What is your favorite tech path?

[Gtdead]

After playing the game for 2-3 weeks, I think that tech paths are weird in this game.

First of all, same unit upgrades are not linked for melee and ranged. Also the renaissance units require niter which in my experience is the most scarce resource, making it kind of a gamble to rush them, because in addition to the luck factor, it's actually a detour instead of normal transition.

Another oddity is the cavalry unit tech path. Basically it's a tick-tock styled tech path. Upgrade light cavalry, then heavy, then light again, and so on.

My favorite tech path is grabbing bronze working asap and trying to grab the iron with my first settlers. If that works I tech Iron Working and eventually Knights, otherwise I go Archer+Spear and tech to Pikes asap.

After that, I get Machinery -> Beeline Industrialization.
Detour to Muskets, also Bombards if Niter is available, and then Electricity -> Replaceable Parts
Exception if I'm already winning a DomV, in which case I will go for Flight for observation Balloons. Grab 3 of them and tech artilleries.

So, how you do it?

 

[CaiusDrewart]

Some openings I've had fun with:

Animal Husbandry->Horseback Riding, kill someone with Horsemen. Admittedly this isn't really necessary since Archer rushes are even more effective than Horsemen rushes, but Horsemen rushes are much more fun.

Animal Husbandry->Mining->Bronze Working->Iron Working->Horseback Riding->Stirrups, kill someone with Knights. You might stop for Wheel along the way; Arabian Knights don't need Iron, so Arabia can open Animal Husbandry->Horseback Riding->Stirrups.

If I don't want to rush with cavalry units, I usually go for for Currency and Apprenticeship ASAP; they are absolutely transformative economically. Something like:

Animal Husbandry->Mining->Archery (if necessary)->Pottery->Writing->Currency->Horseback Riding->Apprenticeship. Obviously there's some variation based on what resources are around you, but this works well for the majority of games. This is a really great opening because not only does it get you to Currency and Apprenticeship really quickly, but every single tech picked up along the way is a good one. There's nothing extraneous at all. Plus, you can usually hit every single one of these Eurekas without much effort. Sometimes the Eureka system forces you to make trade-offs between going for the really vital techs and being efficient with your research, but with this tech path you can do both at once.

After that I might beeline Military Science for Cavalry if I want to fight wars, or Industrialization for Factories if I want to go for one of the peaceful victories. Right now, I think making deep beelines is clearly the best way to approach the tech tree.

 

[chazzycat]

I go industrialization even earlier. factories are just too good and the tech tree is very streamlined to reach it. There's good techs along the way too like currency and education so it doesn't hurt much. Then I backfill for resource techs and military techs as needed.

But that's kind of assuming I killed the nearby AI already with warriors & archers, which is currently too easy. Otherwise it would be vulnerable to attacks during that beeline.