50 turn techs

[Mountain Sage]

Replies to everybody (including my fellow citizen):

You're right: the glitch is in my head: Smith TC pays for all trade-related city improvements. By now, I have Wall Street.

This is Sir Ralph's game (his thread 'By By PTW'): Huge, Emperor, Germany, continents, 24 civs.

The militaristic and scientific traits are irrelevant in this game. I could have afforded to pay all my barracks and harbours 100% of their price without putting a dent in my stockpile of gold (BTW, I don't have Sun Tsu, I only have Leo). As for a free tech each Age, I already had a 2 techs advance by the end of the Ancient Times.

My income is the direct consequence of 'clever' trading and building all gold-bringing improvements.
If only I had the French or Carthage ...

I have now about 40 cities (should count them one day) because I got 3 Russian cities (declared war and expanded a bit south) and conquered all of England in 2 wars (they declared war 2 times).

I am researching at 6 round/tech (the min. in this game is 5 round).

I sit on all this cash (by now I have about 48'000 gold) just because:

1. I still trade every 2-3 turns and milk all other civs dry (just to keep practice, that is).
2. I have a not-too-large military (108 Cavalry 1 + 1 Infantry/city).
3. I'd like to top my previous record of gold before I finish the game.
4. I can't rush anything else. My core cities are building cavalry, which is disbanded in my fringe cities. If I were to rush improvements in my fringe cities, I'd had to put my core cities on wealth...

No 2 civ is (was) England and no 3 is (still) Spain (all on my continent, which includes Rome (pitiful), the Celts (lost a war with the English, down to 1 island, Russia (average) and Carthage (I think, long gone). For once the the AI managed to play these 2 civs very well.

I hope to finish this game by next Monday, so I'll post mome pics and comments on my 'Emperor games' thread.

[Arrian]

Ok, back to the original topic of the thread: 50-turn techs.

I played a game as the Maya last night until nearly the end of the middle ages. I did research 1 tech at 50-turn pace: Republic.

I researched something (the wheel?) off the bat for trading, and then went straight for philosophy. I chose CoL as my free tech, and then chose Republic, at 10%. I was still easily first to it, and my gold reserves came in handy for a few rushbought temples and 12 warrior -> medieval infantry upgrades.

-Arrian

[Cookie Monster]

Originally posted by Arrian
... figuring that I'll be popping lots of huts and the one tech I DO NOT want is Horseback Riding.
-Arrian

Arrian,

Just curious, why don't you want Horseback riding at that point in the game? I play monarch as well.

[Arrian]

I typically avoid HBR as long as I can, for two reasons:

1) so I can built 20-shield chariots for upgrade; and
2) because HBR doesn't cost much to research, and so when I do want it, I can typically pound it out fast.

With the upgrade cost change in Conquests (3g/shield instead of 2g/shield), I may ponder the usefulness of a mass chariot->horse upgrade. In my first C3C game, I didn't do it, but that was primarly because I had a LOT of REXing to do before I got anywhere near horses (let alone iron!! It was half a continent away!).

-Arrian

[Cookie Monster]

Oh I see thanks for the answer. Have to give that a try but at the new cost we'll have to see if it's worth it.

BTW check out my post in the "Changes to the AI" thread under conquests. I had a similiar experience regarding hard to get resources.

[jshelr]

Alexman wrote: "It's looking as if research in the Ancient age is back! I can't wait to receive my copy of C3C."

He's right. The 50-turn limit favours the AI in the ancient era powerfully and they now demand big bucks for formerly cheap techs. So, the turn research down and buy techs strat looks relatively unwise, based on a couple of games. Damn. I'll have to learn some new tricks.

[vmxa1]

It sure seems to require you to at least blast for one or two techs.
I played two ages yesterday and only the first tech I researched, was I first to learn. I never figured out why. I was the largest, seemed to have 1 or 2 techs more than anyone, got nearly all of the wonders? I got to the point were I have Copernicus and Nweton, universities and libs in most cities and still was never awarded a tech for being first? After I got Steam, I checked all the civs and none had any techs I did not have and I have at least one that they did not have, but I was not awarded a break though tech.

I figured in the ancient age, they may have had contacts that I did not, but after I had all contact ????
I can only presume that the scientific civs all got a different tech and traded it around. No science leader of course, but that was expected. I delibertly did not try to pick techs that would be unlikely to be chosen by the AI, I just took what made sense to me.