Ever since I re-joined the Demogame a month ago, we have been researching at the very slow pace of one tech every 40 turns, while hoarding money like crazy. Our strategy was to get techs from peace deals, as we bullied our neighbours.
This strategy is now obsolete IMHO, and it is time for a change.
This strategy is obsolete because we are no threat to the AI because of our extremely low tech. The AI runs around in Mechanized Infantries, and the best we can oppose them is Berzerkers = we can't hope to bully them, we can barely hope to survive against an invasion.
This strategy is obsolete because we are completely distrusted by every other AI Civ, and we can't possibly trade techs for gpt or luxuries. There is pretty much no hope at all to get techs from abroad.
But we do need to develop techs. As the Romans, the Koreans, the Greeks, the Japanese, the French and the Celts think of sending tanks at our home, our best defensive units are pikemen. We cannot build musketmen, because we have no access to saltpeter at all.
This lack of saltpeter also changes one thing: so far we have been hoarding money, hoping to use it to massively upgrade our pikemen. We can not upgrade them. Actually, our upgrade expenditures before nationalism will amount to a grend total of 480 gold. We can pay it up front right now if we want. After that, our hoard will serve no particular purpose, save for rush-building.
This is why we need to get to nationalism as quickly as possible. We have many cities, with much population, and some scientifc infrastructure. Getting there will take time, but it won't take forever.
If we raise our science funding to have a balanced budget, we'll discover Banking in 15 turns, Physics in 19 turns, and (according to my calculations), Magnetism in 20 turns, and ToG in 20 turns as well. Nationalism would be 35 turns away after that.
Developing nationalism would take 109 turns total from here. Much better than the 200 turns it would take with our current strategy (240 if we do the useless hike through Military Tradition! )
Such a delay is the worst-case scenario. We are building universities in our core cities, and libraries in productive cities as we speak. We can also trade wines with England, making many more people work for our science. I personally expect Nationalism to be discovered in less than 90 turns, if no invader comes to our shores by then, and if we play it right.
In short, my suggestions are:
Raise science budget from 0% to 40%, starting immediately
Research in that order: Banking, Physics, Magnetism, Theory of Gravity, Nationalism
Do not research Military Tradition - we don't have saltpeter, and nobody will trade it with us.
Continue to build economic and scientific infrastructure, at least until an enemy transport fleet comes close to our shore
I must admit this plan considers the enemy is unable to land a significant invasion force here (no more than 8 units, the contents of a Transport), that we'll be able to fend off with our 34 berzies and 11 swordsmen (upgradable to Medieval Infantry).
This plan also considers the complete geopolitical chaos the world is experiencing right now. With so many simultaneous wars, we have a chance to slip under the radar, and to be in relative tranquility, despite all the wars declared on us.
Please discuss, and share your ideas
This strategy is now obsolete IMHO, and it is time for a change.
This strategy is obsolete because we are no threat to the AI because of our extremely low tech. The AI runs around in Mechanized Infantries, and the best we can oppose them is Berzerkers = we can't hope to bully them, we can barely hope to survive against an invasion.
This strategy is obsolete because we are completely distrusted by every other AI Civ, and we can't possibly trade techs for gpt or luxuries. There is pretty much no hope at all to get techs from abroad.
But we do need to develop techs. As the Romans, the Koreans, the Greeks, the Japanese, the French and the Celts think of sending tanks at our home, our best defensive units are pikemen. We cannot build musketmen, because we have no access to saltpeter at all.
This lack of saltpeter also changes one thing: so far we have been hoarding money, hoping to use it to massively upgrade our pikemen. We can not upgrade them. Actually, our upgrade expenditures before nationalism will amount to a grend total of 480 gold. We can pay it up front right now if we want. After that, our hoard will serve no particular purpose, save for rush-building.
This is why we need to get to nationalism as quickly as possible. We have many cities, with much population, and some scientifc infrastructure. Getting there will take time, but it won't take forever.
If we raise our science funding to have a balanced budget, we'll discover Banking in 15 turns, Physics in 19 turns, and (according to my calculations), Magnetism in 20 turns, and ToG in 20 turns as well. Nationalism would be 35 turns away after that.
Developing nationalism would take 109 turns total from here. Much better than the 200 turns it would take with our current strategy (240 if we do the useless hike through Military Tradition! )
Such a delay is the worst-case scenario. We are building universities in our core cities, and libraries in productive cities as we speak. We can also trade wines with England, making many more people work for our science. I personally expect Nationalism to be discovered in less than 90 turns, if no invader comes to our shores by then, and if we play it right.
In short, my suggestions are:
Raise science budget from 0% to 40%, starting immediately
Research in that order: Banking, Physics, Magnetism, Theory of Gravity, Nationalism
Do not research Military Tradition - we don't have saltpeter, and nobody will trade it with us.
Continue to build economic and scientific infrastructure, at least until an enemy transport fleet comes close to our shore
I must admit this plan considers the enemy is unable to land a significant invasion force here (no more than 8 units, the contents of a Transport), that we'll be able to fend off with our 34 berzies and 11 swordsmen (upgradable to Medieval Infantry).
This plan also considers the complete geopolitical chaos the world is experiencing right now. With so many simultaneous wars, we have a chance to slip under the radar, and to be in relative tranquility, despite all the wars declared on us.
Please discuss, and share your ideas
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