how does the community view trading things like action cards and stuff. I had a quick look but I don't see anything in the rules.

one of our games had someone want to trade and action card for 1 trade good just to screw someone that screwed them on an earlier turn.

is this stuff pretty much free for all?

Political Cards can not be traded. However the rules state, "A player may, at any time, discard a Political Card from his or her hand instead of spending a Trade Good."

Normally Action Cards can not be traded as well. However if the Hacan race is playing, he may facilitate the trading of Action Cards. This can only happen during the Status Phase.

As Wormious mentions, Action Cards can only be traded if the Hacan are in play. Technically speaking, in this case, all AC trades must go THROUGH the Hacan (IE, the Hacan has the option, if desired, to look at the cards in question, and even "keep" them, because techincally, the trade is a 2-part trade: Trade to the Hacan, and the Hacan trade to the other party (and vice versa). Granted, if a Hacan player DID something like that, they'd probably make some enemies!

Apart from this Action Card exception, though, the only thing that can be "traded" physcially are Trade Goods, and Trade Contracts (and Trade Contracts can only be traded during the execution of the Trade strategy card). Planets, units, cards, mines, etc, cannot be traded.

I hope this helps.

perfect thanx guys

Dude - I had missed even thinking about facilitating the trade of cards with others. Thanks for the heads up.

hantei40 said:

That Hacani power is often overlooked, espeically in face to face games. Usually newer players, but even some experienced players underplay it's worth. However, when used, it can REALLY be a potent power, as the Hacan can get some nice benefits (not always "physical" TGs, but sometimes promises, etc) from being the facilitator. One common use is that the Hacan only allow trades if they can see the cards and if the parties promise not to use them against the Hacan. (Obviously it's not binding, but breaking promises in TI3 can often lead to lack of future facilitations, even in future games; metagaming, while probably not the best, is a big part of TI3 sometimes).

A friend of mine is great with Hacan, and he uses the AC trading ability extensively. Once in a 5-player game he was funding all the other races to war against each other, while Hacan ran away with the game.

For instance, he would trade ACs to both parties in a war - everyone felt they benefited, but in the long rund Hacan won the most, since he wasn't at war. And his ACs helped to prolong the conflict.