AI garbage cities- what to do with em

[civvver]

Why does the AI settle so many garbage cities? I can't figure this out other than bad code making the AI always go for more land. They will literally settle in the middle of a barren desert as long as their is one oasis in the bfc. That gets you to what, size 3 with only two workable tiles? The trade routes will be crap, drag down your economy from extra number of cities maintenance, so what should we do with these garbage towns when we capture them? I usually raze. I suppose they could be used to win a domination victory though or maybe could even be spared a meaningless existence with corporations and enough buildings to run specialists, but even then it doesn't sound like a good investment.

 

[Zx Zero Zx]

Gift them back to your vassal.... Those cities are very useful to them due to their bonuses. Plus your vassal will be all like oh gee thanks I wanted that!

 

[krikav]

If I am attacking someone I want to have as a vassal, I'll take them and then gift them back.

If that doesn't apply, I raze them if they are utterly crap.
But most of the time I just take them, and make the best of it.

More often than not, they can be used in such a way, that they are contributing to the empire as a whole.

 

[ShengWuLien]

Raze them, and watch the AI immediately charge a settler out of the nearest city, protected by a knight and a maceman, onto the open field 2 squares away from your stack of 30 heavily promoted cavalry.

Must...have...that...city...

 

[ZeroM]

Either that or a Barbarian city will spring up.

 

[ben-jammin]

At higher levels it can be a very prudent move to gift crap cities to AIs who will take them for the diplo bonus.

 

[Rubio]

I tried that in my current game... I was building up experience for my army on an archipelago map and I was way up north destroying my enemy's outposts and some barb cities... I decided to keep a city and gift it to my current vassal but it wasn't even an option, i could only give him 4 cities nearer to him

 

[civvver]

I forgot about barbarians. Deserts tend to be large and sprawling on my maps and having a city to fogbust is very helpful. That can be reason in itself to keep the city I suppose.

Also good tip with the vassal gifts, glad I asked.

 

[RRRaskolnikov]

^^ if u don't wanna gift it to a vassal, just build gold with it. it will pay for maintenance costs...
you can always whip an emergency troop/worker there.

 

[A_Hamster]

Raze them, and watch the AI immediately charge a settler out of the nearest city, protected by a knight and a maceman, onto the open field 2 squares away from your stack of 30 heavily promoted cavalry.

Must...have...that...city...

That's why I usually have to keep them, even though I'd like to raze them. It won't be the AI you're attacking, but a nearby AI (currently on good terms with you) who is strong enough you have to keep them pleased, so killing the new city would be unwise.

Barb cities can be annoying, but also can be a source of experience for units with less than 10 exp. So if the city site is unlikely to be settled by the AI, razing it and letting a Barb city spawn is sometimes useful.

 

[ShengWuLien]

That's why I usually have to keep them, even though I'd like to raze them. It won't be the AI you're attacking, but a nearby AI (currently on good terms with you) who is strong enough you have to keep them pleased, so killing the new city would be unwise.

Barb cities can be annoying, but also can be a source of experience for units with less than 10 exp. So if the city site is unlikely to be settled by the AI, razing it and letting a Barb city spawn is sometimes useful.

Well I was kinda making a joke, because in the example I provided you can just crush the little settling stack and grab the settler as a free worker. It does make me roll my eyes when the AI does that, though.

Speaking of idiotic AI military strategy...in a recent game I was playing, my elepult invasion was crushing Hammurabi with surprisingly little resistance, and I realized he'd sent his main stack to the other side of the continent to capture a barb city. The stack left on this quest *after* the war had already begun of course

What's more annoying is when you raze a trash city and the new settling stack somehow slips past your army. So suddenly you have to double-back and raze the *&$@ thing again.

 

[A_Hamster]

Well I was kinda making a joke, because in the example I provided you can just crush the little settling stack and grab the settler as a free worker. It does make me roll my eyes when the AI does that, though.

Ah, okay.

Speaking of idiotic AI military strategy...in a recent game I was playing, my elepult invasion was crushing Hammurabi with surprisingly little resistance, and I realized he'd sent his main stack to the other side of the continent to capture a barb city. The stack left on this quest *after* the war had already begun of course.

The sad thing is as stupid as the AI is, there's been similar stupidity in real life. In the First Punic War, the Carthaginians thought they had the Romans beat, but before actually getting terms or a peace treaty, they mothballed about 75% of their fleet and paid off the sailors. The Romans (who weren't quitters) showed up with a fresh invasion fleet and beat the unfortunate 25% who were still in service. At that point the war ended with the Romans dictating the peace terms. So Hammy was stupid, but he's just a badly written AI: the leaders of Carthage had no such excuse.

 

[ben-jammin]

Well I was kinda making a joke, because in the example I provided you can just crush the little settling stack and grab the settler as a free worker. It does make me roll my eyes when the AI does that, though.

Speaking of idiotic AI military strategy...in a recent game I was playing, my elepult invasion was crushing Hammurabi with surprisingly little resistance, and I realized he'd sent his main stack to the other side of the continent to capture a barb city. The stack left on this quest *after* the war had already begun of course

What's more annoying is when you raze a trash city and the new settling stack somehow slips past your army. So suddenly you have to double-back and raze the *&$@ thing again.

Nothing to complain about. A city with no cultural defense and possibly little fortification bonus to capture, which adds to what they will give you for peace or how soon they will capitulate.

 

[capnvonbaron]

Depending on how close the AI crap-town is to your palace, it can make a good Espionage target too, since the closer it is the cheaper your costs will be.

As an example, I have a game going where I built TGL and expanded into some islands, leaving a spot of crappy terrain on my continent open in favor of lucrative trade routes. Mansa decided he'd sail over and plop a city down square in no-man's land, and I proceeded to put two of my religions in his city as well as culture-choke it to make it even worse. I've been ripping techs off him left and right ever since too after EP-bombing it with a GS

 

[dalamb]

I tried that in my current game... I was building up experience for my army on an archipelago map and I was way up north destroying my enemy's outposts and some barb cities... I decided to keep a city and gift it to my current vassal but it wasn't even an option, i could only give him 4 cities nearer to him

I'm pretty sure the civ you gift to has to have some culture in the tile, but I don't know how much; the far away cities had no or little AI culture.

 

[Akbarthegreat]

Raze them, and watch the AI immediately charge a settler out of the nearest city, protected by a knight and a maceman, onto the open field 2 squares away from your stack of 30 heavily promoted cavalry.

That's why conquest tries on duel maps with OCC are risky.

 

[mayor]

well, if you're planning on razing all the AI's cities you shouldn't attack with just one stack. two/three vanguardstacks from multiple directions with a stack as rearguard.

vanguard stacks take out the cities (and destroy settles the come across) rearguard takes out anything that managed to slip between the vanguard.

 

[dimatud]

I'm pretty sure the civ you gift to has to have some culture in the tile, but I don't know how much; the far away cities had no or little AI culture.

It's really weird, in my last game I could liberate newly conquered cities to my vassals without them having any culture in it, and also couldn't gift some cities that had culture in it.

I came down to the conclusion that if it belonged to someone else and you captured it, it needs to have more culture than you in order to liberate.

Second rule that seems to apply is land/continent civs distribution. (eg: Charlie had 3 cities in one continent and he was my vassal, I was conquering Nappy on the same continent and I could gift all Nappys cities to Charlie even though he didn't had culture in it)

 

[krazybastid]

You know the things is the AI pretty much settle everywhere possible even if there aren't any resource squares if you raze it then put a city in there according to your own grid plan. If you keep it or both just don't put to many building in it to cut down on maintnance costs if it doesn't really grow. The stupid AI will just return there and plop a city down if you raze it then leave.

 

[Iranon]

I settle more garbage cities than the AI. Per-city-bonuses, especially corporations, can be very profitable everywhere. The only thing I have issues with is that AI cities often get in the way of my planned grid that'd be even denser.