As a heads-up for those getting into the game, here are some basic thoughts on research goals that concern what, in a pitiful attempt to be dramatic, I have termed killer techs.
Techs that are so good that, all else being equal, I am likely to aim for them because they reward me so much more than other techs of the same difficulty to acquire.
I will list techs in a number of categories, in each category listing them in the order I am likely to research them. I also classify by age having (somewhat arbitrarily) chosen to to denote early as being roughly 1836-1860, mid-game 1860-1900, and end-game 1900-1936. Tier 6 techs are only included where they are absolutely astonishing since you are pretty close to the end of the game there and probably already know what you will pick based on earlier investment decisions.
My post has absolutely nothing to do with when you should focus on the this or that tech area, only with which techs you should probably be gunning for long term when you have chosen your strategic target for improvement.
My evaluation of which techs I consider to be killer techs include the long-term effect of inventions, so a tech needs either to produce something awesome up front or in the long run - or both.
I fully accept in advance that there can be good reasons to focus on other techs, especially in the early game, if your nation is set up to do fairly well from start and you have a strategy that depends on specialized actions, such as colonization or achieveing prestige supremacy, to take just two obvious examples. Sooner or later you'll want to industrialize, though.
This is also primarily singleplayer oriented. While many of the things that work in singleplayer works in multiplayer as well, other things assume much greater importance in multiplayer, particularly in the army and navy department, when you are fighting opponents that not only fight back with considerably more tactical skill but are also capable of identifying and taking advantage of your weaknesses.
Economy comments: The Power and Infrastructure groups from Industry are always good to research if nothing else comes to mind and you surely don't do wrong by researching them, but amongst the good techs they are pretty average overall. Between Power and Infrastructure, Power brings the greatest immediate benefits (10% to RGO and factory output) and infrastructure the greatest long term benefits (16% to RGO and factory throughput) but comes with a significant delay before kicking in. You will usually do quite well with focusing on killer techs and using these as fillers between killer techs, researching these to one tier behind the Industry killer techs you have already researched. In some cases you might even accept being two tiers behind due to focusing on getting the killer techs first if your economy is strong enough to go without.
The techs marked with [RGO] are the ones that enable RGO Spread Events, events that when they trigger in a province applies a huge bonus to either farmers or labourers (or both in the case of electricity) to all the provinces in the state the province is part of. These events are a) awesome and b) take a long time to spread. For long-term prosperity, you want them. With one exception (Distribution Channels) they come attached with techs that are good in their own right. It is very easy to underestimate the importance of these techs since it can take decades before they spread to your entire realm
I do not consider any of the tax efficiency techs or admin efficiency techs to be killer techs (with the exception of the one that gives Distribution Channels). They are more useful as filler techs for those situations when you feel a need to adjust taxes/admin more than you can do with the economic sliders.
Early game economy:
Mid game economy:
End game economy:
Nothing - there really aren't any economic techs that stand heads and shoulders above the average amongst those unlocked in the end-game. The economic techs are viciously frontloaded. The economic techs in the end-game are uniformly good (Industry) and uniformly meh (commerce).
Army comments: I'll assume that your nation has infantry and artillery unlocked already. If that is not the case, then they should probably be first.
Since this is primarily singleplayer advice, I will also assume that you will to a large degree rely on your professional army. If you intend to rely on your mobilized troops you will want to assign a higher priority to researching the techs that increase your mobilization size/impact than I have done here. With only a few exceptions they have mostly mediocre tech bonuses apart from the mobilization bonuses, so you won't find many of them in my list. Another thing that may strike some as surprising is that I haven't included barrels (a tier 5 tech) in the list but have included aeronautics (a tier 6 tech, and thus one I had said had to be astonishing to be in the list) the reason is that aeronautics bring you something that is of strong general use while barrels do not. I am sure that won't prevent some of you from ruling the world with your tank brigades.
Early game army:
Mid game army:
End game army:
Navy comments: For certain countries or strategies the Naval Doctrine, Naval Engineering, and Naval Science techs are quite important. For most nations they are not and can largely be ignored in singleplayer, even for those that build big fleets and use them. Multiplayer is a whole different ballgame where naval matters are concerned - as is always the case in Paradox games.
Early game navy:
Mid game navy:
End game navy:
Culture, research, and education comments: Given that three out of five of the culture techs are focused on boosting your prestige gains in one of two different manners, I have chosen to completely ignore those aspects in this thread. For the nations that want to gain prestige this way the important thing is to discover things first, which means keeping tabs on what the other nations are doing (primarily by seeing what the shared prestige of different inventions is), so none of them can be focused on as more important than the others in general. Well, that's not quite true. The Psychology tree is worse in every single tier than Aesthetics and Philosophy with the exception of the sixth tier that gives you radio technology to proclaim to the masses your massive failure of forethought that made you invest in researching the first five tiers.
Early game culture, research, and education:
Mid game culture, research, and education:
End game culture, research, and education:
-------------
EDIT: The following is a reminder of which techs are needed to allow colonisation of provinces with harsh living conditions. Since all three techs that improve colonisation are killer techs in their own right due to their other properties, you are going to research these close to the day they unlock anyhow.
5 from Medicine via invention
10 from Machine Guns
10 from Nationalism & Imperialism
I hope this will prove of help. Cheers!
Techs that are so good that, all else being equal, I am likely to aim for them because they reward me so much more than other techs of the same difficulty to acquire.
I will list techs in a number of categories, in each category listing them in the order I am likely to research them. I also classify by age having (somewhat arbitrarily) chosen to to denote early as being roughly 1836-1860, mid-game 1860-1900, and end-game 1900-1936. Tier 6 techs are only included where they are absolutely astonishing since you are pretty close to the end of the game there and probably already know what you will pick based on earlier investment decisions.
My post has absolutely nothing to do with when you should focus on the this or that tech area, only with which techs you should probably be gunning for long term when you have chosen your strategic target for improvement.
My evaluation of which techs I consider to be killer techs include the long-term effect of inventions, so a tech needs either to produce something awesome up front or in the long run - or both.
I fully accept in advance that there can be good reasons to focus on other techs, especially in the early game, if your nation is set up to do fairly well from start and you have a strategy that depends on specialized actions, such as colonization or achieveing prestige supremacy, to take just two obvious examples. Sooner or later you'll want to industrialize, though.
This is also primarily singleplayer oriented. While many of the things that work in singleplayer works in multiplayer as well, other things assume much greater importance in multiplayer, particularly in the army and navy department, when you are fighting opponents that not only fight back with considerably more tactical skill but are also capable of identifying and taking advantage of your weaknesses.
Economy comments: The Power and Infrastructure groups from Industry are always good to research if nothing else comes to mind and you surely don't do wrong by researching them, but amongst the good techs they are pretty average overall. Between Power and Infrastructure, Power brings the greatest immediate benefits (10% to RGO and factory output) and infrastructure the greatest long term benefits (16% to RGO and factory throughput) but comes with a significant delay before kicking in. You will usually do quite well with focusing on killer techs and using these as fillers between killer techs, researching these to one tier behind the Industry killer techs you have already researched. In some cases you might even accept being two tiers behind due to focusing on getting the killer techs first if your economy is strong enough to go without.
The techs marked with [RGO] are the ones that enable RGO Spread Events, events that when they trigger in a province applies a huge bonus to either farmers or labourers (or both in the case of electricity) to all the provinces in the state the province is part of. These events are a) awesome and b) take a long time to spread. For long-term prosperity, you want them. With one exception (Distribution Channels) they come attached with techs that are good in their own right. It is very easy to underestimate the importance of these techs since it can take decades before they spread to your entire realm
I do not consider any of the tax efficiency techs or admin efficiency techs to be killer techs (with the exception of the one that gives Distribution Channels). They are more useful as filler techs for those situations when you feel a need to adjust taxes/admin more than you can do with the economic sliders.
Early game economy:
- Freedom of Trade - Economy RGO improvements for everybody.
- Mechanical Production - Not for the factory output bonus, though it is nice, but for the RGO improvements. This is a truly amazing tech regardless of whether you are heavily industrialized or not.
- Clean Coal - If you are a big coal or iron producing nation, this one will usually reap you huge profits. If you don't have coal or iron, ignore it.
- Medicine - THE tech for sustained growth, better soldier POP management, reduced attrition, and a boosted support limit. Don't leave home without it.
- Interchangeable Parts - [RGO] for local machine tools
- Inorganic Chemistry - [RGO] for local nitroglycerin
- Business Banks - [RGO] for local distribution channels
- Steamers - If your nation is a big fish producing nation
Mid game economy:
- Electricity - [RGO] for local electricity. For electric gear. For the huge factory bonus. For the population growth (hmm, I wonder how that works).
- Combustion Engine - [RGO] for local tractors (and all the other goodies)
End game economy:
Nothing - there really aren't any economic techs that stand heads and shoulders above the average amongst those unlocked in the end-game. The economic techs are viciously frontloaded. The economic techs in the end-game are uniformly good (Industry) and uniformly meh (commerce).
Army comments: I'll assume that your nation has infantry and artillery unlocked already. If that is not the case, then they should probably be first.
Since this is primarily singleplayer advice, I will also assume that you will to a large degree rely on your professional army. If you intend to rely on your mobilized troops you will want to assign a higher priority to researching the techs that increase your mobilization size/impact than I have done here. With only a few exceptions they have mostly mediocre tech bonuses apart from the mobilization bonuses, so you won't find many of them in my list. Another thing that may strike some as surprising is that I haven't included barrels (a tier 5 tech) in the list but have included aeronautics (a tier 6 tech, and thus one I had said had to be astonishing to be in the list) the reason is that aeronautics bring you something that is of strong general use while barrels do not. I am sure that won't prevent some of you from ruling the world with your tank brigades.
Early game army:
- Military Staff System - To unlock cavalry. You want cavalry for their reconnaisance, if nothing else. (And there are other reasons, but reconnaisance is reason enough)
- Command Principle - The first and most important tactics boost. Tactics reduce your casualties. Research it. Do so now.
- Army Professionalism - The first and most important huge morale boost coupled with even more yummy tactics
- Strategic Mobility - If you intend to conduct offensive campaigns this provides an across the board increase to reconnaisance. You can certainly do without it, but it provides a significant strategic advantage.
Mid game army:
- Machine Guns - To give your units both good attack and defense.
- Deep Defense Systems - Gas attack and defence.... this one is just SO unfair against an unprepared enemy. Expect to see it nerfed once people start crying.
- Military Logistics - If playing a nation that needs to use mobilization, this is the big one
End game army:
- Bolt-action Rifles - Not only a big attack bonus, but the combat width is now for the first time likely to be considerably shorter than the armies your provinces can support (if you have been researching the Chemistry and Electricity techs, that is, which is pretty much obligatory for anybody who wants to do well)
- Aeronautics - For the reconnaisance. You don't buy airplanes to fight, for they are pretty bad at that. You buy them to attach a few to each major army for the reconnaisance bonus. If you don't think you'll need to conduct occupations or fight troops that are heavily dug in, feel free to skip this.
Navy comments: For certain countries or strategies the Naval Doctrine, Naval Engineering, and Naval Science techs are quite important. For most nations they are not and can largely be ignored in singleplayer, even for those that build big fleets and use them. Multiplayer is a whole different ballgame where naval matters are concerned - as is always the case in Paradox games.
Early game navy:
- Fire Control Systems - for the attack bonus, which is large compared to starting unit values
- Steamers - Commerce raiders are awesome early game ships.
- The Command Principle - For the relatively big organisation boost at a low price.
Mid game navy:
- Steel Steamers - Being the last to be unlocked of my suggested targets, it may be the last you get of the three if you are prioritising your navy, but if you really want to use your navy, you'll get Steel Steamers as soon as you are able. Cruisers are game changers, where Ironclads/Monitors are merely very tough targets that can profitably be brought down by swarms of Commerce Raiders
- Raider Group Doctrine - Speed kills.
- Main Armament - if you haven't reached Steel Steamers date yet but do expect to fight a significant naval war, Main Armaments can give your Commerce Raiders a significant edge over the opposition between 1860-1870. After you have got your Cruiser production up and running the value of Main Armament decreases significantly.
End game navy:
- Steam Turbine Ships - Dreadnoughts. They aren't game changers the way Cruisers are, but they are big, bad, and beastly.
Culture, research, and education comments: Given that three out of five of the culture techs are focused on boosting your prestige gains in one of two different manners, I have chosen to completely ignore those aspects in this thread. For the nations that want to gain prestige this way the important thing is to discover things first, which means keeping tabs on what the other nations are doing (primarily by seeing what the shared prestige of different inventions is), so none of them can be focused on as more important than the others in general. Well, that's not quite true. The Psychology tree is worse in every single tier than Aesthetics and Philosophy with the exception of the sixth tier that gives you radio technology to proclaim to the masses your massive failure of forethought that made you invest in researching the first five tiers.
Early game culture, research, and education:
- Ideological Thought - Significant plurality boosts early on really kickstarts research.
- Malthusian Thought - If a colonial nation that doesn't depend on external migration, you should consider picking this cheap tier 1 tech. You really should. If you aren't, to hell with it.
- Nationalism & Imperialism - The King of the Culture tree if you are the sort of player who likes to muck around with the world rather than staying at home. The reasons to aim for it very early are manifold and evident from the list of its modifiers. Yes, you'll take a hit to plurality and separatism will get worse but these two negatives are dwarfed by the benefits. I usually aim for this as soon as my economy is stabilized and my defenses are good enough that I won't be overrun. It is the gift that keeps on giving. Well, unless you want to stay isolationist with a small population that doesn't even benefit from the NF. Then you can skip it.
- Market Structure - A huge boost to education quaintly bundled with very usefully reducing factory input and increasing output makes Market Structure one of the few commerce techs worth gunning for.
Mid game culture, research, and education:
- Revolution & Counterrevolution - If you need the extra NF and have carefully considered the tradeoffs in turbocharging communist rebels while hurting all other rebels. The latter tradeoff can be good for you, but it can also be very, very, bad depending on your situation.
End game culture, research, and education:
- Mass Politics - If you need the extra NF. The same disclaimer applies as to R&CR, just with regards to fascists.
-------------
EDIT: The following is a reminder of which techs are needed to allow colonisation of provinces with harsh living conditions. Since all three techs that improve colonisation are killer techs in their own right due to their other properties, you are going to research these close to the day they unlock anyhow.
5 from Medicine via invention
10 from Machine Guns
10 from Nationalism & Imperialism
I hope this will prove of help. Cheers!
Last edited:
