Great Library Question

[tenhole]

I've searched the manual and forums, but can't seem to find an answer to this question, which may be dumb, but...

When you have the Great Library, do you need to have contact with two other civs with the technology to get the spoils from it? I recently had a game on a pangea, but I didn't know that (since the planet was all 'random'), and I was the lucky one with a good size island to myself, so I was just developing it, without much regard to meeting the rest of the world.

When I did meet the other ten or so civs (all at once since they shared the same supercontinent), I found that I was an also-ran in the tech race, but hadn't gotten a single thing out of the GL (which was, by that time, obsolete).

Just wondering if anyone knows about this.

[Theseus]

Yes, contact with two civs with a given tech will do the trick.

There are some great threads about 'slingshotting' with the GLib, due to the fact that it goes obsolete AFTER you learn techs.

[Major Guz]

Just to give you some relief:
At least you kept the GL from the other civs, otherwise one of them would have got the tech bonus (because they DID have contact).

[Stuie]

"Slingshot" example:

When you're isolated and have the GL, the trick is to get communications with EVERY Civ possible on the same turn once you make contact. That way you will learn every single tech that two or more of the other Civs already have.

In my current game, I was on the smaller of two continents with about 8 other Civs. Warring and such had kept our tech progress slowed so that the "local" Civs were all in the early Middle Ages. When contact with the larger continent occurred, I traded resources/luxuries/money/WM so that I got communications with all of the other 15 Civs (yes, I play with 24). Turned out the Civs on the larger continent were just entering the Industrial Age... thanks to the GL, I got every remaining tech for the Middle Ages and was asked which Industrial Age tech I'd like to start on. Yikes! Of course, I upgraded all my knights to cavalry and completely overwhelmed the Civs on my home continent, then switched to Democracy and used my huge number of cities to maintain tech parity with the other continent, and finally gained the lead late in the Industrial Age.

[bobbo008]

if you must have contact, how come you can become aware of when a civ completes a great wonder when you/anybody you know doesnt have contact with them?

[wilbill]

Wandering minstrels from distant, mysterious lands bring tales of magnificent feats accomplished by unknown peoples.
At least I think it was wandering minstrels. Maybe it was meandering wastrels, but what the heck?

[sabrewolf]

Originally posted by Stuie
"Slingshot" example:

When you're isolated and have the GL, the trick is to get communications with EVERY Civ possible on the same turn once you make contact. That way you will learn every single tech that two or more of the other Civs already have.

In my current game, I was on the smaller of two continents with about 8 other Civs. Warring and such had kept our tech progress slowed so that the "local" Civs were all in the early Middle Ages. When contact with the larger continent occurred, I traded resources/luxuries/money/WM so that I got communications with all of the other 15 Civs (yes, I play with 24). Turned out the Civs on the larger continent were just entering the Industrial Age... thanks to the GL, I got every remaining tech for the Middle Ages and was asked which Industrial Age tech I'd like to start on. Yikes! Of course, I upgraded all my knights to cavalry and completely overwhelmed the Civs on my home continent, then switched to Democracy and used my huge number of cities to maintain tech parity with the other continent, and finally gained the lead late in the Industrial Age.

sorry, that can't be. the effect of the great library expires with education. so you can't have got to the end of the medieval ages (after education comes banking, astronomy, etc.)

[Jaybe]

sabrewolf,
Yes it CAN be. IF all that knowledge came at ONCE. That's where the "slingshot" is involved, because you were slung way PAST Education.

(Yes, I would also prefer not to have been that far behind)

[sabrewolf]

ah, sorry, my bad

[MrWhereItsAt]

Wow, Stuie. That's highly cool. Has anyone tried staying behind in tech for ages, diverting money to other things, whilst having the GL, and then contacting the other civs to catch up most of the way without doing a jot of research yourself? It could be tricky, as they could find you at any time, but if you were on a two continent world or Archipelago world, you could put it off a long time before they found you.

And does contact mean simply being able to talk to them, ie moving next to their borders/units/cities? Or is "contact" established after you first accept their emissary.

[Theseus]

1. There have been some amazing slingshot examples reported... 15 techs, or the like.

2. I think 'contact' is just knowing another civ, i.e., they are able to appear in your F4 screen.

[sabrewolf]

oh, i'll try this on a map. get a nice big continent all for yourself, bealine to literature, get great library and wait until the AI discovers you after magnetism... you'll have enough money to upgrade all your units

the problem: you'll be way behind in city improvements (courthouses, marketplaces, cathedrals) and you won't get any late ancient age and no medieval age wonders... but maybe it's worth it...

[Datajack Franit]

But one civ contacting you is enough to spoil this cool plan and turn to dust your hopes to dominate

[sabrewolf]

iirc you only get techs known to at least 2 civs...

[Kingof the Apes]

I dont like slingshotting because you can end way behind in infrastructure, such as finishing cathedrals in your cities when other civs are starting factories.