Need help with diplomacy/trade tactics

[Marquis de Sodaq]

I'm playing a real-world map, 16 civs. I lead in culture and about half of the demographic categories. I've only broken one peace treaty (it's now ~900ad) all game. Everybody is annoyed or furious with me, and refuses to trade except on ridiculously uneven terms. e.g. 1 wine for a world map, 1 iron, right of passage, and 360 gold (I only have ~400g).

I have lost access to horses, and the rest of the map is so crowded I'd never have even slight hope of securing one for long enough to build a few knights. Or better said, securing a horse resource would take about 200 years of preparation and another century to pull off, as they are all on the other side of the planet.

I've gleefully handed out world maps to all. I've given away technologies - a few turns before completing the wonder, but still, rather generous of me, don't you think? I've given away gold gifts. I have several iron and many dyes and gems to trade away. I have techs to sweeten the offer. Yet the last polite ruler recently started being annoyed, and none will trade.

How do I get offers that are even slightly acceptable?

[Shaka II]

A few guesses:

1) You may have a weak army and the AI Civs are thinking of waging war with you. Getting annoyed is often a precursor to worse things. I would suggest going to the advisor screen and check the strengths of all other civs to get an idea. The AI civs can smell weakness and they tend to gang up on the weaker players and divide up their territory. I read this somewhere (manual?), and it certainly appears this way in most games.

You may have too much of a lead and the AI civs are a bit jealous. I am sometimes bullied into giving away tech or luxuries. etc. by stronger Civs, at least until my army is strong. I was quite surprised in the present game (just got tanks) when the biggest and fiercest Civ (Japan) asked me to join him in a conquest referring to my civilization as mighty and his as worthless! Of course this was after I wiped out the Chinese with a massive military build up.

If you want to build up your army without horses and you have iron, I would build a bunch of pikeman (~900AD), which can be upgraded to rifleman, etc. Then they will have more respect for you.

2) Usually I ask the AI civs what they will offer for a resource, tech, luxury. This way it saves me from trying to guess (much faster), and I can sometimes barter my way down a bit. Sometimes the techs, etc. are not what I want (e.g., music theory), so I have to arrange the trades specifically. Sometimes I want only gold for techs and not other techs. Sometimes the AI civs will have low treasuries and can not offer much. Sometimes you can wait a few turns and get a much better deal.

Good luck, I hope some of this helps.

[HalfLotus]

Marquis, how does your culture compare to other civs? Your relative cultural standing has a lot to do with how good a deal the other civs will accept.

If your culture is low, spend the next few hundred years improving it, and see how that affects your diplomacy.

[Marquis de Sodaq]

I lead in culture - about half the AI civs are in awe of mine, but several are not far behind. I have the highest population, land area, production, and GNP, among other demographics. While my culture lead is not so great (~5% > second place Germany), I just built 2 wonders and a rash of cathedrals in recent turns, then captured the Hanging Gardens. My people are so happy their faces hurt from smiling. Maybe my turn by turn culture gains have soured the AI attitudes... My tech lead is negligible, many others have all techs that I have. The most backward lack only 3 or so techs.

Hopefully the large army isn't the solution. To boost my coffers, I disbanded about 20 units in recent turns. I have pikemen and swordmen, plus a handfull of knights I built while the horse trade was still active. Something like 125 units total.

I've only waged war against one other civ, spanking them royally for being foreign. That involved one broken treaty, otherwise I'm spotless. Tho I have been asked to leave territory many times, usually ships passing thru controlled waters.

I've played very isolationist, contacting other civs no more than once in a century. If that really is a factor, it would explain some of the sour attitudes.

Well, thanks for the tips. It looks like it is just lonely at the top! Maybe I'll move up a difficulty level, be in the middle of the pack, and more popular.