Civilization 5: Science Strategies

Maximizing Scientific Output to Research Technologies Faster

This Guide to Civilization 5 with Brave New World and Gods and Kings features will teach you all about raising your Civ's Science output during the course of a game. This should be helpful to players who are struggling to outpace the AI on Prince and higher, while also providing a comprehensive list of things that affect Science to help people max their Science. We'll cover the various things that increase Science and how you can raise your beakers higher with the right Technologies and build priority.

Raising Science - The Major Factors and How Science is Generated

Before we get to tips to raising Science, let's look at the formula that determines a Civ's total Scientific Output, in the order that they are added and multiplied. This should be of particular help to newcomers to Civ 5, especially players who have recently installed BNW, which extends the end-game by providing more Technologies and making later Techs cost more. By understanding how Science is calculated, the knowledge can be used to maximize your Civ's Science output.

Population IS Science
Population and Science go hand in hand. With no other buildings involved, one Population equals one Science. Higher Population throughout your Empire, or even in a single City = higher Science output. If you want to maximize this based on the lands available to you, read on.

Doubling Science from Population: Libraries and Public Schools
The Library (Writing Tech) is a building that increases Science by +1 per 2 Population in the City. The Public School (Scientific Theory) does the same, although it also gives a Scientist Specialist slot (more on those later). Libraries do not offer Scientist Specialist slots, they simply provide the boost to Science based on Population. When the Library is first offered, you can see significant gains - going from 11 to 15 is 50% more Science (with an 8 pop City - the Palace gives +3 Science). With both of these buildings active, you will essentially get +2 Science per unit of Population in any given City.

Scientists - the next Flat Boost
Scientists are Specialists that can be assigned through the City Screen, assuming that you have the required Buildings. Each Scientist will give a varying amount of Science depending on your Civ and Social Policies that you've adopted. Each Scientist will give +3 GPP (base) toward the generation of a Great Scientist, in addition to the +3 base Science they provide. GPP add up to create Great Scientists - more on those later.

There are three Buildings that provide Scientist Slots. All are available to every Civ, no matter what form they take (for example Siam's University replacement, the Wat). Here they are, in the order they are received along with the Technology to unlock each Building:

• University (2 Scientist Slots, +33% Science in City, +2 Science per Jungle Tile) - Requires Education. As you can see, these encourage you to keep Jungle around - after all, new species and plant life are discovered in Jungle even now. This will help a lot if the City has a lot of Jungle tiles, and you can place Trading Posts to get +1 Gold out of them - and more later. This will count as Science coming from Terrain Improvements and gets lumped together with Academies.
• Public School (1 Slot, +3 Science) - Requires Scientific Theory. As stated before, this will push you to 2 Science per Population with a Library, which is required to construct it, along with a University.
• Research Lab (1 Slot, +4 Science, +50% Science in City) - Requires Plastics. This will finish off your Cities' Science Buildings, so the only way to boost it further then is to continue to grow your population and utilize other indirect means of boosting Science.

With 19 Science (base) coming from the flat boosts and using 4 total Scientists from these Buildings, it doesn't seem like much, but all these get added up with Terrain Improvements then multipied by the buildings that provide a +% bonus on a city level, then all Cities are added up to produce your final Science output.

Terrain Improvements
There are a number of Terrain Improvements that grant Science, while all Jungle Tiles will generate +2 Science with Universities. Brazil's Brazilwood Camp, which can only be placed on Jungle is treated as a Trading Post by the game. Trading Posts give +1 extra Science with Free Thought, so any Civ can get +3 Science and at least +2 Gold/Food per Jungle Tile with Rationalism Social Policies.

Great Scientist Academies
A Civ that wants to truly maximize Science should make use of the Academy, which are unique Tile Improvements created by Great Scientists. These produce +8 Science per turn on a tile when worked by a Citizen, upgraded to +10 with Scientific Theory. Early in the game, they are your best means of using them - simply place them on an appropriate tile and burn the Scientist to make the Academy. You can easily have 4-6 or more of these in a game so long as you do not create many Great Merchants or Great Engineers, for those all come from the same GPP pool - generating a Great Merchant will make Great Scientists cost more. Each subsequent Great Person of this type will cost +100 more, so the first Great Scientist will cost 100, the next 200, and so on. If you then made a Great Engineer, your next Great Scientist would be 400. Keeping this in mind, you will do better at gaining the type of Great People you need for your playstyle. Great Artists etc. each have their own pool, and do not raise the cost of anything other than that specific type. This means you can utilize those to your heart's content without worrying about raising costs.

If you place an Academy and later discover Iron, Aluminum, Uranium, or another Strategic Resource is beneath it through Researching the Technologies that reveal them, do not fret. All Great Person Tile Improvements automatically pick up any Strategic Resources that are placed beneath them. The same is not true for Luxuries, for those are visible from the outset and allow you to plan other locations to place your Academies. It is better to put them in tiles that are not next to Fresh Water, so that all those tiles can be dedicated to Farms that will get +1 Food with Civil Service. Hills should generally be reserved for Mines, but all other tiles are fair game. I do try to make sure there is Food on the tile so that it will help my City continue to grow, so open Grassland or Plains is a good choice. If you place an academy on a Forest/Jungle/Marsh tile, it will be cleared if you have the appropriate tech and Forests will provide the usual Production boost to the nearby City.

While an early-game Academy is the obvious choice, later in the game all Great Scientists should be used to give you a tech boost. This is because as you near the end of the game, an Academy cannot generate as much Science over 100 turns as a single use of the Great Scientist's Discover Technology ability. Given the output of Discover Technology is based on your Civ's current Science output (around 8 turns worth), it is obvious that using them early game is a big waste. Getting 200 Science from them would be a joke, when a City can get that in 7 turns later in the game with an Academy and all the +% Research boosting buildings. Under optimal conditions (Civs excluded, all techs researched and all 4 +50% buildings) an Academy will generate 36 Research per turn. With Freedom's New Deal Tenet, you could get +16 Science per Academy or 48 per turn under optimal conditions. Korea would get 54, due to the +2 Science for all Great Person Tile Improvements.

If you want to generate the maximum possible number of Academies during your game, use Manual Specialist Control on each City Screen and place Scientists into all available slots, while avoiding using Engineers and Merchants where possible; at least until Rationalism where you will get +2 Science per Specialist. Get all buildings that provide a boost to Great Person Production and try to get Sciences Funding passed in the World Congress to give a further +33%. You will want to vote against Arts Funding as it lowers Scientist birth rates. If you're going Freedom for the Specialist Bonuses, then it's even better to wait until then to begin using Merchants and Engineers because they will consume less food and help your Cities grow. In fact, a City set on Food focus under that condition will then automatically try to use all Specialists it can while working all good Food tiles.

Maximizing Science: +%Boost Buildings
Next, we have to look at the buildings that provide a % boost. A few have already been mentioned, but I'll go a little further into detail. This will conclude the formula for Science on a City level. Everything is added up, then increased by the % stated here. The max possible increase of 200% effectively triples your City's Science output. Again, we'll look at these in the order of their availability.

• National College (Requires Philosophy, +50% Science) - This is a National Wonder (so only one can be built) that requires you to make a Library in all Cities. Adding an extra City before you have this up can slow you down, unless you have the funds to outright purchase a Library in your new City. If you've only one City, you could build the Great Library, tag Philosophy for your Free Tech, then construct this. You will have a temporary edge in Science output, but will gradually lose it unless you can expand or grow your population very rapidly. This should be placed in the same City that will get your Writer/Artist/Musician Guilds and that same City should have massive growth potential. It is even better if you can find a spot with many food resources, grassland, and have founded the City next to a Mountain for an Observatory.

• University (Requires Education, +33/50% Science) - Requires Library. Universities start at +33% Science but are upgraded to 50% Science with Free Thought from Rationalism, which also gives +1 Science per Trading Post.
• Observatory (Requires Astronomy, +50% Science) - Doesn't have prerequisite buildings, but the City must be placed directly next to a Mountain. Many Natural Wonders count as mountains - simply hover over the terrain to see that it says so, but most Mountains are obvious. This helps offset the fact that many Mountainous regions have fewer workable tiles, but if you can get a mountain all by itself, you are setting yourself up for a great City later in the game.

• Research Lab (Requires Plastics, +50% Science) - Requires a Library, University, and Public School already be in the City. This will get your City with a National College to 150% and all others to 100% extra Science from all sources aside from Trade.

So, if you can create all these buildings in one spot, a City could get up to a +200% boost to Science, or triple its stated output. This means you would theoretically get +6 Science per Population and +6 Science per Specialist with Rationalism! Only one City can have a 200% boost, requiring a National College and Mountain for Observatory to achieve it, else 150%. If you don't feel it is cheating, you can restart the game until there is a Mountain in range of your Settler with good Food Resources and a River around. Most of your Cities will settle for +100%, or double, for not many players will get that lucky with Mountains next to most of their Cities to make great use of the Observatory.

Flat Boosts to Science: Trade Routes
When you have less Techs Researched than a Civ or are influential over them through Tourism, you will gain Science for Trade Routes, or they will. In most cases, both Civs get a few Science for the Trade Route, depending on who is more advanced. Both equal, it'd be a few Science each. This is most relevant in the early-game, where connecting to Civs can make up for your own lack of Science. Going from 30 to 33 Science with a Trade Route is a significant jump. The Science gained from a Trade Route late-game is negligible, particularly because of the lack of a boost from % modifiers. Simply send several routes to Babylon or another advanced Civ to help increase your Gold Per Turn and shave a turn or two off each tech you'll research. This Science is added to the City's output after everything else is computed. Since the AI is generally ahead Scientifically in the early-game, finding trading partners can greatly help your Science output and help you get the techs you need to pass them up. The Caravansary and Harbor, along with several techs, will increase the range of land/sea Trade Routes.

Example Science Output for a Single City
This differs from the City above, which has a Mountain and is a Korean City with less Population. Let's look at the math for a City with 50 population, 6 Academies nearby and access to three of the four +% Buildings. The sample Civ has Rationalism and has taken on the Freedom Ideology for New Deal to boost output of Academies and allows them to use all Specialists in all Cities because they consume less food.

     84 Science from Terrain (6 Academies)
     13 Science from Buildings (+3 Palace, +3 Public School, +4 Research Lab, +3 National College)
     46 Science from Specialists (Specialists in ALL Slots in ALL buildings with Slots for +2 Science each)
     50 Science from Population
     50 Extra Science from Population
     --------------------------------
     243 Base Science
     --------------------------------
     City Modifier: 150% (so multiply by 2.5)
     --------------------------------
     547 Base Science Output
     +10 Science for Trade Routes
     557 Science from this City, then multiplied by the Empire Bonus for Adopting Rationalism:
     +10% Science from Rationalism because the Empire is Happy
     613 Total Science produced by this City.

Science Buildings and Helpful Wonders

List of all Science-Related Buildings
Below I will show you a list of every Science building with the required Technology, the production they require to build and base cost in Gold to buy them outright. Planning ahead and saving Gold to buy Scientific buildings in your Cities can give you an immediate jump in Research output and help you push ahead (or even further ahead) of other Civs in the race to Research all Techs. This gold-saving strategy is particularly helpful if you are not able to produce them swiftly, for Cities focused on Science will have many Farms and fewer mines, thus typically have a reduced Production output compared to other Cities. After all, you want Population more than anything, and as time goes by Gold becomes easier to acquire.

Finishing the Piety Tree and selecting the Jesuit Education Reformation Belief will allow you purchase Universities, Public Schools, and Research Labs with Faith. Each building costs 300-800 Faith, with the price based on the current era rather than the Building's Production cost - so a University bought later on would cost the same as a Research Lab. It is quite costly, so this is of particular help to Wide empires who tend to have higher Faith output. Smaller empires should not bother with this one, as Gold purchasing would work fine and they generate less Faith from fewer tiles with Faith and Faith-Producing buildings. They are better off saving Faith for Great Person purchases later on - particularly Great Scientists.

The list is in the order that most players will research the technology to unlock each building. W. Wonder is a World Wonder and only 1 may exist in the game. N. Wonder is a National Wonder and only 1 may exist per Civ. You cannot buy these, but may want to rush World Wonders with Great Engineers - it's not usually worth using them to rush National Wonders. If you would like to see a list of all Civ 5's Wonders that produce Great Scientist Points, see the Great Scientist Page.

What to Research to be Optimal
Luxury Technologies are always prioritized, as are things like Granaries if they help you more. You will also want City Connections to aid your income, so Roads and Harbors are important, as are Trade Routes. If you include Astronomy for an Observatory, there are a total of 46 Technologies you must Research on the way to Plastics to enable your Cities to build Research Labs and reach the point you have all needed Science Buildings. To play with only Science in mind, you should generally make a beeline for the next building that will help you - and that does include some of the Wonders, especially given you should have a Scientific edge. Prioritize Science buildings in your Cities so that you get the boost to output immediately. Once you have Public Schools, know that you will need literally every Tech from the Ancient, Classical, and Medieval Eras to get to Plastics for Research Labs with only 2 exempt in the Renaissance (Navigation and Chemistry). Chemistry is a prerequisite for Fertilizer, and those increase Production and Food from Mines/Farms respectively so are important techs. With this in mind, go ahead and research things in the order you need them once you've reached that point, for all those discoveries are prerequisites for this higher technology, and literally everything up to the Information Era will need to be researched to access all required Spaceship Parts for a Scientific Victory.

Lowering Research Costs: Meeting Civs
Meeting other Civilizations who have researched a Tech that you have not will lower the cost of that Tech. This is a sensible mechanic, as if you see someone using a new invention it becomes easier to discover on your own. The more Civs you know that have researched something, the lower the cost of that tech will be. While you are going toward Education and Scientific Theory, other Civs are likely to be researching the Military Techs at the bottom of the Tech Tree. You will be able to more quickly catch up in Military tech thanks to this, so meeting Civs via Scouting and later using Caravels to explore the World (or at the founding of the World Congress) is important to the pacing of your Research.

Putting it Together: Tips for Raising your Civ's Science Output

Since you are capped in the number of Specialists you can run per City, the best means of ensuring your Civ has a high Science output are to raise Population and Generate Great Scientists. There are also other, off-beat means of generating Science, some of which I'll cover. Let's look at various gameplay subsystems and how they affect your ability to make more Science:

Food, Food, and more Food
Select lands with plenty of Food resources, with Rivers and possibly lake borders to provide access to fresh water. Fertilizer takes quite a while to come after Civil Service. Cities placed in locations such as these will be capable of supporting a large population - some of which could even surpass your Capital. You want at least some hill or other Production resources nearby, hopefully strategic. Finding a spot that at least has some of these qualities, even if not great, will still produce a great City. You want more farms than anything, with Mines on Hills (not those along River unless you're very desperate for Production). Overall, having enough Workers to ensure your Cities are always working improved Tiles is also important. Don't build 15 improvements at a City size 8, move on to another City - though eventually you will want to do every tile to facilitate growth. Having 4 or so workers for 3 Cities would be fine, but you would want more with a Wider empire, for sure! You may even need to use avoid growth at times because of how quickly your Cities can expand when you are employing this strategy across a big empire.

Keep it on Growth
Ensure your Cities are almost always focused on Growth (Food in the Citizen Management screen). The more time they're on Production, the less time they're growing. Prioritize Food buildings, Aqueducts if you didn't go Tradition, and Medical Labs, though they don't seem great, will still be of big help once your City is past 30-40 population, for it flat takes longer to grow at that point. Get Production buildings up after Food buildings, to ensure your next constructions are faster and purchase Scientific buildings when you can. Read my Guide to City Growth to learn more.

In my Scientific games, I am typically #1 in Population just because of how tall the Cities are, even though adding up another Civ's total it would seem higher. Taller Cities have an exponential effect on that rating.

Internal Trade Routes
Each of your Cities can only send 1 Trade Route to each City in your Empire, so you must choose between Production (requires Workshop, comes later) and Food (requires Granary, available very early). Establishing these Trade Routes early on and maintaining them throughout the entire game will result in Cities with at least a dozen or more Population than they would have otherwise. It gives you less impact when you switch to Production to rush something and creates rapid growth wne you are sticking with Food focus. Sea Trade Routes do deliver more food, but unless a City has many Sea Resources and plenty of land in its workable zone, it will not perform as well as a City situated in an area surrounded with Grassland and a River. Still, you will want a Coastal City to take advantage of spare Trade Routes to make distant connections, have a Navy and be capable of exploring the World.

Happiness
Trade excess Resources, steal Mercantile City States from other Civs to get more, and look for CS that have more than 1 Luxury you don't yet have, such as their uniques (porcelain, for example). Even better is a CS that has Iron or some other Resource you need. Choose wisely if you Found a Religion and choose something that will boost Happiness. Explore to find Natural Wonders for +1 each. Social Policies can aid in Happiness, particularly once you get to choose an Ideology. Specialists' Unhappiness can be halved with Freedom. Order provides many boosts to Happiness and the same +GPP that Freedom Gets, although they are not as suited to running specialists as heavily. Either way, those two can make a Scientific Empire very happy. Order is commonly chosen by the AI, so you can have plenty of excess Happiness, whether playing Tall or Wide if you are willing to go that path. After all, you are likely to go Tradition and be able to buy Great Engineers with Faith, so you can rush a couple of Spaceship Parts and Hubble.

Cultural, Mercantile, and Maritime City-States
You may lack Culture, and that is a problem past Tradition. Cultural City-States can help greatly in this, and you're best off exploring the world to find as many as possible. Do quests and buy them off with Gold. If you have some Culture of your own from Wonders, then put 3 policy points into Patronage so that you get slower reduction in relations, 25% bonus to Gold Gifts, and a portion of the Research the City-State Ally generates. You may even want to polish off that tree if you get the chance.

Mercantile and Maritime City-States
Both of these are of great import. Mercantile provides Happiness that lets you keep growing and experiencing Golden Ages to help with Social Policies, Income, and Production, especially if you are playing Wide, and Maritime City-States provide up to +3 Food to the Capital with another Food going to all your Cities. It's not much, but it helps. A City stuck on Food Focus will grow every 3-5 turns, even late into its growth, and every single one of those will add at least +4 Science to your total.

World Congress
Get Sciences Funding passed for +33% GS birth, along with Engineers and Merchants, while sacrificing -33% on Artsy types. Avoid letting Scholars in Residence pass so other Civs can't catch up to you.

Spies - Protecting Research and Alliances
When you've got a good lead, you don't need to steal Tech, though it's a great option when you're behind. Put a Spy in your Capital or a higher-population City and by the time they're level 3 and killing other Civs' Spies regularly, you'll be accepting apologies all the time (the better option, really). Use other Spies to situate in several City-States that you will keep as your own, forever. They will so greatly raise your Influence over time that the other players will be hard-pressed to take them back without great expense or a lot of luck with Quests. This lets you go ahead and focus purchasing Alliances on some others.

Trading Posts and Jungle
Build Trading Posts around any Puppet Cities, since they focus on Gold anyway. Some Farms can help them grow, regardless. You want to preserve Jungle unless it's hill, to put a Trading Post and get +2 Gold, +2 Food, and +3 Science out of each tile. Only chop Jungle hills if you absolutely need the Production. A Trading Post only makes up for half a unit of Population in a large City as far as Science goes, though Gold is helpful, but maximizing Science may mean avoiding these for your large Cities, because they will result in the City having a lower Max Population - a City can only grow so much, based on the Food available to it. Growth will slow, then stop, stagnate and even shrink if it loses Food, but that is only toward size 40-50. You may need to chop replace tiles with Farms if you want further growth and even more Science.

Tradition vs Liberty
Unless you can settle in very fertile lands and have plenty of space between your Civ and the closest, you are likely to do better playing Tall and going Tradition for the growth bonuses when going for maximum Science. It is an easy play and 3-4 Cities benefit greatly from Tradition's bonuses. I won with Korea with 2 Cities, but their Specialists are amazing. I could have just as easily won Wide with them. The choice is really about how badly you want expansion. Liberty is not awful, in fact it will probably let you build Wonders and expand at the same time early on. Four to five Cities, well tended and kept in a state of Happiness with few periods of Unhappiness will grow nicely and may have a wonderful output, but the Cultural costs will be much higher. You may even find yourself in a War or two and be capable of taking lands that way (Puppeting). Ultimately, it'd be best to focus on 1-2 cities' growth in a Wide situation so they can run max Specialists, while your others can be focused on Production and supporting a Military.

Rationalism Social Policies Required
When you zip into the Renaissance, you want to be able to start plowing into Rationalism as fast as possible to get all the bonuses. Take Secularism to get +2 Science per Specialist, the biggest boost in this tree, particularly for Wide empires, then take the right side to get your Universities producing +50% instead of +33% Science. Finish this even if you are working on an Ideology, but time the last pick around a high-cost Tech so that you get the most out of a Free Tech - do that in every case where you will get a free Technology. Thankfully, a Great Scientist's Discover Technology bleeds over. You can even use 2-3 at once and get the full amount of Research to let you pick 2-3 techs in just a couple of turns.

Ideology Choices for Max Science Output: Freedom vs Order
Autocracy is for Military/Culture/Diplomacy more than anything and doesn't particularly help you with winning a Scientific victory, so the choice lies between Order and Freedom for most players. The general consensus is that Tall Civs with fewer Cities but high Populations will benefit more from Freedom, for they are able to use more Specialists and at reduced Food cost, while also reducing the Unhappiness those Specialists generate vs regular Citizens, allowing them to continue to grow. This coupled with Secularism from Rationalism giving +2 Science per Specialist is a natural choice for those Civs with 3-5 Cities. Once you're past that, the better choice is likely Order. All Cities with a Factory will get a 25% boost to Science, so with a Research Lab and University (with Rationalism) a total of 125% extra Science per Population, Building, and Tile Improvement vs Freedom's 100%. This is good, for it doesn't rely on you utilizing Specialists but still helps where you can (in your major Cities). Freedom gets to buy Spaceship Parts with Gold, while Order gets to use Great Engineers to rush them. Analyze your situation and pick based on other Tenets you like in those Ideologies. Order is also a generally safe choice, for many AI tend to pick it, but you can't really go wrong here. I tend to pick Freedom, for I'm often playing tall when focusing on Science, but wide Civs need Science too and thus should likely choose Order.

Use that Research to have a Great Military
Since you should be technologically advanced, upgrade units with Gold and ensure they are up to your new standards. Just add Strength and have some Ranged Units. Though Pikemen are not great in particular, they do have a good Combat Strength which raises your Military Score. Watch the Demographics screen and don't be last, but rather 3-5th in a 10 player game. The AI have 'disagreements' with tiny Civs, even if they never actually fought in the past. They like to gobble you up if you're small and weak. Build new units as they come available, as well. You want to gradually grow your Military throughout the game, but do not need to be #1. It is easy to defend in your own lands if you have enough troops. Note how I'd set up a fortified line to protect my lands in one of the screenshots above. Babylon was Friendly enough, but things can turn for the worse when you are starting to win by building Spaceship Parts. Castles etc. in your Cities are also a deterrent. In that game, I got to build Neuschwanstein, which encourages some defense and provides Happiness to the tune of 8-10 total for 3-4 Cities.

Play Peaceful for Research Agreements - Do NOT Neglect Research Agreements!
Rationalism + Porcelain Tower will give you double from any Research Agreement. Research Agreements can only be formed between two Civs that have signed a Declaration of Friendship. You'll both get a chunk of Science based on the lower output Civ of the two's Science per turn. When you can make these with multiple Civs, you will generate more Science than they do. You may even give them Gold to ensure you get this done, if you like. That will also improve relations between you, preventing War, particularly when Ideologies and land disputes are in play.

Like Gold, High Science Output can be Everything
When you have a huge Scientific lead of 10 Techs or more, you can essentially win the game however you like, but the obvious choice is to simply build the Spaceship. Still, being first to invent the internet, building the Great Firewall so other Civs can't, and getting a few late-game Cultural Wonders can be plenty to let you win with Tourism. You may use your massive wealth to buy your way to World Leader or crush your foes for a Domination Victory.

Learning More About Science Victory in Civ 5
This Guide is focused on generating Maximum Science for your Civ, while excluding the Scientific Victory. Once you have these basics down and understand how Science is generated, Scientific Victory should be easy to achieve so long as you are playing a difficulty appropriate to your skill. To see the Guide focused on how to complete a Scientific Victory, click here. This includes some basic tips for that type of win, how to pull it off, and is not as in-depth as this Guide.

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Steve says...

At what point would you suggest switching from using GS for Academies to using them for tech boost?

Admin:

That depends on your Science, so I couldn't specify a turn but rather a tech. I'd guess that most people switch to using the instant boost by Scientific Theory. They'll become really good once you have Schools in all your Cities. If you're blooming late, the GS's research boost isn't going to be really good. I read recently that it's based on the last 8 turns of output, so you can apparently save any that spawn around that time for after your Schools are up, wait 8 turns, and get a big boost. You could even manipulate this by making sure your Scientist slots are filled in all Cities for the duration of those turns to improve the output.

Using them earlier in the game to get yourself into Renaissance (say one) to ensure your next Policy pick goes into Rationalism is also not a bad idea.

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30th March 2014 9:16pm

Brandon says...

When I play for science I usually play with 4-5 cities. I often find that the best time to start using GS for free techs is in late renaissance-modern when you will usually see that massive jump in SPT due to rationalism and research labs.

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17th June 2014 2:40am

Aidan says...

Fantastic guide. Can I ask, approximately how much science should you have each era if you're maxing and if you are to win science, as a rough estimate of where I should be and if I'm on track?

Admin:

The amount you need is based on how many cities you have, so it's a tough question to answer as far as Science per turn - also you may be horrible early but bloom later on. As long as you are keeping your Cities growing with food focus on and some micromanagement to give your Cities production despite that focus, moving right on to the next science tech, and using Great Scientists for Academies the first ~150-200 turns then switching to using them for instant research, you are likely doing your best with the situation for that particular Civ/terrain available.

My best time is around turn 300 (just guessing), but I have not gotten into trying to perfect my methods and beat my own best. I find myself always having to move on to the next Civ on my list. When I do try to beat that, I may update this Guide with that kind of info and some tips. 

Here is a Civfanatics thread where people get into specifics and their best times, with Scientific buildings' invention as the benchmarks:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=497634

As someone points out, it's not uncommon for people to win in 275-300 turns, but pushing that even lower requires a lot of thinking and strong management of your Civ. It will be harder the higher the difficulty, for you would have to defend yourself as well - else keep aggressive Civs always at another's throat.

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18th March 2014 2:25pm

Dakota says...

When playing tall look to have around 1100-1200 science once research labs are around, I have less experience with wide, but I'd say around 2000 per turn is needed due to higher cost of techs because of more cities.

Admin:

Good tip. People playing wide can multiply this by 5% per extra city, so 10 cities and you would need ~1600 (40% more than someone with 3 Cities, the first incurs no penalty). That is definitely a nice research output, and is a result of high pop growth. So long as people focus on that important metric and keep their people happy, most should be able to attain this.

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27th March 2014 11:12am

Horatio says...

For those of you thinking of playing Brazil: The Terrain Improvement section is outdated. The Brazilwood Camp is no longer treated as a Trading Post for purposes of Commerce and Rationalism policies due to a previous patch. This means that you may want to reconsider your Social Policy strategy.

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2nd October 2014 2:49am

Julian says...

Is it true that you lose 5% of your science per city which is not your capital?

Admin:

Costs of new technologies go up with each additional city - so with 3 expansions and the capital, you'd have 15% increased tech cost.

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11th August 2014 6:08am

Martin says...

Hey I wanted to point out a late game tech thay you missed, it isn't as crucial since you will be far ahead by then. Atomic theory increases academy science yield by 2, so that's +12 science per turn per academy, 14 with korea

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8th March 2016 10:50pm

Dakota says...

I couldn't find this in your guide, but I think its worth mentioning the order tenet that allows 25% more science in cities with a factory which is a pretty significant boost and can really help if one rushes industrialization early

Admin:

I will edit in a section comparing the ideologies. Given the Guide is all about Science without regard for victory condition, I should have. After all, anyone in Order or even Autocracy needs Science to continue their military research. I can't do a lot for Autocracy, but at least point out that Order will be quite good at boosting their research, particularly with Secularism and the rest of the buildings. I think I would go Order for wide Science, Freedom for tall. You aren't running as many specialists in Order, and the passive boost of 25% (which will go in with Universities and Research Labs to make 125%) would probably do more than enabling more specialist use on not-so-tall Cities. I still want my smaller Cities growing to raise Science output even as I wage war, and I'm not using merchants/scientists all the time while doing so.

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25th February 2014 9:49am

Dakota says...

I have found that order is best for wide scientist because it allows more science in not so high pop cities with out running lots of specialist, while freedom allows one to use all specialist to maximize science making it easier for tall civs to achieve max science, allow though I imagine for players on emperor or higher it just comes down to personal preference and goal for the game on what they choose.

Admin:

Yep, I agree. I'll get those edits in within the next few days. Running lots of factories willl help you get more out of population - so 4.5 Science per unit of population @ 125% total bonuses (research lab, university, factory) vs 4 Science per pop. You can run Scientist specialists only and set Food focus to continue to grow with Hospitals/enough happiness. The internal trade route boost would help with newer Cities and make them grow in just a few turns for each unit of Pop. 

Thanks a lot for all your tips, Dakota.

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28th February 2014 4:06pm

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