Sorry for the NUB question, but I just picked up this game (no expansion) and was reading a succesion game to brush up on the new stategies from Civ 3.

Good read and I learned a little. Had one question that I couldn't find by searching: What is WFYHBTA?

I know it has to do with trading too many techs or something.

Is there a way to know when WFYHBTA will be triggered. Is there anyway to overcome WFYHBTA besides becoming friendly with a civ. Any other info would be great.

Think I figured out what it stands for
We
Find
You
Have
Become
Too
Advanced

Thanks in advance:)

The AI keeps track of how many tech trades you've done. If you exceed a threshold (different for each civ, IIRC), they will refuse to trade with you any more, to discourage rampant tech-whoring.

There is a long thread on this somewhere...I'll see if I can dig it up.

EDIT: Yep...the discussion is in this thread (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=164473).

it's
We
Fear
You
Are
Becoming
Too
Advanced
= WFYABTA

and the link provided by Zophos is the best i could do too.
What I know for sure is the number of trades is level dependant, and you can overcome the limit with friendly relations

Realms Beyond Forums - We fear you are becoming too advanced (http://realmsbeyond.net/forums/showthread.php?t=596)
Realms Beyond Forums - WFYABTA continued (http://realmsbeyond.net/forums/showthread.php?t=692)

Thanks dave

My solution:

The AI counts total number of techs, not value, therefore -

Don't trade for all the low level techs, for example I often trade alphabet to get iron working and mathematics and perhaps one lower tech like sailing or monotheism, and that's it.

Some quotes from that long set of posts:
- Just because you CAN make a trade does not mean you SHOULD.
- Try to figure out if you NEED the tech you trade for. Don't take junk you have limited use for just to grab a free tech, because....
- Remember the discounts that exist (more civs knowing a tech, and having more prerequisits) and will make it easy to grab up cheap early-game techs later. If you don't need it NOW, don't get it.
(Last two points obviously about deadend low-pri techs)

i love mansa, he doesnt give a damn he will trade with you ad infinitum. Also, ghandi will very rarely pull wfyabta, but will mostly be game :)