R&T - Education

[Rik Meleet]

Education is obtainable. Education means Universities for us.

Options:
1 - not yet
2 - Trade Gunpowder for Education + 37 gpt + 277 gold with Persia
3 - Sign peace with France for our Gunpowder + France's education.
4 - Peace with Byz for the same as with France
5 - Abstain

Personally I'd only do the Persian deal. And only because we can use the gold since we are researching at 100% at -1 gpt. Universities will help greatly; but are not yet the big priority. But that can change quickly. Having the possibility to build them should not be underestimated.

Discussion thread

 

[Ginger_Ale]

There is no other ...

I would do:

(a) When there is a sign that Persia is starting to research it (set up the trade every turn and see if the value is going down).

(b) We can somehow obtain it without using Gunpowder.

(c) When we are about to lose a lot of our 20-turn gpt deals.

 

[Furiey]

Good thinking GA, our deals were made on turn 5 of the last session, so have run for 7 turns and will not expire until after the next session. We can certainly keep an eye on the trade, and if anyone else researches it we could sell it then. But Persia is on our list of Civs, so we need to watch when we commit to 20 turn deals and also bear in mind that we will be facing Muskets when we do attack. The longer we can delay Gunpowder getting about the easier our task will be.

 

[Bertie]

Of the choices, "Not Yet" is the best.

Thanks to R&T's aggressive research strategy we're well on our way to learning Military Tradition. Once we have that, we'll be able to take Persia, France, Spain, Portugal, and China easily. When we've accomplished that we'll be ready to switch from war to building our culture like mad.

Trading gunpowder hurts our war efforts; we don't want to face muskets if we can avoid it (we particularly don't want France to obtain gunpowder as this will permit their UU, which likely will enable their Golden Age).

Persia is on our list of priority targets, so we'll obtain Education as soon as we capture the Great Library. We have no immediate need for Education, so why rush a trade?

 

[vikingruler]

I said trade to Persia. The economical benefits are astronomical. Also, I agree that we don't want to face muskets, there is however, an easy way to get around that. Wait to destroy them when we have cavalry. They are quite far away, which means there are most likely to be one of the last targets. Get easy money and nice tech now, destroy them later.

 

[zyxy]

I completely agree with Furiey and Bertie. Trading away a monopoly tech for a measly 1000 gold (if they stick to the deal) and a tech that we would actually be better off not having just isn't worth it. Especially as the monopoly tech is Gunpowder. We trade it once, then it will spread around, and very soon many civs will get it. Muskets are much harder to defeat than spears -- some of our enemies have no iron.

The whole idea of racing to Mil Trad is to acquire cavalry before the other civs get muskets in place.

This is quite likely the worst possible trade we can do.

BtW: in the latest save I have, France doesn't have invention. How can we trade them Gunpowder????

 

[Rik Meleet]

BtW: in the latest save I have, France doesn't have invention. How can we trade them Gunpowder????

I really must look better. You are correct; it is Invention to France for Education ...

 

[GenMarshall]

I dont feel comfortable trading a valuble military tech that would enable an AI civ to use it against us in their defensive war.