Mercantilism

iamnleth

Warlord
Joined
Dec 25, 2005
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275
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United States
Experts Unconquered Sun, UncleJJ, Snaaty, and Acidsatyr (God rest his uncivilized soul) sparked my interest.

I just wish to clarify if I have the right idea: with more cities, mercantilism becomes much more beneficial (albeit indirectly). The AI actually benefits more from your many trade routes than you do from their average number, which leads to mercantilism being the best option should you want to prevent the AI from all those luscious gold pieces. With more cities, you also obtain more free specialists: very powerful, has excellent synergy with the "farm economy" (the specialists derived from those farms in particular). It should also be noted that CE = Free Market is NOT always true. This is a common misconception. The same rules apply.

In Snaaty's trade route demo, it was decided that if he was going for domination, the trade economy was not the wisest choice given that the AI will receive massive benefits- instead, a more peaceful approach like space or diplomacy will be better suited. I was quite amused by this thread. Exciting seeing these experts working these things out. Something similar... well, I can probably never hope to achieve.

So experts, particularly those in love with specialists like Acid and (I think?) UncleJJ not only use mercantilism for its free specialist/city, but to weaken the AI! I'd never thought of it! Man, is it just me, or am I really dull?! :lol:
 
Well, it makes sense, but it can hurt you as well, depending on the situation. If you're running a SE though, it's nice to have and if you're warmongering a lot, also good until SP comes along. Nice synergy with rep if you get early pyramids or constitution around the time you're backfilling banking.
 
I should probably use it a lot more. Not to drain the AI like one might, but because my warring tendencies often leave me with only 1-2 people with open borders, and they're not always lucrative trade partners. When I've got 20 cities mercantilism might be better if I can barely use foreign trade anyway.
 
plus, there is a time period where the ai is mostly in mercantilism and you don't have any other options, so why not?!
 
My big thing with mercantilism is to determine if the extra specialist is going to compensate for all the foreign trade lost. Three decent civs you still have open borders with can sometimes = :commerce: :commerce: :commerce: :commerce: :commerce:

You might find you end up hurting yourself more switching to it.
 
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