Dairuka
Prince
Hi there. Long time lurker here, but always an avid fan of the Civilization Games. While Civilization 4 wasn't the, "End all, be all of existence" as I had hoped it would be, I still find myself enjoying the game. Even despite the annoying graphical errors and alot of debugging with my video card and game's .ini/xml files. I still have the Cheshire Cat problem. =/
Anyhow... B**ching aside. I'll impart some of my meager knowledge here...
First I'll address the Culture Flip Trick by stating out what I've learned.
It seems that unhappiness; having the same religion in the city {but their enemy has a different state religion} as your state religion; a lack of military presence; and a weak culture are all factors in a culture flip. In the later levels, it's difficult to get culture flips, because the enemy usually has a strong military presence in their cities, with normally very happy people due to great city management.
Still..., In the past five or six games, {Played on Monarch Mode.} I've learned that the enemy has a tendency to over-build their cities in relation to the supplies you trade with them. For instance:
If you supply them with Silk, Gems, Dye, Corn, Wheat and Cows. They'll grow their cities larger than average in relation to the era. {I rarely have more than 16-18 pop in my large cities during the Renessaince Era, since I restrict growth to prevent war-time/trade problems, which helps since I rarely need to trade for un-needed health/happiness resources, and making the enemy stronger, for little to no benefit.} This is especially noticable in the harder difficulties where the AI normally has a very large empire, with huge cities. {Due to having a head start}. However; if you're like me, and a culture fanatic. You almost always find yourself with dozens of cities with 5000+ culture well before the Modern Era. This is most apparent on the border where I usually toss my Culture Bombs. Throw in the constant-need to spread my religion to pretty much every city during instances of war, or during times when I feel nice enough to allow an open border. {NEVER open a border with somebody who is on your border, unless you plan to rush in missionaries, followed by canceling the open border treaty immediately after...} This usually means that I'd have a very good view of whats going on in the enemies cities. Information is very helpful, especially on the harder difficulties where you'll eventually be forced to choose sides in a bloc.
Now. If you're planning on peacefully taking cities with culture flips on the harder difficulties. You may find yourself in a jam. However there is a way to make their cities revolt more often... and more often than not; culture flip to your side.
It's as simple as denying them the valuable resources the moment you see their cities along your borders hitting the the size 14-16 mark in the Early Renessaince Era. Doing this causes starvation to set in, which speeds up the revolt process. After the second revolt has happened, the city is yours. This will save alot of time from the classic process of your borders encroaching and denying them city tiles to work to cause the starvation/revolts. I've had cities that were 80% of the enemies people switch over to me by doing this. On one rare case where I had alot of the enemies cities bordering mine, I had gained 3 cities in less than 5 turns doing this! Then again, I was lucky enough to have a bumload of happiness related resources that my border buddy didn't have... I even sacrificed resources to keep my own people happy for this process; and it worked very well I might add. Well worth the small sacrifice, since my people didn't need it. {I restrict my growth on certain eras.}
This actually works best just after you get Democracy. Switch quickly to emancipation right after you break your trade agreement. This adds extra unhappiness to the AI's cities.
This brings me to another important point. Embargos.
Embargos in the later era's work wonders on your enemies even if you're not at war. They're even more helpful during a war! Although on the higher difficulties it can be expensive to convince other factions to stop trading with another, and you may experience the formation of bloc's {if they don't already exist} by doing this. Still, it's probably the most efficient way to win a war. However, you must have good timing, as you have to wait until their cities are large enough to feel the effects of not having important health/happiness resources. You must also do this in relation to the era you're in - Unless of course you "know" that the enemy doesn't have certain technologies like Ecology, Refridgeration, or Democracy/Radio/Mass Media that allow them to quickly lifesaving boost Happiness/Health by simply throwing money at it, rushing a wonder/building, or changing a Civic. To me, nothing is more annoying than wasting all that effort, only to find out that your enemy switches to Enviromentalism, and Free Religion... In the later difficulties, it's rare to see an enemies city with less than 3 religions. Thats not including your religion. So Free Religion is a pretty good way for the AI to save their skin... Pretty tricky of them.
Anyhow... If you do this, along with manually blockading their other health/happiness/production resources by positioning troops/naval units over the tiles, and you'll find that their production is almost completely halted due to suffering starvation and having 3-4 people refusing to work. If you're lucky enough to blockade most of their Iron/Aluminum/Oil/Etc, you'd also find that the units they do manage to pump out will be cannon fodder at best. It's actually very easy to win a war with a small stream of troops this way. Much easier than it would be, say if they were pumping out Artillery, Infantry or Machine Gun's every turn. Even if you eventually are forced to declare peace. You've pretty much forced them way back in the technology race. Something which you could do in succession to your enemies friends... There-by making your alliance/bloc dominant, and securing your ability to win.
Anyhow. Happy Hunting. I hope this helped in some way, or at least provided a good read. Sorry if my side-notes were a little too annoying... It's a habit of mine.
Anyhow... B**ching aside. I'll impart some of my meager knowledge here...
First I'll address the Culture Flip Trick by stating out what I've learned.
It seems that unhappiness; having the same religion in the city {but their enemy has a different state religion} as your state religion; a lack of military presence; and a weak culture are all factors in a culture flip. In the later levels, it's difficult to get culture flips, because the enemy usually has a strong military presence in their cities, with normally very happy people due to great city management.
Still..., In the past five or six games, {Played on Monarch Mode.} I've learned that the enemy has a tendency to over-build their cities in relation to the supplies you trade with them. For instance:
If you supply them with Silk, Gems, Dye, Corn, Wheat and Cows. They'll grow their cities larger than average in relation to the era. {I rarely have more than 16-18 pop in my large cities during the Renessaince Era, since I restrict growth to prevent war-time/trade problems, which helps since I rarely need to trade for un-needed health/happiness resources, and making the enemy stronger, for little to no benefit.} This is especially noticable in the harder difficulties where the AI normally has a very large empire, with huge cities. {Due to having a head start}. However; if you're like me, and a culture fanatic. You almost always find yourself with dozens of cities with 5000+ culture well before the Modern Era. This is most apparent on the border where I usually toss my Culture Bombs. Throw in the constant-need to spread my religion to pretty much every city during instances of war, or during times when I feel nice enough to allow an open border. {NEVER open a border with somebody who is on your border, unless you plan to rush in missionaries, followed by canceling the open border treaty immediately after...} This usually means that I'd have a very good view of whats going on in the enemies cities. Information is very helpful, especially on the harder difficulties where you'll eventually be forced to choose sides in a bloc.
Now. If you're planning on peacefully taking cities with culture flips on the harder difficulties. You may find yourself in a jam. However there is a way to make their cities revolt more often... and more often than not; culture flip to your side.
It's as simple as denying them the valuable resources the moment you see their cities along your borders hitting the the size 14-16 mark in the Early Renessaince Era. Doing this causes starvation to set in, which speeds up the revolt process. After the second revolt has happened, the city is yours. This will save alot of time from the classic process of your borders encroaching and denying them city tiles to work to cause the starvation/revolts. I've had cities that were 80% of the enemies people switch over to me by doing this. On one rare case where I had alot of the enemies cities bordering mine, I had gained 3 cities in less than 5 turns doing this! Then again, I was lucky enough to have a bumload of happiness related resources that my border buddy didn't have... I even sacrificed resources to keep my own people happy for this process; and it worked very well I might add. Well worth the small sacrifice, since my people didn't need it. {I restrict my growth on certain eras.}
This actually works best just after you get Democracy. Switch quickly to emancipation right after you break your trade agreement. This adds extra unhappiness to the AI's cities.
This brings me to another important point. Embargos.
Embargos in the later era's work wonders on your enemies even if you're not at war. They're even more helpful during a war! Although on the higher difficulties it can be expensive to convince other factions to stop trading with another, and you may experience the formation of bloc's {if they don't already exist} by doing this. Still, it's probably the most efficient way to win a war. However, you must have good timing, as you have to wait until their cities are large enough to feel the effects of not having important health/happiness resources. You must also do this in relation to the era you're in - Unless of course you "know" that the enemy doesn't have certain technologies like Ecology, Refridgeration, or Democracy/Radio/Mass Media that allow them to quickly lifesaving boost Happiness/Health by simply throwing money at it, rushing a wonder/building, or changing a Civic. To me, nothing is more annoying than wasting all that effort, only to find out that your enemy switches to Enviromentalism, and Free Religion... In the later difficulties, it's rare to see an enemies city with less than 3 religions. Thats not including your religion. So Free Religion is a pretty good way for the AI to save their skin... Pretty tricky of them.
Anyhow... If you do this, along with manually blockading their other health/happiness/production resources by positioning troops/naval units over the tiles, and you'll find that their production is almost completely halted due to suffering starvation and having 3-4 people refusing to work. If you're lucky enough to blockade most of their Iron/Aluminum/Oil/Etc, you'd also find that the units they do manage to pump out will be cannon fodder at best. It's actually very easy to win a war with a small stream of troops this way. Much easier than it would be, say if they were pumping out Artillery, Infantry or Machine Gun's every turn. Even if you eventually are forced to declare peace. You've pretty much forced them way back in the technology race. Something which you could do in succession to your enemies friends... There-by making your alliance/bloc dominant, and securing your ability to win.
Anyhow. Happy Hunting. I hope this helped in some way, or at least provided a good read. Sorry if my side-notes were a little too annoying... It's a habit of mine.
I am currently moving up from noble to prince.
