research sequence

[anteos]

what sequence do people go for in the initial stages of research. I tend to go for bronze workings, head towards literature, try for currency and then head for republic.

i tend to miss monarchy alltogether. I'm not a very advanced player ( i tend to play on the three easiest levels), is this the correct route to follow? I tend to play a builder strategy until I get to the end of the middle ages.

ps I generally have ceremonial burial to begin with?

What does everyone go for, and what reasons are behind your choices?

Thanks

[Scriblerus]

I'd head for monarchy every time. Despotism reduces the value/ potential value of too many tiles within your city radii. And monarchy is often better than republic for free unit support, and happiness in cities that have units stationew there (while you are buliding along the temple/ coliseum/ cathedral route to keep those little pop faces smiling.
When and how you then get out of monarchy will depend enormously on how your empire is progressing and what the state of your relations with other civs.

[Filippo]

If you play easy levels you should try and get Philosphy before everyone, it gives you a bonus tech.
I generally play high level games where this is quite unlikely to happen, I try to research Mathematics and Politeism because they are not much loved by the AI, so if I am the only one to know them I can trade them in the same turn for several other techs from several Civs (1 for each I mean)

Though in C3C Politeism got a new Wonder... so it might change AI preferences about it (haven't played C3C so extensively yet).

Lastly, AI tends to prefer Cartography to Literature. So you will want to go for the latter - to trade it.

[vulture]

Research strategy really depends on what level you are playing, and what civ you are using. At the lower levels, you can do your own research and keep ahead of the AI civs, so go for whichever techs you find most useful - which depends on your play style. Warmongers would probably go for the good military techs (bronze working, warrior code, the wheel, iron working, horseback riding) and go vice their neighbours an arse-kicking. Peaceful players would be more likely to go straight for literature or one of the government techs (particularly republic, with the benefit of getting philosophy first).

At higher levels, you're looking to keep up with the AI, and that basically means researching good trading techs so that you can trade with the AI for the ones you really want. Good trading techs are ones that are expensive, and which the AI tends not to research. This depends a great deal on what you start with. If you start with alphabet, writing is almost always the way to go, and then on towards literature, or republic. If you start with polytheism, monarchy is often a good route, although the AI will tend to research that path fairly quickly as well.

[furrykef]

I always go straight for Philosophy (getting Pottery first if I don't start with it, sometimes Warrior Code instead if I play Maya, to get Javs for barb-farming). Sometimes I can get a couple of techs two via trading, and I can almost always get up to par or even ahead by the time I get the free tech and trade Philo and the free tech around. Of course, I may be unlucky and not the first one, in which case I'm still only two steps from Republic.

I'm kind of waffling (mmm, waffles) between Monarch and Emperor as my level of choice...Regent's boring to me because I get way ahead too easily, and I managed to do the same on Monarch despite no micromanagement, but I play Monarch and Emperor the same way research-wise: beeline for Philosophy, and if I still have no hope of pulling early parity, I give up research and just rake in some dough.

- Kef

[Vince278]

Each game has its differences but I generally try to bee-line for Republic.