Highest Difficulty w/o Tech Trading?

[alcaras]

I'm just wondering what's the highest known difficulty that's been beat with tech trading turned off...

Any other reflections on how turning off tech trading makes the game harder vs. AI are appreciated -- all my experiences are with Noble w/ tech trading off, but I hear at higher difficulty levels tech trading is a key to keeping up with the AI?

Thanks!

 

[LuckyAC]

Deity, probably easier than with it on, especially in BTS.

 

[Tyrael]

Diety has probably been beaten with tech trading off, on a Duel 2 player map. For normal settings though I can't imagine Deity being anywhere near possible without tech trading pre-BTS (not sure about how BTS changes things yet).

 

[Shoot the Moon]

Deity. O.K., no tech trading isn't an chosen there, but it might as well have been considering they never even discovered writing.

EDIT: That is so strange, when I started typing this post, I thought I was gonna be the first response.

 

[MrCynical]

Before BtS, no tech trading substantially increased the difficulty level at any difficulty above about Monarch. After BtS it becomes more dubious. The AI (let alone the Aggressive AI) has a tendency to seize up completely on the tech front somewhere around the Renaissance, allowing even a non-trading human to overtake.