Gifting Units? Smart or pointless

[Bigv32]

My main question is that if you gift units, do you get any bonus with that civ. I see none in the area where it tells you the pluses and minuses, but is there another.

I know you can gift units to help a civ fight off another in a war you do not what to get involved in, but this does not seam to help very often. Can anyone explain the idea to me? Thanks

 

[shyuhe]

You get no diplo modifiers. You can gift missionaries although some consider this abusing a game mechanic. You can also gift obsolete units to AI vassals for them to upgrade - it's cheaper for them than you.

Like any other aspect of civ, it depends on the circumstances. But the chances of actually getting something good out of gifting units is pretty marginal.

 

[Single Malt]

Gifting to a colony or vassal can be useful, especially if you plan on warring on your vassals front and your target has no love lost for your vassal.

 

[SnowlyWhite]

priceless

if you want to stop a war without paying in techs, make sure you promote them and gift them exactly where you'd want them yourself. If you gift them near a city freshly lost and promote them to cr, the ai will usually use them to take the city back, if you gift them in a city right before it's being assaulted the ai will let them there and hopefully the other guy's sod will be trashed. Also, it doesn't have any diplo hit with the other guy.

But you have to:

- plan it some time in advance - that should be easy, when someone's wheehorn it's pretty obvious who's the target;
- take into acct. they'll lose the 25% fortify bonus when you gift them.

 

[Winston Hughes]

if you gift them in a city right before it's being assaulted the ai will let them there and hopefully the other guy's sod will be trashed.

I must emphasize the bolded part, since I've seen the AI send gifted Infantry to garrison far-off cities, leaving Longbows to defend the front line.

 

[SnowlyWhite]

yeah, it should be same turn, otherwise it'll do it's best to move them anywhere but where they're needed

 

[oyzar]

It is extreemly useful in mp, especially if combined with AP abuse...

 

[michmbk]

I've done it in a team game before, and actually did in it a recent culture win, as the other civ on my continent was friendly and had a defensive pact, but much weaker than me. Just to make sure no one tried any tricks with him, since he bordered one of my culture cities, I gifted him a bunch of units to up his strength.

 

[Skallagrimson]

The enemy of my enemy is my gifting friend.

 

[Ormur]

I once gifted the backwards Aztecs a tank so they take back from the Romans a coastal city I wanted to later take away from them (The Romans were popular and powerful whereas it was late game and the Aztecs had Monty).

Of course they put it straight on garrison duty in the middle of their empire safe from the Roman expeditionary force.

 

[djvandrake]

I once gifted 6 artillery units to Ghandi so he could finish off Catherine after I had beat her down badly and she had just become the Vassal of Boudica. I didn't want to tangle with big red (on my continent) but Ghandi was fairly safe from her on the other land mass where Catherine had been giving him heckles the entire game.

It was kinda poetic really.

Didn't gain me squat, but it was fun to watch.

 

[bippukt]

You get no diplo modifiers. You can gift missionaries although some consider this abusing a game mechanic.

Why would that be considered an abuse?

 

[CivCorpse]

If I gift a unit it is an older unit. The Ai upgrade cost is much lower.

 

[Roller123]

I gave Hatshepsut 40 Infantry and she cleared the continent.

 

[oyzar]

Why would that be considered an abuse?

Because you do this when the AI either a) don't have open borders with you(in a caravel) or b) is in theocracy, and the result is that you still are able to spread whatever religion you want to them...

 

[bippukt]

Because you do this when the AI either a) don't have open borders with you(in a caravel) or b) is in theocracy, and the result is that you still are able to spread whatever religion you want to them...

I can understand (a), but (b) seems wrong to me - in theocracy, you cannot spread a non-state religion in your own cities AFAIK.

 

[Gwynnja]

I can understand (a), but (b) seems wrong to me - in theocracy, you cannot spread a non-state religion in your own cities AFAIK.

yeah you can. the ai can't, but you can

 

[bippukt]

Does that mean that you can spread a non-state religion in your own cities even if you are in theocracy? I seriously doubt it. Unfortunately, I rarely use theocracy so I don't have much experience of this

 

[vanatteveldt]

You could also argue that the hard limit of three missionaries is circumvented by gifting them away as soon as they reach the border.

Related question: If you gift a religion-nutty AI (eg isabella) three missionaries of a useless religion in a very remote location, will this stifle her own missionary zeal or is she smart enough to disband them?

 

[r_rolo1]

I never seen the AI not using a gifted missionary

@Bippukt

Theocracy supresses unwanted non-state religion spread. The phrasing in civilopedia and in civic screen is highly misleading