Need for gold?

[Gingerfreak666]

Has anyone got a really convincing need for gold? Cause all you could just put science up to max and not worry about when your money reaches zero. I meen, what do you really need to have all that gold for anyhow?
Please Reply!

 

[Cerryl]

If you're playing at Chieftan, you can. But who likes playing at that level?

 

[Ironikinit]

Gold is handy for buying tech/resources from the AI, bribes, and rushing production under republic, democracy, and monarchy. Also, as Cerryl hinted, on levels more difficult than chief you'll find that running in the red will cost you units or improvements.

 

[Sodak]

Use gold to upgrade your units! Even with Leo's Workshop, upgrading scores of knights to cavalry will cost you hundreds of gold. Same for spearmen to pikemen upgrades.

If you have super-corrupt cities, you can use gold (not in despotism, obviously) to rush build things.

I've found that even when my treasury bumps up to 5000+ gold, it is only a matter of time before I spend most of it. Either to quickly expand borders on another continent, to upgrade, to rush build...

 

[Anglophile]

I always try to have at least 1000 gold and preferably 2000 for the reasons outlined by Ironikinit and Sodak. If my gold goes below 1000, I will drop my luxury or research rate to rapidly increase it. I see no point in having modern techs if I can't afford to upgrade my units to make use of it.

 

[siredgar]

Give me gold! Lots of it!

Yeah, I like to have about 1000-3000 gold pieces in my treasury. I feel more secure and it helps to enlist big allies to fight on your behalf. It's also good for rush-building city improvements and buying techs.

More importantly, I like to take all of the gold from other civs, especially in the beginning of the game, to keep them from deficit spending and restrict their research capabilities. This bankrupting technique can help stunt a civ's growth in the early stages of the game.

 

[Sauron the Evil]

You are talking about gold I am a newbie. Which tactic should i use to get all that gold?? Im always get the "Your treasury is to low" :-(

 

[Ironikinit]

Infrastructure (markets, courthouses and banks), republic or democracy, low corruption (centralized palace and forbidden palace try to keep most of your cities w/in ten spaces of either on a standard map), trade (certain techs are worth a lot to the AI and tend not to be researched, esp. governments and extra luxuries don't do you any good, so trade them... also civs will spend a lot on resources, if they have the cash)... hm, I'm sure I'm missing some biggies. Oh, Wall Street is nice, too... just make sure to keep 1000 gold in your treasury to get the max benefit.

 

[Zur]

The single biggest reason has to be rush-building. It seems to be a bottomless pit and there never is enough $ for that. Saves having to wait 20-200 turns for the next improvement to be built.
I just hate seeing cities stuck at 6 or 12 pop waiting for aqueduct/hospital to be built. Also the primary way to pull corrupt cities out of the corruption quagmire. I could easily spend 2000 gold/turn rush building if I could generate that kind of cash.

 

[Shink]

You will also find that the "Pope" strategy works rather well in version 1.17f, especially early on. If there are a decent amount of civs (I usually play 8 on a standard map), then just drop your science and luxuries down to zero and crank out the gold. You'll end up buying all of the techs for the first few millenia, but you'll have lots of spare gold to do it.

Later on in the game, be sure to have marketplaces in every city and banks in every non-corrupted city. These will help a lot. Roads on every square help a ton as well.

 

[.:KNAS:.]

wait untill there is 1 or 2 turns untill you research a tech, then turn the science rate as low as possible but so it still is 1 or 2 turns left, it`s a little micromanagement, but its a good idea, or turn the science rate down to zero for a few turns till u get some gold

 

[Zur]

Originally posted by .:KNAS:.
wait untill there is 1 or 2 turns untill you research a tech, then turn the science rate as low as possible but so it still is 1 or 2 turns left, it`s a little micromanagement, but its a good idea, or turn the science rate down to zero for a few turns till u get some gold

What I read is that this sacrifices science research in the long run since "light bulbs" carry over to the next tech. Can someone confirm this with some evidence? It could save me some fiddling with the science bar.

Zur

 

[rdomarat]

Originally posted by Shink
If there are a decent amount of civs (I usually play 8 on a standard map), then just drop your science and luxuries down to zero and crank out the gold. You'll end up buying all of the techs for the first few millenia, but you'll have lots of spare gold to do it.

Just remeber that if you are dropping yuor science down to zero, to always go into a single city and make one citizen a scientist. As long as you produce one beaker a turn, you will qualify for the maximum turns/tech limit which differs based on the map size you use. Always choose to research the tech you want the least, and then buy the others, while you slowly (32 or 40 turns on standard map I believe) reasearch the less desired tech.

Reg

 

[Shink]

Originally posted by rdomarat


Just remeber that if you are dropping yuor science down to zero, to always go into a single city and make one citizen a scientist. As long as you produce one beaker a turn, you will qualify for the maximum turns/tech limit which differs based on the map size you use.

Reg

Excellent idea that I didn't think about - I'll have to remember to use this next game!