Can you negotiate a trade agreement at any time during the game or only when the Trade Strategy is played? I searched hi and lo and could not find anything answering this question explicitly.

Only when the Trade Strategy is played.

For more answers, come to http://www.ti3wiki.org/forum/YaBB.pl?board=general . That's where the real TI3 coimmunity is.

Well, technically, you can negotiate all you want any time you want. The only time you can formally enter trade agreements though, with exchanging cards and all and netting you income the next time trade will be played, is during the strategic action where trade is played.

Oftentimes it's a good strategy to make real pressure in the negotiations, especially if you are in no good position. I often forces other players to accept really weird treaties by simply pushing them to a decision. Nasty, but effective.

We have always negotiated during the game, usually when we are making the map. Dont see nothing wrong there.

Dont trade whit Hacan !

Why not? I don't understand...

The Hacan's Trade Agreements while both worth 3 are tho most beneficial to the Hacan themselves as they help them get an early Alliance with the races they trade with as you will mostly not want to break those in warfare as they are just to nice to have. Most people if they want to hurt the Hacan will not trade with them as their Trading capabilities are what makes them a very good race to play and without those they are very slow to progress.

Well, if I want to hurt Hacan I do so, if I have an agreement with them or not...but there is a mental barrier, of course. Psychology. Same goes with Winnu and JolNar.

Tawnos76 said:

Not particularly good advice. Unfortunatly not trading with the Hacan is more often more damaging to yourself then it is beneficial to them. The bottom line is someone WILL trade with them and hence its either going to be you taking advantage of the 3's or one of your neighbhoors. There is no effective trade war strategy that can be played against the Hacan, in effect they have their basis covered and while true that the race is not as effective if their trade contracts are not filled, they are still even without their trade contracts more effective then most races. Hence the best policy with the Hacan, especially when you are neighbhoors is to buddy up, play the good guy and make the trades so that you can put those trade goods to good use while thinking about a long term strategy to slow the down so you can get ahead.

I like to, later in the game if you are finding the Hacan are growing in strength a quick strike to break contracts will eliminate their income for 2 rounds and a smart strategy is to try to get the trade card the very next turn so that he has no one to trade with except you (most likely since everyone else will likely have their contracts filled) so that you can extend that trade block to 3 rounds with the nice side effect of forcing him to stress over the trade card for a couple of rounds.

I have used this strategy many times and it works quite well in most cases.