Mastery techs

[Amethyst_Cat]

Has anyone been using these much? I looked at the bonuses they offer and thought 'Why waste research on them when I could go for a bona fide new tech?'. Admittedly I ahven't explored them much on this, my first play through. Would love to know if the AI bothers with them at all or just tries to race to the tech finish line in each age LOL

[back_buffer]

It depends on your goals and your situation. If you’re going for science you’ll want to grab codices. If you have certain rural improvements or buildings they get a nice boost from masteries. But sometimes they’re not worth it and you can skip them.

[Niallism]

I got some bonuses to them in my Exploration age (I can't remember from where, and the UI probs make it confusing).

That, plus the fact that a lot of the weird and powerful bonuses are in the masteries, made me get a lot of them. For example, some of them have +1 settlements, and when I accidentally went over due to taking an enemy city (I was planning to raze it but couldn't, for some reason) I got those immediately.

But this is my first proper game, and I haven't finished yet, so god knows if that was smart.