Does anyone else share this pattern?

[Will9]

I have a pattern that happens in most of my games. At the begin I take a tech lead. Then in the Classical and Mideval eras Is tart to fall behind half the civs. Then as I pick off some weaker civs and build the late Middle Age/early Renniessance improvements on a large scale, I start to catch up (mostly going for techs that most people don't have and trading them to multiple people) By the Industrial age I am ahead of everyone.

So, does this ever happen to anyone else?

[MattDoyle]

Sounds like most of my games. I think its a case of complacency. We see we are ahead, get lazy, equalise/fall behind so do something about it and come back ahead

[Blake]

In Vanilla/Warlords the AI is poor at utilizing many industrial techs, such as Biology, Communism, Assembly Line and Railroad. If the AI happened to do cottage and forget, it'll do reasonably okay in the commerce department, but all AI's fare poorly production wise come industrial, some fare terribly.

Furthermore the longer the game goes on, the greater the disparity between strong AI's and weak AI's (they all start reasonably equal), it's easy to trade technologies with weak AI's, while the strong AI's don't really have anyone to trade with, as such their tech lead doesn't tend to remain a tech lead...

[Will9]

In my current game, Ceaser, my neighber and friend (although not for much longer) has been tech leader for most of the game. I am just about to pass him. I thinkthe reason he fell behind wa that he was never willing to trade techs with me (and as I said in the OP, I go for techs that no one has). I did most of my trading with Asoka and Wang Kon. Now I have Redcoats and most of his army is Mideval

[Kekkonen]

Re: Does anyone else share this pattern?

Originally posted by Will9
I have a pattern that happens in most of my games. At the begin I take a tech lead. Then in the Classical and Mideval eras Is tart to fall behind half the civs. Then as I pick off some weaker civs and build the late Middle Age/early Renniessance improvements on a large scale, I start to catch up (mostly going for techs that most people don't have and trading them to multiple people) By the Industrial age I am ahead of everyone.

So, does this ever happen to anyone else?

Yeah. My tech advancement level always dips in mid-game too, and then some tech trading and saber-rattling puts me ahead of the pack for good.

[Sarek]

Blake...
Love the new title next to the avatar!

Possibly that will alter the "patterns" in the game?

*** And, if it's not part of the recently released patches, do anything you can to bring the AI up to speed from within in both Vanilla and Warlords!

[dregor]

My pattern is usually expansion early on coupled with a need for a military leads to lagging behind in tech, but I usually catch up sometime during the renaissance thanks to tech trading, followed by taking a commanding tech lead in the end.

[Gaius Octavius]

I usually fall behind in the Middle Ages because I expand to the limit through conquest / colonization. Normally I am back on top by the industrial age.

[acuoio]

I'm guessing you slow down in the middle ages or just before because you were'nt expanding as much as the AI in the earlier Ages.

Then what Blake said happens. You utilize your techs better.

[7EA]

I usually play on 'immortal', so the way it goes for me is usually:

4000BC - We are all equally advanced (or at least I hope so ).

A couple of turns later - I'm hopelessly behind.
This continues to around the industrial or modern age, then I start getting ahead.
The problem of course is to actually get to that age, but that's a whole different story.

[Crossfire]

My pattern is that I am having a great time, I am a couple techs in the lead and then I get Cavalry and go to war. After I kill another civ I spend lots of time building again and get bored and start over. It's even worse if I was somewhat aggressive in the early eras because my empire is so large after taking over that second civ and I get really bored of the micro and never finish a campaign. Of course if this all works out then I am a guaranteed winner and maybe that is also why I quit.