Since the AI's haven't got alphabet yet you can probably do writing @ min and sell it around before the others get it.

Apart from that I wouldn't spend money on a tech unless you think you can buy from one and sell to the other, but as you say, it will be devalued by when you purchase it, and you pay the 50% tech lead penalty if you buy a tech that only one has. All in all, brokering with just 2 civs is nigh on impossible. Much better to get a tech no-one has and buy them all @ miser.

So I decided to increase my research on alphabet to max. I was still a few turns from it when out of nowhere, Germany declared war on me. No demands or anything, just war [???]. I thought, OK not so bad I'll just kick some german behind and then get some techs from them. But then three turns later the iroquois demanded all my gold (18), and I was doing deficit research at the time so it would have cost me a building. I refused and they joined the mini-dogpile. So I swapped my builds over to mostly spears and archers and prepared to rush the racks still being built. I don't know if the Iroquois have HB yet, but I hope not.

Another 5 or so turns have passed since then and I haven't seen any Germans, they must be slogging though the jungle. The Iroquois did move two warriors next to New York and actually killed a spear I had defending there (grrrrr). I plan to relieve them of Tonawanda (next to the Ivory), before making them beg for peace. Of course if I see one MW I'll probably make peace asap.

Here's the current demographics so you can see why I am not very worried.

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/up...21637_GvS1.jpg
64.36KB

and here are some pretty current world maps.

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/up...21813_GvS4.jpg
63.28KB

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/up...21831_GvS2.jpg
94.85KB

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/up...21854_GvS3.jpg
61.97KB

So the war goes on, I’ve been collecting archers to go destroy Tonawanda and settle near that Ivory and getting some defense set up. Meanwhile a stack o’ Germans finally made its way north, a spear and three archers. I build a wall in Boston where they are going to attack. Writing comes in:

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/up...04927_GvS1.jpg

And a few turns later I take out Tonawanda:

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/up...04954_GvS2.jpg

I am thinking to take out St. Regis too, but then I see a Mounted Warrior and think better of it. I make peace at favorable terms:

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/up...05025_GvS3.jpg

I check with the Germans and they now have Polytheism, I also realize for the first time that they never met the Iroquois. I am getting close to MM and they will certainly meet soon after that tech, I am also starting to get worried that Sky will show up anytime. In addition, the majority of my archers are up north and it will take them almost 20 turns to reach Germany anyway. So I make peace with Germany too:

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/up...05057_GvS4.jpg

And then trade Poly to the Iroquois:

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/up...05126_GvS5.jpg

I’ve now settled the Ivory and have another city about to be founded NE of New York grabbing some Iron. My troops are massing in Boston for the walk south and I am building a few horses to accompany them. Other than that I am still in expansion mode.

Nice!

So my max research efforts paid off in that I have MM now and I immediately rushed a galley from Philly. I was a bit worried about having to travel through Iroquois territory to explore but it turned out to be no big deal, I find an island quickly.

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/up...72651_GvS1.jpg

At the beginning of my next turn I am greeted by this:

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/up...72718_GvS2.jpg

and this:

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/up...72744_GvS3.jpg

So I guess China sold contact w/me to the Greeks, thanks Mao! I wonder if Sky even noticed that the Chinese had contact w/me, not that it would have done him any good. A quick check of Greek and Chinese assets shows me that the Geek is ahead and has Lit up on the Chinese, not to mention a bunch of cash. I’ve already decided to trade contact because MM is already out there. I wonder where Sky’s galley is now? My new map shows me that geography has most likely helped me get contact before Sky, not to mention the assist by Mao. So I make this trade:

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/up...72918_GvS4.jpg

I wanted contact w/France to see where he is in techs.

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/up...72952_GvS5.jpg
Heh, nice hat Sky. He is a bit behind but does have MM already. I’m going to make sure everyone has all the techs he has to help keep him behind. Now I make this trade with China:

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/up...73036_GvS6.jpg

Now I distribute the tech’s Sky knows to the Iroquois and Germany, getting what I can for them.

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/up...73118_GvS7.jpg

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/up...73133_GvS8.jpg

Here is my current mini map:

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/up...73218_GvS9.jpg

I’m still building settlers at max rate. I have 11 archers along with a few Spear and a couple Horses on German borders. I have 4 turns or so until I can declare honorably on them. I don’t know how much resistance to expect from them but I think I can get more value from my remaining archers by attacking than keeping and upgrading [rolleyes]. Sky looks to have a good position on one end of his continent with some very nice land and the weak Chinese between him and the Greeks. My current plan is to put the hurt on Germany and eventually take their land and have my FP down there. I am going to need a break to build some infrastructure and at some point I need to start thinking about what wonders I’ll need for my GA.

I declared on Germany and on the second turn of war took Nuremburg from them, the archer in the picture just left or I couldn't have grabbed it this turn.
http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/up...23830_GvS1.jpg
I'm going to move my troops across the river before attacking Berlin, you can see that I have already captured 4 workers. I have also killed a few random troops on offence and defense.
I take Berlin on my first try, there were only three shields there all regular.
http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/up...24056_GvS2.jpg
ATM I am just healing up, I still have enough troops to do more damage to Germany, also my Iron is now hooked up and I have a bunch of sword headed down for the kill.
http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/up...24329_GvS3.jpg
I have a couple more in the east moving south.

I continued thumping on Germany, and decided they were weak enough to send down a sword force and make them a vassle of the mighty american empire. They ended up sending most of their forces north and met my swords to their dismay. A few sneaky ones did escape notice by traveling along the eastern border and actually took out a newly founded city of mine defended by one spear.

Meanwhile, France and Greece were eating up China.

Somehow Sky caught up in techs, he must have extorted from China and had a min run come in (or something). The bartering must have been good too. I had been doing a max run on Republic to try and head off a min run by him on that tech, but to no avail.

I noticed that China was down to one city and that Republic, Monarchy, and Construction had all been traded around. So I bought the rest of Republic from China for peace and some gpt. Then I made peace with Germany for Construction and a couple cities. This left them with two (inc. their capital). I didn't get a leader for my FP yet but I have a lot of elites and they are moving into position for 20 turns hence. I am going to start a hand built FP just in case.

I did a couple pop rushes and revolted (Sky is in anarchy already). I pulled a nice 5 turns.

I haven't decided if I should take it to the Iroquois next, or prepare a navy and wait until Sky attacks Greece. Then attack him in the South. I currently have my galley scouting out southern routs between the continents. If I conquer the Iroquois then any wonder I build will kick off my GA (they have the pyramids and colossus already). So I'll play it by ear.

Can we have a minimap please Gothmog? :)

Here are some screen shots, the one of my core got corrupted somehow but it's fully developed.

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/up...41616295_1.jpg

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/up...16162945_2.JPG

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/up...16163011_3.jpg

I've got all my elite troops outside of Frankfurt and Heidleburg (germany also has a city on the peninsula to the south west). I am going to do a bit of leader fishing hoping to rush my FP in former German lands. Also Germany has Engineering and Monotheism (as does all the other AI's), I figure I'll leave him his one little city and get those techs via pointy stick. I still have 10 turns of peace with him but I am leaning towards just attacking him anyway. It will be just me and Sky on our own continents before too long anyway. The Iroquois are the number 1 civ atm though. Sky has taken over China and his superior lands are providing him with a nice boost. I've got lots of Jungle to clear still.

The only screenshot I have is my civ stats just after I entered Republic

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/up...51020_SvGM.jpg