A general look at CS quests

[Anarcomu]

Again I think I'm confused, so what does the actual ally "do" for that quest?

Send army to CS to ensure there is no remaining barbarians around the city by the time the quest ends. In some cases, you are lucky and the CS can handle barbarians just fine, but not every time.

 

[Chinag]

When I think about new quests, I'm generally looking at things that could "shake up" the gameplay. Gifting a unit vs keeping it for defense, building a wonder I wasn't really planning to go for, denounceing a player I wasn't planning to, etc.

Personally I invest in building all the time, I don't need "more incentive" to do that.

I mean, there are periods in the game where you simply don't have money laying around to do the quest, or can only afford so much. In the early game your money should go to buying workers or buying tiles. Mid-game your money could go to Wonders or unit purchasing. Later you would prefer to use money to upgrade half your army on a crucial tech up. It's honestly not that different from how I do "Gift an unit" quest because most of the time I just throw my surplus money at it.