The Ailing Civilization Strategy

[Drakan]

It's a strategy devised to catch up techwise, obtaining numerous techs in a short span of time through trading.

When I'm lagging way behind in the tech race at, say, Emperor level or above, I look at the Power Chart and trace a feable civilization with high culture (which probably means it will be ahead of me in tech).

I check it is at war at present with TWO or MORE civilizations and has five or less cities left to be annihilated.

I contact them, and strike a deal to exchange all the gpt they ask of me for as much techs as I can possibly afford (depending upon the cash I'm generating, I adjust the tech slide to zero before the deal, so as to make all the cash per turn available, the AI knows how much you make per turn).

Thus after about a couple of turns, the civ is wiped out and I have kept 5 techs or more at the least, aswell as all the money I do not end up paying because there is no one whom to pay it to. Plus I'm still honourable before the eyes of all civs because I stood true to my word and paid whilst they were alive (I do not have to declare any war to safe myself from paying what I owe them).

Regarding the reputation hit: no one has ever declared war on me for using this technique and I always make sure to keep the AI happy by means of signing ROP or giving them luxuries for free (very rarely, unless I am weakling militarily) or below the market price or simply by giving away a small amount of lump gold. I do this in the same turn the ailing civ gets wiped out so as to keep up my good reputation. I do not have problems regarding this issue. And as I say I continue doing it through out all the game until I catch up and then set the science bar to the max allowed by my Economy (even with a great loss per turn, e.g. 400 gpt, because I will have already made sure I had cash saved for this moment) and investigate a tech which I know the AI will not research (such as TOE). I pursue from this moment forth what is known as the Tech Broker Strat once I'm even in research with the tech leader.This technique (the Ailing Civ Strat, ACS ) is great for catching up techs in such a short span of time and at no cost really (well, almost). The point is getting all the techs you can within one single bargain, you can then trade them off with other civs and so on.

Regards to fellow civ sisters and brothers

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=91849

"If you fail to plan, you plan to fail"

[Solomwi]

I like it, but you may be mixing up reputation and attitude. You can have a poor rep and every civ on a polite basis. Likewise, you can have a sterling rep ($1 to Civ2 advisor), and everybody furious. I don't know if this entails a rep hit or not, though I want to say it does. The best litmus test I can think of is whether another AI will enter a similar deal (per turn on your end, lump sum on theirs) later in the game. If so, the rep hit can't be too bad.

[Drakan]

Hmm, yes other players have pointed out the rep hit Solomwi.

I will make sure to play by the rules and keep the other AI's happy so as to strike future similar deals. Later on in the game I repeat this strat without any problems over and over again, and no one asks for lump gold, they all accept gpt. problem with this strat is a warmonger can not use it. So peace is the rule, that is until you have the lead, then...

[Aqualung71]

I believe that if you are doing a "per turn" deal with another civ (ie, involving either gpt or a luxury trade), if that civ loses its capital (and is still alive, meaning the capital moves to a surviving city), or your trade link to its capital is broken (in the case of a luxury deal) then the deal is automatically broken and you are blamed, meaning you get the rep hit and become the world's trade pariah.

I am not so sure whether this still applies if the original capital is the last city to fall.

I know because this has happened to me on several occasions and is a very annoying and unreasonable part of the game.

[Drakan]

Interesting point you raise. In my experience I have used this technique thouroughly before posting this article and I have never experienced that problem.
As a matter of fact I remember selling a key resource (iron) twice to the germans (but I obviously got a rep hit for this sneaky behaviour). I sold it to them for a lump sum. Then I destroyed the road to it. so the deal was called off. I contacted Bismark again and resold him the same iron only this time he made sure he would pay gpt not gold upfront, that was very clever of the AI. The point being that I could still trade a second time even though my trading rep was hit.
With the Ailing Civilization strat you are not sneaky at all. You always pay, whilst they live, which is only a couple of turns away. Just try it out in a saved game and see what happens. I am pretty sure the other AI's will still trade with you after the ailing one has been eliminated. Just make sure that within the same and subsequent turns the ailing civ dissapears to give some gold or some lux to any civ who might seem annoyed at you because of it. They forget in the following turns. I have been doing it for a VERY long time Aqualung 71 and it has always worked fine.

[UnOrthOdOx]

Bah.

Join in the war for a few turns then sue for peace before they die.

[lmtoops]

Of course it's easy to get burned with this strategy. I've done this when a weaker/losing AI had 2 cities left. The winning AI could not take the two remaining cities (stupid AI war strategy) and then agreed to peace. I'm assuming the losing AI used my gold to get peace

So I was hoping to pay for less than 5 turns. Instead, I payed for 10 turns and had to switch strategies. I declared war in order to get out of the crippling trade agreement. Which of course led to world war...blah..blah...blah.

[Aqualung71]

Originally posted by Drakann
The point being that I could still trade a second time even though my trading rep was hit.

I am pretty sure the other AI's will still trade with you after the ailing one has been eliminated. Just make sure that within the same and subsequent turns the ailing civ dissapears to give some gold or some lux to any civ who might seem annoyed at you because of it. They forget in the following turns. I have been doing it for a VERY long time Aqualung 71 and it has always worked fine.

Perhaps my earlier post wasn't clear - you will still be able to trade with the AI, but because you have taken a rep hit (as with your German example), the AI will only trade lump sum/lump sum or gpt/gpt, but not lump sum/gpt. Meaning, you can buy tech for cash, or sell luxuries for gpt, but cannot buy tech for gpt or sell luxuries for cash.

Again as Solomwi pointed out, you are mixing up attitude with reputation. Giving the AI cash to improve their attitude towards you may prevent them declaring war on you, but it certainly won't repair a broken reputation

One thing is clear though - if your AI trade partner has his capital taken during war, you will get a rep hit if the trade link is broken. This has been well documented elsewhere.

[Vince278]

My favorite strategy when I'm ailing is quitting.

[Drakan]

Originally posted by lmtoops
Of course it's easy to get burned with this strategy. I've done this when a weaker/losing AI had 2 cities left. The winning AI could not take the two remaining cities (stupid AI war strategy) and then agreed to peace. I'm assuming the losing AI used my gold to get peace

So I was hoping to pay for less than 5 turns. Instead, I payed for 10 turns and had to switch strategies. I declared war in order to get out of the crippling trade agreement. Which of course led to world war...blah..blah...blah.

Imtoops, you only mention ONE AI civ at war with that ailing civ. I clearly state in the article that it must be at war with TWO or MORE. Do not attempt the AC strat If there is only one other AI civ attacking the ailing one, because I agree with you, they could very well use my money (lump + gpt for techs) to declare peace, and then you are f*****.

[Drakan]

Sorry , my mistake Imtoops. . I thought I had written down TWO or More. I had done this in other threads, but not in this one, I will amend the article on that point.
The ailing civ MUST be at war with a minimum of TWO AI civs at the least. Otherwise it could happen as you are saying, Murphy's Law at it's best. Xnks for the comments.

[Drakan]

BTW this strategy works even better when at the begining in C3C you choose the AI's civs to be more aggressive than usual. The frequent wars that will be unleashed will help you out all the more to pursue this strategy providing you survive and get along well with everyone by means of lux trading and/or ROP agreements.

[Cookie Monster]

Originally posted by UnOrthOdOx
Bah.

Join in the war for a few turns then sue for peace before they die.

IME an ai on it's deathbed doesn't always agree to peace at any price.

I like this strat, I think I'll try it.

[Theseus]

Drakann, welcome aboard... I am not familiar with you flag, so I might not get this right... you are an O2 somewhere, or a very senior ROTC candidate?

[Drakan]

Thank you Theseus. It's Spain's flag.

I've looked up in all jargon and acronym dics I know but cannot seem to find out what: O2 and ROTC stands for.