A really worthy citadel

[atreas]

Citadels are fantastic for wartime, but what about peace time? I was confronted with a small problem in a recent game of mine, when the ONLY coal in my continent (which I had conquered completely, and wasn't a small one) was next to a CS. Unfortunately for me Alex had already allied with it (I wish I knew the map like him), opened Patronage, and in a few words it needed something like 2000 gold to ally myself. Plus, it would be a continuous draining of money, trying to compete Alex on a CS he wants.

Fortunately, the coal was only two tiles away from my border - so a citadel was created, capturing this tile plus (accidentally) the lux tile next to it; the city was left with no strategic and no luxury resource, and of course completely hated me (I thing it was Angry -50, or something like that). BUT I didn't stage a war, had no diplo hit, AND Alex completely lost his interest - some turns later I even got ally to that city, staying in this state till the end...

 

[digrosz]

This. Since culture bombing doesn't work anymore in G&K, citadels are amazing to snatch yourself some luxuries. Also, I thought citadelling a CS was instawar. Well, appearantyl not

 

[BrokTheFanatic]

Yep, I use them for this exact scenario whenever it presents itself. In fact, I have had the AI do it to me, had to goto war to take the city near where he plopped a citadel down to take some silver and a wheat hex.

 

[IAmOzymandias]

I've always ignored building citadels, so this is news to me. Am I to understand they grant land ala culture bombs? Did they always do this or just in GaK?

 

[Browd]

Didn't exist in Vanilla, so it's just G&K. The Citadel replaced the vanilla Great Artist culture bomb effect, with similar mechanics. The GG needs to be in a tile adjacent to your culture borders.

 

[IAmOzymandias]

Never realized that. Good to know. I kept telling my teammate he was an idiot for building citadels with his great general the other day. I guess i'm the idiot though lol.

 

[Browd]

The benefit of citadels on offense that everyone focuses on is the 30 HP damage inflicted on enemy units in neighboring tiles, but a relatively unsung benefit is that your attacking units will enjoy healing benefits from being in your newly-acquired territory. Have your units pillage heal in enemy territory on the turn before the citadel is created, and then enjoy +10 healing when fortified in now-friendly territory claimed by the citadel. You can also upgrade units in that newly-claimed territory, which can be situationally useful.

 

[Deau]

The benefit of citadels on offense that everyone focuses on is the 30 HP damage inflicted on enemy units in neighboring tiles, but a relatively unsung benefit is that your attacking units will enjoy healing benefits from being in your newly-acquired territory. Have your units pillage heal in enemy territory on the turn before the citadel is created, and then enjoy +10 healing when fortified in now-friendly territory claimed by the citadel. You can also upgrade units in that newly-claimed territory, which can be situationally useful.

Even further, clever offensive use allows you to retain full movement when attacking a GW neighbor civ early in the game, effectively allowing you to take him over at little to no unit cost other than the GG settled. I used that in the culture replay of DC#19 to take Babylon. The hard part is getting the GG on the appropriate tile if it's no longer a neutral tile.