Diplomacy Drawbacks?

[Barker]

I have been somewhat hesitant in giving the AI copies of my world map, extra resources, contact with other civs etc. I like to monopolize all the resources I find.

I don't know how this works, but i suspect that if I provide a world map, the AI will take advantage of it to move into the areas I have discovered. I want to limit their access to my resources, so that they have happiness problems. I will pay through the nose to buy techs, resources, contact etc, and then extort the money back for a copy of my territory map. (usually a per turn gold arrangement)

I try to limit their tech trading ability by delaying their first contact. This may require galleys patrolling the waters, and choking water passages where possible.

Do these tactics work at the higher levels?

(I currently have been playing at lower levels until I get a good grasp of the game)

 

[JoseM]

well people have different diplomatic strategies, but i like to trade with the AI, in my roman game i think i have earned in total like 70.000 of gold from trading a lot of my resources and techs since the ancient times until the future tech times, so i will recommend you to trade a lot, but thats ur decision.

 

[Willem]

Like you, I tend to hoard if I think it gives me an advantage. For instance, I really don't like trading away Iron if they don't have any. There's one thing to keep in mind though, the more you trade, the better your relations with the other civs will be. If you offer nothing and never accept their requests, you'll find them much more likely to declare war on you.

 

[No.Dice]

Originally posted by Barker
Do these tactics work at the higher levels?

On Emperor-Deity level, the AI starts with so many free units, that it will often have scouted your entire portion of the map before you do, so withholding your map won't do you any good. Consequentially it will have made contact with many AI nations as well.

Nearly all of my games are on huge Pangaeas, so this could vary quite a bit on continents.

But from my limited experience,
Blocking water passages with galleys would be effective, but its nearly impossible to beat the AI to mapmaking, much less outproduce them. Unless you're playing an expansionist civ (enlgish anybody?), you'll most likely be buying mapmaking (and all of the other techs). More often than not you and the AI will arrive at mapmaking within a turn of each other, since you can usually trade your map for the tech.

The tech pace (for the ancient age) is a lot slower on standard maps/continents, since there are less goody huts for the AI to exploit so its certainly doable. In my opinion, its much easier to conduct an early war/deny resources on a standard sized map, or one with continents.

Even with a densebuild, the AI on emperor will be 2-4 cities ahead of you, and they like to box you in. If you plan on denying them resources you need to get there fast.

All imho, some playing styles might lend themselves better to those settings.

 

[sealman]

trading your map for map making seems funny to me.

 

[napoleon526]

Originally posted by Barker
...I have been somewhat hesitant in giving the AI copies of my world map, extra resources, contact with other civs etc. I like to monopolize all the resources I find.

I don't know how this works, but i suspect that if I provide a world map, the AI will take advantage of it to move into the areas I have discovered...

The AI likes nothing better than to build little obnoxious cities in little holes between your borders. Think carefully before trading your world map, because once one civ knows the territory you have explored, there's nothing you can do to stop them from trading that knowlege w/ the other civs. If you want to sell your map, offer it to all your rivals at the same time.