Liberate City Strategy?

[frisbee]

I recently found myself trying to win a culture game and needing to get Japan to friendly (Immortal Pangaea map).

There was a massive ice sheet near Japan, so I started to create and gift cities. Out of shear curiosity, I ended up giving him 8 cities that had zero resources (pure ice). Anyone have a feel for what impact this would have had on Japan's economy?

Is giving negative worth cities to the AI a viable strategy to slow them down? Just curious.

 

[Ghpstage]

Little if anything, if the cities had as much as a hill or water tile I wouldn't be suprised if they were net gains with Immortal bonuses.
The only reasons I can think of to build cities to liberate, are to improve diplo (early pleased is extremely useful near Shaka/Toku etc), or to rack up ridiculous espionage bonuses, or maybe to lower your pop below the limit to allow a diplo victory vote(never tried the last one?).
Even if it did slow them down, unless your playing a 1v1 duel then remember that your slowing yourself down too when compared to other AIs.

 

[Shaandore]

I don't think so. First, it is rare to have so much icy bad land around, and second, you would need a lot of cities because AIs pay low maintenance costs. So crippling them this way won't work IMO. Those settler hammers could be instead half an army, and you could go and with them.

 

[frisbee]

I don't think so. First, it is rare to have so much icy bad land around, and second, you would need a lot of cities because AIs pay low maintenance costs. So crippling them this way won't work IMO. Those settler hammers could be instead half an army, and you could go and with them.

Figured as much. Immortal bonuses for the AI are pretty steep. Either way, I had Tokugawa at +30 Diplo which is a new record for me.

 

[Shaandore]

Figured as much. Immortal bonuses for the AI are pretty steep. Either way, I had Tokugawa at +30 Diplo which is a new record for me.

that sounds like fun!

 

[Cusanus]

Either way, I had Tokugawa at +30 Diplo which is a new record for me.

That's almost enough to get him to open borders!

 

[Sundowner]

That's almost enough to get him to open borders!

hahaha