Capturing a city

[w1nter]

Hey guys. I'm a fairly new player to Civilization. That's why I come to you seeking for help, the veterans of the game!

Every time I go to war with someone I have huge trouble taking the city itself. It feels like I need to drop some D-Day on their heads to take it. So in prolonged wars I absolutely ruin myself to the point where I do not know how to come back from it. Happiness, gold, food goes to hell and I am not capable to recover from it, most of the time dying to whoever goes to war with me after that.

What should I consider when taking a city to minimize my losses? When can I assume that it's a good time to go to war also?

 

[lankypeter]

In very rudimentary terms (speaking generically) you have to utilize multiple units, you have to pillage, and you have to bombard or use siege units before you try to take the city with melee units. So, if they have an archer in a city with a rating of 25, you should be able to take that city with 4 archers attacking the city in one turn, followed by the melee unit conquering the city at the end of that turn.

For happiness, it is best to puppet, not annex, the city. Also, if you go into the battle low on money or happiness, it is going to be difficult to wage and win a long war. It might be best to attack them, maybe take one city, accept their peace offering with you getting their cash and luxuries, and prepare to completely conquer them after you regroup from this initial war.

 

[w1nter]

For happiness, it is best to puppet, not annex, the city. .

When would it be a good time to raze a city? If ever. How much does religion play into that part?

 

[lankypeter]

It's best to raze a city when the city has nothing to offer you, such as happiness, wonders, resources, access to the ocean, etc. You could also take the city and then gift it to another Civ, putting a buffer between you and your enemy while gaining positive points with the third party. If you don't raze our annex the city, you likely want to spam it after guilds for money.

 

[joncnunn]

Taking cities while minimizing unit loses: First bombard it heavilly. Use melee units to finish it off. Also you can have damaged units pillage tiles to recover some health.

Gifting to 3rd party civ: Only do this if you both don't have any cities near there and are not keeping any future cities you conquer near there (10+ hexes); generally the last thing you want to do is to get a 3rd party civ to acquire land envy of your lands by giving them a city too close to them.

Razing: More often than not, this is the best way to go; cities take a 50% cut in population so unless the city was 8+ people before you moved in, the post conquest size is now less than 4 people anyway. Also often the AI often founds 3 cities where 2 would take in every key tile in the area, further reducing the number of decent cities. When keeping, puppet initalizy, wait until it comes out of resistance before annexing (also have the cash to buy a court house)

 

[sufficiency]

Gifting is risky sometimes, especially post-industrial. Some ai want to win diplomatically and they will sometimes return the city, nullifying your efforts of taking the city at the first place.

 

[w1nter]

Guys, thank you so much for the tips. I've managed to do really well the past hour and took cities a lot easier than before. You've been extremely helpful much love for all of you!