4 Cities Saga

Hello Fellow Die Hard Civ 5 Fans:

I have asked a similar question before which is
If you focus on this 4 city strategy then is conquering AI's Capitol city
Worth it in the long run. If an AI has five to ten cities should you focus on destroying
All cities but the capitol and raze them. If you take the capitol then you will soon have 5-10 cities and no longer your 4.

Any thoughts would be great.
Brew God

brewgod said:

Hello Fellow Die Hard Civ 5 Fans:

I have asked a similar question before which is
If you focus on this 4 city strategy then is conquering AI's Capitol city
Worth it in the long run. If an AI has five to ten cities should you focus on destroying
All cities but the capitol and raze them. If you take the capitol then you will soon have 5-10 cities and no longer your 4.

Any thoughts would be great.
Brew God

Click to expand...

AI's capitols are rarely crappy, they always have a lot of pop and are very developed, plus the wonders.

Other cities, well... depends of how good they are. If they have high pop, good position, are developed and a lot of resources in the surrounding area, they are definitely worth taking. Those that are not, well... if they are moderate but have the potential to be very good once developed, then yes. If they are just moderate (no potential to become a good city) well, it's mostly a good idea to raze them.

I am not even gonna talk about bad cities. Unless..... That bad city has a very very big potential to become a very good city one day, but something like that is rare.

4 Self founded cities + conquering another civ is what Tradition is made for.
Monarchy will provide much more of a happiness boost.
Note that it's very needed when conquering to look at them and if one isn't good enough raze it to the ground. With standard rules, I tend to raze about 50% of the AIs cities since they are so close together that half of them aren't bringing in any key tiles another wouldn't.

This appears to be a preideological war, so for the ones you are planning on keeping, puppet initially and wait to annex at least until it comes out of resistance.

Also be sure to have a nice size surplus in happiness before the war starts if your planning on conquering as well.