Key Techs

[ktbutts]

I'v now played 1 game (got to bed at 2am, wife quite a bit salty), and was pretty amazed at how some rather subtle tweaks made substantial changes to game play. Specifically, changing tech progression to only requiring 1 prerequisite tech.

Has anyone gotten a feeling for the key techs (for instance "Industrial Automation" or "Fusion" in SMAC) in the game yet? After founding a religion, I meandered through the tech tree pretty aimlessly.

[PBN]

I've only fiddled with a few early games, so far, but...

the answer I'm beginning to believe is... it depends.

It depends on the leader's traits, and your goal (at least in early game), it depends on the natural resources you have readily available to your starting city and surrounding areas. And, it depends on the approach you plan to take with regard to nearby rivals.

Alphabet still is a key, and I'm partial to meditation to start the religious process, but others may differ.

[ktbutts]

So early Tech objectives are:

Archers for defense - (Hunting, Archery - also grants scouts and the Camp terrain enhancement)

Establish religion - (What is the best religion in terms of balancing an early founding and the advantages granted by pre-requisite techs?)

Harness local resources

[PBN]

so far, that's been my model....

hunting and fishing
then alphabet
then meditation (for buddhism - I find it the easiest)

[Fried-Psitalon]

At the risk of being dismissed: read the strategy guide. One section I talk about at length is which techs are key for which strategy or plan. The answer isn't "These are key techs." The answer is "These are probably key techs for this plan or that plan, but not for this other plan."

[Japher]

I sure hope your awnser to everything isn't "buy my book"...

[ktbutts]

I'm sure it's a great book, but I generally find that strategy guide are only marginally better than the manual in regards to providing strategy tips. Also, why would I pay 10 bucks for what is free on the boards?

[Simplicity]

Every tech within the first two columns seems to be a "key" tech, as far as I can tell.

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by ktbutts
I'm sure it's a great book, but I generally find that strategy guide are only marginally better than the manual in regards to providing strategy tips.

Previous Civ game Strat guides were all disappointing, but then I expect they weren't written by an Apolytoner.

I have higher hopes for this one.

[realpolitic]

Mali seems a good civ to start; go for meditation, and hope that you can get the financial bonus to get yourself to found Buddhism, then I'd build farms & pastures as terrain supports. If ICS is dead there is military, religions, and city improvement. If nothing screams out as great, slow but steady wins the race, eighther popupation or cottages.

[Dinkeldog]

Paper leads to multiple techs that are valuable. Calendar is necessary for plantations for several luxuries. Monarchy for wineries. Hunting and agriculture for farms and camps.

[Dominae]

They're all "key".

Depending on your starting location, some are more key than others. Also, as Fried mentions, depending on your strategy.

If I had to single one out, though, I would say The Wheel. It's often overlooked, yet makes most things you're trying to do early on that much easier.

[Azuarc]

I actually came to this site and signed up today so I could ask a question like the OP does. But since I've been beaten to it, I'll give you my thoughts. Mind you, I'm a chronic re-starter, so I don't have a good feel for the endgame, and also I wanted to ask this question, so it's not like my opinion carries much weight.


Many of your early techs are going to be governed by your starting city's location. Fishing is important if you're on the coast, but worthless if you aren't. Other resource and improvements aren't usable without, say, Masonry or Animal Husbandry. Eventually you'll probably want them all, but early on is a matter of priority. If I had to name one to simply get, it would be Pottery for cottages.

It seems like a lot of people are pushing Archery. I generally do my best to not get into early wars, so I haven't found it to be incredibly important, but I suppose it is the "Bronze Working" of 4, in that Archers are the early defense unit.

Polytheism is important for getting your own religion started, unless you choose to not bother. Meditation leads to a religion ever-so-slightly faster, which is probably why all the spiritual AI civs will go straight for it. Thus, why I recommend going for Hinduism over Buddhism. Plus, if you get beaten to both, Judaism is one step down the road.

Writing leads to Open Borders, which helps a lot to improve relations early on and to facilitate your exploration since map trading isn't open to you in the beginning of the game.

Alphabet lets you trade techs. I get the impression the AI emphasizes this tech for that reason, and obviously you can move through the tree more quickly if you can actually trade techs rather than going solo.

Once you're at the point where you can get Code of Laws, you've probably spread out enough to make use of Courthouses.

Feudalism leads to Serfdom and one other civic. There's only one non-basic civic I've routinely used, and I think it's Serfdom. (Eventually I'll play a game up into Liberalism, but not yet.)

And I can't comment on anything deeper into the tree than that. Obviously a lot of things are situational, as Fried suggested. Optics is going to be great for a water-based game, and Drama and Music are great for a culture player.

[DeepO]

I think that the real key techs are not those with obvious benefits (priesthood giving the Oracle, meaning a 'free' tech), but those that are needed to unlock parts of the trees. Even now, it's too often I find myself losing the race to some tech as I hadn't bothered with the requisite.

Music for military tradition is a classical example: getting cavs first can be a winning strategy, but apart from gunpowder the fastest way of getting there is through Music (otherwise Nationalism, which is generally farther away in the tree than Music). That is something I always have to think about, because when I am in a military mood I tend to leave Music until after nationalism. It doesn't 'sound' right, but Music is important for conquest.

DeepO

[Azuarc]

Which is something that kinda bothers me about the tech tree...it's completely impossible to read! If I looked at the tech tree, and saw Music with no arrows coming out of it, how would I know that it leads to Military Tradition? Sure, the little music icon is in the corner, but sometimes that's a hard-coded requirement rather than an 'or' situation. (If I'm wrong about that last bit, then why is it some of my techs aren't available as a choice for me on lower difficulties?)