I'd forgotten there was a science penalty connected to running out of gold.
It's not a pillage-repair issue; it's an issue with debt disappearing and the science penalty being erased so long as you accumulate some gold during your turn; pillage-repair simply happens to be the method through which you are abusing this exploit.
I can think of a few other scenarios:
1) You are at -100gpt on a mass domination spree. You sell 1 building per turn from a city that is being razed; as you also get gold for capturing a city, you wouldn't have to sell that turn, if # of buildings < # of turns until city is razed.
2) Late game, you are +gpt during Golden Age but -gpt otherwise, perhaps because you traded gpt for lump sum gold during GA. You spend the gold (ex. city states) and sell 1 unnecessary building per turn when -gpt
3) Micro-manage city tiles and specialists
*select city tiles and specialists to avoid gold; let's say you're at -100gpt
*start of turn, you're at 0 gold
*select city tiles and specialists (Market, Bank, Stock Exchange), bringing you up to +1gpt. Sell that 1gpt to AI friend
4) ...delete 1 unit per turn in your territory. This could be workers that are no longer needed, a badly wounded unit you've withdrawn from battle, or a cheap unit you're able to mass produce in a high production city. Workers cost 70 hammers and sell for 17 gold; all you need is one high production city or multiple cities producing workers, averaging 70 hammers per turn of production.
5) Finish Honour. Run massively -gpt. Kill a unit each turn.
It's not a pillage-repair issue; it's an issue with debt disappearing and the science penalty being erased so long as you accumulate some gold during your turn; pillage-repair simply happens to be the method through which you are abusing this exploit.
I can think of a few other scenarios:
1) You are at -100gpt on a mass domination spree. You sell 1 building per turn from a city that is being razed; as you also get gold for capturing a city, you wouldn't have to sell that turn, if # of buildings < # of turns until city is razed.
2) Late game, you are +gpt during Golden Age but -gpt otherwise, perhaps because you traded gpt for lump sum gold during GA. You spend the gold (ex. city states) and sell 1 unnecessary building per turn when -gpt
3) Micro-manage city tiles and specialists
*select city tiles and specialists to avoid gold; let's say you're at -100gpt
*start of turn, you're at 0 gold
*select city tiles and specialists (Market, Bank, Stock Exchange), bringing you up to +1gpt. Sell that 1gpt to AI friend
4) ...delete 1 unit per turn in your territory. This could be workers that are no longer needed, a badly wounded unit you've withdrawn from battle, or a cheap unit you're able to mass produce in a high production city. Workers cost 70 hammers and sell for 17 gold; all you need is one high production city or multiple cities producing workers, averaging 70 hammers per turn of production.
5) Finish Honour. Run massively -gpt. Kill a unit each turn.
They take ages to play and are so stressful.
