlyn]

I like to first get the early techs that will allow me to maximize my commerce, wheel (for trade networks), pottery, then get bronze work - chopping those trees down does wonders for rushing my improvements, then a couple techs for tile improvements, and beeline to currency, making sure I pick up philosophy. I usually loose out on early religions, but I still get Thaoism, Confucism, and Christianity first. By then I have at least three to five cities and I can get much of the earlier techs in 1 or 2 turns.

Don

 

[vyapti]

I haven't played yet, but my strategy will be a rush to alphabet and the first tech broker. After that, you're close to philosophy and Taoism