Gunpowder (C-evo)

Gunpowder in the free-to-download game C-evo is one of the key advances affecting military unit strength in the first half of the contest. It adds 3 to the strength of each attacking or defensive in ground units designed after its discovery, while raising the price of each module to 8 (one more than does Monotheism, which also adds 3 to the strengths). It also adds to the strength and cost of s.
Its other value is as a prerequisite to Metallurgy, which is needed for and is one of the optional prerequisites for .
The only disadvantage in learning Gunpowder early can be that it adds 20% to the price of naval unit modules without a meaningful addition to their strength (because most enemies will produce much stronger ships fairly soon). It is preferable - unless ground unit strength is becoming urgently important - to research (and ideally unless your world has very little deep ocean) first, then design a cheap transport vessel that is faster than and carries more units.