Early game economics?

[JereL]

I usually pay the 20 something gold if that's what they ask. But if the AI is 4 techs behind and is squeezing me for literature I tell them no.
They seem to start probing like that if they are behind, if they were doing better they probably would have that tech already or I would have traded it to them immediately as I got it for the other techs they have. So they're just spinning the wheel to see if the human player is scared of going to "defcon 1", most times they don't even declare war if you refuse their demands
Tonight I'll give the Babs another go, maybe test a bowman rush on one of the neighbours early on just to keep them down.

[Strollen]

Originally posted by GeorgeWang
To keep from the A.I. crushing you early in Emperor and above difficulty, gift them early or pay their demand and bide your time. Because of your superior empire management, the longer the game goes, the less of an advantage the A.I. has.

Tribute's a good idea anyways as it gives you good relations which repays itself when you're trading with that civilization.

Here is an easy way to make tributes to the AI. You discover a tech say writing, and you trade writing for other techs to a couple of civs. The 3rd Civ say Egypt doesn't have techs for you to trade but still has 40 gold. Now it is tempting to wait for Egypt to get more money or new tech before trading him writing. After all writing is worth more than 40 gold. Resist the temptation, because except under unusual conditions another civ will trade writing to Egypt in the next turn or so.

Instead give Egypt some money (start with 20) and then see if Egypt will pay 60 for writing, if so give them 20 more and see if they will give you 80 etc. You'll notice that the politness level increases. That is because the AI is more friendly when you give tributes but doesn't give you any bonus for giving them a good trade tech. I think the max is tribute is 100 gold, and I believe it decrease slowly but some other research says that isn't true.

[Cort Haus]

Excellent point, Strollen.

This very useful tactic needs a name and an entry in the Glossary, if it's not already there.

How about Tribute Invoice Balancing? Or Tibbing, for short.

A mid-late game variant of Tibbing is where one Civ can pay you huge wads of gpt in tech payments, but only as long as its existing deals with the other civs are funding it, after which they'll declare war on you to stave off bankruptcy. This can be very expensive and inconvenient, but can sometimes be avoided by funding their deficit (out of their payments to you which are bankrupting them).

Taking the concept further, the whole world economy can be stimulated by paying cash for luxuries that aren't strictly needed for happiness. 30gpt to a small Civ for lux will get paid to another AI who can then afford a tech from your 'broker' for say 60gpt allowing your broker to pay another 90gpt to yourself.

[Ijuin]

My preferred strategy is to beeline straight for Republic. Doing this lets me get Philosophy first and I choose Literature for my free tech. With a pre-build, I can nearly always get the Great Library built just before I can switch to Republic, then I set research to zero and ride the GL till the start of the Medieval Age.

Once I enter the Medieval Age, I crank the research up as high as I can afford and go the military route (beeline for Military Tradition). If I get Military Tradition before the GL gives me Education, then I drop the research rate back to zero until it does.

This strategy leaves me militarily weak during the Ancient Age (no Swordsmen or Horsemen till I finish the GL), but if successful, it virtually guarantees that I will be the most advanced nation when the GL expires, and the first to have Musketmen and Cavalry, to boot.

[Aeson]

The AI will only observe 1 gift in a 20 turn period. Outside the minimum to have it affect mood (10g), I don't think the AI cares how much the gift is worth.

[Solomwi]

Going from memory here, but I thought the attitude bump was based on amount up to 100g, i.e. one point for each 10g up to a maximum of 10 points.

[Strollen]

I think Aeson and Solomwi are both right. So my advice about "tibbing" (nice term) is sound advice. The process I suggested (i.e. give 20 gold, see if they'll go for it and increase 20 more gold) is the wrong method.

Instead give a single tribute of a small amount (10-100 GP) depending on the tech and then trade them for all of their gold, tech, workers, maps etc.

P.S. If the AI has practically no gold (<10) and no tech, it sometimes makes sense to just keep checking every turn, in the hopes that the AI will have a worker to trade. Most AA techs can be traded for a worker or two.

[vulture]

The attitude system is something like: for every 10 gold, you get a +1 bonus to their attitude (up to a maximum of +20), which decays by 1 per turn. A gift of 100 gold or more gives a permanent (and one time only) +1 to attitude.

[JereL]

Once they get furious though, seems there's no way back. They will be po'd for the rest of the game if you've had war against them once.

[Tall Stranger]

Originally posted by JereL
Once they get furious though, seems there's no way back. They will be po'd for the rest of the game if you've had war against them once.

Actually, that's not entirely true. Granted, it is often very difficult to get a civ you went to war with back to polite or gracious, but it is certainly doable. Gifts of valuable tech or luxuries, as well as alliances against other civs help tremendously.

[Aeson]

There are different levels of furious. There is a point where the AI will remain furious no matter what you do because there just isn't enough you can do to get them back. Before then it is possible to gain favor again.

Here are all the details in Bamspeedy's thread:

http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3acad_ai_attitude.shtml

[Tall Stranger]

Whole-heartedly agree. My point was only that it is incorrect to say that, once you fight a war with a civ, it will always be furious at you.

Certainly if you do enough violence to a civ, you'll have an enemy for life.