Always something new

[defrancoj]

I was playing a random 25 x 40 map the other day as the Greeks. Right before wiping out the Persians around 2000 BC, their emissary begged me to spare their weak and peace-loving civlization in exchange for "all our gold (27) and we will teach you all our knowledge."
Later in that game the Germans (who would go on to wipe me out in 3 turns in the 1940s, while my spaceship was under construction) actually used spies to establish an embassy and investigate my capital. Not in all my years have i seen any of this go on.

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

Wow, that's a small map

I have seen the same offer that the Persians made to you. Sometimes it can be worth accepting - if the opponent has more than one tech, for example. And you can always wipe them out on the next turn, anyway

I have seen the AI use spies that way on occasion... more importantly, though, how'd they manage to wipe you out in 3 turns? Was this an OCC game?

[defrancoj]

haha. well i often go for the market/bank/exchange line first and get my cities as big and rich as possible, but i find i can't maintain a tech lead in this way. So after reading some of the early landing info on the forums and seeing that they always get librarys and universities in size 8 cities i tried that: got mikes and a coloseum in each city and stayed in tech lead--but only barely. then when i was building ship the germans blitzed my puny cities. I had trouble wtih upkeep costs all game. Looks like without an SSC and on such a small map (weak caravan payoffs), that approach isn't the wisest.