Ever wondered how to manage your commerce successfully dividing it out between your treasury, science funding, and happiness while crippling the AI’s? If we had more extensive sliders than this will all be a breeze… “Yeah, I want to put 2% of my commerce into research.. and the other 98% into my treasury,” but instead where stuck with intervals of 10. So…
I’ll tell you how to effectively manage your commerce…
The Basics:
Commerce points:
1 commerce point = 1 gold.
1 commerce point = 1 “research tubes”
1 commerce point = 1 happy citizen (not sure 100% about this as I hardly use the happiness slider)
Note: Read Ronald’s The very basics on micromanagement for more on how to manage your cities most effectively.
Note: Read Cracker’s How to improve your opening for even more information on managing your cities effectively.
Commerce in the World:
Desert w/ saltpeter or incense: 1 commerce
Desert w/ oil: 2 commerce
Plains w/ horses or wines: 1 commerce
Plains w/ ivory: 2 commerce
Grassland w/ horses or wines: 1 commerce
Tundra w/ furs: 1 commerce
Tundra w/ oil: 2 commerce
Flood Plain: Has no lux/resource bonuses
Hills w/ horses or coal or saltpeter or wines or incense: 1 commerce
Hills w/ gold: 4 commerce
Mountains w/ saltpeter or coal: 1 commerce
Mountains w/ gold or gems: 4 commerce
Forest w/ furs or dyes: 1 commerce
Forest w/ spices or ivory or rubber: 2 commerce
Forest w/ silks or uranium: 3 commerce
Jungle w/ coal or dyes: 1 commerce
Jungle w/ rubber or spices: 2 commerce
Jungle w/ silks: 3 commerce
Jungle w/ gems: 4 commerce
Note: A tile next to a river receives a +1 commerce bonus.
Note: A roaded tile receives a +1 commerce bonus
Note: Iron & aluminium doesn’t give any commerce bonuses
Commerce: What is it used for?
Commerce is the most important component in the game. Without it you would not be able to make gold or research technologies.
The Commercial Civilization:
A lot of people underestimate the power of a commercial civilization. I’ve heard many times “It just makes a 4 gpt difference… and you hardly even notice it.” Actually they do not make a 4gpt difference. A well-run commercial civilization could make a good 20+gpt difference. A commercial civilization has two advantages:
1) Cities with larger populations produce extra commerce.
2) Corruption levels are lower.
This allows commercial civilizations to hold larger empires, research faster, and still make more gold. This ability is often under-valued as it is hardly noticable and it builds up over time slowly.
Commercial Civilizations
Rome (also militaristic)
Greece (also Scientific)
Japan (also religious)
Carthage (also industrious)
France (also industrious)
England (also Expansionist)
Spain (also religious)
Korea (also Scientific)
Note: I have not added the Conquests Civs yet
Research:
General Details on research:
1) Research can not take longer than 40 turns.
2) You can not research faster than 4 turns.
3) The cost of a empty technoloy depends on the map size. The example used below is with the 256 empty cost (huge map). (See Alexman’s What will the AI research next? for more info)
Researching:
The research slider in the domestic advisor window sets how many commerce points you want to turn into “research tubes.” If you are currently producing 256 commerce points and have your research set to 40% you will be turning 102 commerical points into “research tubes.” This means that you could research an empty technology in 4 turns (note penality listed above).
Note: This is with no corruption. Most games WILL have corruption. So 40% of 256 will not necessarily be 102… it would be less. (See Alexman’s Do you think you understand corruption? for more on corruption.)
Note: A Scientist produces one “Research tube.” so one scientist might have little effect on your rate, but alot of them can make a difference.
Treasury:
Your treasury is how much gold you are making & how much you have. 1 commerce point = 1gpt. If we take the example from last time and say we are turning 60% of 256 into gpt we will be making 154gpt.
Marketplaces and banks can increase your treasury tremedously. As most people have there research lower than there tax rate at the time banks/marketplaces come along, they give a big boost… a bigger boost much more noticeable than libraries and universities give research.
Note: As before this is without any corruption. Also as noted before that in most games there will be corruption. (See Alexman’s Do you think you understand corruption? for more on corruption.)
Note: Marketplaces & banks DO NOT increase your research rate. They add 50% to your treasury ONLY.
Note: A tax collector produces 1gpt.
How to cripple AI research:
The Better Deal:
Trade the AI a lump sum of say 3001 gold for 150gpt. The deal will last 20 turns so technically you will be getting (150*20=3000) 3000 of that gold back… give them the extra 1 gold to make sure they accept the deal. As you may know… The AI will move it’s slider to where it is making an even amount of gpt/research tubes. This will decrease the AI research allowing you to take a lead (and with the 150gpt you just got… you should be doing pretty good ;)). If you wait a turn you could even repeat the process with less money (as the AI prolly won’t be making as much as last time).
The AI MIGHT declare war on you to regain lost gpt.
Note: 150gpt is just an example. Most AI’s won’t be making 150gpt and at the most will be making about 20gpt. So you make an offer for 401g for 20gpt.
There is more to come, I’ll keep constantly updating this as I have time. Expect more soon!