Tech Trading at Regent Level

[Sparrow3]

I have read here that the way to go at higher levels is to trade with the AI. It was even suggestes that you set the research silder to zero and buy all the tech from the AI.

Question: How can you do this when the AI wants everything for one Tech?
Example from current game: Mongols generously offer to give me HorseBack Riding. What they wanted in return was ALL my gold (200), ALL my income (2 gpt), and my World Map. How could I trade with such a generous offer?

 

[sabo]

renogotiate with him and drop the GPT and it sounds like a good deal too me. WHat everyone means is you can see which AI's have which techs, buy one off an AI that no other AI's have, then you take THAT tech and trade it away to all the AI"s for everything else you don't have, the less CIVS that have a certain tech the more it's worth, I have gotten 3 techs plus gold and map for one tech before. Once I remember I was able to ask for 300 GPT from one rich AI that wanted a tech of mine.
You got the right idea but you have to keep running with it and milk that one tech on ALL the AI's (unless of course they only want to give you 10 gold for it)

ps... I play at Emporer and above

 

[Turner]

You don't just trade with one AI, you trade with them all. Find out who's selling a tech and who needs it. If it shows up in one AI's trade screen, but none of the others, then you can buy that tech and then turn around and sell it back to the other AIs and get money and GPT back. Always offer to the weathiest first. They tend to have better deals.

'Tech Brokering' only works when you have contact with either a lot of civs, or a civs with a lot of money that can buy from you.

 

[HawkWings]

I seriously believe that this work in a better fashion in higher difficulty game.

IMO this is pratically worthless on regent or monarch game, as I find that i'm usually way ahead in techs compared to my opponent.

I remember my last ottoman game, i was bored and 10+techs ahead of my opponent.

What i did was put my sci slider to 90% and my lux slider to 10%, whenever i'd need money i'd trade a tech to the 3 other wealthy and powerful nation, getting up to 500-700 gold per turn just for a single tech, allowing me to keep an insanely high income (I'd have around 500 per turn, with the slider mentionned above)
This would become a vicious circle, as the ai would not be able to spend as much on reschearch because he would be giving me a huge part of his income.

I easily won that monarch game because of that, all of the ai became quickly behind in techs, while i kept on increasing an increasing with the money they fueled me

 

[nullspace]

200 gold +2 gp + world map probably isn't a bad price for horseback riding if you figure out how much it will cost you to research it. If you do set your research slider to 0, you'll have a lot more money than that to give.

When buying a tech from AIs, the price depends on a lot of things. The most important factors are how much it costs to research it, what new things the tech gives, and how many civs know the tech that you have contact with. There's a good article about tech cost in the strategy articles forum. Basically, if you try to buy an important tech from the only civ that knows it, it will cost a whole lot.

The best time to buy a tech is when some AIs already have it (so it is cheap), but some AIs don't have it (so you can sell it to them for other techs, money, luxuries, alliances, or whatever). You can see why this works best when you're somewhat behind in tech, but when you can out-research your enemies, the strategy HawkWings described works better.

Buying has a number of other advanteages:

You get the tech right away, rather than selecting the tech you want and researching for several turns before you get it. This is helpful for trading so you can look at what tech other civs need, buy it, and sell it to them all in the same turn.

You get the tech right away, but pay for it later if you pay gpt. Paying gpt is also a good way to persuade that AI not ot attack you. And if they do attack, you don't have to pay them anymore.

Even though you're giving the money to the AI, they usually waste it by rushing stuff. They don't make very good use of it.

So yeah, you can get ahead by just researching up to regent difficulty, but above that, you should do some buying and selling keep up and get ahead.

 

[Sparrow3]

Let me tell you about the Regent game I lost last night. (PTW, Aztecs, 16 Civs). Montzuma started in what appeared to be a good position (Coast surrounded by forrest and grassland, Huge/Continents map) Turns out he was on an island, I built six cities on the island while researching toward map making (for Galleys). Turns out the island had exactly zero resources and no luxuries.
I lost the GL wonder. In fact during the whole game I never finished a single wonder. With Map making I crossed the narrow sea and contacted the Spanish. They offered to sell me Iron Working for a great price (about 3/4 my gold reserve and a world map). I said no. They were about six tech ahead of me at the time.
A few turns later I met the Egyptians. Same story about six techs ahead. all I had was gold and not much of that. Cleo said she would trade for all my gold, all my income (gpt), and a world map. Again I said no.
Things went down hill from there. Every AI Civ I met was ahead in Tech. They were trading amoung themselves; but would not trade with me. "It can't be done"; became words, I hated.
I found an iron source deep in the interior of the continent. I founded a city(Tuela) there. I also founded three other cities between Tuela and the coast. Before I could connect the iron, however; Egypt declared war. Iwas forced to defend against hordes of swordesmen with archers and spearmen.
My financies went to heck. Minus gold per turn, buildings and units being disbanded every turn. I could not keep up. I lost two of the interior cities; including Tuela (my iron source). I managed to save the last two coastal cities by giving up Teayo for a peace treaty. That was what Cleo demanded. Wouldn't have anything less.
So cut off from all resources, I plodded on. I managed to correct my financial problems and get back to +gpt. That is when the AI's started demanding tribute. By this time most of the AI were half way through the Middle ages and I was struggling to complete Construction. Germany started the tribute demands. "Give us 21 gold or be destroyed"; he said. I had 22 gold at the time. I paid. A few turns later Spain wanted 2 gold. I only had 2 gold at the time. Again I paid. Later when the Celts demanded 22 gold tribute; I had had enough and said, "Take your enpty threats else where". Of course, Brennus declared war.
I figured If I could keep him off the Island, I might survive. Noway, Brennus started making Military alliances with everybody. I was so broke nobody would allie with me. that is when Brennus came in with about a dozen frigates and started bombarding the coast. I replied with catapults; but could only damage them. When they landed four cavalry and took the first of my mainland cities, I knew the end was near.
At this time I was still researching feudalism; but my gpt went negative again and I finally set the research slider to zero. what was the point, I had no iron for upgrades. NOone would trade with me; I had too little gold. Eventually the Celts (with allies of Spain, Germany, England, Russia, and India) pushed off the island and took the last two mainland cities.
I am now on a two tile island where they can't get me until amphibious warfare. Of course they can surround me and bombard until they research that Tech.

If any of you want to see if you can trade your way out of this little adventure, let me know and I'll post a save.

BTW In my current game, the one the example of trading for Horseback Riding came from; I know only two Civs Mongols and Koreans. they both have Horseback Riding.