How do I go about increasing the city defense bonus? I know early in the game you can build barracks, castle, city walls, etc but later in the game (rifleman era), what can I build to increase city bonus? All the buildings available to me mention nothing about city bonus increase, and newly acquired cities are only at around 20-30%.
City Defense Bonus: Increasing IT
- Thread starter agsankaa
- Start date
Bushface
Deity
A city described as with "poor" culture has 0 to 9 accumulated culture and gives no defence bonus.
A "fledgling" city has 10 to 99 culture and gives 20% defence bonus.
A "developing" city with 100 to 499 culture gives 40%.
A "refined" one with 500 to 4999 culture gives 60%. EDIT - not 4999 as I originally put.
EDIT
An "influential" city with 5000 to 49999 culture gives 80%.
END EDIT
A "legendary" city with 50000 or more culture gives 80%.
These are for normal speed. Units stated not to gain defensive bonuses do not, of course, gain any effect from cultural defence. Captured cities regain their defence bit by bit, but I don't know what controls this.
A "fledgling" city has 10 to 99 culture and gives 20% defence bonus.
A "developing" city with 100 to 499 culture gives 40%.
A "refined" one with 500 to 4999 culture gives 60%. EDIT - not 4999 as I originally put.
EDIT
An "influential" city with 5000 to 49999 culture gives 80%.
END EDIT
A "legendary" city with 50000 or more culture gives 80%.
These are for normal speed. Units stated not to gain defensive bonuses do not, of course, gain any effect from cultural defence. Captured cities regain their defence bit by bit, but I don't know what controls this.
Even with walls the cultural defense bonus still is present, but only the higher of the two is used (normally the wall/castle bonus). If a gunpowder unit attacks a city with walls/castle then only the cultural defense bonus is used. Bushface has it right that each expansion in cultural borders not only gives you more tiles but also increases the defensive bonus 20% each time (though I believe there are 6 levels, not 5, thus maxing out at 100% with legendary)
Barracks do nothing to increase the defensive bonus that defenders receive. The only other item that affects the cultural bonus is Chitzen Itza.
Summary:
The greater of cultural or fortification bonus is used.
Culture (20% increments for each level)
Walls (50% fortification)
Castle (50% fortification)
Chitzen Itza (25% defense - general or culture; whichever is greater)
Barracks do nothing to increase the defensive bonus that defenders receive. The only other item that affects the cultural bonus is Chitzen Itza.
Summary:
The greater of cultural or fortification bonus is used.
Culture (20% increments for each level)
Walls (50% fortification)
Castle (50% fortification)
Chitzen Itza (25% defense - general or culture; whichever is greater)
Bushface
Deity
In Civ4 there are only the 5 levels I mentioned.
As for Castles (which require Walls, so the pre-gunpowder defence is 100% with both) they still give some defence against bombardment by cannon and later artillery and by aircraft. For example, a Stealth Bomber is stated to do 20% damage per hit, so a city with no castle and 60% cultural defence would have its defence reduced to zero by 3 hits from S.B.s, but with a castle present the damage per hit is 20% of 60% and thus 5 hits would be needed to get the city down to zero. In fact, 5 hits would be needed for any city with a castle and some cultural defence; even one with only 5% would go down to 4%, 3%, 2%, 1%, and then 0%. Watch the defence shown on the city info bar and compare it with the top-of-screen display of the results of successive hits: in my example, the city bar would show 60% (not the 100% if attacking with a pre-gunpowder unit) reducing to 48% after a bomb hit which the top-of-screen shows as having done 20% damage.
I believe this to be the case only for bombardment. If so, attacking with (say) a Tank should show the defence as 60% initially in both places on the screen.
As for Castles (which require Walls, so the pre-gunpowder defence is 100% with both) they still give some defence against bombardment by cannon and later artillery and by aircraft. For example, a Stealth Bomber is stated to do 20% damage per hit, so a city with no castle and 60% cultural defence would have its defence reduced to zero by 3 hits from S.B.s, but with a castle present the damage per hit is 20% of 60% and thus 5 hits would be needed to get the city down to zero. In fact, 5 hits would be needed for any city with a castle and some cultural defence; even one with only 5% would go down to 4%, 3%, 2%, 1%, and then 0%. Watch the defence shown on the city info bar and compare it with the top-of-screen display of the results of successive hits: in my example, the city bar would show 60% (not the 100% if attacking with a pre-gunpowder unit) reducing to 48% after a bomb hit which the top-of-screen shows as having done 20% damage.
I believe this to be the case only for bombardment. If so, attacking with (say) a Tank should show the defence as 60% initially in both places on the screen.
I cannot get to a computer with the game right now but I could have sworn there should be a break at 5,000 accumulated culture as well
0 - radius 1, 0%
10 - BFC, 20%
100 - radius 3, 40%
500 - radius 4, 60%
5000 - radius 5, 80%
50000 - radius 6, 100% (three of these and you win)
I forget when but siege bombardment was changed so that the units reduce their listed percentage as a value from the defenses. Thus, a catapult with 8% bombard will require 3 turns to clear out a 20% city but 5 to knock down 40% (and so forth). Walls/Castles reduce this by a percentage (50+25) so a catapult attacking a castle will remove 2% of 100% each turn (50 catapult turns total). It will also remove 2% of whatever cultural defense has accumulated so that if a gunpowder unit attacks it also faces reduced defenses. Once you have cannon bombarding then you do 12%/turn and ignore the wall/castle bombardment reduction.
0 - radius 1, 0%
10 - BFC, 20%
100 - radius 3, 40%
500 - radius 4, 60%
5000 - radius 5, 80%
50000 - radius 6, 100% (three of these and you win)
I forget when but siege bombardment was changed so that the units reduce their listed percentage as a value from the defenses. Thus, a catapult with 8% bombard will require 3 turns to clear out a 20% city but 5 to knock down 40% (and so forth). Walls/Castles reduce this by a percentage (50+25) so a catapult attacking a castle will remove 2% of 100% each turn (50 catapult turns total). It will also remove 2% of whatever cultural defense has accumulated so that if a gunpowder unit attacks it also faces reduced defenses. Once you have cannon bombarding then you do 12%/turn and ignore the wall/castle bombardment reduction.
Bushface
Deity
Polobo - you're absolutely right, there is a step at 5000 up to "influential". It may be worth pointing out that 3 legendary cities gives a win only if a cultural victory is one of the selected options.
I'll have to do a test to verify for myself the effects of bombarding walls and a castle with various forms of artillery; in the game, I've only used aircraft, and I know how they work (walls have no effect against bombs, so just the cultural bonuses apply).
I'll have to do a test to verify for myself the effects of bombarding walls and a castle with various forms of artillery; in the game, I've only used aircraft, and I know how they work (walls have no effect against bombs, so just the cultural bonuses apply).
Similar threads
