No matter who I play, civics is my first tech.  It's simply far too useful to go for anything else.  After that, if I'm playing a faction with the Enchanters trait (I almost never play anything else), I rush Spellbooks so my sovereign can become a murderous archmage of doom.  Then it's back to civilization techs until I feel like giving my sov some supporting henchmen.  Warfare techs I almost completely ignore.

Knowledge, simply because it makes everything else quicker to get.  I usually go up Civics through Administration, Trading, and Agriculture, then switch to Magic (if I'm running Pariden) or Military (everybody else) for a bit.  Then it's back to Civics.  You can't really succeed by sticking with only one tree.  You have to mix and match, according to a strategy tailored for your race and leader.

mining-administration-costruction

then here sometimes i make changes

if i play a heavy magic based sov i take shard harvest

if im going with some warrior and i didnt get many drops early i might take leatherworking to pimp up my champions

if i spot a very good lvl 5 champions i go to take it (but its very rare since most of them sux)

then i get 3 4 more civics tech, and then i start warfare for mounts and archery

For Magnar you do Knowledge, Leather, Training, Drills, Weapons, Blacksmithing. Just enough weapons to tech to get spear slaves, then go after civics and magic for economy. 

Yep, it really depends on nation and situation, but I almost always go knowledge first. With Kraxis maybe Civics. I also like to build an early spearmen unit also now after the hero nerfs. Especially if I don't get any units for free while exploring, or have heroes that can't summon anything.

When it comes to the civilization tree, I tend to go for production techs first, then things that gives science, then other things like trade and economy. 

It would be nice if all six starting techs could be viable choices for strategy in the game. As is, Civics, Knowledge, Trading. Everytime. Nothing else comes close.

In addition, the magic tree is lacking. Imo, a bit more duration should be added to champion levelups, and then abilties added to the champion techs that grant bonus xp to reign that balance back in. That way, you can choose: Civilzation, Military, Heroes as focus points. It feels like magic should have been mixed in through all the tech trees: Shard Havesting, and other magic structures in the civilation tree. Monster recruiting and elemental summoning in the military tech tree. Spells and enchantments in the Heroes tech tree. But alas, that would mean an entire redo of the tech trees....unlikely to happen.

It also depends though on what world you start with. In some of my games I need to get up to weapons very fast in order to have decent city defense. 

mid-term technology really depends on map layout, but after some playthroughs I usually go:

1: Civics. (Civ Tech)
2: Knowledge, then Mining (Both civ techs)
3: Training, then leatherworking (Both Warfare Techs)
4: If I have horses, then horsetech, if not then go to 5:

5: Pump civ technology until you reach: Education, Cooperation. (Both Civ Techs)

From here it varies a lot, meaby magic tech, meaby go for craftmanship, meaby more warfare tech.

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

Civics, and knowledge

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

Thanks for all the feedback. It looks like there is more variety, than I was expecting or what other people in the forums indicated. I'm gonna try some of these different strategies out to see if they fit well with my play style.