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trade goods / wonders strategies
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Please share how you approach trade good & wonders (TG/W). After 40+ games, I still don't have this down and would like to hear what others do. OK. I will start with my oberservations and opinions.
TG/W add points to your score if you discover them, adds nice bonuses to things like diplomacy, growth rate, influence, etc. and sometimes it is necessary to keep certain TG/W away from one's opponent.
The first two the AIs go for are diplomatic translators and aphrodesiac. They will eventually go elsewhere but if you can beat the AI to these two you are off to a good start.
There are certain TG/W that I just don't want the AI to have and they include diplo, tri-strontium (?) steel hit point booster, and gal stock exchange.
When playing culture bomb, it is best to monopolize the + influence boosters if you can.
I usually share/trade the population boosters and morale boosters but obviously if you get them first, you get the bonus points.
On beginner, normal, and challenging, I find I can get the TG/W by using the strategy EBZ posted where you build the manufacturing center, fusion power, and manufacturing capitol at earth early and then start building diplo, aphro, etc. until you get a head start on the AI. Then sell all your tech immediately after you have discovered the TG/W so you can keep the spending at 100%. At these difficulty levels one can hold off on trading with minors until after you get diplo and aphro because the minors sometimes will go after TG/W while one can usually count on the major AIs to go after war tech.
On painful, I am not as good.  . I usually play "keepaway" from the AI by buying diplo, t-s steel, and gal stock exchange. I put it on mitrosoft if I must. I also trade with the minors early because the majors get stingy with cash. Then I just try to win the game rather than worry about TG/W. Depending on the start and the breaks (who capitulates to whom, the Telenanth event, planet quality boosts, etc.) this often involves coming from behind in military, economy, and techonology so it can be a long game for me. .
So, what is the best way to manage tg/w - esp on painful, crip, and maso? Thank you. 
Rick
          
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Oh yeah, I need to add gravity accelerators to the "must have" list if possible and the AI will also research this early.
Rick
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I find it helps to maintain a 100% focus strategy. I invest 100% of my production into military until I have enough colony ships, then switch to 100%(ish) technology for a while. Once I feel ready, I switch to 100% social production and start building diplomatic translators and any other trade goods I have researched (while building soil enhancement, etc. on the weaker planets).
   
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If you are not too concerned about score, the better way is to buy TGs from AIs rather than to build/lease them. That is because you can dictate terms for purchase, so you can get them at a lower per turn cost over say 100 turns or trade techs. It's even better if minors build them cause your oft superior diplomacy would mean that you can trade for them with peanuts (esp. tech).
Even if you are concerned with score, I don't think they really contribute much (few hundreds pts in a 15,000 game).
It's much better to focus on building wonders such as the Galactic Stock Exchange, Eyes of the Universe, Galactic Exhibition, Restaurant of Eternity, etc. Since wonders are not capturable or tradeable, building them first is more important.
  
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Anyone know how often AIs sell Trade Goods to each other? It's usually best to keep things like Diplomatic Translators and Gravity Accelerators out of the hands of your more powerful rivals, which you have no control over if you don't own them yourself.
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Thanks. Trade goods are different than wonders and so my initial idea of lumping them together is only applicable at lower level games where one can totally dominate the computer and get all the trade goods plus wonders.
At higher levels it appears to be better to look at trade good differently because you can . . . uh . . . "trade" for them. . Then decide which ones to prioritize. It might be diplo, grav acc, t-s steel as early priorites and guide book, hyper comp, pain amp and maybe micro repair as late priorities. If the AI builds aphrodesiac, slaves, frictionless clothing, harmony crystals, regenerators, ultraspice, virtual reality modules then big deal, simply trade for them using tech.
On the other hand, wonders are unique . . . uh. . . . "wonders" with no trading. The flagship early wonder is probably gal stock exchange. But as Ray says, wonders would have priority over many/most trade goods.
Also as per vincible it sounds like strategies change by necessity when playing maso.
Is this close to summarizing what has been posted? Does anyone buy/lease trade goods such as diplomatic translators or is that too expensive? Thanks.
Rick
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| Anyone know how often AIs sell Trade Goods to each other? |
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I wonder about that too, Matthew. Sometimes I lose out on the Grav Acc but I buy them off an AI for the extra speed. But I tend not to notice other AIs which had the extra boost from also buying this TG.
Do they buy TGs from one another?
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Also: can anyone confirm my impression that buying TG/wonders as opposed to building them affects score? My impression is strongly that buying them on-the-fly (in total if you have a cash surplus, or paying them off) does NOT bring you anywhere near the victory points that building them yourself does. And I've never seen any TG trading among civs either.
 
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| Do they buy TGs from one another? |
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Good question, and I am tempted to think so, since later on in the game they seem to be catching up with us on Diplomacy. However, they start with great bonuses too, and so if they eventually work up the Adv Diplomacy, Instant Comms, Alliance, etc, too, then maybe that is already enough to level it.
I havent spotted the proof in debug.err yet either!
   
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TGs are not capturable, couslee.
That's right, B. You give AIs the right to use them at a price.
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Hey my strategy is to simply buy them outright as soon as they become available. All of them
By this I mean I don't use mitrosoft and pay over time, I just lay out 7000bc up front and go way in the red for a few turns. Why not! After diplomatic translators you can get a lot more money out of the minors - you'll be out of debt in a year or less. Then buy aphro, do the same thing, eventually you will end up with all of the trade goods, you will be trading with minors and majors, you'll be getting loads of cash each turn from tribute and trade and you win. This works well for me up to challenging. Haven't played more than testing past that yet.
Later.
  
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An easier way to do this (read: cheese) is to go ahead and start building them, then if you get a notice that so-and-so has built this, reload an autosave (set to 1 or 2 turns), THEN buy it outright. You will save yourself a ton of money this way too. 
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| An easier way to do this (read: cheese) is to go ahead and start building them, then if you get a notice that so-and-so has built this, reload an autosave (set to 1 or 2 turns), THEN buy it outright |
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Arrgh! That's a triple cheese burger with EXTRA cheese!  Lothmorg - can you (or anyone) tell if buying as opposed to building wonders affects final score? As in: impacts on your society component? I have always had a vague suspicion that you get a better score credit if you BUILD a wonder/TG rather than buy on-the-fly?
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