Gifting units to city states.. does it work?

[Gorey]

After taking out some barbarians next to venice.. i was just a few hairs away from reaching ally status with them.

Being the stingy person i am with my money, I opted to gift them one of my warriros instead of giving them 250gold. I also started building some cheap warriors and scouts and gifted it to them every few turns (because i had nothing else i wanted build at the time).

But, my relations never improved. And every turn that went by the relations fell (much too quickly i might add). They were relatively close, and i must have gifted them like 4 or 5 scouts & warriors.

 

[dannythefool]

I thought it worked, but maybe scouts and warriors aren't worth enough. I think I remember getting tiny status increases, and then I just stopped gifting them units.

 

[Kerosene31]

I had too many workers and tried to gift one to a city state but it didn't seem to work, even within their territory.

 

[ShadowXOR]

I gifted a unit, it disappeared, and I didn't seem to get anything from it. Curious as to what this does...

 

[durindana]

the influence increase is there, but damned small.

I only found it useful to gift back units I didn't need to a militaristic CS - and even that's not enough to maintain ally status

Edit: to the guy who gifted a worker, that doesn't do anything. Combat units only

 

[pagh80]

it gives only small reputation boost that isnt worth it.
I still like to gift units if the city states are in war with the other civs. Its a great way to kill the other civs units with your own, and just being a bugger, without having to go to war.

 

[Beardy Dan]

I THINK its relative to the highest or their tech level.
Gifting a warrior to someone fighting tanks ought to give you a -ve to relations.

 

[migkillertwo]

After taking out some barbarians next to venice.. i was just a few hairs away from reaching ally status with them.

Being the stingy person i am with my money, I opted to gift them one of my warriros instead of giving them 250gold. I also started building some cheap warriors and scouts and gifted it to them every few turns (because i had nothing else i wanted build at the time).

But, my relations never improved. And every turn that went by the relations fell (much too quickly i might add). They were relatively close, and i must have gifted them like 4 or 5 scouts & warriors.

yeah, this is one area where I think the devs screwed up. a city state shouldn't say "meh" to five extra divisions.

 

[O.O. Howard]

T^he whole point of gifting a unit is to help the little city state hold off the big bad civ. It is a clandestine way fight against a civ you dont like. Which is pretty cool.

The city state will use the unit in 3 turns or so. What the city state REALLY wants is for you to get into a war with the Civ attacking them, and they will thank you for the unit but the friendship payoff only happens if you fight and force a peace treaty.

 

[Gorey]

Makes sense. But i figured that a unit gift would give some kind of relation boost (I only neeeded a small nudge to get to ally). I noticed none whatsoever. And the rate at which it fell every turn felt much too quick IMO.

 

[tpg0007]

Units take about 3 turns to show up, then you gain like 3 influence. A lot of times it might be better to let the CS be conquered so you can be best buddies after liberating them.

It's also interesting to see the ship you gifted them off fighting barbs across the world...

 

[mattavich]

The relations dont improve much when you gift. However, Napoleon is the strongest leader on my map and he went to war with one of my city states. I didn't help my state but I did gift them some units which led to Napoleon losing a city. it seems city states will raze any cities they capture.

Great thing was the city state is a militaristic state so i save their units and gift them back at the right time to help with an attack.