City revolts -> city flipping?

[Koning]

So you have encroached a foreign city with you're rich culture and, finally, the city revolts. And continues it's business as usual after the revolt has faded out without flipping to your side.. Only rarely I see a succesful cultural revolt.
I wonder:
Is there anything you can do during the revolt to help your fellow nationals to join your empire? (except taking the city by force or AP diplomacy)
What are the odds for flipping? / is the mechanism for flipping?

 

[kochman]

You can use spies to increase your cultural influence in the city.
If a city is close to flipping, because it is revolting in your favor, its a good time to send in the spies.

I recommend sending in several, at the same time. Then, have them wait in the target city for 5 turns to get the maximum -50% espionage points cost reduction, and have them all spread culture in the same turn.

Rinse and repeat as needed. This will speed things up for you.

 

[Tlalynet]

Note that having more than one spy on a tile drastically increases the odds of getting caught on a per spy basis. Its still a good idea if you have a strong EP advantage.

 

[Calouste]

The first cultural revolt will almost always be a warning revolt, only at the second revolt will the city actually flip. Barb cities and possibly (not 100% sure about that) vassal cities flip on the first revolt.

The most effective counter against city flipping are garrison troops, and the AI is better at using them in 3.19. So a good trick is to get those troops otherwise engaged. Monty is often willing to help out with that for a small fee.

Have your state religion in the target city, it doubles the chance of flipping. Also the ownership of the 8 tiles surrounding the target city inluences the chance to flip, so if you have other citiies nearby, they might help out with that.

 

[Glassfan]

Follow up question;

Do enemy capitols ever switch?

 

[Degenx2]

I wonder if it would be possible to win a domination victory in an all-peace game just by flipping cities >_>

 

[Calouste]

Follow up question;

Do enemy capitols ever switch?

Yep. Although, obviously, it is hard work, and if the civ/leader has culture bonusses (Creative or Industrious, Chinese or Arabs with their UB, early religion hunters like Isabella and Justinian), it might well be impossible. Doing it early requires you to be able to settle one of your cities close to their capital, (or flipping one of theirs first), and doing it late with cities that produce 500+ per turn usually means you get to Cultural Victory first.

 

[Calouste]

I wonder if it would be possible to win a domination victory in an all-peace game just by flipping cities >_>

At Settler difficulty, with an appropriate map like Pangea or Lakes, and with Domination the only victory condition, yes.

 

[Koning]

The first cultural revolt will almost always be a warning revolt, only at the second revolt will the city actually flip. Barb cities and possibly (not 100% sure about that) vassal cities flip on the first revolt.

The most effective counter against city flipping are garrison troops, and the AI is better at using them in 3.19. So a good trick is to get those troops otherwise engaged. Monty is often willing to help out with that for a small fee.

Have your state religion in the target city, it doubles the chance of flipping. Also the ownership of the 8 tiles surrounding the target city inluences the chance to flip, so if you have other citiies nearby, they might help out with that.

So, two revolts are necessary? Didn't knew that. Thanks for the other tips.
And sending in spies to spread your culture seems to be a way to speed up the slow flipping process a bit.

 

[Abegweit]

I wonder if it would be possible to win a domination victory in an all-peace game just by flipping cities >_>

Conquest has been achieved on Noble although not in Always Peace (part of the strategy involved attacking cities to eliminate garrisons but they were always taken through flipping). Domination in Always Peace should be possible.

 

[kochman]

Depending on the map, it could certainly be possible... for example, duel map would make it fairly easy.

 

[say1988]

A major difficulty arises if the enemy starts garrisoning cities. If always peace is on, you will get stopped with no chance of winning. Otherwise, with war available to deplete enemy troops it is quite possible, though cultural victory will likely need to be turned off. There were a number of SGs based on this if you want to look them up.