"No Tech Trading" + Espionage

[Dr.Null]

I recently finished a game where I took Constitution via Liberalism, whipped out some Jails, and used targeted espionage to steal a ton of back-fill techs. This was fun, but probably sub-optimal.

What are some other strategies to capitalize on tech theft in a no-tech-trading environment?

 

[coanda]

Just run an espionage economy. If you have a good one, you'll probably end up paying about half as many EPs as they paid beakers per tech stolen; just steal everything. Because it's so much cheaper you can bank gold at the same time, which lets you run bursts of 100% research to try and get specific techs you want.

 

[Um the Muse]

You could also take Nationalism for the 25% Esp bonus. Non-liberalism boosts: taking a major religion's holy city and then converting to it will give you some bonus. Using spies to convert your victim to a different religion gets you an even bigger bonus.

Other than those tips, you could look at mtr12's Espionage Guide