 |
|
 |
 |
 |
[Henrik's strategy school part 2]: Trade good lease strategies
|
 |
|
 |
 |
I like to rush-buy most (or all) trade goods, since I find that the advantage of leasing them to the AI's far outweighs the cost. Now, I've spent quite a bit of time tthinking about how to optimize the gain when leasing to an AI. Here are some thoughts:
Always keep diplomatic translators to yourself. It helps a lot when negotiating lease contracts for other trade goods.
As AI's are often ahead in tech, it may be tempting to offer trade goods for tech instead of cash. Be careful doing this, though. Much of the tech may not be useful for your strategy (especially dead-end tech such as corvettes). Also, giving you tech doesn't really hurt the AI - after all, it has already spent the resources researching it. Therefore; offer trade goods for tech to weak major AI's who will not be a threat in the future. Demand cash from your main opponents. I often take a medium-long lease plan (max out what I can get for 20-30 turns), since that seems to keep my economy going on full speed until I get the next trade good.
Lease the trade good to all races you possibly can. The long-term gain of keeping it to yourself is outweighed by the fact that you get MORE and the AI LESS money NOW. In larger galaxies, send out scouts for the sole purpose of finding other civs as soon as possible.
When choosing the length of the cash payments, remember that it may sometimes be useful to empty an AI's coffin completely in order to stop him from rush-buying something (intuition needed here, as you cannot know what the AI is about to do). Therefore, short term plans may sometimes be useful.
When dealing with minor civs, give them everything barring diplomatic translators. They are no threat anyway (except the I-league and Fundamentalists who should be considered major civs). If you have several trade goods to sell, make sure that the monthly payments are small enough (= the lease plan long enough) that the civ's treasury does not empty before you you are ready to trade the last trade good. When it comes to the last good, make an extremely short-term plan - 2 to 3 years - to deliberately empty its treasury. This makes sure that YOU get all his money no matter how much another major AI bullies him. Especially effective on minor civs who appear later in the game. I always make them go broke immediately when they pop up. MOHAHAHAHAHAHA (eh, hrmm, sorry...)
When dealing with the main opponent(s) in a game, keep a trade good or two to yourself. They are VERY useful when sueing for peace, which may be necessary in order to pull off other stunts (see my starbase strategy thread).
       
| |
|
#1
by Citizen drank - 5/14/2003 4:50:40 PM
I've had good success with rush-buying trade goods and selling them to everyone, so I agree with most of this.
Regarding trading goods for tech, I do this more than your strategy suggests. My goal is to be a "tech arbitrageur" - I buy the tech from Civ A for a trade good, and then sell trade good + tech to Civ B for more cash, repeat with all the rest.
Often by the mid game, this leaves me sitting on a pile of $10K or more. At that point, I usually just buy new techs from the research leaders for cash and then sell them around.
If I can, I'll trade techs for declarations of war. Ensuring that the aliens are (a) wasting their money fighting each other, and (b) are only able to trade with me.
This approach also lets me set my own research comparatively low. I focus on techs that the AI doesn't usually go for, or the ones that lead to cultural conquest.
Keys for this approach are to make sure I get Diplomatic Translators (and never sell them), and also to put bonus points into Diplomacy at the start of the game. Early exploration is also important, as you can't begin trading until you find the other civs. I'll also try to protect a couple of minor races, as they give me yet another market to sell all the techs I've acquired.
   
| |
|
Good points!
One thing I have learned to do in this game apart from other 4X games: Holding back and building up you empire and then try to overwhelm the enemy does not work. You must either engage in short conflicts yourself, or (better IMO) make sure the AI is hampered in growth and development. One good way is to ruin their economy. Another, as you state, is to make sure they are constantly in war with others.
I rarely trade tech for cash, but that's just because I'm lazy and find the constant trading boring in the long run. Silly me, to let go of that advantage.
| |
|
|
|
Yeah i am finally figuring out that hanging back and trying to overwhelm doesn't work maybe thats why i still suck
| |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
 |
Copyright 1995-2024 Stardock Corporation. All rights reservered.
Site created by Pixtudio and Stardock, designed by Pixtudio.
|
 |
