[Henrik's strategy school part 2]: Trade good lease strategies
from 
Stardock Forums
Stardock Forums
I like to rush-buy most (or all) trade goods, since I find that the advantage of leasing them to the AI's far outweighs the cost. Now, I've spent quite a bit of time tthinking about how to optimize the gain when leasing to an AI. Here are some thoughts:
Always keep diplomatic translators to yourself. It helps a lot when negotiating lease contracts for other trade goods.
As AI's are often ahead in tech, it may be tempting to offer trade goods for tech instead of cash. Be careful doing this, though. Much of the tech may not be useful for your strategy (especially dead-end tech such as corvettes). Also, giving you tech doesn't really hurt the AI - after all, it has already spent the resources researching it. Therefore; offer trade goods for tech to weak major AI's who will not be a threat in the future. Demand cash from your main opponents. I often take a medium-long lease plan (max out what I can get for 20-30 turns), since that seems to keep my economy going on full speed until I get the next trade good.
Lease the trade good to all races you possibly can. The long-term gain of keeping it to yourself is outweighed by the fact that you get MORE and the AI LESS money NOW. In larger galaxies, send out scouts for the sole purpose of finding other civs as soon as possible.
When choosing the length of the cash payments, remember that it may sometimes be useful to empty an AI's coffin completely in order to stop him from rush-buying something (intuition needed here, as you cannot know what the AI is about to do). Therefore, short term plans may sometimes be useful.
When dealing with minor civs, give them everything barring diplomatic translators. They are no threat anyway (except the I-league and Fundamentalists who should be considered major civs). If you have several trade goods to sell, make sure that the monthly payments are small enough (= the lease plan long enough) that the civ's treasury does not empty before you you are ready to trade the last trade good. When it comes to the last good, make an extremely short-term plan - 2 to 3 years - to deliberately empty its treasury. This makes sure that YOU get all his money no matter how much another major AI bullies him. Especially effective on minor civs who appear later in the game. I always make them go broke immediately when they pop up. MOHAHAHAHAHAHA (eh, hrmm, sorry...)
When dealing with the main opponent(s) in a game, keep a trade good or two to yourself. They are VERY useful when sueing for peace, which may be necessary in order to pull off other stunts (see my starbase strategy thread).
Always keep diplomatic translators to yourself. It helps a lot when negotiating lease contracts for other trade goods.
As AI's are often ahead in tech, it may be tempting to offer trade goods for tech instead of cash. Be careful doing this, though. Much of the tech may not be useful for your strategy (especially dead-end tech such as corvettes). Also, giving you tech doesn't really hurt the AI - after all, it has already spent the resources researching it. Therefore; offer trade goods for tech to weak major AI's who will not be a threat in the future. Demand cash from your main opponents. I often take a medium-long lease plan (max out what I can get for 20-30 turns), since that seems to keep my economy going on full speed until I get the next trade good.
Lease the trade good to all races you possibly can. The long-term gain of keeping it to yourself is outweighed by the fact that you get MORE and the AI LESS money NOW. In larger galaxies, send out scouts for the sole purpose of finding other civs as soon as possible.
When choosing the length of the cash payments, remember that it may sometimes be useful to empty an AI's coffin completely in order to stop him from rush-buying something (intuition needed here, as you cannot know what the AI is about to do). Therefore, short term plans may sometimes be useful.
When dealing with minor civs, give them everything barring diplomatic translators. They are no threat anyway (except the I-league and Fundamentalists who should be considered major civs). If you have several trade goods to sell, make sure that the monthly payments are small enough (= the lease plan long enough) that the civ's treasury does not empty before you you are ready to trade the last trade good. When it comes to the last good, make an extremely short-term plan - 2 to 3 years - to deliberately empty its treasury. This makes sure that YOU get all his money no matter how much another major AI bullies him. Especially effective on minor civs who appear later in the game. I always make them go broke immediately when they pop up. MOHAHAHAHAHAHA (eh, hrmm, sorry...)
When dealing with the main opponent(s) in a game, keep a trade good or two to yourself. They are VERY useful when sueing for peace, which may be necessary in order to pull off other stunts (see my starbase strategy thread).
