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Diplomatic strategies on Maso Games
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Please share your wisdom with me.
I play with 20% diplo bonus, but I always fail to get Diplomatic Translators. How can they get it that fast? At that time I'm still hunting for my first colonies and that with 100% military, 100% spending and 100% moral 
I do hardly get any money from the major civilizations for my technologies. But I can trade them for other technologies until I loose the race for some while.
I can trade with the minors and get better deals there but currently only the Alexians have something valid. But I fear they will be history soon ...
Which races are good trade partners?
Is it better to send my freighters to minors to keep them alive and give the majors money to avoid their aggression or is it better to send the freighters to the most intimidating race.
I always hate it to give something of value to a race when I know that they will go after me later anyway. They use this money to build weapons to attack me  But I need something to calm them down since I could not resist an attack early on.
And yes, I always try to bribe them into wars with each other. Especially with their trade partners. And I try to keep the war parties at equal levels. But often I don't have enough to trade to convince them 
            
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I normally pay attention to who builds diplomatic translators and try to trade for it (eventhough it is most offently wery expensive).
I keep one trade route with each of the majors and direct the rest to minors. It might be a coincedence but Caranoids always seems to last longest of minor in my games.
If i can each major at war with one or more other majors with same military strength as their one (more or less) i don't mind them dropping to "cool" (the never seem to get any lower if they already have their hands full).
Btw: I think that Alexians are the only of the starting races who will trade techs for cash
  
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Walldorf: Hmm...I just wrote about this in your vagabond terror star thread. Well, I suppose I can write *on* topic for a change! 
In my maso experience the Alexians will usually buy tech, and the Kwilasians/I-League will usually buy tech. I have had maso games where the Alexians will NOT buy tech, and it takes me a long time to get back into the black.
If I want to preserve a minor as a trading partner (for freighters, for tech trades, or for tech sales) I "blockade" that minor by surrounding it with sensor drones and scouts (and an occasional warship if *I* am at war with a major). If the major isn't at war with me, they can't get at the minor. Mini-freighters come and go freely, and the minor's warships can apparently get out through my blockade.
If you are pursuing a non-military strategy, you will fall very far behind the AIs in military techs, but you will pull away from them in green techs and often in yellow and orange techs. These you can trade for the smaller range, speed, and military techs. Once you have a good economy you can even buy the "biggies" like Battleship and Dreadnought, if you pay over 100 turns. However, if you have some juicy techs of your own, eventually some major will offer Battleship or Dreadnought tech in a one-for-one trade. I've even had Dreadnought offered in a one-for-none trade, which surprised me. Mind you, by the time they offer Dreadnought they probably have Ranger tech, but by then your research base should be strong enough to get any tech you want fairly quickly (with some obvious exceptions).
At that point you can continue your non-military strategy (culture bombing, terror star alpha striking, etc.), or you can switch to a military strategy using your strong economy and strong research.
At one time or another all the majors can be good trading partners. None will give you more than pocket change along with the tech trade, but you can garner a lot of IP.
I like to make my trade routes with the majors while fomenting war to disrupt their trade routes. If most of their trade is with me, they are much less likely to attack me. This is especially important with majors of opposite alignment (which is why I try to remain neutral).
Yeah, I know about giving them techs that can be used against me, but I can use the techs more effectively than they can. I do try to trade or give the same tech to most of the majors to maintain a balance of power. However, you can hoard your techs if you give them cash, and occasional gifts of 10-20 bc for 100 turns seems to work nicely.
One thing I don't know: is it bad to refuse a tech trade that is offered to you? You know the sort: weapons theory for your terror star tech, or something equally fair! What I've been doing successfully is refusing the imbalanced trade, but immediately offering them the tech they want in return for techs that I actually want (or even giving them the tech outright, if relations have fallen to neutral). -- HtL
   
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| If you want diplo translators, either hops a minor will build it or stop your colony ships and switch to 100% social early. |
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I'm surprised that works at maso. If I don't build enough colony ships I don't have the economic base I need to compete later on (assuming I'm not trying a One Sector Challenge or some such...which I guess scotches my argument that I need more colonies!)
Assume that you *do* want the DTs (so to speak). What approximate starting sequence would you try? Something like 4-6 colony ships (including ones from secondary worlds), and then 100% social to DTs? Probably need some research in there to have some mfg capacity: manufacturing center? fusion?
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I usually have enough time for DT at Maso - possibly depending on the map size. I tend to research Nano-Metal Composition and then switch to 100% social and build Manufacturing Capital first and DT second (without even having build soil enhancement). You may also be able to trade N-MC for some good techs. I allow myself to go a few hundred in debt while doing this.
In the midgame, you can often find a fairly expensive tech that none of the AIs have, research it (100% research for a while) then trade it to all the AIs in one turn. Try to get the techs off them that the others don't have, and then trade those too. You can catch up from a big technological shortfall that way. I hardly ever worry about AIs using techs against me - I only hold off trading them if trying to build a unique project. Trading techs a lot seems to improve relations. I don't trade for IP much, though I do sometimes trade techs for freighters (first checking that the freighter isn't heading for one of my stars).
 
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My trading policy is to send freighters to the majors with the largest military. I need the diplomatic edge with those guys to make sure they don't whomp on me. This is especially important if they are of opposite alignment. I never waste trade routes on minors.
However, I have found that in some games the Carinoids will buy tech. And sometimes the Kwisilians will buy tech. Of course, the newbies always will buy techs, but they start with everything, so it might take a while to get something to sell them. And by then, they are usually taken over (hopefully by me!). I always check to see who will buy tech each game, because it seems to change randomly.
 
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In almost every game I've played, the Carinoids wound up building Diplo Translators. In my most recent game (my first stab as maso) they were only one sector away. I used this strategy to get the translators: take a chance that the trend continues, and then conquer them before they can build anything that can shoot. It's kinda risky eliminating a minor so early, but since I started out with nine planets in three star systems I figured I'd have enough staying power to make it work.
The key to winning that game (tiny map, war party, +2 speed, can't remember the other bonuses) was a) very early conquest, b) try to take out all enemy star systems in the same turn (usually not applicable on larger maps), and c) if someone else (in this case the Altairans) builds Tri-Strontium Steel), conquer them before they can build a capital ship!!!
I don't even wanna know about those Drengin aphrodisiacs... 
 
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I tend to get Diplo Translators almost every game now, but only because I bankrupt a minor and turn Social spending waaaaay up. But it's definitely worth it.
 
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