Poll: Technology 1568AD

[Chuckman]

This poll will last for 5 days or until I post my recommendation for the next turn chat whichever comes first. I am listing Paper+ combos for Paper itself would only take 2 turns. I would expect the next turn chat to be more than 2 turns. Nobody wants Paper for itself, they want what it leads to.

My opinions and analysis to follow.

[Nugog]

The next turn chat will be very soon...............

[Chuckman]

I get the impression that most production in the near term will be devoted to Military or buildings already in queue. Therefore there is very little immediate need for Banking.

Philosophy also is less attractive if we do not try for Angkor Wat. Both Aztecs and Arabs now possess Philosophy. Ou chance to build Angkor Wat is fading if not already gone.

My intuition is that Musketmen were not in the plans for India therefore Gunpowder is not pressing.

Music we will hopefully acquire in peace negotiations with India.

Nationalism provides Taj Mahal and the Golden Age it brings. The Arabs could be working toward this as they have both Civil Service and Philosophy. The Aztecs do not have Civil Service. I think the Arabs have more important techs to research so i don't think the Taj Mahal is in danger yet.

So we come to Paper +

I favor Paper/Printing Press because we currently have 24 towns and villages. Therefore Printing Press provides the immediate impact of 24 commerce with more commerce to come as more hamlets grow to villages.

The other option is Paper/Education. If we don't have production for banks we don't have production for universities. This also is the path that is a beeline to Liberalism that people have been talking about. As I noted in the Civics discussion thread I don't think Free Speech and Free Religion are the next civics for us. That leaves the free tech benefit of Liberalism. As long as we get to Liberalism first we get the free tech. We are actually better off if we research some of the less expensive techs as they will open access to more expensive techs, Choosing between Chemistry, Rifling and Democracy is better than choosing between Printing Press, Gunpowder and Nationalism. Obviously we keep an eye on other nations. As any of them approach Liberalism we should keep one step ahead of them. None of them currently have Paper. With Paper we will be one step ahead of them.

[Nugog]

We are already researching Paper.

[Nugog]

Originally posted by Chuckman
Music we will hopefully acquire in peace negotiations with India.

With the forces Monty has sent into India - there will not be time for this gambit.

[Chuckman]

Since the most recent save shows no beakers currently in Paper there would be no loss if we switch. Therefore all next step technologies have been made available for the citizens to consider.

[fed1943]

The points I defend are just to this game and to the current time, so,

here and now.

I shall tell why other possible options are not convenient, IMHO, and

this it is.

Other options:

Banking: tempting, enables Mercantilism and Banks, but our foreign

trade routes are better and our powerful cities are busy with military,

our fleging cities are far from that point, while Povo Este and MTT

will priorize science; no hurry to go there.

Gunpower: enables musketmen, but Education gives discount to it

and MOD requested absolute priority to knights.

Nationalism: enables Taj Mahal and is on the most powerful military

path; but Philo gives discount to it, our cities are not free to build

the Wonder and MOD said no need yet.

Music: now useless in itself, belongs to the previous path; the same

reason above.

The current path: Paper-Education-Philo-Liberalism (Printing Press)

gives discount, or even opens the door, to all other paths;

The benefits from Liberalism are automatic, i.e. do not require

workers or cities work;

The free tech ( Printing Press) is an obvious boost;

P.P. coupled with Free Speech imediately gives +1C to villages and

+3C to towns, and we have many and shall have soon many more;

We have 5 Religions and only the Holy Shrine gives some profit;

the way to get much more - lot of happy points - and with no

penalty is Free Religion.

For all this, I think and defend said path is the one to be followed,

here and now.

Best regards,

[couerdelion]

Unless there is a race to Liberalism, there is no rush for the Paper/Education run. And, Banks give us a much better financial return than Universities so pound for pound, is better value - if we had 70% science then this would not be the case.

The Military priority for Knights is for a very limited period and even then, it does not mean that we should have every city building Knights when our highly productive cities can do this without having to divert resources from our lower production cities.

As to the Free Tech from Liberalism, Chemistry is a much more valuable one to take and gives us a step change in Military technology (both land and naval). Relative to this, the benefits from Printing Press are not all that high and the reason we would want that would be to unlock Replaceable Parts.

[Chuckman]

I have posted my instructions for turn chat 47 so this poll is effectively closed.

[Paddy]

ok closed it is then...