Trying to work out a rapid tech plan

[SkyknightXi]

One thing I'm trying to figure out is what leaders/civic formations will generally get me techs the fastest--with leaders being judged by their traits and their civilizations' unique buildings. So far, I'm eyeing Wang Kon (financial + seowon) and Hannibal (financial + cothon) as the main likelies. As for civics, I hope I have something right in this for the ultimate target...

--Representation
--Bureaucracy/Free Speech
--Caste System (LOTS of specialists potentially...scientists in particular)
--Free Religion
--Free Market

{sigh} And of course, it already looks pretty nebulaic...Anyone care to give further shape to this? Keep in mind that I want to win peacefully...

 

[frob2900]

One thing I'm trying to figure out is what leaders/civic formations will generally get me techs the fastest

--Representation
--Bureaucracy/Free Speech
--Caste System (LOTS of specialists potentially...scientists in particular)
--Free Religion
--Free Market

Try Elizabeth (Fin/Phi), running Hereditary Rule + Pacifism + Caste System + Bureacracy. One city should be cottaged up, one should have the national epic and a religion and be running scientists like crazy.

You can (on Prince) hit biology by 740 AD with liberalism (my personal best) or you could go for steel (possible even earlier). Not quite as easy on Monarch, but you could also go the democracy route, which can easily be got around 900 AD on Monarch.

Depends on what tech route you want.

Also, the above times depended heavily on turtling (only running two cities with not very much going on military wise), so expansion or unforeseen wars will, of course, slow you down.

Representation is of course also very nice, but the Pyramids can't always be guaranteed, and the National Epic city is running specialists mainly for the Great Scientists that will bulb you through Paper/Education and then Printing Press/Chemistry/Scientific Method etc.

 

[SkyknightXi]

That's just it...I want *all* the techs as soon as possible. Otherwise, I'll be overly vulnerable SOMEWHERE, and that always sounds to me like "badly failed at something". "Beelining" keeps sounding to me like "overextending" (Me and my perfectionism...). {frowns} I suppose it has something to do with one of my stock rules for choosing research--never choose something that takes at least twice as many turns as something else. You'll end up behind the others in the amount of tools you'll have available, otherwise...{whimper} The whole point of tech run is so that you DON'T have to degrade yourself to min/maxing, I thought...

I'm not sure how England's going to help, though. Where does the Stock Exchange fit into this? That supplies gold, not research...If this is about philosophical, that's going to depend on getting more than one's fair share of wonders, it sounds (without them, I'm not confident even Pacifism will help).

{fumes} And now I'm sounding petulant...Maybe it's because a very popular leader just got recommended, and I'm determined to thrive while going against the grain...That, and I'm not just worried about being underpowerful. I'm also worried about being OVERpowerful....

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Unless you have tech trading off then beelining works out much better in the long run because you can trade expensive tech for the cheaper ones you missed out on.

Wang Kon is pretty fast at teching and Hwachas are superb so he is good, yes.

If you run alot of specialists and have religion in your main specialist cities then pacifism (and mercantilism, goes well with caste system) is better than free religion IMO.

I've not played as Hannibal yet so can't comment. Ragnar is good for fast teching too being financial.

And make sure you get the great library. If you can get the pyramids (very doable on prince) then get that for early representation as well.

 

[Jet]

The best leaders for research depend on the specific game settings, your experience with the game, and your play preferences. But without getting into all the subtleties, your thoughts on leaders were on a perfectly fine track.

The best civics for research change as you progress through the game. Example: in the Legal category, in the middle of the game, Bureaucracy is the best for research if you have good commerce in your capital; in the late game, if you have built a lot of cottages and they have matured into towns, Free Speech becomes better.

If you want to play a Financial leader, then the most straightforward - and over the long term, the most effective - way to get fast research is to concentrate on cottages and cottage civics, and run specialists only in 1 to 3 cities which are specialized for the purpose of doing so (for example, by being located near food resources and also getting farms on other tiles.)

In a peaceful game that focuses on cottages and fast research, the final civics should usually be:

1. Universal Suffrage (or possibly Representation if you don't need your towns to produce hammers, mainly in the additional circumstance of your Oxford city having a lot of settled Great Scientists, but possibly in the additional circumstance of having the Statue of Liberty; or possibly Hereditary Rule, if there's no other way to make your cities happy enough.)
2. Free Speech (or possibly Bureaucracy, if your empire is very small and your capital is very highly developed with 15-20 cottages and Oxford.)
3. Emancipation
4. Free Market, Communism, or Environmentalism, depending. (Usually not Communism, because playing in a peaceful manner will usually not get you a ton of land.)
5. Organized Religion or Free Religion, depending.

However, getting to the "final civics" is 80% of the game, so enjoy it while it lasts. Likewise, researching to the end of the tech tree is normally 99% of the game.

 

[frob2900]

I'm not sure how England's going to help, though. Where does the Stock Exchange fit into this? That supplies gold, not research...

The stock exchange gives you money. Money makes the world go round. If you do the democracy beeline, followed by a chemistry bulb, you are good as gold (on Monarch and below). Use grenadiers/trebuchets to take territory off the AI quickly and then cottage as fast as you can. You should switch out of caste system once you have lots of cottages being worked and go to emancipation, which grows the cottages...

Once the are grown somewhat go to Free Speech (well, you could have gone to that already) and Universal Suffrage (for the +1 towns + the important "buy production" thing).

The stock exchanges of england will give you so much gold (when you have enough cottages) that you'll be able to buy univerisites + observatories + grocers etc. in all cities much, much faster than you could build them.

The route I suggested (democracy) isn't the only one, but it's solid as long as you have cottageable land and you aren't scared of using grenadiers to get more land.

The 800AD biology beeline is also sweet, because once you have Nationalism+Rifling you can draft riflemen very rapidly.

If this is about philosophical, that's going to depend on getting more than one's fair share of wonders, it sounds (without them, I'm not confident even Pacifism will help).

Specialists are a much better potential source of points than wonders. Run 6-7 scientists with pacifism+NE+philosophical and you'll be swimming in Great Scientists.

{fumes} And now I'm sounding petulant...Maybe it's because a very popular leader just got recommended, and I'm determined to thrive while going against the grain...That, and I'm not just worried about being underpowerful. I'm also worried about being OVERpowerful....

OVERPowerful???? What's wrong with that?

For a challenge try running someone like Montezuma in a science race. The democracy beeline still works and the cottages will still give you faster research with the AI. You'll just have less money+less great people, but to make up for it you can switch civics fast and get Combat I for your melee/gunpowder..

[EDIT] Also, importantly, I recommend an early war. The reason I mentioned beeline teching and warring first with grenadiers was that I was assuming that you don't like to fight wars and prefer teching?