Trade is *not* essential!

[kcbob]

quote: <font size=1>Originally posted by jpk on 08-17-2000 12:24 PM</font> If you don't want your caravans to wake up why not fortify them?

I can do that? Duhhhh! I'll have to give that a try when I get home. Thanks, jpk.

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Frodo lives!

Better dead than "Red"... or green... or blue... or yellow... or orange... or purple... or white.

[This message has been edited by kcbob (edited August 17, 2000).]

[DarkCloud]

DaveV I agree with you fully you do NOT need trade (Caravans or otherwise [techs/maps] to win.
I know for a fact you do not need to trade in these situations:

Chieftan-Despotism
Chieftan-Monarchy
Chieftan-Communism
Chieftan-Fundamentalism

Warlord-Despotism
Warlord-Monarchy
Warlord-Communism
Warlord-Fundamentalism

Prince-Despotism
Prince-Monarchy
Prince-Communism
Prince-Fundamentalism

[kcbob]

This is as good a place as any for this comment.

I sometimes use caravans for pseudo-defensive purposes. Late in the game (OCC, BTW), when I've stockpiled a lot of caravans, I'll sometimes place them on my city squares to prevent the AI from plopping down there and thus robbing me of the production from said square.

I just wish that once you put them to "sleep" they would stay that way and not wake up every time the AI pokes them in the ribs.

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Frodo lives!

Better dead than "Red"... or green... or blue... or yellow... or orange... or purple... or white.

[jpk]

If you don't want your caravans to wake up why not fortify them?

[jpk]

DaveV:

It does take time to set up trade routes and it certainly is harder to do so if you share a continent with the Mongols and the Greeks and are just across a strait from the Russians and the Vikings.

The talk about trade is a description of a way to play. If you happen to find yourself all alone on a reasonably large continent, it is an effective, easy to implement strategy. Not every game fits into this description. Perhaps we should spend some time talking about what to do when surrounded by vile enemies.

[Paul]

Before I came to Apolyton I hardly ever used caravans. I won on deity without ever building caravans except for wonders. The only trade routes I had were the ones the AI established with my cities.

[Seeker]

The beaker bonus from caravans means that in a game with two players of equal skill, the one who builds no caravans should lose most of the time.

Another interesting MP thing is the alliances between warlike civs and science civs...one makes caravans and gives tech, the other builds war type things.

[tobyr]

If you prefer to play without trading, try the fantasy game in ToT:
- the stygians cannot build caravans at all; no temptation there.
- the buteo cannot trade much if most of their cities are in the sky (caravans can't fly).

- toby


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toby robison
criticalpaths@mindspring.com