Gold Usage

[os79]

I know this is weird because I don't read this forum for some reason .
But here is the question...
But first the background...
I noticed while autoplaying my game for researching turn increments that AIs don't stockpile gold in order to upgrade wholesale at later date. They rather just research as fast as possible, then when they need gold, they move research to 5%...

So my question is:
Do you do the same or do you do the same as me, stockpiling gold and be stuck with 75 to 65 percent of research most of the game time?

I ask because if most of you do similarly to AI, I may need to reconsider my gold usage strategy .

 

[generalstaff]

During my Snail games, the AI seems to stockpile between 200 and 1,000 gold (except during crises) on average. At the same time, they seem unwilling to empty their stockpile to upgrade, then when I attack them and put them into crisis mode, they empty their vaults.d

My gold strategy is keeping between 100 and 500 in vault (depending on time period) due to events (many of which need a nullify with gold option, all the hurricanes, termites, and earthquakes really piss me off). Other than that, I run deficits until I hit my minimum gold level, then I decrease my science slider to build up a surplus, then repeat. When researching a tech that requires upgrades, the decrease science for the upcoming expenditure or if I planned ahead, left large surplus so that I do not have delay upgrades.

 

[os79]

During my Snail games, the AI seems to stockpile between 200 and 1,000 gold (except during crises) on average. At the same time, they seem unwilling to empty their stockpile to upgrade, then when I attack them and put them into crisis mode, they empty their vaults.d

My gold strategy is keeping between 100 and 500 in vault (depending on time period) due to events (many of which need a nullify with gold option, all the hurricanes, termites, and earthquakes really piss me off). Other than that, I run deficits until I hit my minimum gold level, then I decrease my science slider to build up a surplus, then repeat. When researching a tech that requires upgrades, the decrease science for the upcoming expenditure or if I planned ahead, left large surplus so that I do not have delay upgrades.

Thanks. That makes sense.

 

[DRJ]

1. I only upgrade units at the front, my capital often has a warrior until I have enough gold to spend.
2. I have in ancient about 50-100 gold minimum (forests, burning forge!), classical 250 and later 500.
3. If i need to upgrade fast due to war I first sell cheap old techs to "middle civs" then I try to bully some smaller ones (btw great so they can't get agitated to declare on you, too - at least for 10 turns). If that doesn't help I put down my science slider for 1-5 turns.
4. Regarding upgrade I think the crossbowman is the best early upgrade for archers. I get them usually some time before longbowmen. At that time you already have pikemen as well, so you don't need to worry about horses, neither strength 10 swordsmen (crossbow strength 9 + 50% melee + first strike). Only thing that's annoying is that machinery is so expansive...
5. Especially in ancient time I found out that running deficites is really building a lot of tension regarding revolutions. Try to avoid that as much as you can, nevertheless use it at breaking points, for example if you research a tech which provides a wonder you plan to build, or as said a bove, a tech that provides upgrades. Know when to stop spending deficites.
Usually when I reach monotheism danger of revolutions are a thing of the past for me...

 

[Humakty]

I like to keep a large amount of gold for military reasons, when I haven't got a good production :

Produce loads of low tech units, which doesn't cost a lot of hammer, then upgrade them to a costlier unit. It saves a lot of production time, even if you'll need to plan ahead, as you'll have to stockpile low tech units beforehand, as they'll go obsolete once you've got new military techs.(=you can no longer produce them)

My personal favorite is chariots => knights

 

[os79]

Talk about leveling...

Wow, I now see a significant step up in my strategic level over before. With your tips, I am now teching ahead at somewhat rapid rate more than ever before!
Thanks, folks!

 

[zappara]

It's always wise to keep some gold in the reserves as that might help you turn some bad random events to good ones

 

[Supercheese]

Yeah, the Oil Refinery (or was it Chemical Plant?) explosion event that costs like 3000 gold to clean up really sucks .

 

[os79]

My new strategy:

Ancient: 100 gold
Classical: 500 gold
Medieval: 1000 gold
Renaissance: 5000 gold
Industrial: 10000 gold
Modern and after, the same as Industrial, unless the game revises me.

Again, thanks!

 

[civ_king]

My new strategy:

Ancient: 100 gold
Classical: 500 gold
Medieval: 1000 gold
Renaissance: 5000 gold
Industrial: 10000 gold
Modern and after, the same as Industrial, unless the game revises me.

Again, thanks!

what turn speed?

IIRC someone did a graph showing alternating between 100% an 0% was maximum efficiency

 

[os79]

what turn speed?

IIRC someone did a graph showing alternating between 100% an 0% was maximum efficiency

At present, Marathon. That is in preparation for Snail, at later date with higher difficulty level than Noble. (Note: Noble is 4x better than Setler when I started playing Civ4 intensely earlier this year ).

 

[swobig]

I generally keep my research slider as high as possible, so minimal gold. If needed, I'll turn it all the way down to upgrade units or force weaker civs into giving or trading for some...

 

[Afforess]

Eh, I just take a page out of the US's book. Run your gold stock into the ground, sell your techs for some extra gold, churn out a few caravans, rinse, repeat.

Boy, I wish you could have negative gold, like in real life. But I doubt the AI could handle it.

 

[civ_king]

Eh, I just take a page out of the US's book. Run your gold stock into the ground, sell your techs for some extra gold, churn out a few caravans, rinse, repeat.

Boy, I wish you could have negative gold, like in real life. But I doubt the AI could handle it.

1)

2) wouldn't that take a bit of programming? because how would you force the person to get positive again? and what would be the downside (other than REV)

 

[Afforess]

2) wouldn't that take a bit of programming? because how would you force the person to get positive again? and what would be the downside (other than REV)

It wouldn't be very hard to do from a programming standpoint. There are only a few checks that make sure you have positive gold. I even removed them once, and the game didn't care.

But your other point, how would you force it positive again, that is what I encountered too, and I couldn't think up anything simple enough to make it work, so I gave it up.

 

[szemek77]

I don't know why, but I like to keep some gold in my treasury. I use it mostly for upgrading my units. I don't agree it is not worth. Watch the power ratio between you and AI civs. If it comes below 0.8 AI leaders are tempted to attack you, even if you were friends in first place. Constant upgrading of units keeps you at proper defense level.

I use one small trick (not very sophisticated) - I always try to keep the science ratio at lowest acceptable level. What does it mean? Later in the game, it happens very often that keeping science output at the level of 90% or 80% doesn't change the number of turns you need to develop a certain tech, but it changes the amount of gold you get. And sometimes is a lot, the difference can be 100 gold per turn in some cases.

500 gold is a must for me. I hardly ever go below that.

 

[Boom12389]

Why not have Financial Troubles become a bigger factor as you go further negative, so that any civ that enters the red too long will collapse? You could also make it so that there's a counter that keeps track of how long you're negative overall, so that you couldn't go negative for several turns then go positive for one turn before continuing your spending binge.

 

[Supercheese]

Why not have Financial Troubles become a bigger factor as you go further negative, so that any civ that enters the red too long will collapse? You could also make it so that there's a counter that keeps track of how long you're negative overall, so that you couldn't go negative for several turns then go positive for one turn before continuing your spending binge.

Well, by that line of reasoning, the US should have collapsed years ago...

 

[Talin2009]

Almost whole game i keep research at 100%. At very beginning of the game tribal huts and barbarian cities give you some starter gold, then i try to found religion (mostly often Hinduism (i play with limited religions)) and spread it, after currency i trade techs for gold. Adam Smith and Spiral Minaret wonders is a must in most of my games, well actually i build almost all wonders.

As soon as i can i beeline for Applied Economics, when i research it and while building WMF and World Bank i turn science to zero, piling up gold stock to get 50% bonus. After they are built i usually have 200-400k cash and 5+k cash per turn from WMF 2%, which lets me forget whatsoever about cash problems and upgrade whole late game army while keeping science at 100%.

 

[Hydromancerx]

I always leave it one under the % of science. Thus if leaving my science at 50% gives me +1 gold per turn then I leave it there. It eventually adds up to where later in the game I am like at 80% science and if i move it up it gives like -10 gold but if i leave it just under I get +90 gold. Thus I never have trouble upgrading my units when the techs come around. And doing it this way forces me to have a robust base (food/production/gold). So even if one city gets killed I still have others ready to keep the empire afloat and can come back to retake my city plus take theirs.

Ofcourse if you are ever low on money could could always pillage a foe or send a trade caravan to a friend.