Poor AI countries

[sas]

I play on a medium size map, on regent difficulty with 7 other civs.

I read about the strategy earlier, where you sold all your advances for cash (pr.turn) and goods. This strategy worked fine for me untill about the discovery of gunpowder. My main problem now is that the AI countries are constantly poor. Its not like they give the cash to me, they simply dont have any money. For over 200 years in gameplay the most i've seen a other civ had was about 120 gold. The result is i'm far ahead in tech , but lacking the funding i earlier had .

Has anyone experienced constantly poor AIs ?

So i wonder if this "strategy" is flawed... ?

[KLIN-TONN]

In my games at Regent and above, the AI never has any money but, until the Industrial Age, or so, they are *always* ahead of me in technology. This leads me to believe that there is some trick I have yet to learn about increasing early age tech rate - does a scientist even work if you have no library? I've never tried it.

Regardless, this fact - the AI always having superior tech - has led me to abandon the building of the Pyramids in favor of the Great Library, because it's almost impossible to build both.

[Ralf]

Originally posted by sas
I read about the strategy earlier, where you sold all your advances for cash (pr.turn) and goods.

So i wonder if this "strategy" is flawed... ?

Well, obviously since you complain about it.

The remedy is simply NOT to sell "all your advances for cash (pr.turn) and goods". Its that simple - just dont exploit this loophole, by playing the game this way.

[Aurochs]

I've noticed that too. I imagine that the AI civs are using the gold to rush buy things, if they're not in communism or despotism. Otherwise they must have their research & luxury spending set to use up almost all their income.

As for scientists and the tech differential...I've noticed that when I turn citizens into scientists I almost always end up with less science beakers! (And yes, I'm looking on the domestic advisor screen since the city screen doesn't get the numbers right) Even with libraries and universities.

The reason's kinda obvious...the average citizen produces 2 or 3 commerce (along with a couple of production shields and food). With the science spending set at 60-70%, that means that citizens on average produce over 1.6 beakers, while scientists produce only 1.

I think producing 'Wealth' goes straight to taxes and doesn't affect research funding. If I'm wrong, then 1/8th of the production would also go to science. (an average of .3 beakers per citizen, for a total of 1.9 unmodified).

I'm not sure whether the gold modifiers (banks, marketplaces, etc) kick in before or after the gold is split to taxes and research, or how the science modifiers (libraries and universities) work. But I've found that specialists are almost always counterproductive, and only useful if you've got too much food and need to keep the city from growing.

I think that specialists should be at least slightly better at what they specialize in than common laborers, and when I mod the game, that's the first thing I'm gonna change, but at least it's not a game-breaker.

[wisecat]

IMHO there is no need for specialists besides Entertainers until your city has more workers than tiles to work. Then all newborns are specialists, and only at this point there is sense to make any of them Scientists or Taxmen, otherwise you just get to many Entertainers in big cities. WLTK day is of course good, but extra science beakers are nice as well.

[War4ever]

the entertainer is the only specialist you need.......the other ones aren't worth it until later in the game.....most of my cities have happy or unhappy citizens in the beginning...later when i WLTKD i have content and happy only

[Jurassic Joe]

You don't always have to ask for lump sums. I always try to get the per turn payment from the AI's. This way they have to lower their scienc rate and increase their taxes to pay me. I will eventually get to the point where I can set my own taxes at 0% and my science at 100%.

You have to start this per turn thing as early as possible in the game. At first they will only give you 1 or 2 gold per turn, but later they will get up to 75+ each turn. When you are dealing with them and they are unable to pay even 1 per turn, it's because they aren't able to adjust their current tax rate right now. Wait a few truns and offer it to them again. You should be able to get them to even pay for your world map at a per turn rate.

Good Luck

[sas]

Well, i allways go for the pr.turn payment anyway. And i DID start selling tech as soon as i got ahead, about 1000 bc. Like Jurassic Joe said, the amount the AI was willing to pay increased as the centuries passed. By the develeopment of gunpowder, suddenly the AI was broke, going from offering 20-30 pr.turn to offering 2-5 pr.turn. This has lasted for 200 years in gameplay, aprox 1400-1600. I'm now in about the year 1700 and things are looking better.

I'm still ahead, and making atleast som cash from the other countries.

[MarshalN]

Well, this is an old trick -- instead of using entertainers for the unahppy people, sometimes if you just make them scientist the city will still be content but you get 1 free beaker from the scientist.

So for example, you have a pop of 5 in a city, 1 happy, 2 content, 2 unhappy. If you make an entertainer it might go to 2 happy, 3 content. But if you make a scientist, sometimes (I don't think I have my numbers right, but you get the idea) it goes to 1 happy and 4 content - so you achieve yoru objective while getting something out of it.

Again, I think the numbers are wrong, but it does work that way. Usually it doesn't last as long as you have to watch that city to prevent it from going into riots, but in the meantime, you get something. Might not be great enough to be worth the effort though

[eMarkM]

Flawed strategy? No, I would say well executed! Draining the other civs of cash is great goal to achieve and it looks like you've done it. How much $ do you have? Are you raking in gold/turn for sold tech/resources? I assume when you say they're cash poor, that you're not. In any case, a poor AI is a good thing despite the fact you can't sell them tech.

If you still want to sell them tech, just wait several turns and let them build up a balance. Then drain them all over again.

The question is how does one take advantage of the fact that you're the only one with money. Ok, you can't sell tech now. So don't. Just keep ahead of them in tech race and you should get SS victory, right? Also, a poor AI is an AI that can't upgrade units. So you should upgrade yours ASAP if you're the one w/ the cash. It's also an AI that can't bribe others into alliances against you. Then you can start a war of conquest, with your updated units, and have less fear of alliances against you, if that's your thing.

Poor AI is a fine thing. This is a much better situation to be in than seeing--like I did in a recent lost Monarch game--the Zulus with 8000 gold. I started a war w/ them and bribed a couple of neighbors to join me thinking together we could beat them. Only they went and bribed EVERYBODY ELSE to take their side. It was like 13 to 3 and I retired the next turn.

e