Technology

[Murrius]

I'm fairly new to Civ 3 and there is one thing that bugs me a lot. There is nothing I seem to be able to do that can put me ahead of most of the other civs in research. There's always a couple that lag way behind and the rest are right on par with me, no matter how I concentrate on enhancing my tech aquisition. For example, right after I research gunpowder, my main competetors all have gunpowder as well even though I'm quite careful with my tech trades.

I'd sure appreciate any tips you might have.......

[Kloreep]

Sounds to me like the problem is that either they are on par, or they are almost on par and are benefitting from riding on your coattails (every time a civ researches a tech, the cost of that tech goes down for all civs that civ knows).

There's only so much you can do to pump up your economy on your end; only so many cities can have low corruption, and once those cities have all commerce improvements built, there's not much you can do on your end of the race.

However, you can work from the other end to wreck their economies. Specifically, instead of trying to horde techs, sell them off for gold; don't wait, that just gives them the opportunity to research the tech themselves and trade it around. Take away their treasuries as fast as you can through trade. Once a civ's treasury is low, start selling for GPT; GPT is where you can really slow an AI. Without a built-up treasury, AIs paying you gpt will have to lower their research sliders to keep up with their payments. Some even overestimate how much they can give you and run out of money, resulting in lots of disbanded improvements throughout their civs. Even if they aren't ruined this drastically, they will eventually become dependant on you for tech; at the same time, they will pump your treasury up to a huge size that alows you to do 4-turn research on any tech you want, creating a vicious cycle for the AI where they speed up your research by paying you gold in order to catch up, then have to speed it up with some more gold to catch up to where that brings you, etc...

Once they become dependent on your research, you can start hording somet echs. You'll still have to sell tech occassionally to keep the gold flowing from them to you, but if enough of their economy is flowing to you, they eventually won't be able to pay for your techs as fast as you research them, and you'll be able to work your way ahead on at least some of the tech tree branches.

[Willem]

Try playing an Expansionist civ. They get alot more free techs from goody huts, which usually gives them a good lead going into the Middle Ages. Provided you build lots of Scouts.

[vmxa1]

Murrius you did not mention what the level you are playing at. In order to out pace the AI you need to have a stronger empire than they do. In CivIII and PTW it would be some where around Monarch that you would be seeing them do well. They get a bonus at that level and the bonus grows as you move up.

They will make trades with each other at a discount if the other is poorer, so they get help there. If you are able to make trades you can keep their cash lower and cut into their gold for research. It also increases what you have to spend on research.

In the end, you will need to manage your empie better than they do or have a bigger one to out research them.

One technique is to research a tech that the AI tends to ignore. This lets you have something to trade.

[Murrius]

Thanks for your ideas. I've started a new game, trying out the money/expansionist angle. So far so good.