Corporations, AI and strategy

[Yuufo]

I have founded and developed a corporation (Mining) in my own civ. Could any expert tell me :
- is there any advantage to develop it outside my civ ?
- if I do, will the AI spread it further ?
- can a company expand by itself (like religions?) - I mean without Directors
- why does the AI never found a company (never seen...)
- what does it mean that companies are "in concurrence"? cannot exist in the same city?
- if State Property is used, are all companies on territory destroyed ?
- do you found companies ? which one do you prefer?

Yuufo

[Fleme]

If you expand it outside your cultural borders the following will happen: 1) The AI will cease to trade their surplus minerals to you, because they now benefit from them. 2) You will gain extra gold at your headquarters. 3) The AI will have the extra production that Mining Inc. Produces
-The AI will spread it further if they're equipped to do it. Some AI's are lazier when it comes to corporate expansion than others.
-The AI does found companies if it meets the required criteria and happens to get the necessary great person to found any given corporation
-Some corporations compete, meaning that they consume the same resources. Competing corporations either fail to expand to target city with their competitor in it or will drive the competitor out.
-State property nullifies corporate effects, it doesn't destroy any existing corporate branches.
-I always aim for Sid's Sushi because it's in my (and many others) opinion the best corporation. Extra food for specialists/growth and the culture as an added bonus. My secondary corporation is usually Mining Inc. since I just love the production.

Theoretically it would be best to found the two corporations you desire and keep them domestic and then have some of the other corporations solely for foreign expansion. Personally I'd choose CreCon, Cereal Mills or Std. Ethanol for foreign expansion and keep SS & Mining Inc. home, if I was given the chance.

[EPW]

If you're using State Property, do you still get the extra gold at the headquarters?

[Yosho]

Originally posted by Fleme
Theoretically it would be best to found the two corporations you desire and keep them domestic and then have some of the other corporations solely for foreign expansion. Personally I'd choose CreCon, Cereal Mills or Std. Ethanol for foreign expansion and keep SS & Mining Inc. home, if I was given the chance.

That's probably not worth the cost in great leaders, though.

Persoanlly, if I have vassels, I'll give them my corps; I cam make them give me their resources anyway. If not, it gets a bit more tricky; you are right that it can help the AI's, and that it can make it harder to get resources. Ideally you want to spread a corp to an AI that won't get much benifit from it; like spreading ethanol to someone who already has oil and dosn't have many resources that help him use it, or something like that. (Note, though, that giving an AI ethanol means you can never really cut off his oil supply later by hitting his oil wells....)

This is anecdotal, but in one game, I gave a AI Mining inc, and he soon both spread it and declared war on me at the same time. I'm not sure if he was just taking advantage of the extra hammers to help him in his war, or if he was actually clever enough to want to take the corp headquarters from me, heh.