Disposable cities and delaying the whipping penalty

I've had some really nice success with this strategy on high levels if there are some decent floodplains/food resources nearby, copper within reason, and a medium size forest clump

Research (Mining), Bronze Working, (Mysticism), Meditation, Priesthood. Chop rush the Oracle for Monarchy, and switch to Hereditary Rule and Slavery. Generally you'll win the Oracle if you push this hard, and can often afford to throw Farming in beforehand. Research the Wheel, Fishing/AH if needed, then work towards Pottery

City layouts:
Capital--build up to a decent size quickly with farmed floodplains. Use Hereditary Rule to bust the happy cap until growth starts to slow.

City 2--settle for copper and connect back. Get the Oracle chopped out. Dump any overflow into Stonehenge and keep chopping/building, but don't finish it. You want the cash instead.

Cities 3,4,5,etc--This is where the fun begins. Settle the third city as closely as possible to the capital, overlapping all of the food tiles. Whip a granary, and then start whipping an axeman every other turn. Because you are in HR, the city will stay happy as long as those units stay in the city.

Continue until you have a nice army and go attack someone. You are outproducing Diety opponents militarily at this point. Have fun.

You'll notice you now have a city that will be unhappy for a very, very long time. Ignore it and build another city overlapping those same food tiles. Just like the previous city, whip yourself a large army in a very short time and go to war again. Consider a barracks and a slightly larger army this time, as you'll have some 40% culture nuts to crack by now.

Keep dropping disposable cities in high-food areas and abandoning them after they whip out a stack of a dozen or so units. Once you abandon the city, don't even defend it...let barbarians/opponents destroy it so you can resettle the same spot later.

Money will be a constant challenge, but use pottery+high population in select cities with early HR, captured holy cities, failed wonder attempts (Stonehenge+Pyramids), and war income to keep yourself in the black. Don't be afraid to abandon troops that end up too far away from major combat, since you can replace them faster than they can walk.

Have fun

Paeanblack,

This is a really interesting approach, and I'd like to give it a shot in action to better understand first-hand its effects.

I'm at the 'struggling on Emperor' stage at the moment, so get encouragement from strategies that work on the top levels that don't require some highly advantageous game set up (e.g. extreme maps, barb's off, chosen AI leaders, etc.).

I'm a bit on the way you're using the military ... your units are keeping the peace at home, but also fighting a war. Could you possibly explain this a bit more? Edit: Misunderstanding on what cities you want to keep and those which are beyond help. I've got it now ... I think.

Very interesting, indeed.


Not quite an exploit like the anarchy trick was, but it seems to be a distant cousin in the same family in that it seems to run counter to the game concept. But hey! winning is winning and the discovery of this tactic borders on the upper end of the creativity scale.

Nice one.

Nice Concept,

Good civ=Monty (not for his new UB but for his UU... quick and easy whip from Anywhere) (also Spiritual+Aggressive) + Starts with Mysticism, no penalty for the civic switch.

Pickwise, the Best would probably be the Zulu... cheap Barracks AND Granary
Impis cost just as much as Axes and can get City Raider, so a mix of them and Axes would be nice. (they can move around quicker and are just about as good v. Archers)

Actually I think the Zulu would be very good with this

Another Option, Persians... with Immortals + Axes... the Cheapness can really help here. Five whips gets you 6 maybe seven immortals (throwing in the regular production)

There is a bit of an issue of the cost of the Settlers... to pay itself back, the disposable city must pump out ~3 units.

Krikkitone said:

There is a bit of an issue of the cost of the Settlers... to pay itself back, the disposable city must pump out ~3 units.

Click to expand...

After you've released a stack of units, use the remaining population to whip another settler before the city starves down to 1. Usually this settler makes a new city immediately nearby to reuse the old farmland.

A good target is about a dozen units per city for the first several, and then 15-20 per city later. Any more just delays the initial attacks too long and strains the coffers too much. Finding the right balance makes this strategy fly.

Sounds really good, I love my cities and treating them in this way isn't my style! but I like the sound of this.

I use the tactic of whipping units in the Globe theatre city but this tactic (as you say) should get you off to a flier.

One variation of this that I think might be worth exploring is to put the disposable city at the edge of your empire. The only benefit I can see in putting it close is reduced maintenance. Advantages in putting it at the edge:

- Less far for the troops to walk later
- Doesn't compete for special resources with the capital
- And the biggest one (which I haven't tried but will) is that hopefully you can more easily dispose of the city. I'd like to see whether the AI would accept the city as a gift. If its on their borders then this is more likely. And I doubt the AI would get the happiness penalty. And then you have the option to take it back if thats your next target (I wonder whether that would reset the happiness penalty), or possibly get something in trade if its your friend. And with the city gone quickly you pay less maintenance and can get your next disposable city up quickly.
Even if you can't gift to the AI, having an undefended city at the edge will probably mean it gets taken quickly.

Its a very interesting idea. I don't really think its an exploit - you are giving up everything else you could be doing instead with the city and paying for its maintenance.

One variation of this that I think might be worth exploring is to put the disposable city at the edge of your empire. The only benefit I can see in putting it close is reduced maintenance. Advantages in putting it at the edge:

- Less far for the troops to walk later
- Doesn't compete for special resources with the capital
- And the biggest one (which I haven't tried but will) is that hopefully you can more easily dispose of the city. I'd like to see whether the AI would accept the city as a gift. If its on their borders then this is more likely. And I doubt the AI would get the happiness penalty. And then you have the option to take it back if thats your next target (I wonder whether that would reset the happiness penalty), or possibly get something in trade if its your friend. And with the city gone quickly you pay less maintenance and can get your next disposable city up quickly.
Even if you can't gift to the AI, having an undefended city at the edge will probably mean it gets taken quickly.

Its a very interesting idea. I don't really think its an exploit - you are giving up everything else you could be doing instead with the city and paying for its maintenance.

How does this work if you're *too* successful and none of these cities you'd rather see go away get sacked? Especially if you're on a map with enemies across the water and you're in danger of having a gap in the conquests while you're going for Astronomy. I assume this is meant solely for Domination/Conquest victories.

Eqqman said:

How does this work if you're *too* successful and none of these cities you'd rather see go away get sacked? Especially if you're on a map with enemies across the water and you're in danger of having a gap in the conquests while you're going for Astronomy. I assume this is meant solely for Domination/Conquest victories.

Click to expand...

Option 1) Get the Lighthouse if you have a lot of coastal cities. Your commerce will skyrocket when you get some Caravels in the water.

Option 2) Switch to Mercantilism and run a Merchant in each abandoned city to cover the upkeep.


To get merchants, switch to Caste System for a bit. In the meantime, take all your remaining troops and move them to each abandoned city. While they are there quelling the unrest, whip a market and move to the next city. This will let you switch back to Slavery in time for your overseas campaigns. For the distant abandoned cities, get a courthouse.