Starting Literacy and Social Thought techs

[Cossack_PL]

At which literacy rate should I research Social Thought, at which can I skip it (considering 2% clergy per state and maximum education spending)? In AHD I played Scandinavia, skipped it and around 1875 I had, IIRC, over 90% literacy, so for them it's not needed, but how about, for example, Prussia or USA?

 

[Strykeypoo]

Well, I could be wrong here, but for literacy the main gpal is to not increase your rate of research but to hit the levels of literacy at which your pops will start promoting to the industrial classes easily. I for bonus craftsman promotion a pop group needs 40% literacy, while for clerks 60% literacy is needed. This is the literacy rate of specific pops, rather than the literacy of your state, which can be found in the population tab.

As for the techs, the literacy tech tree is all about getting that Darwinism invention, which unlocks off of the 1850 tech. Basically, if you're not going to hit 40% literacy by 1850, I would consider rushed that tech, as there aren't any real competitors for 1850 tech unless you really want Nationalism & Imperialism. For France, Britain and Prussia, you can probably neglect the literacy tree. For Russia, the Ottomans and Austria, the literacy techs are probably needed if you wish to compete industrially.

 

[De_Genius]

I usually stop after Biologism. Seems like waste of time after getting Darwinism to go further, unless you have really really poor literacy. But even as Brazil which starts with 5% or something like that I hit 60% in 1900, so maybe one tech further would help, but they come so late that their effect is largely reduced compared to the earlier techs.

 

[Thanik]

Social Thought techs in high lvl give also precious prestige, so sometimes they are important to take.

 

[Secret Master]

You may also want to grant suffrage to women, and that requires going past Biologism. The continuous impact of women's suffrage events on your politics can be a boon or curse, depending on how you want POPs to vote in the lower and upper house.

But if I start with literacy at 50% or better, I rarely even bother researching the literacy techs. If I start at 10% or worse, I make them an absolute priority. Austria and Russia really need to get those numbers up if they want to stay competitive.

The key is that if you have enough starting literacy, clergy at 2% can get you to 90% by the end of the game with no literacy techs and no public schools. But if you are too low, then it takes more effort just to get up to 2% clergy, and you lose precious decades before your POPs have enough literacy to benefit from industrialization.

Craftsmen I can scam into jobs by unemploying farmers and laborers, but you just aren't going to get decent numbers of clerks without literacy.

 

[Lwantssugar]

The techs are only really needed if your literacy is horrible, but as someone like the ottomans or Russia you need every little boost you can get. If all else fails enact public schools

 

[Thanik]

Or enact public schools + social tech

 

[Cossack_PL]

As I meant in OP I know that for Ottomans/Russia/China etc. these techs are no-brainer, I mostly wonder about the breaking point of starting literacy when you no longer need to research them. I'm going to start a campaign with Piedmont - most of Italy starts at ~40% literacy, Austrian part has ~10% - researching it should be useful, shouldn't it?

 

[GAGA Extrem]

Tier V is good because the +0.03 CON modifier will help to overcome the clergymen CON penalty. Tier VI can also be useful to rush reforms during the late game, but unless you started with terribad literacy it is low priority.

 

[Secret Master]

I'll also point out that Russia starts with a bonus to culture research.