Division By 2: My enemy

Surely this a common experience for fellow warmongers.

You've just worked long and hard to secure a juicy size 30 city from the AI. Of course, it's reduced to 15 upon capture but that's still pretty good, it's got wonders and some nice buildings too. Now set your sights on his nearby capital, soon that will be yours as well.

But wait! Is that a Bomber shredding the defense of your newly acquired city?! And - oh my, where did those Infantry come from? They've re-taken the city!

No matter, your units are all in position to take it back anyway. This time be sure to leave a fighter on intercept and wipe out all nearby enemys. Voila, the city is yours for good!

Except now it is a size 4 city, with only a Watermill and a Museum left standing.

I can't be the only one who thinks cities are massacred too quickly. It would be nice if there was a cap of -8 citizens or something so that large cities are actually valuable once you snag them. Double raze speed to compensate. It doesn't make sense that you have to butcher half the population of a defenseless city just to capture it.

Who didn't advance additional units around the captured city to protect it once you discovered it didn't have extensive cultural borders around it?

Just another lesson learned, it seems to me.

I find it more likley to happen in early mid-game if I'm playing a naval civ and attacking from the sea. I now won't storm a city if I have no fire power left that turn (i.e. all ships have fired), I'll just have to take the defender's reply and go in next turn - I learned that the hard way by losing my only caravel/privateer in the counter-attack as well as the city! In late game the same does apply of course but I usually have plenty of units available by then so I can't remember that happening - except for once when Alex nuked me next go, Ouch!

Jaybe said:

Who didn't advance additional units around the captured city to protect it once you discovered it didn't have extensive cultural borders around it?

Just another lesson learned, it seems to me.

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What do cultural borders have to do with it?

Nothing. Enemy units are not expelled from your culture borders when you take a city.

This is a caution, however, that taking a city just because you can may not be the best plan. As you note, if the enemy can recapture the city, it becomes much less valuable. Wait another turn, kill off the enemy's straggling units, move melee units around the back of the city to exert ZoC, and take the city on the next turn, or the turn after that.

On the other hand, if you are happiness constrained, you may want the city to be recaptured, so take the city with a horse unit that can exit the city after taking it, and let the AI reconquer the city.

Browd said:

Nothing. Enemy units are not expelled from your culture borders when you take a city.

This is a caution, however, that taking a city just because you can may not be the best plan. As you note, if the enemy can recapture the city, it becomes much less valuable. Wait another turn, kill off the enemy's straggling units, move melee units around the back of the city to exert ZoC, and take the city on the next turn, or the turn after that.

On the other hand, if you are happiness constrained, you may want the city to be recaptured, so take the city with a horse unit that can exit the city after taking it, and let the AI reconquer the city.

Click to expand...

In this particular case I didn't really care about the city's population, I'm struggling a bit with and the city contains Forbidden Palace, so a small city is worth just as much as a big one. The only annoying thing was losing a nearly full health Infantry with the city.

On a related note, do puppet cities not count as occupied? I only have two small cities of my own (and a vast puppet empire) yet Forbidden Palace gave me a nice chunk of happiness.

Puppetted cities are not occupied. Annexed cities without courthouses are occupied.