tech's to go for in Industrial Age

[PattonTwo]

What's critical assuming your playing a game on continents and you control 1 and 3-4 civs control the other.

I'm not certain that I really want to go try to conquor the other continent. Seems like too much trouble?

Will my score suffer too much if I don't?

Assuming I do not, what techs would be "must haves"?

PattonTwo

 

[rhino910]

I almost always go for Steam Power first. Get the railroads before everyone else and you can build up a pretty big lead, fast! After that I head straight for Scientific Method. Got to be the one to build Theory of Evolution. Once I have that, the game is all but won. After that I will get Nationalism, then I head for Electoronics (and get the Hoover Dam). Then it is on to Sanitation and a chance to build hospitals. After that I do what it takes to ge Motor Transport and tanks.

 

[Effing]

Your score doesn't only depend on facts like how large your territory and such things, you can also go for a cultural victory. I personally don't like conquer wars so much, I annihilate them rather than to conquer them - it causes a lot of trouble, and it's awful micromanagement (not so much in PTW anymore, but it's certainly enough).
First thing to go for in indurstial age is IMHO railroad. Then, research industialisation or sanitary installations, but these are the first things you should get. Railroad gives a boost to your economy and makes war in the early stages a lot easier. Industialisation gives you a huge boost in your cities allowing you to build lots of military, and if you have sanitations and nationalism, you can build a cheap (but not so great) army of conscripts, at costs of your pop of course.
But if this continent contains also industrial civs, get prepared for a very long and painful war.
So I would say go for railroad first and then industrialisation.
HF - blast those bastards !

 

[planetfall]

Patton,

If not going to conquer the world, first tech has to be nationalism so you can make MPP and have others protect you.

Then you can get steam, etc.

== PF

 

[Bamspeedy]

You should almost always get steam power first. Railroads are awesome and shoot your productivity/growth through the roof, and you want to know where the coal is.

Nationalism you can get from one of the other civs. The scientific civs will get this (or if no scientific civs, they will research it first in most cases), so you can trade for it.

After that, there are some good choices, so it depends on your needs:
Industrialization (factories, Universal Suffrage)
Sanitation (hospitals)
Scientific Method (for TOE, which completed by you using a pre-build you'll want to slingshot all the way to electronics and get Hoover's)
Replaceable Parts (for infantry and faster workers)

Then you can start on the long journey to tanks.

 

[Megalou]

Originally posted by Effing
if you have sanitations and nationalism, you can build a cheap (but not so great) army of conscripts, at costs of your pop of course.

Also at happiness cost. But if you have a lot of luxuries, what the heck. Still, I wouldn't do that unless in a BIG hurry. All conscrips are mainly defensive and can become cannon-fodder in the hostile environment.

I don't understand what Santation has to do with it. Do you mean five hospitals and Battlefield Medicine? By all means.

PattonTwo, as you might know, be sure to park on mountains in hostile territory. I would also make sure I had Communism once I start capturing cities, if I don't want to sack them all which sounds like a Herculean task before tanks.

 

[Effing]

I mean if you've got sanitation, wait until your cities get real big, then it won't hurt so much if you draft three or four conscripts out of every city.
As for communism: I prefer to have monarchy (the old discussion about governments, I know ), but switching your gov from demo/republic to communism or monarchy is a must.
Build up a large army in your democray, and go for replaceable parts, infantry is a very strong unit in the industrial age.

 

[TheNiceOne]

The industrial age is the only age where my research pattern is (almost) set in stone.

Background: I play on emperor, and have normally got a small tech lead when I enter the industrial age.

My research pattern is as follows:

1) steam power: Get railroads ASAP. It increases growth/production enormously.

2) Industrialization: A divercion from where I want to get fast, but worth it for the factories and partly for the wonder(s)

3) Electricity: On my road to the ToE wonder

4) Scientific Evolution: If everything goes as planned, I will have a city working on a palace, ready to switch to ToE and finish it in a turn or two. If so I set my research rate to 0% and goes for

a5) Atomic Theory and
a6) Electronics: Those two are the most expensive techs (giving you most from ToE), and will give you access to the Hoover Dam and a production rate that outproduces the remaining civs together.

If the ToE will take 4 or more turns to build, I will research one interim tech while waiting for it to be finished. I then go for:

b5) The Coorporation: A cheap tech that can easily be researched in excactly as many turns as I need for building ToE.

or

c5) Replacement parts: An important tech that secures your borders for the rest of the game. With lots of artillery and infantry, noone will be able to conquer you. Replacement parts is much more useful than coorporation, but if I cannot finish it as soon as I build the ToE, then I will choose the coorporation instead.

In case of b5 or c5, when I get ToE, atomic theory and electronics will always be the two I get myself from ToE.

Then after Electonics, I will research Replacement parts first, then followed by coorporation (unless I have one of these already, of course), then refining (to find out whether I have oil, or if I need to conquer it), followed by the shortest route to motorized transport. Then flight and radio, and a new age has begun

Nationalism I here you ask, what about nationalism? Well, unless I'm in a war where I sorely need riflemen, then I won't bother. I rather buy (or preferrably, steal) it later on when all the other civs have it. The same goes for communisn and espionage. I then pick out a civ that has it but lacks a few techs that the other civs already have, and get a trade that cost me nothing.

 

[Scyphax]

If you are not going to conquer the other contient then military techs are not important. I have never had an AI launch a seaborne invasion that has had a chance of success.
You do need to have a rapid reponse force able to deal with upto 3 Calvary Units. Also expect ships to bombard you territory but thats about it.

I go for railroad - increased production and instant movement.
Then I go for Industrialisation, Theory of Evolution, Sanitation and Hoover dam.

If I am going to stick to my own contient then nothing else in the Industrial age is useful (except maybe espionage)