Just finished (and won) a normal score victory as Broken Lords. One thing I noticed is I lagged behind on tech vs other empires (but exceeded them on other factors). I pretty much researched all the techs of one era before moving on. In retrospect this probably wasn't the best idea. So I wondered what veteran players thought and what was there general approach to tech.



Thanks.

In a general sense, without going into detail about each tech and when it's useful...



1) I research the best tech at the time. As a predominantly BL player, there are a few techs in each tier that are superior to the dregs left over from the last tier. For example, the military tech in tier 2 is more important than whatever's left over from tier 1 (open pit mine, aquapulvistics, geomic labs, and mercenary market are all likely left-for-laters for me); bread and circuses is more important than the left-for-laters of tier 2.



2) If I want techs from multiple tiers and, for whatever reason, there's more than enough time to get them all, I research higher tier techs first. That's because that's the least expensive way to get techs. For instance, after taking care of the essential tier 2 stuff, I continue through tier 2 stuff before going back for the tier 1 techs that are only moderately useful.



3) If there are no researchable techs that I want or can benefit from, I research the lowest tier techs, even though they're totally useless. That's because, again, this is the cheapest way to reach the next tier, which probably has some techs I want. As an example, even though I never build Ryders, I routinely research them before I research Shipyard, because I expect no real benefit from Shipyard, and Ryder is cheaper.



Is that the kind of information you were curious about? Really, researching the most immediately rewarding tech from all options dominates my decisions, the other stuff doesn't come up regularly.

Perfect. Thanks. Will definitely be more selective next time around.