Ok, i'm at war with the Aztecs, years go by and i'm gleefully capturing and/or razing cities, and all of a sudden my people start striking. The little bit of gold i had in the treasury goes to zero and it says 'STRIKE' in big red letters next to the 0 in my treasury. I was shocked and angry but i thought the strike would just be for a few turns... it never ended. i tried eveything. one by one my marauding army was disbanded with each passing turn, then the workers and then every new unit i built went away with the next passing turn. I tried switching civics, but that didnt do anything to change it. I tried to weather it out but nothing seemed to fix this, i even went to focusing the cities on generating finance but nothing could bring me out of the red and break the strike so im wondering if anyone here knows what can be done to fix this situation or could explain what happened.

You ran out of money in your treasury - that's why your units were striking and being disbanded.

Sounds like you were expanding too fast; each city you capture costs you $$ a turn. Sounds like it was money you didn't have.

so what could i do to fix the problem...i've never had anyone strike on me before, i was completely miffed.

maybe you're just a loser:goodjob:

(this is why i hate early wars)

So thats why I shouldn't ever go in the negative.. lol.

Decreasing science and culture spending might help a bit, but it may not work all the time.

so what could i do to fix the problem...i've never had anyone strike on me before, i was completely miffed.

Don't capture so many cities and/or build such a large army.

Also War Weariness reducess the amount of people working in your cities. This can reduce the amount of commerce and gold each city is generating. Sometimes suing for peace just to make your people happy will raise your gpt.

It is necessary to build up the economy before the war. Take a look on the city maintenance. Cities far away cost a lot. So have Code of Laws ready before the first large expansion. Furthermore, some economically strong core cities help. AND: it costs a lot of money if troops are on foreign (enemy) territorry. This is really expensive, this is the troop support, on the page where income and expenses are shown.

Hope it helps you.

edit: I like the idea that one has to think about all aspects of the game in order to win.

the thing is, i didnt start the war, i got attacked and since i was winning, i set about to destroy my enemies. my science rate went to 0, the cash went to 0 and everything disbanded, and despite my best efforts, nothing i did could end the strike. no government change, no nothing. it said strike in big red letters in the top of the screen and i couldnt figure out a way to get outta the red. i couldnt find anything in the civelopedia to explain the concept of striking either. we hadnt yet founded a religion, no temples, nothing like that because we had been attacked so early in the game that it was either fight or die.

i couldnt find anything in the civelopedia to explain the concept of striking either.

It's quite simple, it happens when you run out of money.

That is exactly why this game is so cool. You have to pay attention to every facet to be a success. Pillaging will reap a little but it won't pay for the war. Some times all you can do is defend. if you're broke, and hope they go away.

Ok, i'm at war with the Aztecs, years go by and i'm gleefully capturing and/or razing cities, and all of a sudden my people start striking. The little bit of gold i had in the treasury goes to zero and it says 'STRIKE' in big red letters next to the 0 in my treasury. I was shocked and angry but i thought the strike would just be for a few turns... it never ended. i tried eveything. one by one my marauding army was disbanded with each passing turn, then the workers and then every new unit i built went away with the next passing turn. I tried switching civics, but that didnt do anything to change it. I tried to weather it out but nothing seemed to fix this, i even went to focusing the cities on generating finance but nothing could bring me out of the red and break the strike so im wondering if anyone here knows what can be done to fix this situation or could explain what happened.

Well, there is way to turn 'STRIKE' into your advantage, but since a lot of people screeming "exploit", I decided not to talk about it any further. However, if you really want to know, check out the following link:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=152148

Well, as others have pointed out, the best solution is not to find yourself in this situation to begin with. Each and every turn, pay attention not only to the war, but what it is costing you. When you capture a city, watch how much that city costs you in upkeep. You'll be able to estimate how much extra the next city would cost. This way you can stop expanding when you reach the point of diminishing returns.

If you do find yourself in this situation (I never have, so these are just my thoughts) you could do several things to try to end the strike:
1) As you did, emphasize comerce in every city.
2) Disband your weakest units, especially those in enemy territory, to reduce unit upkeep costs.
3) If you have mounted units in enemy territory, you can use them to pillage with instead of retreating them. You'll probably get more money from pillaging than those units will cost you in upkeep.
4) Units in enemy territory cost a LOT more in upkeep, so get your non-mounted units back inside your territory quickly, even if that means retreating your marauders back into a recently captured city.
5) Abandon cities near your opponent, so he can recapture them. You've already done the damage of destroying the buildings in those cities and reducing population through starvation. If he re-takes them, he still suffers from the damage you've caused and is actually doing you a favor by reducing your city upkeep costs.
6) Sell everything you've got to the highest bidder. Try to sell the same technology to every AI willing to buy in the same turn so they can't trade it amongst themselves. Make deals that include you getting gold per turn.
7) The cities you've recently captured are the ones with the least benefit to you and the highest upkeep. See if anyone is willing to buy some of these from you or would accept them as gifts.

I don't know about switching civics. I'm aware of the possible anarchy exploit, but I've not studied it. I don't know if the anarchy period involved in switching civics would be useful or counter-productive when trying to get out of a strike.

I met the same thing after I destroyed India, now the terrible is past, I lost some ships and units. I thin that I have to pay attention avoiding this happen!

I find that I can wage war without sliding science to <70%, early wars should be taken in little steps so as not to shatter the infant economy (capture 2 major cities, peace, recruit and build up new cities, repeat). Late wars, you don't need to care, your treasury by this point is fine

the thing is, i didnt start the war, i got attacked and since i was winning, i set about to destroy my enemies. my science rate went to 0, the cash went to 0 and everything disbanded, and despite my best efforts, nothing i did could end the strike. no government change, no nothing. it said strike in big red letters in the top of the screen and i couldnt figure out a way to get outta the red. i couldnt find anything in the civelopedia to explain the concept of striking either. we hadnt yet founded a religion, no temples, nothing like that because we had been attacked so early in the game that it was either fight or die.

If you're forced to go to war before you've had a chance to build up your economy, and you don't think that you can afford having any new cities, just raze any cities you capture instead of keeping them.

I 'D say all them units in enemy territory are bankrupting you... you do know that they cost you twice as much as units in neutral territory?

War Weariness has a big economic advantage (if you're good at it), go to your neighbour, and ask 300$ in tribute, ussually he'll say yes, go to the civ you're at war with, propose peace for all his money and declare war whenever fealing like it. This works for a while but you have to know when to stop fighting and start disbanding units

To fix the situation:

1. Get out of the war now. Sue for peace. Move you units into your cultural borders (even the recently captured cities).

2. If you haven't already, set your science and culture to zero.

3. In your core cities make sure you have the courthouses, markets, grocers, harbors, banks, etc. Get those built asap.

4. Build what you can in the recently captured cities. Heck, sell/give some of the cities back to the AI (can you do this in CivIV?).

To avoid this in the future:

1. Watch the changes to your income. The moment you declare war, note the amount. When you start moving into enemy territory, note the change in income. You might have to fight a defensive war rather than a conquering war.

2. Each time you capture a city, note the impact on your income.

3. Also, if you have to fight a defensive war, send some small raiding parties to pillage the AI's land. It will hurt them in the future.

Raze instead of capture. Only keep cities that have important resources or form strategic choke points on the map. Once all of your newly conquered cities are producing income, then you can start expanding again.

Keep an eye on the tech/income slider. It adjusts automatically once you hit zero funds. The strike is caused when you have zero funds and negative income at 0% science. Stop capturing cities prior to that happening and you won't have a problem.

I agree with what's been said above, and I'll add a couple more that I didn't see mentioned:

- Long before going to war, make sure you've been building cottages around your existing cities. These provide the bulk of your Civ's funds.
- If this happens to you a lot, try playing as a Civ with the financial trait.
- In captured cities (that you didn't raze, obviously) build courthouses. If you've captured a city a fair distance from your capital with other captured cities nearby, build the Forbidden Palace there, and, if you're a real warmonger with a far-flung empire, build Versailles in another city far from your capital.
- If it happens mid/late game, bee-line your tech to Communism and switch to State Property. Combine that with Police State if war weariness is high and you have not or cannot sue for peace.

I recently stumbled onto a trick that might help. There is normally a waiting period between civic changes, which stops perpetual anarchy. However, you are able to change your religion immediately after you change your civic (and vice versa). Using this you should be able to have anarchy until you can correct your problems. I would suggest killing off some of your weak troops and building your palace in a more centralized place. You can chop rush the palace and then take one turn to actually build it. I hope this helps.

You could try pre-empting the increased upkeep by estimating where the center of your empire will be by the time you're done with your conquests. Be sure to relocate your palace relatively close to your opponent's borders, since you should have courthouses already established in your native cities. The obvious downside is that this won't work in MP: Moving your Palace close to someone else's borders practically screams "I intend to have a lot of land where your land is sometime very soon!" Before Courthouses, you just have to be a good guesser. Maybe move it closer to the enemy as you expand more.

In my 'world' there are two islands at the opposite side of the globe with one Barbarian city on each. Once I conquered them, I sent in Galleons with three settlers and established cities on both islands.

I had used Horse Archers to defeat the Bowmen and didn't want to sail them 15 turns away back on the homeland. Because I didn't pay attention to the rising cost of support at a distance (and I had just begun building Courthouses) I went quickly into strike.

My question is: What is the budgetary designation of Barbarian territory? It's not like they have an entire nation or region. They are scattered cities around the globe. Does the AI only care if a unit is 'in city limits' or not?

I'm thinking the best move for the horses is to have them 'guard' the new cities while Courthouses are built. Right?