Post #3

During the course of playing this game there were many aspects that made it very difficult overcome the other civilizations. In the game there were lots of problems presented to me that made my experience very intense. Trade is an issue in this game that is very difficult to manage and understand. To go create trading relationships with other countries was a huge task in itself and not an easy one at all. I had the experience of having to deal with civilizations wanting me to break ties with one country to keep them happy and others that wanted to declare war on me if I didn't do that. It definitely created a headache and unnecessary tension in the game. I was forced to make a decision each and every time, and little did I know whether or not the decision that I made was a good or a bad one. Sometimes it came to the bone where my choice was basically on the flip of a coin and my fate could be decided by those decisions. It seemed to me that I was rather lucky because every time that I decided to break a tie with a trading relationship it didn't come back to bite me in the ass. Either I was rather lucky or my rational really was good enough to prevent any added problems throughout my gaming experience. The main question that I always asked myself was, What will make my opponents happy, but benefit me? It was clear to me that bargaining technologies, gold, and resources for respect would be the only way. Some of my opponents were quite stubborn and that put me in a tiff sometimes. Through trial and error I slowly learned the process of elimination. I also was able to come to the realization that in economics everyone can't be a winner. Like I remember from discussion in class there is always going to be a country that has an absolute advantage when creating some goods, and other countries will have a comparative advantage. One situation that I had was the Roman empire wanted me to break ties with Egypt. This was a rather interesting scenario that I was presented with. I didn't know what to do. Should I break the tie and loose one of my most dependable trading partners who provided very useful resources, or go against the superior power and risk being destroyed by their empire. The decision brought sweat to my palms and a severe migraine. lol, well maybe not that extreme, but nonetheless it required a lot of thought. It wasn't just some click of the mouse and ok were done, it could drop my rank and loose my balance of neutrality amongst my competition. I decided to break the ties with Egypt. Of course they weren't very happy and they were reluctant to actually speak to me for any trading agreements. Their status moved to cautious as I closed borders on them. Rome was happy, but I noticed they still stayed cautious of me. So in the end it was worthless to break the tie. To solve this heart pounding dilemma, I opened borders with Egypt again and brought them to a happy state, and in the meantime gave about 120 gold to Rome just to keep them quiet for a while each turn so they could go amongst their own business and give me a break. Rome reminded me of one those fly's that keeps buzzing in your ear and won't leave you alone, but I swatted that fly and was able to handle the situation reasonably. Of course I made a little loss in gold, but not much since other civilizations gave me gold in return for furs. I had a very lucrative business going at that point in time and was able to stay what I call, behind the scenes for a little while. I took place in the trade, but stayed out of the fight. I was quite pleased with the outcome. I came to the conclusion that my problem was a very important one because to make an economy thrive their must be balance, and decisions must be made to counter act the problems that an economy may potentially face. Trade effects every civilization one way or the other because every country can't produce every resource to a high quantity otherwise their wouldn't be imports and exports. My claim to fame is keep you friends close and your enemies close, but trade with each of them wisely. Basically cover your ass in the process and you won't have to worry about screwing anyone over or being screwed yourself.