The Most Effective World-Dominating Strategy: The Banker... learn how!

[Paalikles]

Whenever I decide to read up on some more or less detailed info gathered by another user of these fora, I usually read a lot of posts, to see response by others to the possible effects of the info that has been provided. Most of the time (if I actually have time to play civ) I try to discover ways that will work for myself, but I read these strategy threads from time to time to broaden my perspective - even though I might not agree with all strat's and perhaps not even remember them or try them out. But all in all - I use the bits and pieces I can remember in situations where it is more or less obvious to me that they might work. Like Zachriel stated - a tool. Tools do not work all the time -> a screwdriver is not very efficiently used as a hammer , but it can certainly work the screws....

Edited for even more thoughts:

One of the ways civ3 was described to work prior to release (IIRC) was that you would now have the chance to play a master of puppets way of warfare. This strategy, or "strategy" if you must insist , is...err...a variation on the master of puppets theme. However I mus admit that it did look better on first read, rather than on second -> could do with more documentation (which is probably why I tend to trust the more experienced players' articles)

 

[Gingerbread Man]

Originally posted by Smirk


No offense but this is a lame thread. He is basically describing loans, you can no doubt read this in the manual. If you have ever taken out a loan the mechanics should be simple.

Strategies aren't shown in the manual. What you are thinking of is 'shall you grant me a loan?' This is the continuous loaning of money to two civs who hate each other, who share borders. The amount of money you loan is based on who is winning. The loser gets the most loans, to draw out the war.

Originally posted by Smirk
As to the use of this strategy, I doubt highly this would work well in general use. Its far more effective to just ally with Rome to fight France, not to mention I would be pretty wary with Rome breaking deals anyway since they often do. Forcing them below their gpt is shaky as well for a number of reasons, they have a slider and lots of room to modify their gpt, the secondly is simply they get a lot of free unit maintanence.

1)It does work in general use, it caused me a World War in a GOTM, while I looked on from the sidelines, gaining a reputation as a 'peacemonger' while I was funding wars. I won Diplo.
2)But the thing is that if you ally Rome against france, and you help, you now have no France, and a new superpower of Rome. Being banker means you can turn the tide of a war, boosting or draining civ's economies as you wish, weakening both sides to collapse, even both destroyed easily by you.
3)You cant force an AI below their gpt. They will refuse to do it. If their income drops after you make a deal and they dont have enough gpt to pay you, they will declare a war. That is thw whole point. BTW you still get your gpt from them, they just lose a unit every turn.
4) I think you are mixing up lending gpt for money in return. that is taking a loan. Here we are making a loan. With extra money, they rush military above their free support.

Originally posted by Smirk
This strategy could at most be used instead of other tradable assests like luxuries and techs. If you are not leading in tech, and have no luxuries to trade you can try being a banker.

Again, this is not buying money off people for gpt, or just buying things for money. This is selling your treasury every turn for gpt in return, to give them huge reserves of money to rush military, a low gpt which doesn't support the military, so the AI uses their large, unsupportable military for a war. Then you fund their enemy with lots of gold, to make a counter-attack. Do this back and forth till their countries fall apart, or a world war starts.

I think that most people who dont like this either dont understand this, or have not tried it when and where it should be tried. It really works best from Railroad onwards, on harder AIs, who have huge gpt income that they will sell to you for gpt in return.

 

[Beanzy]

Originally posted by Smirk

No offense but this is a lame thread.

Exactly what is lame about this thread? Some extremely insightful posts have been made by the top veteran illuminating the covert trading world of civilization. The strategy suggested here is in fact very effective in crippling powerfull nations and can in deed help a player achieve victory (though I agree, this may not be the "Most Effective World-Dominating Strategy.") I think by now it has been proven (after some clarification and testing) that this strategy does work and is effective, so lay off! If you don't like it, don't read it!

 

[budweiser]

Once upon a time Napoleon needed money to fight a war against europe, so he sold Louisiana to the USA for several million dollars ( I cant remember if it was 5, 10, or 15 million). Anyway, where did america get all that money?

Answer: they borrowed it from english banks.

I guess this is civ immitating real life once again.

 

[Bluemofia]

how do you give an ai a loan?

 

[Hygro]

Originally posted by budweiser
Once upon a time Napoleon needed money to fight a war against europe, so he sold Louisiana to the USA for several million dollars ( I cant remember if it was 5, 10, or 15 million). Anyway, where did america get all that money?

Answer: they borrowed it from english banks.

I guess this is civ immitating real life once again.

Yeah, except you can't buy cities (territory) anymore

Originally posted by Bluemofia
how do you give an ai a loan?

Offer them a lump sum of cash for gpt that equals more than 20 times your lump sum (assuming you want interest).

I haven't seen the AI accept a loan with interest in a long time, so I'm not sure how to do it (they never want to pay off the loan to its full extent, which is annoying).

 

[scoutsout]

This is a rather... well... it's a thread.

@ Dexters: (If you're still following this) Something you should know about the "It didn't work" thing you tried. As I recently learned from some more experienced players in a SG, the AI rarely pay gpt when they're in the ancient ages. You were trying to get gpt and Montezuma was still "ancient".

Though I can't say I have "dominated the world" through banking, I have been able to negotiate a number of lump sum/gpt loans to the AI. The typical deal is 18 gold for 1gpt (Or multiples of these number) which is just under 1.03% return on my HP12C.

As a general rule I'll do these loans in a couple of circumstances. First is when I've got a nice amount of cash in the Middle Ages and I'm trying to eat away at the AI research ability. It's difficult to truly cripple them, but you can slow them down just a little if you do several of these turns in a row. Get a few other AI addicted to these small loans, and in time you can be making some nice gpt.

Another time I'll do this is if I manage to get a nice economic lead (I've got Wall Street and the AI doesn't) and I have more than 1,000 gold in the treasury. Anything over 1k gold doesn't make interest, so why not make something?

The downside to this is that if the AI is unable to meet his obligations, it usually means war...so you don't want to stretch them too far... unless you want the war and you want the AI to take a huge rep hit for breaking 15-20 deals with you...

That's my $0.02. (Pun intended)