civ3 regent ai wins research race

[Karl Biedermann]

after winning a few games on warlord level (diplomatic,cultural,space race) i now try regent level to win space race an lose against ai.
want to learn what to do better.
i play the english vs american,egypt,zulu,inida,aztec,iroques.
i had the great library early,
had education and universities first,
had the observatory wonder and the newton wonder,
had the charles darwin and the seti wonders,
had the computer and research centers first,
was always be assured that my english were
research leaders.
all at a sudeen the americans had a handull of research topics ahead of me and they plus the egyps built the space ship first.
the american declared war on me - after a while i had to go back to communism and fell completely back in research.
WHAT DID I DO WRONG ???????
thanks in advance.
Karl-Eduard.Biedermannqt-online.de

[vmxa1]

My first question is why you were considered weak enough for the US to go to war with you? Keep an eye on the F3 page and do not fall to weak compared to X, Y or Z after you get to the middle ages.

Now they could declare, even if you were not weak, but I am betting that was not the case.

Just a note, but the GLB is not a great investment at Regent as you should be able to out research the AI. That tends to mean, you will best better off to keep researching, rather than let the GLB get techs.

Now if you had all that you say, you should not have fallen behind. I presume the top civs were not behind you by much and as such they will tend to do well by having lots of civs still in the game.

To slow them down you want to get them into wars with each other. You want to keep them broke. The best way is to keep selling them techs at a GPT so they have less money to fund high research.

I also like to eliminate a civ or two to increase the AI's tech cost and lower mine.

You did not say what the version was and the map settings other than it was Regent.

So if it was a std map, play with the full 8 civs or at least 7. What can helo them late in the game is to get more land than you have. This should not happen at the modern age.

You want to have the most land, more than anyone. Keep an eye the top civs. If they are at war, you want try to prevent them from gaining a lot of land.

This can be done, by either gifting things to the underdog, going into war against the top dog or joining the top dog and getting more land than they get.

[realpolitic]

Universities aren't all they're cracked up to be, especially if you're a nonscientific civ. with libraries, you'll get 150% of base science, with Universities 200% 200%/150% = 4/3 a 33% increase. This 33% increase in science is also possible by building a bigger empire, or letting cities grow faster. For a religious nonscientific civ, the culture boost of temples allows you to wait with libraries, grow your empire until corruption becomes a problem, then grow the size of cities. A nonreligious, non scientific civ should try to get ToA, so it can focus on empire size and city growth, a scintific civ should build libraries early, then coast culturally. Cavalry are better for the Middle Ages, you can crush advanced civs, and steal wonders. Universities are often best built right before Hospitals.

[Karl Biedermann]

Originally posted by realpolitic
Universities aren't all they're cracked up to be, especially if you're a nonscientific civ. with libraries, you'll get 150% of base science, with Universities 200% 200%/150% = 4/3 a 33% increase. This 33% increase in science is also possible by building a bigger empire, or letting cities grow faster. For a religious nonscientific civ, the culture boost of temples allows you to wait with libraries, grow your empire until corruption becomes a problem, then grow the size of cities. A nonreligious, non scientific civ should try to get ToA, so it can focus on empire size and city growth, a scintific civ should build libraries early, then coast culturally. Cavalry are better for the Middle Ages, you can crush advanced civs, and steal wonders. Universities are often best built right before Hospitals.

THANKS!
Please explain what the meaning of ToA is?
AND
AI nations seem never to negotiate GpT for a research item as recommended in the 1st reply. what could I do so they earlieer agree to such a deal?
Karl Biederman

[vmxa1]

If they do not agree to a fair deal for gpt, then you have lost your reputation. Nothing can be done about that, except to not lose it in the next game.

It happens when you make a deal and break it. Even if you did not do yourself. IOW, if I have a deal for furs and I lose the furs. The deal is broken. If I lose my connection to them, it is broken and you are blamed.

The ToA is the Temple Of Artemis, not sure of the spelling as I never make it. It is only in C3C and gives a free temple, until it expires and then the temples go away.

[AutomatedTeller]

It's possible that what happened is that America was close behind you and then triggered it's golden age, too - that can really kick start serious research late in a game.