city capture and problems

[wools2]

Hi,
I have played a few CIV 4 games and am doing OK but I have an issue with the capture of cities etc.

I decide to go to war as all the land is taken and the only way to expand is take it from my neighbours. Having got an army together I plan to take out a couple of cities from the weakest of my neighbours.

Its a limited campaign so I only want some expansion room. I do OK and grab a couple of cities. They go into revolt and I have a terrible time getting any production etc. going in them. After plenty of turns I find that the cities I have captured are of limted value. Any land taken has been grabbed by the expanding borders of other neighbours and I am left with a burden on my hands.

Whats the best strategy when going to war and capture/razing cities ?? Do you raze a city and then have a settler come along and grab the land and start afresh ?? AM I doing something basically wrong here ??

Wools

 

[wickedcherub]

Build culture buildings in your newly captured cities, or just plain culture if you have Drama, but in the early game you'll have Libraries, Monument/Obelisks which are good.

 

[Kesshi]

After plenty of turns I find that the cities I have captured are of limted value.

This is part of your problem. You would be better off if you were able to quickly identify the value of a city before you captured it.

 

[DaveMcW]

Its a limited campaign so I only want some expansion room.

This is your problem. You need to wipe out the big culture cities, not just grab the border cities.

 

[wools2]

OK,
I understand where you are coming from but I have an issue with the capture/razing. If I capture the city it tends to go into revolt (or I have about 3-4 turns till it does), so I cant build anything etc.
After about 4/6/8 etc turns depending on certain factors ( I am not sure what exactly ??) it will come out of revolt and I can then just about begin to build up some culture.

If I can achieve this culture build I am faced with a city that cant expand a great deal as the surrounding area has quickly been 'filled in' by other such cities of my neighbors expanding thier culture ?? More often than not the city falls back into revolt so I am left with a small isolated city which is useless to me as the land I required is no longer there ??

I may be explaining this badly or missing a couple of game concepts - so bear with me !!!!!

Wools

 

[DaveMcW]

I am faced with a city that cant expand a great deal as the surrounding area has quickly been 'filled in' by other such cities of my neighbors expanding thier culture

Capture those cities too.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

You need to get your culture into the city so you can expand the borders. You probably have some workable tiles, though not as many as you'd like, so use those and build culture producing buildings (theaters, temples, monasteries, libs) - or if you have a lot of food and no shields, hire some artists. You could drop a GA in the city, too, which should help some.

To keep the city from flipping, stick it full of garrison troops. If you mouse over the bar that shows how much of the city culture is yours, you'll see how likely a revolt is. Keep move in troops till that goes away. Better troops have a larger effect.

If you kill off the civ, all those issues go away...

 

[1_more_round]

1. Think more about taking out a rival instead of just taking a few cities (unless you just need a key resource or blocking point). In Warlord & BTS you could vassalize him after weakening him sufficiently, but in Van they are just going to keep coming back at you.

2. That said, each city exerts cutural influence on the lands around it. Some of what you may see as your target cities influence could really be from a neighboring cities influence. If you raze and send in a new settler you are starting a city with NO culture - it may flip also.

3. When you capture any city it is going into revolt for awhile. Think of this as the mop up stage after conquering something. People are going to resist and it takes time to rebuild everything that got blown up. I'm not aware of a way to avoid the revolt.

4. After it comes out of its initial revolt make sure you keep a large enough garrison there. Prevents the natives from thinking they have a chance. Rarely does a city I conquer go into revolvt unless I forget to garrison it or I'm losing the war. You will have to rebuild the city. Your invasion likely destroyed much of the infrastructure.

5. Go after your targets bigger cities first, weaken and then kill. What irritates me is when I conquer a lot of influntial cities and the influence is gone due to initial revolt and then reduced due to the cities infrastructure being destroyed other powers come in with their settlers. Now I'm faced with going to war with others to keep the land I liberated! This is where I think dropping in a GA would help. Take the biggest or central city, drop in a great artist and then have that cities influence grab up the land of the additional cities you conquer.

Random thoughts - no expert.

 

[1_more_round]

Sorry for the typo's in the previous text. I'll run spell check before I post next time!

 

[JBossch]

Listen to Dave. Telling the OP to build culture buildings is not going to help. The target AI's core cities will have long established culture in the tiles he is talking about and they are unlikely to ever flip peacefully.

@the OP: If you really need a break from war, park your units in the city that is revolting. It will reduce the likelihood of a revolt. You really need to kill the enemy Civ off completely to solve your problem.

 

[oldsaxon]

Normally my advice would be as above: wage a bigger war. However, we all play this game for fun and I quite understand if you don't want to do that.

So instead, think carefully about culture before going to war. Choose as your targets isolated cities or places at choke points. Or pick somewhere where the AI doesn't have any established cities nearby. You could even make sure you have a Great Artist saved up, and use him in a city once you've taken it.

 

[wickedcherub]

Listen to Dave. Telling the OP to build culture buildings is not going to help. The target AI's core cities will have long established culture in the tiles he is talking about and they are unlikely to ever flip peacefully.

Yeah, he's right. I misread the question and assumed he was going to war really early when the culture of rivals is not so established.

Taking all the cities out or razing some of the cities you don't want are good ideas.

 

[wools2]

Thanks everyone

Some usefull points at the end of the thread there. I tend to go to war later in the game when all the land is gone and I have expanded as much as I can so that the map is covered with cities and my neighbors are right up against me.

more round

I couldnt agree more with point 5. That really is the worst scenario I have come across.

I am thinking of going to war next time by razing the cities on the outlying areas of my neighbor and then concentrating on taking the larger cities. The idea of a GA is one idea I hadnt considered.

Wools