Technology Victory Difficulties

[GamerDad]

Okay, first off, please don't flame me if I'm not better than you. I'm struggling with getting a technology victory on King difficulty and would like some tips. I've been using Alexander (and would prefer to continue to do so). Twice now I've been surpassed within the last 10 years or so and lost the space race. I've been THAT close. What seems to be the difference is that both times the winning Civilization (once the Japanese and once the Indians) never really had to battle anyone. I, on the other hand, had three other Civilizations fighting me the whole way, forcing me to slow down some research in order to build up formidable defenses. The one thing I never do is I never give away Great People and I never give another Civilization any tech in trade for a few turns of peace. So, knowing all of that, is there something I'm doing wrong here? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[PeteAtoms]

it took me a while to win tech on king also. for the same reason a you, military. i was always so worried about getting taken over militarily that i would neglect the sciences.

when i play on king, the only defense i ever need is an army of archers and an army of catapults per city. i only just started using catapults, but they are awesome. when the enemy brings legion or horseman armies to your cities, they usually don't all attack the same round. so when they get to the adjacent tiles of your city, just hit 'em with your cat's. i guarantee that your cat's will be able to hold em off. and you have to just keep plugging away at your science.

and you can do the same thing the AI does to you, just declare war on your tech rivals and they will be distracted too.

you seem to be doing things right, maybe you should try picking better city locations to optimize trade tiles?

 

[Raw Power]

A few helpful tips:
1) Change out of democracy some times to declare war on the AI, when the AI is at war with you this will slow down his research significantly. The earlier you do this the better, because the earlier you do it the more "backwards" the AI units coming at you will be ones you pass the next threshold. (So generally keep the AI leading in tech vs you at war with you. As time goes they will be less persistent on getting peace.
2) If you kill an AI in the early game you will have his territory to expand in, and one less AI to worry about. In other words don't be afraid to go to war early, even if you can't take his capitol you can take a few settlers and slow down his research and expansion rapidly.

My early game often involves:
All research, set research to horsebackriding (no food, no hammers)
After hbr change to only production, build 3 horsemen (by the end of the third you usually have found the first AI and gotten one unit to veteran).
Band together your horsemen to an army and take over an AI capitol. Often I was able to take out a second AI as well doing this, but that often requires either a bit of luck or rushing the third horseman with gold.

After this start you should have full control of the game, just remember that being at war is GOOD, and not bad

 

[GamerDad]

Easy solution: use Egyptians. LOL

Well, that barrier has fallen, although it still wasn't as easy as some of the material I've been reading said it should have. Tech and Domination will probably always be my two most difficult (and least preferred) methods of victory. But oh well, four hours later I'm on cloud nine anyway, for now.

 

[ctmarco3]

yeah I would guess Greeks arent the easiest for a tech victory, my advice would be obviously city placement ..make sure you get those trade tiles....get your libraries and extra couple cities early. and when you get those extra GP hope for a scientist and settle them in your top 2 science output cities instead of completing one tech (unless you can get an expensive one of course). Also get those settlers out to an island rush a library there and just let it sit there generating science...usually I don't even hardly defend those if at all (for awhile anyways)

 

[GamerDad]

I've learned so much playing 20 hours or so the past two and a half days. Makes my original questions feel so silly. LOL

 

[ctmarco3]

yeah its amazing how much you can learn in 20 hours of gameplay lol.. I will tell you what though ...Deity is a whole 'nother world!

 

[GamerDad]

I'm gonna start tackling that tonight. Suspect I'll have some frustrations. In the end I shall prevail!