I have a tech lead! How?

[CerberusIV]

Everything I have read on this site suggests it is very hard to get a significant tech lead but I am just entering the modern age on a standard map at Regent level and am about five techs ahead of the AI civs.

I am not trying to brag, I just thought this wasn't supposed to happen.

I am playing as the Japanese so no science benefit. I was behind at the start of the medieval age and in monarchy. I did have a good golden age and built banks and universities in most of my cities. I got Industrialisation before any AI civ got Steam Power.

Now I am two turns from Computers and the AI civs don't have Atomic Theory, Electronics, Flight, Motorised Transportation or Radio!

Am I

a) better than I know

b) lucky

c) playing a particularly useless bunch of AI civs?

I just want to know if this is normal?

[Konquest02]

Great, you almost won the game! Now go crush the AI and start a game on Monarch.

Yes it can happen, it depends on your starting position, early wars, REX, and everything that happened since the beginning.

If you read carefully on the forums and applied what you saw, you will be able to beat even monarch fairly easily!

--Kon--

[vmxa1]

Not sure where you got that from. I think it is quite common on the board to see people get a tech lead on regent. It is only on emp/deity that it is hard to get a tech lead on the Ai. This can be done as well given the proper set of circumstances.

[Jawa Jocky]

Your game is completely normal for someone playing on an easier level than you should be playing. You should consider yourself a Regent graduate and put that level behind you.

It also sounds like you made good use of your GA. Banks and Universities will really pick up your research rate.

[Catt]

In addition to the others' comments, it is difficult to get a tech lead early in the game. I think a lot of players, even at Emp / Deity levels, secure a nice lead somewhere between the mid-Middle Ages and the mid-Industrial Ages.

Catt

[Be Quicker]

Yeah this is nothing more than normal. On emperor during the industrial age I have always gotten a substantial tech lead on the AI; Railroads, Factories, ToE, Hoover's and Hospitals allow the human player to seriously outpace the AI. The complaints have only been about the early to sometimes mid-game and about higher difficulty levels.

[Ijuin]

My typical strategy is to make a beeline for Literature, build the Great Library, set my science to zero, and rack up the cash while getting the tech for free till I get Education. Then I trigger my Golden Age (assuming that I am not German or American), use the extra shields to build Universities in every city (city meaning 7+ population), and leapfrog ahead of the AI in science production.

[Worthingtons]

I current have a Tech lead in Monarch ( a beefed up Monarch with more AI advantages that is) thanks to the ToE.

I was , at one point about 3 techs ahead, but it's astonishing how quick the AI catches up.

Often best to just trade techs with them for all the gpt, cos they catch up by buying it off someone else soon enough anyway.

[CerberusIV]

Thanks for the comments.

I will move up to monarch for my next game.