You want to expand because it gives you more might. If you expand too "fast" (overexpand) without acquiring income sources you crush your economy (meaning your research rate is zero otherwise you are punished with STRIKE).
The game steers you towards research but punishes research rate with expanse costs (you taxed more for more units, cities, larger distances and increasingly after T100).
You pay taxes and fund research:
* early on with river + lake + sea tiles or special resources
* early on with trade routes (over rivers or roads or coastal)
* with failgold from lost Wonders (including National)
* after Pottery with cottages
* after Writing with scientists and foreign trade routs
* after Alpha with Hammer => Research or Espionage => tech or tech / resource selling
* after Currency with Hammer => Wealth
* some techs serve as multipliers for Hammers / Research / Wealth
* Great People give gold or beakers
With small empire (compact 3-4 cities) there is no problem to research Pottery/Writing/Alpha/Currency via research slider even from +9c from the capital, which unlock various payment methods granting further expansion.
I tried overexpantion (10 cities after discovery of Writing). To break from failed economy I need to resort to scientists as a source of beakers + bulbing Math and for example trading for Alpha which I half researched with +7bpt from 2 capital scientists. The important things were to get to Pottery early & and working early cottages + working on lakes or coastal in newly built cities to cover costs of joining empire + connecting with roads to neighbors for foreign trade routes + postponing settling some cities till I get to the Writing (as capital's library is the only source of research with crashed economy).
As I understand alternative overexpantion option is via early rush (with archers / chariots / axmen / HA) - you get distant cities + pay for military upkeep, on the other hand every counquered city pays ~100G. I never experienced early rushes, I imaging that economy is also crashed at the end, but you might have extra 100-200G from city capturing...
So I am interested in several things:
* If you lack Apha/Currency where should I burn hammers? Military? Failfold requires certain detour in tech paths, what wonders should I target for and when can I buy or self-tech Alpha or Currency?
* Do you buy or self tech Apha/Currency? If you buy it do you partially research them?
* Do you skip Aplha Research and beeline to Curency Wealth?
* When & How is to get to Pottery/Writing/Alpha/Currency if research rate is low? Dismiss extra warriors? Failgold? Slow research with lib scientists? Some magical bulbing path? Early war for money from raized cities? Overflowing Warriors for +15G in Granary?
* When Pottery is avoided in favor of Animal Hasbandry as a path to Writing? What about Priesthood path to Writing?
* When overexpantion is not viable? When to stop? Is it always bad?
Early a was obsessed with ealry wonders, like Oracle or Pyramids, now I obcessed with blocking AI setters of taking land by placing extra cities far away so cottages & Currency are major early goal. Around T100-T110 I have Currency and 4-5 more cities then the best AI, I can normalize research rate to 30-50% or pump military.
IMM difficulty.
The game steers you towards research but punishes research rate with expanse costs (you taxed more for more units, cities, larger distances and increasingly after T100).
You pay taxes and fund research:
* early on with river + lake + sea tiles or special resources
* early on with trade routes (over rivers or roads or coastal)
* with failgold from lost Wonders (including National)
* after Pottery with cottages
* after Writing with scientists and foreign trade routs
* after Alpha with Hammer => Research or Espionage => tech or tech / resource selling
* after Currency with Hammer => Wealth
* some techs serve as multipliers for Hammers / Research / Wealth
* Great People give gold or beakers
With small empire (compact 3-4 cities) there is no problem to research Pottery/Writing/Alpha/Currency via research slider even from +9c from the capital, which unlock various payment methods granting further expansion.
I tried overexpantion (10 cities after discovery of Writing). To break from failed economy I need to resort to scientists as a source of beakers + bulbing Math and for example trading for Alpha which I half researched with +7bpt from 2 capital scientists. The important things were to get to Pottery early & and working early cottages + working on lakes or coastal in newly built cities to cover costs of joining empire + connecting with roads to neighbors for foreign trade routes + postponing settling some cities till I get to the Writing (as capital's library is the only source of research with crashed economy).
As I understand alternative overexpantion option is via early rush (with archers / chariots / axmen / HA) - you get distant cities + pay for military upkeep, on the other hand every counquered city pays ~100G. I never experienced early rushes, I imaging that economy is also crashed at the end, but you might have extra 100-200G from city capturing...
So I am interested in several things:
* If you lack Apha/Currency where should I burn hammers? Military? Failfold requires certain detour in tech paths, what wonders should I target for and when can I buy or self-tech Alpha or Currency?
* Do you buy or self tech Apha/Currency? If you buy it do you partially research them?
* Do you skip Aplha Research and beeline to Curency Wealth?
* When & How is to get to Pottery/Writing/Alpha/Currency if research rate is low? Dismiss extra warriors? Failgold? Slow research with lib scientists? Some magical bulbing path? Early war for money from raized cities? Overflowing Warriors for +15G in Granary?
* When Pottery is avoided in favor of Animal Hasbandry as a path to Writing? What about Priesthood path to Writing?
* When overexpantion is not viable? When to stop? Is it always bad?
Early a was obsessed with ealry wonders, like Oracle or Pyramids, now I obcessed with blocking AI setters of taking land by placing extra cities far away so cottages & Currency are major early goal. Around T100-T110 I have Currency and 4-5 more cities then the best AI, I can normalize research rate to 30-50% or pump military.
IMM difficulty.