Citizens don't care who protects them?

[Archon_Wing]

As you all know, if you leave a city ungarrisoned and larger than size 3, you will get unhappiness for fearing for their safety, thus you need to have a guy in them.

But apparently it doesn't matter whose guy it is. If an AI moves his guy into your city and you're not at war with them, the unhappiness goes away!

Not that you can rely on this since the AI always runs his guys around, but I find it strange that my citizens would feel safe because some random strangers decided to hang around. Though it could lead to some funny things if you're playing coop with someone... Open Borders has its benefits.

[SyntaxError]

Wow that is very interesting to know. Definitely strange behavior though.

[TLF]

I once forgot to leave a unit garrisoned and got the 'we fear for our safety' message.
I didn't have any military nearby, they were out scouting, but I did have a scout nearby so I sent him to the city and that was enough to pacify the masses.

A scout and they no longer fear.

[RD-BH]

Sadly, they prefer strangers to their own scouts/explorers.

[huh?]

Does a plane or ship satisfy the requirement as well?

[Ghpstage]

Originally Posted by huh?

Does a plane or ship satisfy the requirement as well?

Aircraft don't, even your own. Nor do ships unless its a transport carrying land units, i'm not 100% certain if other civs units onboard ships count but as the mechanics are gewnerally the same for units regardless of owner then I think its safe to assume it works.
Rivals units even add happiness under HR....

Its all a bit pointless as it can't be relied on, even if it does occasionally add a little output from some city by reducing in the odd game.

[Choggy]

Originally Posted by TLF

I once forgot to leave a unit garrisoned and got the 'we fear for our safety' message.
I didn't have any military nearby, they were out scouting, but I did have a scout nearby so I sent him to the city and that was enough to pacify the masses.

A scout and they no longer fear.

Is this true? So you could just keep producing and garrisonning cheap scouts/explorers under HR and never worry about about hitting your happy cap? I thought they had to be military units.

[capnvonbaron]

In BTS scouts/explorers don't fulfill the garrison req'. However a dirty man with a club does, and they're about the cheapest thing around. So save them warriors!

[TheWilltoAct]

Choggy-

You may already be aware of this strategy but, some people will avoid connecting metals so they can continue making warriors.

[Graffito]

But only in one city...

[Choggy]

@ WillToAct - I was aware of this, but thanks anyway.

On a related note though, if you found a city (not on a river or coast) and don't connect it to your trade network, at what point can you no longer build warriors in it?

[AutomatedTeller]

probably when you get gunpowder.

[lymond]

Originally Posted by AutomatedTeller

probably when you get gunpowder.

hmm...I wonder if it might be later like Rifling/MS. Nothing upgrades to a Musket and you can still build Mace at GP.

As for the OP, I found out about the foreign MP deal some time ago when I was in HR and was checking a city screen to find that I had like 40 happies in the city. Some AI was passing a large SOD through my land on the way to fight someone else and it happened to be parked in that city on that turn.

[Ataxerxes]

Originally Posted by Choggy

Is this true? So you could just keep producing and garrisonning cheap scouts/explorers under HR and never worry about about hitting your happy cap? I thought they had to be military units.

As vonBaron said, they have to be military units. But warriors don't cost any more than scouts and less than explorers. So yes you could just use HR units for happiness. But HR isn't efficient later in the game when Republic and even Universal Suffrage become available.

Ships and planes don't count and, oddly enough, the powerful Gunship doesn't make them feel safer, even though the gunship could take out a lot of warriors. Maybe the club is a pacifier.

[Choggy]

Cheers for the responses guys, I've another question regarding Warriors but I've posted it in a new thread as it's not related to this one.

Back on topic, I get the OP's point about multi-player fun and games, if you garrison a few units in another player's city with OB and they're not paying attention to their city management you could wait until it grows to its happy cap and then...just move out, sending their city into unhappiness.

[r_rolo1]

Originally Posted by lymond

hmm...I wonder if it might be later like Rifling/MS. Nothing upgrades to a Musket and you can still build Mace at GP.

Hum ... both pikes and maces upgrade to Rifles and Grens. This means that they aren't obsolete until you have both Rifling and MS or Ass. Line + Rifling ( Infantry ) that obsoletes both Rifles and Grens. So you might build warriors until you get both Rifling and MS or Rifling and Ass Line ... Does that means that, if you avoid Rifling and iron/copper , you can build warriors until the end of the game ? ( needs testing )

Anyway, fun fact: Gunships are not elegible for military police Found that the hard way after mass upgrading my HR chariots :/

[yturk39]

Originally Posted by Archon_Wing

As you all know, if you leave a city ungarrisoned and larger than size 3, you will get unhappiness for fearing for their safety, thus you need to have a guy in them.

But apparently it doesn't matter whose guy it is. If an AI moves his guy into your city and you're not at war with them, the unhappiness goes away!

Sometimes I'll deliberately move my garrison troop away from the city to a tile where he's able to return the following turn. It's kind of my unspoken way of telling the visiting Civ, "Yes, I see you're scoping me out. While you're at it, my boys here could use a stretch. Thanks!"

[ruff_hi]

Originally Posted by TheWilltoAct

You may already be aware of this strategy but, some people will avoid connecting metals so they can continue making warriors.

And this is another benefit of the Inca - their 'warrior' replacement isn't superseded by axes.

[MilesBeyond]

Originally Posted by r_rolo1

Hum ... both pikes and maces upgrade to Rifles and Grens. This means that they aren't obsolete until you have both Rifling and MS or Ass. Line + Rifling ( Infantry ) that obsoletes both Rifles and Grens. So you might build warriors until you get both Rifling and MS or Rifling and Ass Line ... Does that means that, if you avoid Rifling and iron/copper , you can build warriors until the end of the game ? ( needs testing )

Just tried it out. Unfortunately, it looks like Warriors will get replaced by Machine Guns, so you can only have them up until Railroad (which is necessary for Combustion so you can't really skip it).

[TLF]

Originally Posted by capnvonbaron

In BTS scouts/explorers don't fulfill the garrison req'. However a dirty man with a club does, and they're about the cheapest thing around. So save them warriors!

You may be right.

I recently played one game of Warlords and it might have been in that game.
I'm not certain.