Money Making Strategy

[ProbStat]

I managed a v1.16f/Deity/Huge/Random(Small-ish Archipelagos)/Raging/16/Egyptian victory with essentially this strategy. I:

-- did absolutely no research until Steam Engine (then worked toward Theory of Evolution and finally building libraries/universities, and from then was able to maintain a research lead)

-- made no attempts to build Great Wonders (until Theory of Evolution)

-- was lucky in starting position in that:
-- had only one AI civ on my landmass, and that separated by vast tundra
-- had respectable amount of grassland/plains and a couple of rivers (though no luxury resources, which you only seem to get at deity if you are surrounded by other civs that immediately pen you in)

-- fiercely defended my isolated home-territory, but otherwise maintained peace

-- rushed to get contact with all other civs as soon as possible (almost always through trade)

-- managed to maintain parity among top three or four AI civs in research by boycotting whoever started to take a lead, and also technologically subsidized weaker AI civs in wars with stronger AI civs to maintain resource/military parity

-- consistently short-changed neighboring civs by refusing to trade them the latest techs, especially military techs

-- avoided trade embargoes/alliances/mutual protection pacts, which all ultimately limit the ability to trade.

By doing this, I was able effectively to control technological advance, even while doing none of my own research. Also, global technological advancement was kept going at a very high rate (I think I launched spaceship in 1700s AD) because I'd trade new advances to just about everyone as soon as they came out.

Game became quite slow in the late Industrial Age (running on HP 950MHz AMD Athlon notebook). Some threads here suggest that AI civs are more aggressive about trading tech on their own in v1.17f, so it might not work so well in the new patch.

[fbf-westie]

Trading is the way to go!

Hi Regoarrarr,

This is indeed the key to winning, especially if you go the
'high road' with your research and concentrate on the path that
leads to republic/democracy and the arts.

I have a save where I am getting 900+ Gold per turn just for trading
free artistry with all the other civs, I got ALL the other techs and about
1000 gold in lump sum payments.

I have found that if you can become a big luxury and tech 'exporter' in
the game that you NEVER have to fight any wars with anyone, heck
even the Germans like you.

You then use the money to Rush build Universities and Libraries
everywhere whch keeps the cycle going, In the modern era I can start
researching future techs by 1800's.

I don't know if this bit is true as it might warrent further investigation,
but I have found that having LOTS of money in my treasury and having
LOTS of money spent rush building in captured cities often results in
a whole heap of other cities flipping to me! (I capture cities with Culture
bombing).

Anyway, this is the way to win the game on the higher levels. I tend to
play Egyptians, their faster workers are critical in the early game and they
can get Pyramids from the get go.

-fbf westie

[Inbreed]

Thanks for the laugh

Originally posted by zanthus
Another way to make a ton of money off a friend is to throw a spare luxury into the deal. For example instead of just asking for 15 gold/turn for a tech, throw in a luxury and ask 20-25 (or more) gold/turn. This way the AI won't cancel the deal after 20 turns. They continue paying the high price even after the 20 turns are up (unlike asking for gold/turn for just a tech). I was able to rip off the French so much using this tactic one game. The people at Firaxis got at least one civ right on.....

Deciously yours, zanthus
Ha! Ha! Ha!

[Jaguar]

Good points by all of you. I'm in a game right now where I'm completely isolated, which is a problem. I'm hoping that I can get a lot of communications from the first person I find. Trading is really essential.

[Bladez-of-NZ]

I guess I stumbled onto the Cultural winning Every town I build or take over a set to build the following.

Temple
Library
Court House
Market
Aquiduct
and so on and so on...

Basicly I just go down the list and add them as soon as my pop hits 2. Once I have a 2 pop town started on this road, I normally find another one is at the end of its production run and wanting to build a spear/musketman.

As soon as they reach this stage I check if they are food or sheild producing then decide if they are worker/settler makers or mass producers of war/wonders/small wonders.

If I see a 4pop town pulling in 15 - 20 sheilds I normally always bump this into a production town. I have found that you will be able to space towns around it like boarder towns and grow your Empire from the inside out.

Mind you I still do a land rush at the start and send out 2 or 3 troop/settlers in each direction. Boosting the population of smaller out of the way towns when ever I find workers who won't work. Tech trading is a great source of income and in future I will remember to not trade my World map for at least the first few ages if I can manage it.

Anyway my point is I started off trading my world map a bit earlie and found that three other civ's managed to build about 7 - 9 towns inside my boarder blocks(smaller areas of land you can fill to stop outright expantion through a section of land mass) Around the time of my first 8pop these little no growth because I peged them in towns started converting. I would only ever be left with barracks and a few other inprovements.

I would then place then in the que to victory as mentioned above and found that those civs near my boarders soon started to change. I found a large area of jungle and within about 15 turns had a nice 8pop city there.

I have just reached the industrial age and am now the most loved, most cultural, richest and kick ass army in the land. Steampower v's Gallons nice advantage there. Did find it hard to get Iron though... one resource that my entire territory lacks but I can see the towns near my eastern border will soon be mine.

[realpolitic]

Re: Money Making Strategy

Originally posted by regoarrarr
So, I finally played a game that I didn't get my head handed to me. After several unsuccessful attempts at Regent,
3. Your treasury becomes enormous. I had anywhere from 3000-6000 gp in the treasury. This allows tons of rush-building of libraries, temples, universities which in turn produces more science and culture.

Your purpose in trading techs is to gain the maximum distance between you & your opponent in tech so you can get to the victory conditions (you can't take it with you). Rush building improvements is ineffective, since you're paying 4 gold/shield, because of the cost & because many of the distant cities are corrupt. Upgrading units is a better idea.If the other civs, as Ive read elsewhere, pay you 1/2 of what it would cost them and the value declines as the number of civs that get them (Ie if 11 of 16 civs don't have an advance its cost to research is 11/16 of the orginal cost), then the maximum payment you'd get from the other civs is 1/4 x ((the # of civs that don't the advance) + 1 ) x cost of the advance, so the maximum gain in a 16 player game is 4x the cost to you.


At the minumum, in a 16 player game trade I enough since so I can build cavalry and universities while still at 0% tax, although making enough trades to get me close into space might be better.

[ultrix]

Additional strategy to get MORE money

I started to play in my edited Marla's World Map (difficulty factor to corruption, Warlord 10% corruption) as Russians. I advanced rather quickly to Middle-Ages (1425 BC) {<-- yes it's true} due to trading advances to another advances and low corruption. I never was a scientific leader clearly, but I still owned with my modern warfare (Modern Armor versus Riflemen). Now I've won the Space Race something 12th century AD with 10000+ GP, I tell you how to make more money if you already can research every 4 turns:
-Drop science to minimum rate allowing you to research in 4 turns. (I never breaked 4 turns barrier)
-In your final research turn (1 turns to complete), drop science funding so much down that you still research it in 1 turns. This brings you a lot of money in one turn.
-After you have researched a tech, trade it with the others for money/turn or technology, then adjust scientific funding to lowest possible allowing you to research every 4 turns.
-Repeat.
-After researching the last technology, try starting the Future Technology score rush if you're not score leader OR adjust science to 0% and Luxury 20-70%. After that you don't need entertainers often in peace-time and still get a lot of money.

[Adonias]

Originally posted by Jack_www
I have found that tech trading gets you large amounts of gold as well. In my current game I am playing on huge random map, 16 civs, level is regent. I am playing as the Americans (Expansionist, Industrous). I used scouts to find huts early to get a lot of techs this way, help alot in the tech race and tech trading. Right now I am in the middle of the Industrial age and thanks to tech trading I am making 1200 gold/turn. This has helped me alot!!!!

Exactly... this stratagy also works if you play at diety level! The only thin you have to do, is, indeed, get al little jumpstart by getting goody houses...

The other side of the medalion is... you'll never get infront of the others civs, scientificly... and, the game has turned more into "SimTrade"... allas, it is the only way at diety, because the AI "cheats" when it comes to the amount of resources needed for them to do anything (building, growing, and inventing)

[Silpy]

I have some other tricks....

If you descover a new Civ which is their first contact, you can make a hell of a lot of money off it!

1)Trade your maps and perhaps advances to them for their gold/Maps/Resorces. (Doubt they will have worthwhile advances)

2)Go to each Civ. Trade Contact and Maps for Anything you want.

3)Repeat for all Civs.

Note:

a)This must be done all in 1 turn!

b)Take anything for your Maps and contacts! They will get it for free proberly in the next turn!

You will find that you will be 1000+ Gold, 2-4 Advances, Map and 50+ Gold (per turn) Up!

It works on all difficulty levels!

[vmxa1]

One of us is playing a different game as I do not see how this will work as you claim and certainly not as you move up levels. Namely the AI does not have 1000 gold laying around in acient times. Is not generating enough cash to pay 50 gold per turn. This kind of income may exist later (not often) in the game, but you will not be first contact at that point.

[Meshelic]

I'm not always one for whoring my techs, but this strategy has worked before in my games as well; it gets everyone on your side and for a while, saves you a ton of money