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Low tech growth strategy
It's nice to start out with a few good trade resources in easy reach, but sometimes it doesn't happen. In double production this usually guarantees that you will fall behind in the tech race, at least long enough to miss out on the popular happy wonders. No happy wonders can make celebrating difficult, or at least put it off for quite some time. So is a civ without early trade specials consigned to the basement of the game? I think not.
Monarchy and it's pre requisites are of course vital. you might as well pick bronze for your first non-monarchy tech so you can defend yourself.
the next few techs that you need are masonry, currency, map making, and trade. Map making first means your settlers can spend less time getting to a city site and the cities will be established faster and therefore start producing faster. Masonry first makes it more likely that you'll get the pyramids.
You want the pyramids to help you grow quickly without having to celebrate. One can usually get them because most players put a higher priority on happy wonders (myself included).
The next two techs you want are trade and construction. Be sure to get mysticism in there as well. The sooner you get pyramids, the sooner you'll want mysticism probably.
So the techs you've researched so far are:
Alphabet, Ceremonial Burial, Code of Laws, Monarchy,
Bronze Working, Currency, Masonry, construction, mysticism,
these are the essential ones, and
Trade, map making.
That's between 9 and 11 techs.
Granted, Mono can come in as little as 10, assuming you want to get out of despotism en route, and go for republic instead of Monarchy, and comes with a boost from philosophy, but going this route instead you don't have to be the first to get anything to get what you want to build, with the possible exception of masonry. With the first 9 techs alone that I mentioned, let's see what you can do.
1. quickly grow your cities without having to worry about being able to celebrate.
2. keep a size 7 or 8 city perfectly happy without any luxuries.
3. Get your cities to size 12, and always keep them perfectly happy with 2 entertainers (having built a market place).
4. present a pretty respectable defense. (you can build city walls, or even the GW)
5, if you like, prepare for a SSC. You can build collossus, and are just 2 techs from astronomy.
6. If necessary build court houses to make up for the extra waste and corruption in Monarchy. They will eventually come in very handy if you get into democracy anyway.
With the addition of map making and trade, you can get those cities down faster, pick up more huts, build wonders faster(with your caravans) and get trade routes going with distant forign cities. And if an opponent has already managed spectacular WLTD growth, with your caravans on his shores you may benefit more from his big cities than he does with a bit of luck.
All and all, not bad for a mere 9 to 11 techs.
Options at this point?
1. As mentioned, you are already close to Astronomy. SSC.
2. Even if your tech rate has been fairly slow, you are still probably closer to invention than anyone else. Use your imagination.
3. You are also probably closer to Navigation than anyone else. Naval dominance is good for war, and great for trade. Not to mention the easy access it gives your dips to make up for some of the techs you've fallen behind on.
Monarchy and it's pre requisites are of course vital. you might as well pick bronze for your first non-monarchy tech so you can defend yourself.
the next few techs that you need are masonry, currency, map making, and trade. Map making first means your settlers can spend less time getting to a city site and the cities will be established faster and therefore start producing faster. Masonry first makes it more likely that you'll get the pyramids.
You want the pyramids to help you grow quickly without having to celebrate. One can usually get them because most players put a higher priority on happy wonders (myself included).
The next two techs you want are trade and construction. Be sure to get mysticism in there as well. The sooner you get pyramids, the sooner you'll want mysticism probably.
So the techs you've researched so far are:
Alphabet, Ceremonial Burial, Code of Laws, Monarchy,
Bronze Working, Currency, Masonry, construction, mysticism,
these are the essential ones, and
Trade, map making.
That's between 9 and 11 techs.
Granted, Mono can come in as little as 10, assuming you want to get out of despotism en route, and go for republic instead of Monarchy, and comes with a boost from philosophy, but going this route instead you don't have to be the first to get anything to get what you want to build, with the possible exception of masonry. With the first 9 techs alone that I mentioned, let's see what you can do.
1. quickly grow your cities without having to worry about being able to celebrate.
2. keep a size 7 or 8 city perfectly happy without any luxuries.
3. Get your cities to size 12, and always keep them perfectly happy with 2 entertainers (having built a market place).
4. present a pretty respectable defense. (you can build city walls, or even the GW)
5, if you like, prepare for a SSC. You can build collossus, and are just 2 techs from astronomy.
6. If necessary build court houses to make up for the extra waste and corruption in Monarchy. They will eventually come in very handy if you get into democracy anyway.
With the addition of map making and trade, you can get those cities down faster, pick up more huts, build wonders faster(with your caravans) and get trade routes going with distant forign cities. And if an opponent has already managed spectacular WLTD growth, with your caravans on his shores you may benefit more from his big cities than he does with a bit of luck.
All and all, not bad for a mere 9 to 11 techs.
Options at this point?
1. As mentioned, you are already close to Astronomy. SSC.
2. Even if your tech rate has been fairly slow, you are still probably closer to invention than anyone else. Use your imagination.
3. You are also probably closer to Navigation than anyone else. Naval dominance is good for war, and great for trade. Not to mention the easy access it gives your dips to make up for some of the techs you've fallen behind on.
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