Civs with no cities left but not eliminated?

[jjslocum]

So I've run into this in multiple occasions in my current game. There are now three civs that have been eliminated...they have no cities left. Two of which I personally took out, another I partially did.

However, they still exist. You can still trade with them. They can still declare war on you (and piss off my population...) But they don't have any cities. What gives?

My only guess is that somewhere, they have a settler alive but I can't find any. Two of them still have a few spare units lying around, the third I'm not sure.

 

[Lanzelot]

"Settler on a boat" is a well-known and annoying problem when aiming for a Conquest victory...

 

[web25]

so as long as you have a settler you can still play? i like that.

 

[CommandoBob]

so as long as you have a settler you can still play? i like that.

I'm not sure about the human player, but the AI can stay alive.

 

[Lanzelot]

I'm pretty sure about the human player: at the start of the game you only have a settler and a worker (and maybe a scout). You can walk around with you settler for as many turns as you like, and as long as you don't lose your settler, you stay alive, even though you have no towns yet.