Whats the _really_ important techs?

[RagnarIceblood]

I find myself constantly howevering over tech to find out if they give you "first to discover receives free <X>"

where X is a tech, GP or something else.

I guess this is second han nature to people who play a lot, but for me its not, and I seldom get these in my games. I realize thats something I have to change, to move up in difficulty level.

So;

Is there a list of _must_ get techs, and why ?

 

[Conqistador]

For the "first to discover gets a free x" techs, you have the following.

Meditation, Polytheism, Monotheism, Code of Laws, Theology, Philosophy and Divine Right. These give the 7 religions. Music, Economics, Physics, Communism, Fascism and Fusion give a great person to the 1st civ to discover them. Lastly, there is Liberalism, which gives a free technology.

Other techs such as Optics and Astronomy don't give free things, but Optics gives access to Caravels for ocean exploration and the +1 movement bonus for circumnavigation, and Astronomy gives access to Galleons, which allows you to colonize or capture new continents. These two are map specific, on a Pangaea map they are near useless, on an Archipelago or Terra map, they can be potential game winners.

Getting Combustion 1st is also very useful, as the 1st civ to get access to Oil will at the very least dominate the coasts and oceans for a decent amount of turns.

 

[IAM]

The free attachment to a tech doesn't always make it worth the effort. For instance the free great artist with music is a good tech path for a cultural victory but you are probably better of trading if you're going for a domination win.

Some techs like Liberalism (free tech for the first to reach it) can be significant for space race. Some like Priesthood allow the building of the Oracle which gives a free tech when built. So you don't have to be the first to get to Priesthood but you do have to be the first to build the Oracle.


Short rule of thumb is to pick a tech path for your desired victory and follow. You can always backfill some techs by trading.

 

[PhroX]

Some techs like Liberalism (free tech for the first to reach it) can be significant for space race.

Lib isn't significant for just the space race. It's significant - though not essential - for pretty much any game on higher difficulties, barring early rush conquests, because the AIs rarey go down that tech line. As such, it makes fantastic trade fodder. It's not uncommon to be able to recover from a deficit of 9-10 techs by winning the lib race (Edu, Lib and your free tech to each of 4-5 civs, plus brokering what you get from them).

 

[nbcman]

The must_get_techs are all early for me. Bronze Working for access to the slavery civic and the whip/forest chop, Fishing/Agriculture for increased food output, Writing for libraries, and Code of Laws for Courthouses. If you can capitalize on those techs, you can gain the land/resources/techs that you require.

 

[ABHPage]

Priesthood lets you build the oracle for a free tech. I always build it to get metal casting free, since this tech takes a lot of research for an early tech.

 

[Fei Kelei]

In the very beginning, grab whatever food tech(s) you need and then you really need Bronze Working asap to get started chopping and planning where to settle if copper pops nearby. Beyond that, it's really up to you. Yes, there are some techs that are more universally useful than others, but you should always consider your circumstances when deciding which techs are going to be most useful to you first and which you can wait and trade for. Are all or most of your cities going to be coastal? Then you might want Sailing and Masonry for the Great Lighthouse, while in other games those two techs could be completely skippable. No copper and/or lots of jungle around? You need Iron Working sooner than in other games. Lots of room to expand? Research economic techs like Currency and Code of Laws so you can settle all that space without going broke. Want to go for a cultural victory? Prioritize Music so you can build the Sistine Chapel and for the free artist. You get the idea.

Beelining to be the first to Liberalism is indeed well worth it in almost every game since that free tech really saves you a lot of beakers, and like PhroX said, it's great for trading. But if you were playing as Justinian, for example, you might decide to head to Guilds first even though it likely means losing Liberalism, because you'll have a longer time to beat up people with Cataphracts. And so on. If there was a perfect way to always progress through the tech tree, this game would be boring.

 

[JonathanStrange]

I think (I can't find it now) there was a thread that discussed important techs for different types wins, maps, and eras. I think of "important techs" in terms of eras myself; always modified by what type win desired or map I'm on and strive for a balance between immediately useful techs and those of greater importance down the line.