Wartime economy relief: Research Code-of-Laws or Maths+Currency

[vader1941]

I play Roman (Augustus) for early game supremacy.

I've just researched iron-working, and have 8+ Praetoria (NO catapults yet) attacking a neighbour. If they're a cultural Civ (Gandhi, Isaballa, Hatty, etc.), then they probably still have archers and I can take 3-4 cities while churning out Praetoria from my core cities. Midway into the war, I have plenty Praetoria, but am running low on funds.

I can scrape by through cottage-raiding and city-pillaging, enough to research one of these two techs:
-Code-of-Laws is 350 beakers.
-Maths+currency costs 250+400 = 600 beakers

My objective is to prolong the war to capture more cities, and still have a post-war economy that is not on STRIKE. I don't care if my immediate post-war research is 0%, my large empire will quickly recover.

Code-of-laws gives plenty cheap courthouses, and currency gives markets + hammer->coin.
Which path is better?

 

[Htadus]

I find cheap CH better since it can reduce city maintanance in the exess of 2gpt easily in the new captured cities. it also give you the option to switch to Casts System to run merchants.

If I am using th Oracle it would be Currency since I was already heading toward onstruction anyways and know math.

 

[Gumbolt]

Alphabet through peace is also useful.

Keep war going and all cities pumping out pret! Just burn the cities you don't need.

 

[Seraiel]

CHs with Augustus aren't cheap, so Currency is definately the better route.

 

[r_rolo1]

Currency allows to demand cash in the end of the war

 

[Handel]

Maths gives increased chop returns AND is a step toward the catapults. Unlike it the CoL needs a lot of investment to give some result; and as you probably have no more then 6 cities even if you build courtyards in all of them you all you gains probably will be less then the gold, produced from 1 city hammers after the currency.

On the other hand CoL will give a religion. And you are going to kill/vassalize your neighbors anyway so you probably don't care much about relations. So if will planning to get a Great Prophet in the near future you may consider going for CoL. Still currency can give results faster.

 

[Kallikrates]

Depending on the time, if Confucianism has not been founded yet, it might be worth a try. Julius Caesar gets cheap Courthouses, Augustus doesn't. As has been pointed out, Currency has the additonal benefit of demanding tribute or trade tech vs. money. And math you will need soon anyway for construction (catapults)

 

[Revent]

Code of Laws worked pretty nice in a game I was once playing when I decided to go for that instead of what you said. I was playing as Gandhi so didn't even need to waste turns in anarchy, switched to caste, set up merchants in all my captured cities and let them give me the coins You'll probably even get a GM if you do that and using that in a shrine city/future wall street would be nice haha.

Although to bear in mind is that I axe rushed five Civs (12 cities, kept all except one) in that game when I used to be struggling on Noble although this may suck on higher levels

 

[pigswill]

You can go alpha>currency instead of maths>currency, gives you ability to trade techs, extort techs, build research or build wealth, currency also gives an extra trade route.

 

[Quibblesome]

Always currency, you can build money. It's the "ultimate fail safe" for economic woe. PLUS extra trade route and diplomatic options. Always better than CoL IMO even with Organised leaders because its so much more flexible.

 

[Seraiel]

Depends on the difficulty and map size you play Quibblesome. On my Deity / Huge / Marathon maps, I can be sure an AI will have Currency at a latest of 1500 BC, same for Math, on normal speed it should be even earlier. If you went CoL and bulbed Math (or founded an Academy and researched it) you can research Civil Service very very early, I'd say with ORG it's worth it, but not with Augustus like in this case.

 

[Zx Zero Zx]

Currency is the best tech in the game. Selling crap techs to dumb AIs for 60-100 gold a time is much much much better than Courthouses. Currencies beaker boost is actually huge, although it is not very evident.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

If you're talking about going for one or the other in a vacuum, CoL isn't even CLOSE to currency. With CoL you need the tech and to invest 100's of into each city to save a few per city (likely not more than 4 on average unless you've had a very successful conquest spree on deity).

Alternatively, currency is worth at LEAST 1 and probably 2 INSTANTLY, no hammer investment required. As mentioned, it opens up the ability to broker tech for gold, to build wealth, and to build a multiplier if you don't have the ability to broker tech for gold (best only in cities though).

An alternative is to just use monarchy to grow a few of your core + conquered cities onto cottages; a lot depends on when you stop the war. The more you push the limits of taking cities, the more you want currency more than anything else.

As Seraiel points out there are some circumstances (albeit fairly rare) where you can find an easy alternative means to currency, but playing huge maps with many opponents does make things a lot more consistent than standard size maps where sometimes the AI will put it off too long and screw you (or not want to trade it) lol.

And yes, the alpha path to currency is also good, because you can both extort techs and build research to hit currency ASAP in an emergency. That, and you can trade it outright which is useful unto itself.

 

[coanda]

Warmongering with Rome your key techs are Iron Working, then Currency and Construction. IW for Praets obviously; Currency as it will let you pay for new cities as fast as you can take them, and Construction as pairing catapults with your praets keeps losses way down as high cultural defense, walls, and longbows start being issues. Whether an Alphabet detour is worthwhile (or just straight Mathematics) will vary, as will whether Currency or Construction is a more pressing need. But those three techs should set you up to expand at least until the AIs get Macemen... by which time you typically have far more than your "fair share" of land and the game is in the bag.

Code of Laws has assorted benefits (on the path to Civil Service, might found a religion, allows Caste System) which can sometimes make it more valuable than Currency. But if what you're looking for just is economic recovery from over-expansion, CoL is not even close to as useful as Currency.

 

[Htadus]

CHs with Augustus aren't cheap, so Currency is definately the better route.

Really? You are likely correct since I am losing memory cells as I write this. So it will be even more important since the 50% maintanance will be even higher.

BTW, I do not discount the value of currnecy but dependent upon the level, I find it quite available for trade from AI.

 

[King Pluto]

It has to be Currency IMO. Courthouses are expensive and save you what, 3-5 at most in your cities after you build them? If you build wealth, you are probably getting more than that right away from those cities. Throw in trading outdated techs for gold, resource trades, and begging, and it's a no-brainer to me.

 

[GGS]

In your scenario currency is the stronger option, but you raise a serious strategic question. Why would you incur the cost(s) of keeping and garrisoning second-rate cities when you can raze them, just keep the best and fill-in the rest of the land when it is more "affordable"?

 

[FlyingSwan]

currency is better,for all the reasons mentioned already,but also for the roman UB,chop out a forum to run a couple of great merchants.The +25% GPP is good,and running the merchants will help with gold deficit till you can use him for a trade mission.

 

[landy]

Really? You are likely correct since I am losing memory cells as I write this. So it will be even more important since the 50% maintanance will be even higher.

BTW, I do not discount the value of currnecy but dependent upon the level, I find it quite available for trade from AI.

I don't see the point behind this sentence.

CH: -50% city maintenance.
OGG: -50% civic upkeep.
Two kinds of cost which are totally different.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

In your scenario currency is the stronger option, but you raise a serious strategic question. Why would you incur the cost(s) of keeping and garrisoning second-rate cities when you can raze them, just keep the best and fill-in the rest of the land when it is more "affordable"?

Those captured cities are often worth hundreds of and pop growth time because they have pop to whip, granary, sometimes even forges/courthouses (this stuff is around once you start using catapults). Often they even have religion already which will deliver a border pop.

Trying to take a pop 1 city to the point where those cities are upon being captured often takes a long time. To raze a city you have to really be unable to afford it or it's just placed AWFULLY (IE losing multiple bonus resource tiles permanently), and that calls into question whether war should have been waged to such an extent to begin with.