Understanding limited trading of certain items

Hi all,

Purchased the complete edition of Civ V on Steam when it was sale, and played a few games now. There's a couple of things I'm still not understanding, especially trading.

In the game I'm playing at the moment I have 8 horses available; 6 of my own, and 2 from a Mercantile state that I'm allied with. I have 2 Horsemen units out on scouting duties. The bar at the top of the screen says I have 6 horses left. So far, so good.

When I try to trade with any of the 5 Civ's I've encounted, it says I have no strategic resources to trade. (By the same logic I also cannot trade my iron). What's happening?

With some civs I can trade some luxury resources, but not others. I suspect this may be that I'm already trading with them with that resource, but I'm not sure.

Lastly, are you able to trade away your last copy of a resource? One of my towns has 4 cotton plantations near it, all being worked. Can I trade all 4 of them (Thus depriving myself of a luxury) or will the game automatically keep one copy for my civ?

Thanks.

You can trade all 4 cottons. As for your inability to trade strategic resources, a screenshot or two may be useful, or a save file.

You can only trade stuff you actually have in your borders. Anything you get from CS or other civs you cannot. One further caveat is if you make units that require strategic resources that comes from you original total so you may not be able to sell any surplus(as that's from the CS's etc).

As for the trading luxs, you cannot trade them if your partner already has the same resource. But if he sells the last copy of it then it becomes available again

So if what you say is correct, you should be able to trade four horses. One thing that might be preventing it is if you have horse units being built in the production order. If you do that, you won't be able to use those resources until they're taken off.

On a side note, I have several times encountered a bug that insists I need more horses when I have 2 and I'm using 2. This happens mostly when I have horses out in trade agreements and I then build horsemen using my CS acquired horses. It generally starts when I upgrade those horsemen to knights or knights to cavalry. Annoying but ignore-able.

^^I had that problem a few times as well. It is annoying to have to be reminded every turn that I am using too may horses (when I know I'm not).

I found that saving the game, quitting, and re-loading the game makes it normal again.

Here's a system that I think would be better and cut down on the confusion for trading:

You either have something in your hands or you don't, and you can do whatever you want with it when you have it. Meaning that if you have something through working it or acquisition it can be re-dealt immediately or whenever you want. However, I think that CS resources complicate this, as the idea is that if their shipping you a limited supply of gold, you wouldn't be immediately shipping that off to somebody else. So here's what I would do with CS's:

At a Friend level, you get the right to move through their borders, and the right to make trades with them (and the trades work like they do for art) and you must deal luxury for luxury and strategic for strategic.

At Ally level, you get all of that, plus one other thing based on what their specialty is, whether it be more faith, gifted units, more culture, or if they're mercantile they give a luxury outright.

This way trading is more fluid and you can really wheel and deal more easily.

Lutzie said:

When I try to trade with any of the 5 Civ's I've encountered, it says I have no strategic resources to trade. (By the same logic I also cannot trade my iron). What's happening?

With some civs I can trade some luxury resources, but not others. I suspect this may be that I'm already trading with them with that resource, but I'm not sure.

Lastly, are you able to trade away your last copy of a resource? One of my towns has 4 cotton plantations near it, all being worked. Can I trade all 4 of them (Thus depriving myself of a luxury) or will the game automatically keep one copy for my civ?

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If they have a lot of their own iron etc, they won't necessarily be interested in yours. Selling surplus strategic resources (especially obsolete ones) to the AI civs can be a good way to make money. You can also throw in some strategics to get the AI to accept a luxury trade, or substitute for a luxury when (for instance) they want three of your luxuries for one of theirs. Just make sure you are not arming a warmonger who is in a position to turn on you.

Generally you don't want to trade away all your copies of a luxury, but it is OK to trade the last one away if one of those deals is about to end and you will get it back soon anyway. The Dutch UA actually lets you keep half the happiness from a traded-away luxury, so this is actually a good tactic for the Dutch. I doubt that the AI knows how to use this ability when playing as the Dutch. "We Love The King Day" is important for growing your cities quickly, so it is worthwhile to aggressively pursue the luxuries your cities demand, even if you take a short term hit in global happiness.

Browd said:

You can trade all 4 cottons. As for your inability to trade strategic resources, a screenshot or two may be useful, or a save file.

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Screen shots wouldn't work, as I'd need about 5 to show it, but a short video should work, so next time I can get this repeatable I'll do it.

Oh, I'm talking full works here, BNW and G&K. Got the full package on Steam for £12 t'otehr week.

Sorry it's been a while coming back to this thread, had a busy week last week and haven't touched the PC.

Kirin Rider said:

If they have a lot of their own iron etc, they won't necessarily be interested in yours.

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No what I mean is I can't even OFFER them. I wouldn't mind if they refused me.

Generally you don't want to trade away all your copies of a luxury, but it is OK to trade the last one away if one of those deals is about to end and you will get it back soon anyway.

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I wish that, from the trading screen, you could see what resources you have in your empire, as it's annoying when you trade away your final copy of a resource!

Kirin Rider said:

"We Love The King Day" is important for growing your cities quickly, so it is worthwhile to aggressively pursue the luxuries your cities demand, even if you take a short term hit in global happiness.

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I like WLTKD so much that I often trade away my last copy a lux — since that seems to make my own luxes WLTKD triggers about half the time. This seems to work especially well for luxes that I have multiple copies of (since I have a few in play, I won’t have to wait too many turns for a copy for myself).

Assuming I don't go unhappy in the meanwhile, is this a good and popular technique, or am I fooling myself?

beetle said:

Assuming I don't go unhappy in the meanwhile, is this a good and popular technique, or am I fooling myself?

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Yeah, it works sometimes but don't expect it if you sell it 1 turn before your previous WLTKD is over. I have tried this at least 20 times and it seems WLTKD luxury is decided at least 5 turns before the previous one is over probably even more turns.

beetle said:

I like WLTKD so much that I often trade away my last copy a lux — since that seems to make my own luxes WLTKD triggers about half the time. This seems to work especially well for luxes that I have multiple copies of (since I have a few in play, I won’t have to wait too many turns for a copy for myself).

Assuming I don't go unhappy in the meanwhile, is this a good and popular technique, or am I fooling myself?

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If it's resource for resource I couldn't see the harm. But if the AI doesn't like you, or only has one copy left, they'll gut you on the trade. You'd think that they'd be content with getting a new luxury, some strategic resources, and a lot of gold, as opposed to demanding 3 new luxuries, a lot of gold and most of your strategic resources.

Trackmaster said:

If it's resource for resource I couldn't see the harm. But if the AI doesn't like you, or only has one copy left, they'll gut you on the trade. You'd think that they'd be content with getting a new luxury, some strategic resources, and a lot of gold, as opposed to demanding 3 new luxuries, a lot of gold and most of your strategic resources.

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LOL tell me about it. The AI is very greedy if you are not best buddies. I still take those awful trades sometimes if I have no happiness worries, plenty of money and strategics to throw in -- especially if the WLTKD is in my capital or in multiple cities.