Technology Tree
Technology represents an empire's growing mastery over agriculture, warfare, construction, and governance — researched one level at a time, with no fixed order forcing any particular path. There are 14 technologies in total, each capable of reaching up to level 10, and progress in every one of them also feeds directly into Government Levels.
The Technologies
| Technology | Base Cost (Level 1) | Effect per Level |
|---|---|---|
| Agriculture | 300 cycles | −5% cycles needed for Improve Terrain and Grow Forest projects |
| Archery | 240 cycles | +5% Ranged Value |
| Construction | 240 cycles | −5% cycles needed for outpost construction projects (Barracks, Camp, Church, Farm, Marketplace, Mine, Stable, Warehouse) |
| Diplomacy | 240 cycles | −5% cycles needed to complete diplomatic actions |
| Field Manoeuvres | 240 cycles | +5% Melee Value |
| Government | 300 cycles | +2 cities before the decentralised-empire penalty begins to apply |
| Guilds | 240 cycles | +1 workshop |
| Leather Working | 240 cycles | +5% Armour Value |
| Libraries | 240 cycles | −3 effective technology levels when calculating the time needed for new research projects |
| Logistics | 240 cycles | +10% Global Equipment Stock storage capacity |
| Manufacturing | 420 cycles | +20 workshop capacity |
| Marching | 240 cycles | +1 movement point (land movement only — has no effect on embarked armies) |
| Military Academy | 240 cycles | +1 maximum army |
| Stone Working | 240 cycles | −5% cycles needed for city wall and Quarry construction projects |
Most technologies share a common baseline of 240 cycles at level 1. Three stand out as noticeably pricier from the very start: Agriculture and Government both cost 300, and Manufacturing is the single most expensive technology in the game at 420 — fitting, given it's also one of the flatly strongest effects available, adding a substantial +20 workshop capacity per level with no diminishing returns built into the number itself.
A few of these are worth understanding beyond the raw numbers and cost. Libraries is the single most powerful anti-snowball technology in the game — see Research Time below for exactly why reducing the "effective" tech level matters so much as an empire's tree fills out. Government directly counters the loyalty penalty of holding many cities at once, making it a natural pairing for any empire pursuing wide expansion. Military Academy is the only way to raise your empire's maximum army count beyond its baseline, making it essential groundwork before any large, multi-front campaign.
Choosing What to Research
Research in Imperium Sine Fine isn't a free pick from the full technology list. At any given time, an empire is offered a random selection of three technologies to choose from — and the moment one of those three is completed, a fresh set of three is randomly generated to replace it.
This has a real strategic consequence: you can't simply decide "I want Libraries next" and research it immediately. If Libraries doesn't appear among the current three options, you either pick from what's actually on offer, or wait and hope it shows up in a future roll. An empire can go a long stretch without seeing a particular technology offered at all, purely down to chance — there's no way to force a specific technology to appear, and no way to skip past bad rolls without simply choosing something else.
This makes technologies with universally strong value — Libraries, Government, Guilds — worth researching whenever they appear, rather than being saved for "the right moment," since there's no guarantee the same opportunity will come back around soon.
Research Time
Every technology has a base number of cycles required to research, but that number doesn't stay fixed as a campaign progresses — two separate forces make research steadily more expensive over time:
- For every technology level already completed (across the whole tree, not per-technology), the time to complete the next research project increases by 5%.
- For every settlement constructed (excluding the capital), research time increases by a further 10%.
This means research inevitably slows as an empire both researches more and expands more — a large, technologically advanced empire pays considerably more cycles for its next discovery than a small, undeveloped one chasing the exact same technology. Government and Libraries are the two technologies that directly counteract this creeping cost, which is exactly why investing early in either tends to pay for itself many times over across a long campaign.
Research is paused, in the same way a settlement's default Expansion project is paused, whenever the empire undertakes a diplomatic action — no progress is lost, it simply resumes the moment the diplomatic action completes. See Projects for the equivalent rule governing settlement projects.
Saving Research
If no research project is currently selected, and no diplomatic action is underway, an empire can bank up to 60 cycles of unused research capacity. The moment a new research project is chosen, this stored buffer is applied immediately — instantly covering the first 60 cycles of the new technology's cost — and the buffer itself is then emptied. This rewards a player who plans ahead rather than leaving research idle between projects, letting the very first steps of the next technology complete the instant it's selected.
