madscientist
RPC Supergenius
I have noticed that there is not a clear article solely to the Liberalism Beeline, how to get there and what to take. I have noticed some posters asking questions about it and not finding good articles on it.
So here's a straight foreward one to those who play from Prince to Emperor levels (I do not profess any experitse above Emperor!). Also consider I am an exclusive Marathon Speed player although I do not think there is that much difference in the liberalism race in game speed.
Finally, the article is geared towards winning a somewhat tight race so I am leaning towards techs frequestly available. Sure you can delay it forever and even get things like Assembly line, but if you can do that you certainly don't need Old Mad Scientist's Advice
The General idea
The Liberalism beeline is a strategy that targets a single mid-game tech from the early start, usually at the sacrifice of earlier, military orientated techs however you get very powerful research techs and civics in the meanwhile. Once you get Liberalism, you get a free tech and have access to two very powerful research orientated civics in Free Religion (+10% beaker boost and may or may not help in diplomacy) and Free Speech (required for efficient Cottage Economies and Cultural victories).
Requirements
Philosophy
Education (requires Paper)
The hardest tech is education which can take a long time to research that early in the game.
How to get there first
Depending on difficulty and competition, it may or may not require using great scientists to bulb. The good side is the AI tends to greatly reduce the priority of education. If you have an early tech lead, my suggestion would be to manually research everything providing you can defend your empire. An academy or settled Great Scientist will provide you empire with more long term benefits.
With that said, the limiting tech is usually philosophy and definitely education. Having a slew of AI knights and trebs bearing down on you because you spent too much time teching education is no fun. Hence why Great Scientists come in handy. Ideally 2 Great Scientists are required, but three may be used (personally I rarely will waste three).
Step 1: Set up a strong research base. This is independent of any war-mongering. Cottaging the capital is preferred and a strong GP farm is needed which may or may not be the capital. Be prepared to get a library out fast as well as the National Epic in the GP farm. Also, if marble is out there it’s worth a city to claim even if the terrain is poor.
Step 2: Prioritize Aesthetics first. Yes, get this before the economy techs like Mathematics/Currency/Code of Laws/alphabet. You also need polytheism which can be obtained via an early trade or espionage (a cheap tech and easily stolen if you direct eps towards 1 AI and have alphabet). It can often be traded later for techs such as Math, iron Working, Horseback riding, even alphabet and the AI does not prioritize it(caution, some do). After Aesthetics, tech literature then start filling in the economy techs. Run some scientists in cities until you can right the economy.
Step 3: Establish a source of Great Scientists. The reason to go after Literature so fast is to built the Great Library for those free 2 scientists, and preferably in the GP farm. Save forrests to chop it out, then follow up with the National epic. Run a few scientists in addition to the free scientists and you will have Great Scientists popping out like crazy (even faster if you are philosophical). If you have additional food consider adopting caste system to run even more scientists.
Step 4: Start the Beeline: Once you have your economy righted with Currency/Code of Laws/alphabet it is time to aim at liberalism. Philosophy can either be bulbed early (see below) or delayed until after education. What is more important is how you get to paper, which comes from either Theology or Civil Service. Theology offers first crack at the AP, founds a religion, and opens up a warring civic while Civil Service opens Bureaucracy, allows chain farming, and is needed for Macemen. The choice is game specific with theology the cheaper route but Civil Service providing more return. If you have warring issues a deviation to metal casting and machinery is worthwhile as you’ll get crossbows and maces, otherwise you can get these techs and Fuedelism (for longbows) via trades. One nore of caution, if you plan on bulbing Liberalism directly with a Great Scientist, you need to avoid machinery otherwise Printing Press is the next tech to bulb after education.
Step 5: The first Bulb: Well, actually the second Great Scientist as the first should be used for an aacademy in the capital (unless you have a spectacular other science city already). Philosophy is one of the strongest techs to bulb, even without the liberalism beeline. You can found a religion (and if you get a Great Prophet, a nicely shrined religion), one step onto the Liberalism race, and great trade fodder. Depending on diplomacy, it is not unusual to net techs like Fuedalism, machinery, even civil Service and extra gold in trades to several AIs, especially if you are first to it. If you play your cards right, getting 3-4 techs (including philosophy) from one Great Scientist is definitely worth it. Even those unfriendly Ais will unload backfilling techs in exchange for it. Finally, the Pacifism civic is open and if you have a peaceful game going and do not mind anarchy (or are spiritual) this can get you Great Scientists real fast.
Step 6: Get Paper: Once you have theology or Civil Service, get Paper next. 90% of the time I will manually research it as it’s usually pretty cheap, although if you have a particularly efficient GP farm and you think the race may be tight you can sacrifice a Great Scientist providing you either have another saved away or expect a new one real soon. At this point you should also have libraries in most if not all of your cities.
Step 7: Education, the grand Daddy. Education is very low prioritized by the AI, I think mostly because of it’s cost and non-effect on war. Not only is it essential for liberalism, it opens up universities which gets you a head start on Oxford. In addition, it’s great trade fodder and an efficient way to nab engineering and guilds. However, be cautious NOT to trade it too early. A Great Scientist is important here as you can bulb usually about 2/3 of education.
Step 8: Liberalism!: Once you have education and Philosophy, you can either start liberalism right away and finish it, tech it almost to the end and wait until AIs get close, or divert to other techs and delay it. My advice is to at least start it and trade away education to backfill techs once you get close to the end. Most AIs (BUT NOT ALL) will beeline economics before liberalism for the free Great Merchant. The decision is up to you, some (like myself) prefer to get a big edge ASAP and finish it fast while others prefer to wait and get a more dominating tech like rifling, Steel, Democracy, or Scientific Method. Also you may be getting another Great Scientist while finishing education and liberalism which can be used to bulb most of Printing Press. While getting a free “Big Tech” may seam the obvious choice, you are missing many turns without that free tech and more importantly missing out on 2 valuable civics. The next section discusses which techs to select.
What Techs to Select
Once you have won your hard fought race to liberalism, what to choose???? Well reasons you choose a very nice free tech can be summarized here
1) The most beaker expensive tech available
2) An Immediate military edge
3) An economic edge to further advance your already established tech superiority
4) The next step in another important step in yet another beeline
5) Trade bait
Myself, I have used all the above reasons although I have several favored techs.
So again, what to take? Here are the most popular and common assuming a fairly tight race without delaying liberalism. I am not going to go into things like Steel, physics, and democracy because if your getting those techs fro free you don’t need my advice!
Nationalism: My personal favorite as it offers numerous advantages. It is frequently the highest in beakers, offers a civic that has numerous advantages (economical, military, and espionage), allows a very timely wonder (The Taj), and opens up the Democracy beeline (civics and a key wonder). Mostly, it gets you first crack at the Taj and it’s free Golden Age, something pretty important if you are not a Spiritual leader (and thus Adopt a lot of those shiny new civics). I usually try and build it in the Bureaucracy capital especially if we have marble (see the above Great Library Discussion) and tech or trade towards Free Market at the same time. Once in the Golden Age you can adopt all the civics you just acquired with no anarchy (FS, FR, FM, Nationhood etc…. On the military end, you can draft a conquering army with nationhood especially if you beeline rifling after the liberalism race. As far as beelining, it opens up the constitution/corporation/democracy line of research opening up almost all of the remaining civics. There is one downside, the AI tends to beeline nationalism before it attempts education thus on emperor level games I find the AI may have it already.
Astronomy: Sometimes the most obvious choice especially if you’re playing a continents, hemispheres, or archipelago board. The obvious reasons are the appearance of Galleons for intercontinental invasions, foreign trade routes, and ability to trade resources across the ocean. Very useful if you see some redeyed Aggressive AIs or Religious Zealot sharpening their swords overseas! But there is much more to Astronomy, it opens up Physics if you pursue the easily Bulbed Scientific Method (are you still getting those Great Scientists??) for a free Great Scientist AND it gets you early access to another research building, the observatory (even better if you have yet to trade education, thus 2 x 25% beaker buildings before the AI has access the either!).
Chemistry: Requires you already have gunpowder and engineering so it depends generally on how you trade off education. But a very useful tech that allows frigates (if you can trade for astronomy) and opens the path to Military Science (grenaders and Ships of the Line) or Steel (cannons). Again if your Bulbing out Scientific Method, you have fast access to Biology if you have gotten into A Specialist Economy game. Not to be limited there, you also have access to Steam Power and the Steel/Railroad/Combustion line of research which can greatly improve your production!
Ecomonics: One of the lower beaker return techs to take but if your first there you get a free Great Merchant for A LOT of gold or a headstart to one of those food corps! Considering the AI beelines economics this may be the only way to actually get the Free Great Merchant and upgrading a lot of well promoted Swords to maces for an upcoming war. I have found that I need to get Guilds and banking in separate trades to open this tech up, so while it’s the cheapest of these favored techs I find it sometimes the more elusive as I have traded off education freeing the AIs up to tech economics.
Printing Press: The grand companion to the Free Speech civic for the Cottage Economy! An instantaneous boost you all your Towns that you have patiently waited while they matured! It also opens up Scientific Method and with banking allows the replaceable Part/rifling beeline.
Military Tradition: I consider this a borderline fast liberalism path as I described and delaying liberalism. However, as I said the Ai loves to manually research Nationalism and if you have a good trading partner it’s possible to pry it away from them in a generous trade before you finish Liberalism. If you can do that and got Music in a minor early trade you can opt for this powerful military tech. Currasairs are dominant with gunpowder, and early access to cavalry with rifling is a game breaker!
Divine Right: I personally have never taken this tech, but I can see times where you might want it. Founding the last religion gets you the last chance to a shrined religion (unless you have taken it from someone). Useful for the Wonder Hog players, and those religious economies like first crack at the Spiral Minerat for the extra gold! Also if you are heading towards a cultural victory, a lot of time you shut the science slider down after liberalism so getting another religion for another cathedral may be worth more than all those mentioned fancy techs! Finally, the AIs love this tech and will trade fairly well for it: Keeping education to yourself while trading Divine Right numerous times for techs like engineering, guilds, economics etc… has it’s benefits!
So here's a straight foreward one to those who play from Prince to Emperor levels (I do not profess any experitse above Emperor!). Also consider I am an exclusive Marathon Speed player although I do not think there is that much difference in the liberalism race in game speed.
Finally, the article is geared towards winning a somewhat tight race so I am leaning towards techs frequestly available. Sure you can delay it forever and even get things like Assembly line, but if you can do that you certainly don't need Old Mad Scientist's Advice
The General idea
The Liberalism beeline is a strategy that targets a single mid-game tech from the early start, usually at the sacrifice of earlier, military orientated techs however you get very powerful research techs and civics in the meanwhile. Once you get Liberalism, you get a free tech and have access to two very powerful research orientated civics in Free Religion (+10% beaker boost and may or may not help in diplomacy) and Free Speech (required for efficient Cottage Economies and Cultural victories).
Requirements
Philosophy
Education (requires Paper)
The hardest tech is education which can take a long time to research that early in the game.
How to get there first
Depending on difficulty and competition, it may or may not require using great scientists to bulb. The good side is the AI tends to greatly reduce the priority of education. If you have an early tech lead, my suggestion would be to manually research everything providing you can defend your empire. An academy or settled Great Scientist will provide you empire with more long term benefits.
With that said, the limiting tech is usually philosophy and definitely education. Having a slew of AI knights and trebs bearing down on you because you spent too much time teching education is no fun. Hence why Great Scientists come in handy. Ideally 2 Great Scientists are required, but three may be used (personally I rarely will waste three).
Step 1: Set up a strong research base. This is independent of any war-mongering. Cottaging the capital is preferred and a strong GP farm is needed which may or may not be the capital. Be prepared to get a library out fast as well as the National Epic in the GP farm. Also, if marble is out there it’s worth a city to claim even if the terrain is poor.
Step 2: Prioritize Aesthetics first. Yes, get this before the economy techs like Mathematics/Currency/Code of Laws/alphabet. You also need polytheism which can be obtained via an early trade or espionage (a cheap tech and easily stolen if you direct eps towards 1 AI and have alphabet). It can often be traded later for techs such as Math, iron Working, Horseback riding, even alphabet and the AI does not prioritize it(caution, some do). After Aesthetics, tech literature then start filling in the economy techs. Run some scientists in cities until you can right the economy.
Step 3: Establish a source of Great Scientists. The reason to go after Literature so fast is to built the Great Library for those free 2 scientists, and preferably in the GP farm. Save forrests to chop it out, then follow up with the National epic. Run a few scientists in addition to the free scientists and you will have Great Scientists popping out like crazy (even faster if you are philosophical). If you have additional food consider adopting caste system to run even more scientists.
Step 4: Start the Beeline: Once you have your economy righted with Currency/Code of Laws/alphabet it is time to aim at liberalism. Philosophy can either be bulbed early (see below) or delayed until after education. What is more important is how you get to paper, which comes from either Theology or Civil Service. Theology offers first crack at the AP, founds a religion, and opens up a warring civic while Civil Service opens Bureaucracy, allows chain farming, and is needed for Macemen. The choice is game specific with theology the cheaper route but Civil Service providing more return. If you have warring issues a deviation to metal casting and machinery is worthwhile as you’ll get crossbows and maces, otherwise you can get these techs and Fuedelism (for longbows) via trades. One nore of caution, if you plan on bulbing Liberalism directly with a Great Scientist, you need to avoid machinery otherwise Printing Press is the next tech to bulb after education.
Step 5: The first Bulb: Well, actually the second Great Scientist as the first should be used for an aacademy in the capital (unless you have a spectacular other science city already). Philosophy is one of the strongest techs to bulb, even without the liberalism beeline. You can found a religion (and if you get a Great Prophet, a nicely shrined religion), one step onto the Liberalism race, and great trade fodder. Depending on diplomacy, it is not unusual to net techs like Fuedalism, machinery, even civil Service and extra gold in trades to several AIs, especially if you are first to it. If you play your cards right, getting 3-4 techs (including philosophy) from one Great Scientist is definitely worth it. Even those unfriendly Ais will unload backfilling techs in exchange for it. Finally, the Pacifism civic is open and if you have a peaceful game going and do not mind anarchy (or are spiritual) this can get you Great Scientists real fast.
Step 6: Get Paper: Once you have theology or Civil Service, get Paper next. 90% of the time I will manually research it as it’s usually pretty cheap, although if you have a particularly efficient GP farm and you think the race may be tight you can sacrifice a Great Scientist providing you either have another saved away or expect a new one real soon. At this point you should also have libraries in most if not all of your cities.
Step 7: Education, the grand Daddy. Education is very low prioritized by the AI, I think mostly because of it’s cost and non-effect on war. Not only is it essential for liberalism, it opens up universities which gets you a head start on Oxford. In addition, it’s great trade fodder and an efficient way to nab engineering and guilds. However, be cautious NOT to trade it too early. A Great Scientist is important here as you can bulb usually about 2/3 of education.
Step 8: Liberalism!: Once you have education and Philosophy, you can either start liberalism right away and finish it, tech it almost to the end and wait until AIs get close, or divert to other techs and delay it. My advice is to at least start it and trade away education to backfill techs once you get close to the end. Most AIs (BUT NOT ALL) will beeline economics before liberalism for the free Great Merchant. The decision is up to you, some (like myself) prefer to get a big edge ASAP and finish it fast while others prefer to wait and get a more dominating tech like rifling, Steel, Democracy, or Scientific Method. Also you may be getting another Great Scientist while finishing education and liberalism which can be used to bulb most of Printing Press. While getting a free “Big Tech” may seam the obvious choice, you are missing many turns without that free tech and more importantly missing out on 2 valuable civics. The next section discusses which techs to select.
What Techs to Select
Once you have won your hard fought race to liberalism, what to choose???? Well reasons you choose a very nice free tech can be summarized here
1) The most beaker expensive tech available
2) An Immediate military edge
3) An economic edge to further advance your already established tech superiority
4) The next step in another important step in yet another beeline
5) Trade bait
Myself, I have used all the above reasons although I have several favored techs.
So again, what to take? Here are the most popular and common assuming a fairly tight race without delaying liberalism. I am not going to go into things like Steel, physics, and democracy because if your getting those techs fro free you don’t need my advice!
Nationalism: My personal favorite as it offers numerous advantages. It is frequently the highest in beakers, offers a civic that has numerous advantages (economical, military, and espionage), allows a very timely wonder (The Taj), and opens up the Democracy beeline (civics and a key wonder). Mostly, it gets you first crack at the Taj and it’s free Golden Age, something pretty important if you are not a Spiritual leader (and thus Adopt a lot of those shiny new civics). I usually try and build it in the Bureaucracy capital especially if we have marble (see the above Great Library Discussion) and tech or trade towards Free Market at the same time. Once in the Golden Age you can adopt all the civics you just acquired with no anarchy (FS, FR, FM, Nationhood etc…
. On the military end, you can draft a conquering army with nationhood especially if you beeline rifling after the liberalism race. As far as beelining, it opens up the constitution/corporation/democracy line of research opening up almost all of the remaining civics. There is one downside, the AI tends to beeline nationalism before it attempts education thus on emperor level games I find the AI may have it already. Astronomy: Sometimes the most obvious choice especially if you’re playing a continents, hemispheres, or archipelago board. The obvious reasons are the appearance of Galleons for intercontinental invasions, foreign trade routes, and ability to trade resources across the ocean. Very useful if you see some redeyed Aggressive AIs or Religious Zealot sharpening their swords overseas! But there is much more to Astronomy, it opens up Physics if you pursue the easily Bulbed Scientific Method (are you still getting those Great Scientists??) for a free Great Scientist AND it gets you early access to another research building, the observatory (even better if you have yet to trade education, thus 2 x 25% beaker buildings before the AI has access the either!).
Chemistry: Requires you already have gunpowder and engineering so it depends generally on how you trade off education. But a very useful tech that allows frigates (if you can trade for astronomy) and opens the path to Military Science (grenaders and Ships of the Line) or Steel (cannons). Again if your Bulbing out Scientific Method, you have fast access to Biology if you have gotten into A Specialist Economy game. Not to be limited there, you also have access to Steam Power and the Steel/Railroad/Combustion line of research which can greatly improve your production!
Ecomonics: One of the lower beaker return techs to take but if your first there you get a free Great Merchant for A LOT of gold or a headstart to one of those food corps! Considering the AI beelines economics this may be the only way to actually get the Free Great Merchant and upgrading a lot of well promoted Swords to maces for an upcoming war. I have found that I need to get Guilds and banking in separate trades to open this tech up, so while it’s the cheapest of these favored techs I find it sometimes the more elusive as I have traded off education freeing the AIs up to tech economics.
Printing Press: The grand companion to the Free Speech civic for the Cottage Economy! An instantaneous boost you all your Towns that you have patiently waited while they matured! It also opens up Scientific Method and with banking allows the replaceable Part/rifling beeline.
Military Tradition: I consider this a borderline fast liberalism path as I described and delaying liberalism. However, as I said the Ai loves to manually research Nationalism and if you have a good trading partner it’s possible to pry it away from them in a generous trade before you finish Liberalism. If you can do that and got Music in a minor early trade you can opt for this powerful military tech. Currasairs are dominant with gunpowder, and early access to cavalry with rifling is a game breaker!
Divine Right: I personally have never taken this tech, but I can see times where you might want it. Founding the last religion gets you the last chance to a shrined religion (unless you have taken it from someone). Useful for the Wonder Hog players, and those religious economies like first crack at the Spiral Minerat for the extra gold! Also if you are heading towards a cultural victory, a lot of time you shut the science slider down after liberalism so getting another religion for another cathedral may be worth more than all those mentioned fancy techs! Finally, the AIs love this tech and will trade fairly well for it: Keeping education to yourself while trading Divine Right numerous times for techs like engineering, guilds, economics etc… has it’s benefits!
