bribing City States

Hello Fellow Die Hard Civ 5 Fans:

How many of you base your game play on bribing city states. I will bribe most all Culture CS to gain the highest points possible to open the next section of a tree ... I will have up to 500-700 culture points and will have around 150 tourism. I am finding out that my tourism is not working so well if my culture is so high...influence on other AI. Perhaps I am wrong on that theory.

How about you all out there.

Thanks

Brew God

Culture defends from rival Tourism, it does not influence your influence over another nations.

You need to boost up your Tourism output to increase your pressure on other nations, but if you make between 500-700 you don't run a risk of being influenced by other civ's culture/tourism output.

I usually only Bribe Civs if i need them for something, usually primarily for World Congress or Diplomatic Victory.

Since I tend to have a lot of CS` in my game, I work hard to bribe them and get the policy for them early. I still find that some Civs like Alexander tend to beat me to it though, somehow managing to bribe 3-4 times the amount of CS` I can.

My play is around fulling city state quests + use of spies, which is more more efficient than cash.

In my current game i had over 500 culture per turn, but my tourism was low and i had great pressure on me from other civs, costing about 40-50 points of happiness.
Alexander was over-reaching me with CS without spending anything.

I am like Socrates, but I also bribe Maritime CS for the food and religious CS to enable quicker acquisition of buildings (such as a cathedral).

I am never in a position to bully a CS so I simply ignore them.

Apart from Mercantile city states (as happiness is generally not an issue for me; I raze everything that can be razed), I like bribing just about every single type, given enough gold (not that I'd ever have enough gold to bribe all of them until late game).

Getting Assyrian Siege Towers from a CS in the classical era is just so much fun .

City states can really make or break a game. If you aren't allies with a citystate, and a neighbor DoWs you and flips your neighboring citystates against you, you will lose trade routes, world congress votes, and have a much harder time defending your land. The sudden loss of citystate happiness can sometimes put your empire into negative happiness when you least expect it. Afterward it takes a long time to build diplomacy back up to resting position again. You really begin to realize how vital citystates can be whenever Alexander (especially) or Ramhamkhaeng are in the game as an AI.

Usually, I try to focus on getting a big lead with one city state ally before i start bribing/rigging another. I will try to time a bribe right after a Great Merchant trade mission, that way I get the gold back and double the diplomacy. Otherwise, I will try to time a bribe right after my spy rigs the election. Bigger bribes are more efficient..I usually don't start bribing until late medieval era, at the very earliest, and then usually only if it's a citystate that I really need (like a mercantile, or a miltaristic CS to start producing a UU.) Later on, when hammers are really powerful, I find myself not having a whole lot to spend gold on, so it's easy to bribe CS's for 1000g apiece.

Really depends of the way the game is flowing... but very often I end up bibing them late in the game to pass the proposal I want, or repeal those that kill me.

Early in the game I will more rely on spies, but if for any reasons I have few key friends-allies I got from quests, I will bribe for 250 to keep them or make them allies and get very good benefits from it,

For example lately I was doubling my basic culture from 2 CS I allied early fomr quests. It really woth the bribe!