Annexing puppeted city's

[mymjy]

hi everyone,

What are the benefits to Annexing a puppet-ed city in the late game? I have Athens which is a size 16 city and i was thinking about annexing it.

 

[vexing]

you can control production.

 

[apocalypse105]

High production especially in the late game for pumping out those critical space ships part or units.... Because in the end game it will be a close race

If it has a high population and a lot of production tiles it is worth to anex

 

[mymjy]

I was worried about the hit to Happiness. I have a few puppeted city's like that one could I annex like 3 city's or would that totally kill my happiness. will i get a bonus to science at all....my puppets are loaded with TP's.

 

[Trickster7135]

As long as you build/buy courthouses, annexed cities will have less unhappiness than puppets. If you're conquering, controlling the population of puppets is even more important than the production.

 

[mymjy]

I kind of let the population go on a few puppets, but some that I had conquered were already size 9 and up.

 

[roguepro92]

they already provide you with science, unless you want to buy/build modifiers thats not a good reason to annex unless the puppet is like 15+ pop EVEN with TPs. that must be one hell of a city placement

 

[wcbarney]

What are the benefits to Annexing a puppet-ed city in the late game? I have Athens which is a size 16 city and i was thinking about annexing it.

you can control production.

High production especially in the late game for pumping out those critical space ships part or units.... Because in the end game it will be a close race

If it has a high population and a lot of production tiles it is worth to anex

I almost always annex the puppets with high production, in the late game. By then I usually have LOTS of gold, so I buy the Courthouse + all happiness buildings + workshop + power plant, etc. + factory. Then these newly annexed cities start churning out mechanized infantry or paratroops or such.

 

[mymjy]

I probably should have annexed it from the start because it was such a great city....the only reason I didn't was because I was in multiple wars and my happiness was not so good.
now I only have 3 more spaceship parts to build and the only other civ that is competing with me is China.

 

[mlund]

I probably should have annexed it from the start because it was such a great city....the only reason I didn't was because I was in multiple wars and my happiness was not so good.
now I only have 3 more spaceship parts to build and the only other civ that is competing with me is China.

Is there a penalty for annexing after puppeting that you don't get if you annex immediately? Because otherwise I can't see a reason to annex a city before its gotten past the Revolt stage as a puppet.

- Marty Lund

 

[bryanw1995]

Good point Marty, I don't think that there is a penalty for later annexing.

@OP: if you only need 3 more spaceship parts then you should be focusing on building those parts in your current city. Will annexing this other city allow you to finish your spaceship any faster?

 

[mymjy]

I had my 3 base city's building the spaceship parts at the same time...it wouldn't have even mattered if I had annexed Athens. If I had just started to build spaceship parts than I would have annexed it because it was a very productive city.....I just finished the game on turn 384 emperor/standard/continents/tech victory.

u still get a happiness penalty for annexing a puppeted city...i had enough happiness to cover it though but I didn't even bother.

 

[lindanealmck]

I have noticed that simply annexing a city and buying a courthouse increases overall happiness. Do courthouses increase happiness beyond simply nullifying occupation unhappiness?

 

[Misterboy]

I have noticed that simply annexing a city and buying a courthouse increases overall happiness. Do courthouses increase happiness beyond simply nullifying occupation unhappiness?

This is one of the big changes in the latest patch. It used to be that there was relatively little incentive to Annex cities, rather than running a huge puppet empire with a few core cities.

Now, puppeted cities actually give you more unhappiness than annexed cities WITH a courthouse. I can't remember offhand if the courthouse technically gives you "extra" happiness, or if the change is a factor of how they implemented annexed vs. puppeted cities (meaning their core unhappiness), but it makes no difference.

 

[lindanealmck]

It clearly works, but there is nothing in the Courthouse tooltip to indicate an increase in happiness.

 

[Furycrab]

This is one of the big changes in the latest patch. It used to be that there was relatively little incentive to Annex cities, rather than running a huge puppet empire with a few core cities.

Now, puppeted cities actually give you more unhappiness than annexed cities WITH a courthouse. I can't remember offhand if the courthouse technically gives you "extra" happiness, or if the change is a factor of how they implemented annexed vs. puppeted cities (meaning their core unhappiness), but it makes no difference.

I'd have to get an exact number later when I'm at home, but it's an unhappiness hit based on Population. Having a puppet is something I think like 1/3 of the population as extra unhappy. Annexing I think is half while the city is occupied, but once you have that courthouse you basically just have an extra city that costs you a 2-3 gold? (can't remember on hand)

 

[Callonia]

Autocracy have a policy that makes courthouses eliminate the extra unhappiness and gives +3 bonus happiness, that's the change.

 

[aimlessgun]

If you're on a conquering spree, annexing those puppets and buying Courthouses in them can be key to keeping you out of Very Unhappy.

Also being able to control production is important, as is being able to rush buy. Sometimes your core cities will be so far from the front that you will need an annexed city to serve as an emergency rushbuy point.

 

[BigChiefLizzy]

If the city is in a decent location with good production, I'll usually annex it when I have enough cash to rush buy a courthouse. As has been said earlier it will result in a net gain in happiness especially for larger cities and the happiness gain seems greater after the patch (used to be only 1-2 extra happiness, now it's 3+). I think this is without the Autocracy policy mentioned by Callonia as I hardly ever go Autocracy.

Downside is that I am fairly sure that annexing will immediately increase the amount of culture required to get your next policy.. Also if you are building one of the national wonders which require a certain type of building and the annexed city doesn't have that required building, production on the wonder will stop until you build it in the annexed city.

 

[PScirocco]

Unless you're going for cultural victory (then you'd probably stay away from annexing anyway), you shouldn't really need to get the last drop of culture once you get that +3 happiness from courthouses SP in autocracy anyway. If you're steamrolling through half the world, you probably will have enough of a tech lead to squeeze in a sydney opera house for whatever extra SP you need.

Is it just me or is the completion bonus for autocracy very weak?