What's your favourite beeline?

[MyOlde]

Which, if any, beeline do you follow?

[LzPrst]

my least favorite path is the religious path. i never get the early ones (on monarch or emperor) and pushing on to mono for judaism is just too expensive when there's improvement and defence techs to get.

I like to stay fairly spread out in the early game and possibly beeline towards liberalism or astronomy midgame. assembly line is also a nice goal.

[Velociryx]

In almost every game, the first thing I want is slavery and to know where the copper is.

This isn't true 100% of the time, of course, but often enough that it's a notable trend. I'll vary from that as dictated to by the land (mostly food specials).

From there, my beeline floats.

Copper, Y/N? If yes, I can pursue peaceful things. If no, then Animal Husbandary to find horses.

Horses, Y/N? If yes, peaceful stuffs. If no, Archery so I can mount some sort of defense.

(This may necessitate a side-stop at "Wheel" to actually make use of said resource).

Once the matter of defense is settled (by one of the three means above), then it's on to that "peaceful stuff"

I pretty regularly make use of the Oracle to snag a 'spensive tech and get started on generating Prophet Points (for me, the Prophet Points are the main reason to build the thing...the tech is the one-shot bonus), so once defense has been settled, it's up the religious path to writing, and then, while I'm working on a Library and some basic defenses, I'll snag the all-important pottery tech to get granaries(!!) and cottages(!).

Oracle usually nets me a religion (code of laws...again, I'm not necessarily interested in founding a religion....conquest can get me a holy city...this is a "one shot" bonus, IMO...but I get courthouses and an early crack at another good, defensive oriented wonder that generates Prophet points (I like prophets!).

After that, I'm off to currency to snag some markets.

Literature to snag the Great Library (one of my favorite wonders)

Then Banking to gain economic dominance over most of the globe.

I like to be first to Liberalism after that, use it to snag Nationhood and build Taj, so that I get a good mid-game golden age, just at the point when my strength is becoming dominating (it is a beautifully placed wonder in that regard).

I do a TON of rush buying, so my next objective will no doubt be communism so I can build the wonder and get the discount.

All of this with the proviso that this is "ideal." As the game situation changes, some of these objectives will undoubtedly be supplanted by the stuff happing "in the world."

-=Vel=-

[Hydro]

Oohhh! Lots of juicy ideas here.

Thanks Vel!

Hydro

[Theben]

bronzeW, then monotheism, then pottery, then down the writing->alphabet->drama/asth/liter line.

If warmongering, I'll get archery and aim for feudalism early.

[Robert]

Right now I'm heading towards pottery first.
Then I place a lot of cottages for the quick researching, then I head towards archery for basic defense.
Then I head towards COL, if possible for CONF, but to get Caste System at least, so I can install lots of scientists to boost my research even more.

Somewhere between Archery and Mysticism I go for Bronze Working. Going for BW before archery is pretty risky at immortal level. If you have no bronze at hand, then you have no defense at all. Keeping your cities defended with warriors only is a risky business at the higher levels.

[Unimatrix11]

If you have elephants in your empire, going for construction can be worthwhile. At least it was in my last prince-game. I think in my war against the Zara, i lost one (1) catapult IIRC, capturing 4 or 5 cities. Too bad he was the only opponent on my continent.

[Nugog]

-> Cossacks -> Domination.

[couerdelion]

That’s some bee-line. Bet ya can’t do that while everyone else is stuck in the classical period though

The original question is quite tricky. Now that I play random civs, I find my play varying considerably depending on starting position and the way the game develops.

Common bee-lines will then be
1) Priesthood (for the Oracle)
2) Literature (for Great Library)
3) Drama or Code of Laws (to allow GS lightbulb of Philosophy)

With low commerce, Sailing and Writing become more important earlier to improved trade links.

Perhaps earlier in the game I might bee-line to either Monarchy, Drama or Calendar if I am running low on happiness.

If I am growing rapidly then Currency/Code of Laws bee-line will help to control my research slider.

After that, a major bee-line to Banking would be in order

Then a bee-line to Liberalism/Economics.

[wodan11]

Rifling.

Wodan

[Sabre2th]

My early techs vary depending on my leader and situation. With Mansa Musa, for example, I'll often put off Bronze Working a bit to get a head start on my terrain improvements. I used to run for an early religion, but now I prefer to build my economic base and grab one later.

If I'm not in desperate need for other techs or have other dire problems, I'll generally beeline for Code of Laws (after basic early techs). I often follow that up with a jump to Civil Service and Machinery. This is a great spot to start a big war or to cheaply boost the military for an economic expansion.

Later in the game, I usually try for Liberalism and make a run for Rifling and Assembly Line. I find that gunning straight for these techs gives me a relatively long stretch of military superiority. Even if I'm behind technologically, it tends to keep me on par with my enemies and help dig me out of my hole.

Edit: Typo

[Dominae]

1. Catapults
2. Liberalism

[Yaga]

I've a fairly typical start plan:

Mining > Myst > Bronze > Mason > Poly > OrgRel > Priesthood > Writing > Alphabet >> Currency >> Theology.

If I've a good Science rate, I'll try for Oracle >> Theology (nice, early Diplo wins!) If it's not so good I'll probably have to grab Alphabet via Oracle. Either way, as soon as I get Alphabet I try back-trading to fill in the gaps.

[Supr49er]

Originally posted by couerdelion
That’s some bee-line....

Bronze Working ----> Future Technology

[johnmcd]

Anyone ever oracle engineering at Monarch or above? I could imagine that would be pretty final.