Should I contact the last remaining Civ?

[andrewlt]

I'm playing my first Monarch game, jumped straight from Cheiftain. The map is huge, pangea and everything else on the middle choice. It's now the middle Middle Ages for me and I'm roughly tied with the tech leaders. I've already eliminated 2 of the powerful civs (each one of the most powerful and tech-leading when I went to war with them) and am about to start a war with the another tech leader. There are now 5 of us remaining on the main continent but there's a Civ somewhere that's all alone.

America (the uncontacted civ) managed to build the Hanging Gardens so I don't think that it's that far behind in tech. I don't think it's ahead either since I traded for some techs and developed some on my own. My concern is that I'm going to be in the tech lead soon and it might be harder to research new techs if I contacted them (if I understand the tech costs computation correctly). On the other hand, I might be able to make money selling America techs and communications. The other civs don't make enough gpt to make trading communications profitable.

 

[andrewlt]

Also, will I reduce my ability to trade if I buy a tech for gpt and then invade that civ on the same turn? I'm considering doing that right now. The Byzantines betrayed me before by creating a peace treaty with a civ long before our military alliance was over. The foreign advisor says she's a cheat and I should be wary.

 

[Tomoyo]

Yes you should contact them, but beware:

a) They may be very strong
b) If they are, they could demand contacts with the rest of the world.

And don't break the gpt deal. Just don't.

Don't sell contacts either.

 

[andrewlt]

I don't think they can successfully make war on me because I'm arguably the civ farthest from them. There's only one area of the map with a big black shroud so either they're there or they are very small.

Is it really possible for an isolated country to be very powerful or in a big tech lead? The Byzantines, Russians, Koreans and Greeks are all scientific and I've already eliminated the Russians and Koreans and the Greeks are around 7 techs behind me. I've traded a lot of techs with the civs near me and we've been helping each other tech up so I'm not sure if they are in the tech lead. They're expansionist so I think they had an advantage in the ancient ages.

 

[Tomoyo]

If they are big enough, they can catch up.

Contact them, and tell them that you are the only other civ on the planet.

 

[King PJ]

You need to contact them. The longer you wait, the better chance another AI civ will contact them before you. Then your chance to trade techs with them before anyone else is ruined.

 

[Kalach]

If they're an isolated civ theres a decent chance they will be way behind with some land/resources for the taking.
My best memory of this is when I was the first civ to find the isolated one, when I was in the industrial age. In the modern ages I noticed they had all the good resources, oil, rubber, urainium and aluminium - and were still defending themselves with spearmen! and I only lost 1 MA to spears This was in warlord though, so it's unlikely you'll find it to that extent, but proberly something similar.

 

[Scalefang]

Yep, most definately.

In one of my last Monarch games, I was the first to reach the other continent and was able to trade tech, gold, resources, and luxuries for almost an entire age before the other AI's reached them. It is always profitable to contact the lone AI and have your way with them. However, as it has been said before, NEVER sell them contacts to the other AI's

 

[andrewlt]

I contacted them and it turned out really great. I gave them Theology for 8 gpt and some little cash because that's the only thing they had. I was willing to get even small money, however. They adjusted their slider soon afterwards and I got 65 gpt for Music Theory. They were broke the third time so I gave them Printing Press for incense and 50 gold lump sum. With the incense I managed to put my luxury slider to 0 from 10 while still getting WTLKD in my core cities and a few others as well so I profited from it as well.

They research fast. Around 17 years after I researched theology, they got education and astronomy by themselves even while giving me a lot of money. They're still 6 techs behind so I could still sell them a lot of techs. 2 of the 3 techs I sold them were not required and the only practical application for them was that 1 is a prerequisite for democracy.