How to "Rush" Techs/Civics

[calamitas.deus]

Other than the Eureka/Inspiration system, I have no idea how to do this. Could someone enlighten me?

[gimmethegepgun]

What do you mean by "rush"?
Do you mean try to get it as early as possible, or do you mean rushing it like you can rush production in other games by spending money?
The former is mostly a matter of beelining for the tech and making a lot of campuses, the latter can be accomplished with a few of the Great Scientists, which give instant science, or with the Oxford University wonder, which gives 2 techs for free instantly (they're random though).

[calamitas.deus]

I honestly have no idea. That information does help, though. Thanks.

[rcuajunco]

you can also get a spy with the lingquist skill, and the diplomatic policy to make spy missions faster inorder to steal a eureka every 4 turns on standard speed. There is also another diplomatic policy that says when you successfully steal a eureka you still an additional eureka so thats 2 eurekas every 4 turns if your willing to commint the diplomatic policy slots for it.

You can get a lvl 3 research alliance
Generate lots of faith and gold and just keep buying great scientist.
The map related great scientist that trigger for every adjacent mountain tile, rain forest tile, and natural wondr tile when you use their ability.

[Marbaus]

Rushing techs is all about a few things. The right nation, the right area to build the districts, and the right policies in place.

Eurika's are great but they come fairly easily... and depending on your speed, might or might not really save you a lot of time.

The right nation will give you boosts to science/tech points so choose one that fits your playstyle that adds this boost. The right area for the science districts are mountains, settling within a few tiles of mountain regions and following a range with your cities can allow you to create a plithora of high yielding tech points... and last but not least is the policies that increase your bonuses and output by 100% or more if added together.

There are some wonders that may help with gaining more policy slots for such a thing, as well as a particular govt. that increases your tech output by 10% nationwide, I think.

Stacking all these bonuses and placements along with a science boosting nation will make you the science leader of your world. Just don't neglect your military because you might loose those cities if the AI feels like you can be a pushover.

[calamitas.deus]

So, as an example, let's say I play as America. I build campuses near mountains, encampments on hills, etc., and basically advance my military to conquer my continent, which boosts my science, which pushes me even farther ahead. Does that sound right?

[rcuajunco]

Strategy and buid order changes based on the civilizations in the game, and relative distance between the civilizations. If your right next to an ai, sometimes you only need 2 cities and you crank out a military to take over 5-7 cities of super close ai. If there are no ai anywhere near you sometimes its a better option to expand to 12 cities. What is your logic behind your build order?

Do you want to maintain peace inorder to establish a level 3 alliance faster
Do you not care about relations at all since you control over 20 cities.
The end goal is to get to a victory type while preventing ai from getting to a victory type.

If your going for domination victory your mindset should be
Why do i need faith or culture all I need is a strong economy, production and science
Why should i spend 24 turns building this wonder when i can build 4-6 copies of this kind of military unit instead

If your going for science victory your mindset should be
How do i establish an empire to produce more science per turn than anybody else. How do i create more gold and faith so i can straight out buy every great scientist avaliable.

If your going for culture victory your mindset should be
How do i house as many great works of art as possible. How do I farm more gold so i can buy every great work of art from every other civ.

If your going for religous victory your mindset should be
How do I eliminate other religions. If a religion is spreading too much you may have to go to war just so your scouts can run around the map assasinating religous people.

[Marbaus]

More or less. I don't have a whole lot of experience playing as America, but the formula sounds about right.

My playstyle usually compliments industry with science, like Germany. Although Germany doesn't have any real bonuses to science I tend to lean my religion to compensate for the lack of national bonuses... that is if I get to those religious bonuses in time. (Divine spark, and Jesuit Education & Stweardship if I am lucky). It's a little more risky to play it that way so I didn't mention religious bonuses to Science because it can be taken away during gameplay and can be a headache if other nations really push the religion on ya. The production and extra military card slot covers my military needs so I can focus on building up my science.

Korea is a good nation to focus on Science. Just need a lot of hills around to make those science districts, but they have a hard time gaining a military foot hold, so if their neighbor is someone like the Aztecs, Russia and or Norway, who tend to be aggresive early on, it can get kind of rough in the early game.

Getting the science foothold is all about a solid defense(unless opprotunity knocks) and district planning. A lot of districts will benefit eachother so that helps too and those bonuses will end up doubling or more with those policies. America has those wildcard slots, if I remember right, so that makes the flexibility decent enough. Once you start getting that science lead, then bumping out some extra military will help.

If Korea is an AI then you might end up having trouble overcoming her science output. That has been the hardest nation to overcome in science so far. Keeping Korea small is key in overcoming their science output.

I some cases I would start a war with another AI just to destroy their science facilities or take out a city that seems to have a good science output. I would take it if loyalty provides but that might not be the case, so razing and suffering some warmongering for a while might be in order as an extreme case.

I have seen some other ways people tend to try and gain a science hold, but I am just talking from my experience playing and what has worked.

[Salma Hayek]

The biggest factor for science is population. You can delay campus (commercial/industrial district first makes more sens usually), don't delay settlers/builders/farms/housing stuff. Also, encampments are useless in most cities (just have them at your borders sometimes if you want a peacefull win).

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by Salma Hayek:

Also, encampments are useless in most cities (just have them at your borders sometimes if you want a peacefull win).

They're a bit helpful at giving more housing and production, and they give more unit production with militaristic city states. Also, obviously, they're great if you're suzerain of Carthage. Yay trade routes!

[calamitas.deus]

I think I'm making sense of it all. Thank you all very much!