Strategy doesn't work: AI never accepts GTP, even if it is only 1 GTP

[ongwin]

But if they rarely accept GPT deals and are broke, how are we suppose to use the "choke em" strategy?

 

[Catt]

The tactic comes into its own in the late gae (late middle ages and industrial age). Before then, the AIs frequently don;t run much of a surplus; with the availability of democracy and the REXing done, surpluses become more common.

 

[Bluemofia]

getting the AI to pay gold per turn only happens when they are in the industrial age from my experience

 

[blackhalo15]

Lol, just wait until later in the game, if you treat all of the other civs right, they might give you up to 300 gpt.

 

[kb2tvl]

I am playing this months gotm(china) and I was able to trade india and beakja(sp) 18 gold for 1gpt. I was only able to do that kind of trade if I entered 18 gold and 1gpt. I was able to have an almost infinite number of 1gpt trades. As a matter of fact, I was receiving over 700 gpt at one point. Yea, that is a lot of typing....

 

[PRIMEMOVER]

getting the AI to pay gold per turn only happens when they are in the industrial age from my experience [/QUOTE]

Lol, just wait until later in the game, if you treat all of the other civs right, they might give you up to 300 gpt.[/QUOTE]

I just witnessed both of these first hand in the industrial age ladies and gents...playing with nine opponents in Regent on a huge map!

I turned my tech up to 90% and outraced everybody to MOTORIZED TRANSPORT (Tanks, etc.) at which time I offered it to everybody by simply asking what they'd offer. Seeing some of the treasuries of some of the civs didn't lead me to expect anything, but was blown away when Persia (with 0 in their coffers) offered me 60gpt!!

In the same round I offered it up to Japan who emptied their treasury (2000+) and also offered me a tech AND 20gpt!! I was stunned because up until then I had run into the same stingyness. In one diplomatic session following my acqusition of a key tech, I think I ended up netting about 3000 gold, plus another 200gpt plus a couple of techs...all in one round of trades following my acquiring a tech that everybody wanted in the industrial age!

So the moral of the story: don't hesitate to offer up something just because you THINK they can't afford it. But you really have to have a great rep with them, that's for sure!

 

[Zyrexius]

Ok, how do yall get ahead in Tech, I cant even do that. If I can improve in my tech dealing, then I may win once in a while. What is good to give them in return for tech?

 

[PRIMEMOVER]

Originally posted by Zyrexius
Ok, how do yall get ahead in Tech, I cant even do that. If I can improve in my tech dealing, then I may win once in a while. What is good to give them in return for tech?

Keep in mind that unless you have the Great Library, it's kind of tough to keep pace or pull ahead in the tech race until the Industrial Age. When you reach the Industrial age, you should (if you're trying to win a tech race i.e. spaceship) have libraries and universities in all your cities and are doing okay financially so that you can turn up your research to 70-90% to research those techs that you can't acquire via trading or buying off other civs.

It really helped me to learn this aspect of the game when I abandoned China as my primary civ and played a game with France. I learned another subtle aspect of this game (researching techs, trading) because I had to learn to acquire peacefully what I used to acquire by force (with China).

Like I mentioned above...let the other civs name their price for something. If they can afford it and they want it, they'll make a decent offer. By beginning with an offer from a civ, you'll have an idea of the minimum necessary to close the deal. Sometimes you can tweak the gold vs. gpt involved in the deal so that maybe you're putting less money "up front"!

You're going to have a hard time dealing FOR techs as opposed to DEALING your own techs for other techs. My experience has shown me that unless you have piles of gold and some key resources (strategic), you won't be able to pry any techs free from your AI opponents (too expensive). Therefore, you're going to need to pull ahead or even in the tech race so that you can use your techs as trade bait as opposed to your gold!

 

[kb2tvl]

Researching the most time consuming tech like democarcy can net you A LOT of techs in trade and cash on top of that. You can also hire a single scientist, set slilder to all tax, buy markets, buy banks and buy techs that can be traded to other civs for a tech they have.

Religious civs are really good in this aspect. Cheap happiness, cheap culture leaves build time for markets and banks which give happiness and purchasing power.

 

[ongwin]

I find that early in the game, I have few cities and lag behind in tech. So I usually head for monarchy and trade for other techs. I usually have 2 problems.

1. The area which I want to build a city has already been taken up by the AI and I don't have the military strength to go to war, especially early in the game.

2. I always get "****ty" land. I have get good land. I usually have wetlands, plains, deserts... Sigh.

 

[EgyptianCavalry]

1) This tactic works only starting sometime in the middle ages when some of the AI begin to be financially able.

2) AI only trades you gpt when they are in Republic or Democracy (As an experiment, on emperor level, standard map, 8 civs, I was getting about 800gpt from 4 civs with Fission in peacetime when everyone is in democracy, then I made Cleopatra declared war on me by deliberately failing espionage missions with Egypt a few times. I signed miltary alliances with the other 6 civs against her. When all the previous gpt deals expired a few turns later, all the AIs are in communism and I couldn't even get a single gpt from anyone).

3) Of course it also depends on the AI's power: in the game mentioned above Rome and Persia were beaten up to only 2 or 3 cities, so they are no very likely to have any extra money left.

 

[Trev]

I play on emperor level and in the early game it is impossible to get gpt deals from the ai. However by the industrial age they will often pay good money with gpt deals for techs. In one game I was running 100% science and still adding 400gold per turn to my bank balance. The gpt deals were paying all my expenses and allowing me to bank heaps of money. This continued until 4 civs all attacked me in one turn, I suppose they were struggling to pay me and therefore went to war to avoid paying. I formed an MPP with the one friend I still had, and together we crushed the others capturing between 20 and 30 cities each.

But I had to go back to paying my own expenses

 

[wilbill]

Originally posted by EgyptianCavalry
2) AI only trades you gpt when they are in Republic or Democracy (As an experiment, on emperor level, standard map, 8 civs, I was getting about 800gpt from 4 civs with Fission in peacetime when everyone is in democracy, then I made Cleopatra declared war on me by deliberately failing espionage missions with Egypt a few times. I signed miltary alliances with the other 6 civs against her. When all the previous gpt deals expired a few turns later, all the AIs are in communism and I couldn't even get a single gpt from anyone).

I think you're drawing the wrong conclusion from your experiment, EgyptianCavalry. Government choice has nothing to do with whether the AI will trade gpt. As you noted, they don't trade gpt if they don't have the $$$ to trade. When they switched to Communism from Democracy their income dropped leaving them with no gpt surplus.

 

[Bluemofia]

but once i was playing on TET's map and i was 2 ages ahed of everyone and i was republic because i had a 10 turn anarchy and i was not going to democracy unless i had to, and i traded refining to the songhi for i think it was 750 gpt and all their money. althogh it was a high sum, they declared war on me beforethe 20 turns were up. so i annialated them.

 

[Bucephalus]

A related problem that I often encounter:

I offer a deal to the AI, which my Adviser says "I doubt if they will accept....". I increase my offer by offering a luxury/strategic resource as well, and I get: "They will never accept...."

What exactly is their objection?

 

[Bluemofia]

maybe they dont think you will pay up, or not enough cash. for some reason they know what your income level is.

 

[Qitai]

Just go ahead and hit would you accept, they will say no stating the reason why no.

 

[Bluemofia]

that is not always true, because they will sometimes insult you and it will annoy them if you do that too much

 

[dozenlong]

If the AI doesn't have excess GPT to trade, they will "never accept such a deal". Period.

 

[Bluemofia]

well what may happen is when you trade a tech in the industrial ages and up, they usually will pay you big money in gpt (even if they dont have the gpt) and in cash now because the techs in the industrial ages and up are worth more and are very valuable.