what to trade in the dawn of the war?

[ormuzd]

We are at the start of a war with Persia. Luckily they are not a trade partner for us because they want to sell at higher prices.
If we are lucky enough we should capture 4 of their cities and negotiate peace with having as much technologies we need.
Currently we need Construction and Currency to advance to the medieval age. We can aquire Currency from Spain or Egypt for 434 gold. We will much more gold for Construction (~580).
Currently we have ~500 gold which means if we buy the currency we will be able to upgrade only two more warriors to swordsmen.

So, two questions to debate:

1. Should we try to aquire currency and construction and hope for getting medieval technologies from Persia or we will keep our gold for unit upgrades/espionage on the target cities.

2. Should we investigate persian cities before attacking or spare gold for more important tasks?

[joncnunn]

If we buy techs, we should do it on a GPT basis rather than a one time.
That way, if those nasty Persians bribe the player(s) we buy techs from right, we don't have to pay full price for them.

[Paddy]

1. I like Joncnunn's thinking

2. What costs are we looking at to investigate the initial Persian cities that we may attack? Some good intel could help us in the placement of attacking troops.

[Jonny]

Some espionage =

Buying techs =

Why? They can rush-build with cash, we can't. We wouldn't want any enemy to end up with extra gold to rush-build defenders or extra attackers with...

[Rasputin]

i agree , give the enemy no gold.. use it to rush buy our own soldiers...