The joys of monopoly

[jabberwockysr]

I recently discovered how incredibly useful a monopoly in just one or two luxuries can be.

I started on the medium, isolated continent out of three continents with Germany, and conquered them in the late ancient age, giving me a monopoly in silk and furs, with enough to supply all of the remaining civs once I met them. Due to my isolation, I was getting behind in the tech race, so I beelined for navigation. When I met the other civs I traded gold and/or a tech for contact witht the rest, then traded away all of my spare luxuries for tech, gold, maps and goodwill (always nice to have everyone polite) after 40-60 turns of contact the AI civs finally got to navigation (I didn't want them visiting ME, so I hadn't given any of them more towards astronomy than I had to) The Aztecs launched a surprise attack once they got navigation (no surprise there). In response I contacted all of the civs the Aztec were trading with, and got a military alliance against the aztec and a nice amount of gold per turn for one or two of the luxuries they had no other access to. This in turn freed up the resources they had been trading to the aztec for me to snatch up. Unfortunately, I had to save before I had asked for the newly available luxuries, and forgot to trade for them when I loaded up again. The net result was a large amount of gold per turn and military alliance with every other civ for the price of resources I wasn't using anyway.

In addition, having my continent to myself assured me of multiple sources of saltpeter, which I gave to the aztecs weak neighbors, the americans, in order to provide sufficient distraction while I build up my revenge fleet.

This was on Regent, standard map size, does it work as well on higher levels/larger maps?

[Gangerolf]

monopoly rocks

works well on large maps too afaik

[Sheik]

It is always nice to have something no one else has. Do you guys find that a strategic resource monopoly is better than a luxury resource monopoly? I have never had a strategic reosurce monopoly with extra to trade.

[Sean]

I find the game encourages me to ruthlessly crush my neignours, instead (to get resources and luxuries) of trading.

[jabberwockysr]

Originally posted by Sean
I find the game encourages me to ruthlessly crush my neignours, instead (to get resources and luxuries) of trading.

Of course you have to crush a neighbor or two first in order to GET the monopoly, but it is much easier to trade across the sea than to fight across it. I haven't yet read the thread on invading an AI continent, as I tend to avoid intercontinental warfare when I can.

My curiousity about the larger maps is about the possibility of getting a monopoly, as luxuries are less likely to be restricted to a small conquerable area

I don't think I've ever had a strategic resources monopoly except on tiny maps. If you can get an iron/coal/oil monopoly though... no powerful enemy units beyond riflemen sounds like heaven for a conquest victory

[bbaws]

In huge maps luxuries still quite often clump together in a smallish area. With one major war per era it's not hard to have supplies of every lux in your own territory and a monopoly on three or four of them. If you get to industrialization a bit earlier than the AIs you can also make a fair go at a coal grab. It's not really possible to deprive every empire of any coal but even denying two any extra to trade and the rest coal-less make a huge difference coal is something they will happily bend over for. It's handy to hold the AI back but it's far more fun to bleed them white for twenty turns then leave them without for a while then bleed them white again.

[Cort Haus]

Re: The joys of monopoly

Originally posted by jabberwockysr
This was on Regent, standard map size, does it work as well on higher levels/larger maps?

You'd be unlikely to get the kind of tech lead where you can monopolise Navigation on the higher levels (the Lighthouse can help), but in my experience the principle of trading monopolies to catch up in tech works well in Monarch and Emperor.

[GeneralTacticus]

It is always nice to have something no one else has. Do you guys find that a strategic resource monopoly is better than a luxury resource monopoly? I have never had a strategic reosurce monopoly with extra to trade.

Yes, however it is very hard to get one unless you're about to win anway.

[vmxa1]

I would suspect an Editor involement in this.

[Az]

one can aquire a monopoly in crucial strategic resources. For example, in any two continent map, as I've noticed, to have one continent in disarray , relatively, with the other being rather peaceful . If you live on the PEACEFUL continent you can muster the monopolization of Oil , which will practically seal the victory for you. In a certain game of mine, I've seen 3 civilizations conquer a large chunk of the continent (around a 2/3 ) and then , misteriously crumble, and die. What you have left is a rather weak continent , with maybe 2 or 3 relatively strong civilizations remaining on their feet. You see the oil? with a small number of surgical strikes, sometimes maybe 6 landings with infantry and settlers will do the trick. A tech lead in the swift discovery of refining will do wonders, btw.