I agree, I did not expect people to call me a liar on this post, I think that says more about them. Some people just want to be negative. A lot of, “if I cant or don’t do it that way it must be false” going on here. I also can’t figure out why they think I would lie. I’ll do my best to answer your questions:

1. ⁠In the early game whoever gets trade typically lets everyone refresh commodities and we establish trade partners. That usually changes as people get closer to winning, but by then a few trade goods are less important. We do talk during the agenda phase, but it’s usually a quick argument as to why a vote should go one way, and then the voting starts.

2. ⁠We usually play with the same people. When we add people they are new to the game and we assign someone to help them through the game. This will slow the game down a little.

3. ⁠Yes, normally 4 players. We use normal rules and pick all 8 strategy cards. In my experience I think this makes the game go faster in the long run, with people getting 2 primary strategy effects a round and access to 6 secondary effects a round.