Maximize Techs AI will give you for peace

[Benginal]

My question is how do I do this? I'm in the middle of an immortal game playing as Mehmed. I had Qin as a neighbor (damn protective) but I also had gems in my capital and copper nearby. So I built TGL, some settlers, some workers ... and eventually declared war with catapults and axemen. My tech rate was pretty slow compared to the other AIs I knew, but I was planning on extorting quite a few from Qin. Unfortunately after a taking beijing, xian (city 3 perhaps), and a smaller city (7 perhaps), leaving him with 6 more cities he would still only give me hunting for peace. I couldn't continue to war, so I took hunting and am now waiting 10 turns to declare war again.

1. Is willingness to give up techs for peace a function of the leader? I remember julius being much nicer in the previous Immortal Cookbook game.

2. How many cities should I try to take to maximize tech getting? ... Because I was planning on declaring war again in 10 turns and getting a few more techs so I didn't want to take all of his cities now (not that I could, but you get the point).

3. In general, can somebody tell me all the things that affect how many techs an AI will part with for peace?

 

[ColossusXXIII]

@OP

Earlier I was playing as Hannibal on Deity/marathon/continents/large etc. and spawned in semi iso with Toku as my only neighbour. He dow'd on me as soon as he got bronze and I countered him with axe and chariot. I razed his capital as it was far and then back tracked and razed another 3 cities, in order to maintain my economic/military production. Needless to say he had researched Alphabet, so I tried to make peace and get it from him as all his remaining 4-5 cities had walls and I had no siege yet (spies>city revolt). He wouldn't give it up so I captured 2 cities leaving me with a total of 5 cities and him only 3. I then made peace and he was willing to talk turkey. I got masonry, fishing and mysticism but no way he would give me alphabet or math or iron working. So I waited about 20 turns while I finished off teching HBR and whipped some numidian cav. then I dowed and waited for his sod of about 10 melee and 2 catas to cross my border. it wasn't even a fair fight despite his 3 spears... Anyways I razed another city and resettled it, meanwhile taking his capital and holding it for a few turns dispersing piecemeal counter strikes he was making. Then moved out and went to lay siege to his last city. I then thought about asking for peace and techs again, he refused any deal besides a simple peace treaty. I then advanced on his capital and as I approached he essentially threw his defensive garrison of about 7 melee untis at my stack and I killed them all. He had but 2 archers and an injured spear left. compared to my combo stack of 12 almost fully healed and super well promoted units. I tried for peace again and this time (maybe 5 turns later) finally got alphabet and a bit less than 1/2 of construction.

all this to say I think they calculate the eminent threat you pose to them as well as your overall power/size. Plus I'm sure each leader has different modifiers as to their willingness to bribe you off. As well I think potential gain to the Ai has to be taken into account. If you're about to take his capital, he'll probably give you more than after you sack it. As keeping his capital is worth more to him than trading to you after he's lost it. Another factor you must account for is that each time you dow on a civ, you risk being the victim of multiple DOW's against you. Because each time you declare, you increase the negative diplo factors "you declared war on our friend". So tread carefully and make sure it's worth making peace. Usually unless I absolutely need to I keep warring until their dead. Another thing you can do is leave him with a marginal coastal city which you can box in, make peace take whatever tech you can get and then keep him alive until your spies can steal whatever he has left.

I hope this was helpful in some way

 

[kossin]

Get better war success (kill more and capture more than you lose).

Don't be too greedy (you can put a few beakers of research in target).

Remove enemies from city BFCs... that makes them think they pose a threat to you so they play hard ball.

 

[obsolete]

This reminds me of something...

I remember it being discussed a long time ago that when you accept a tech-deal that an AI proposes to you, it DOES NOT count against your tech-trade limit. But if you negotiate it yourself then it does.

I wonder if that's been changed...

 

[Dhoomstriker]

This reminds me of something...

I remember it being discussed a long time ago that when you accept a tech-deal that an AI proposes to you, it DOES NOT count against your tech-trade limit. But if you negotiate it yourself then it does.

I wonder if that's been changed...

It would be nice if what you describe still works.

From what I can recall, whenever I've been offered a Peace deal, the AI tends to "low ball" me on their initial offer and you can often get a better deal just by asking yourself. At least the behaviour that you describe would provide some possible incentive for accepting a slightly-less-good deal in exchange for avoiding We Fear You Are Becoming Too Advanced counter increments.

 

[babar]

Does pillaging help too? Seems to me it does, although maybe it's just having units in enemy territory?