Cultural Assimilation

[DarkHound]

To take over another city, I thought that I had to build lots of culture in my border cities. But after reading over some of these posts here, I'm not sure. It seems like it's the TOTAL amount of culture you have, not what culture you have in your border cities -- that determine if the other civ defects to you.

So is the right strategy to build defence in your border cities.. while building culture near the center?

 

[betheballdanny]

I think it's a combo of the culture for the city and for the whole civ. I usually defend my border cities both from enemy unit attacks, and enemy "cultural attacks." I do this by supplying the city with units (preferrably veteran) from cities more internal to my borders. Then I focus on culture in the new city's first few improvements.