Capt Tuttle,
Regarding a previous post, one thought might be that one should not worry about being to far ahead in science. There is an increased cost in beakers (depending upon the gap between you & your key civ, but that is an aspect that I dont worry about -- I like having a gap where Im ahead.), but that increase is is a fine tuning type of thing, maybe on the order of 5-10% or so (such as gifting to a key cive might reduce the beakers at that time from 872 required to only 825 needed. A small bit when a delivered caravan yields $400 a pop.)
Regarding overall playing strategy that you asked about, I recommend that once you have most of the basic searching completed, consider switching out of Monarchy into Republic -- even toggling a notch of science down & lux up, overall science should gain by 30%+.
I also tend to stay in Monarchy too long -- often switch to Republic (and stay there too long), and miss out on the more efficient specialized governments, Dem, Commy, Fundy. So with the early to mid game choice I find that with the possibility of building camels for Wonders, I get seduced into building too few cities. Not to mention that by doing all of that peaceful stuff, my civ may look fat and tempting
so I too often go to battle late (see notes below) but my growth is not as aggressive as some -- I usually grow contiguously outward with soe sort of defensible borders in mind if there is an ai civ on my rock.
Marlos,
The tech trading Ive seen is a function of a few things:
1) Ai proximity/contact -- from time to time the ai hasnt had contact with
their next door neighbor whom the traded techs 20+ turns ago. If you open a foreign embassy, the country should note the other countries that it has relations with -- early in the game this can be two, one, or
none. No contact, no trade. Thus early in the game, there is probably some tech trading, but then it tapers down as the ai civs discover borders and border wars.
2) Andu Indorin notes that circa RR & Industrialization, the ais wake up & smell the coffee. Sooooo maybe the human should make a few plans ahead of that particular time. Many of my games see my govt progression as: Despot -- Monarchy -- (Republic) -- Democracy; Then Ill take a breath of fresh air for 20-30 turns & go Fundy for money, expansion, infrastructure purchases, and foreign acquisition.
Tech wise, Ill get to Monarchy ASAP, hang there until 8-12 cities & reason for WKTK stuff (say aquaduct, & reason for trade/SSC/Growth) switch to Rep & grow, maybe if Im too slow (as often happens) switch to Dem & grow. Ill stay in Dem getting tech as long as practicable, building Wonders, a few (too few) cities, staying peaceful. Once my SSC has achieved a decent size (say 23, using all the irrigated land, but refridge is still a bit off), shift the tech tree towards the military aiming for Tactics. With Tactics, Leos, Sun Tsu, (KRC and Shakes in a port) maybe ironclads -- I go into Fundy mode. My first 6-10 turns might be just building some units, getting more cash, building some infrastructure (but not a lot yet). This period hopefully sees the war -- I should have a tech advantage of at least Cav over Muskets, hopefully better. So Ill spend turns conquering at this stage until the Cav vs. Muskets fortified on better land (hills, rivers) call for Arty. Maybe Ill press for a few more cities, but more usually it is time to stop this & shift back into science mode. Fingers crossed, Ive taken a couple of civs out & have an empire that is greater than the rest of the world combined. (say 50-60 cities on a large map). Near the end of this time frame, most/ all of the cities should have the infrastructure to grow to size 8 comfortably.
Now switch back to Dem -- within a couple of turns, tech should be coming every other turn or so & at this point, I dont care too much if the ais are trading -- the game is in the bag. Techwise, Ive collected whatever scraps are still around, and my goal is to switch out of war mode before Industrialization +/-. This will depend on who/where the enemy is -- my first choice is usually the closest ai, but better is the closest threat (read high tech challenge) ai. In any case, I dont want to lose out on Hoover, so Ill need that tech with the dozen trucks/$$ before an ai gets close. Im willing to risk Womans Suffrage & the UN in the War period, but that is also a case of how far back am I in the picture. (I havent tried Commy -- my thought is that the specialization of grow/science (Dem) toggle (via Statue) $$/infragrowth/War (Fundy) gives the human the advantage of the slow reactionary ai.)
Once I discovered the power of trading, the above strategy still works, although I now can practice it easily on a higher game level, and with enough camels and trucks get techs each turn.
2) I think that the ai does echo the player, but this has yet to be put to the test -- when Im in science mode along conventional lines (similar size to ai civs, say 15 cities each, all as republics, little trade, no SSC) I run the risk of being passed by some of the civs in science, even as other civs start nibbling at my borders. In a number of these games, my switching to Fundy, toggling science down to 20%, taxes to 80% seems to have the other civs matching -- war building activity.
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I think that one of the critical questions (for me at least) is the decision about the use of early caravans -- early trade routes add arrows forever, the early bonuses can lead to significant gains regarding advances, and yet the early Wonders are the most competitive to obtain. Or build those caravans at all when there are still settlers and future cities to build. I think that some sort of balance is best -- arrows/wonders from SSC, arrows & gains from Trade, arrows from Rest of Empire.
(or is it 
)
