gifting your own cities...

[criminiminal]

anybody ever gift their own city(s)?

sometimes i find in a game that i am behind due to lack of resources or location or whatever. i'm not one to just give up & quit a game because i'm not the dom/super power. so i get into these "losing" games & more often then not i get attacked by a more advanced, aggressive ai. as we are all familiar w/ the chance of getting a "protective" mpp is pretty slim if you can't pay for it. so what i do (if conditions are right) is gift a semi powerful nation a strip of my own cities where the aggressor civ wll HAVE to march through to get to me. this will often cause war between those two civs thus relieving my puny weak civ to grow & prepare. then when the aggressor civ is really hammering the civ i just gifted, i will take back my cities (providing that i have been able to grow accordingly over the time of peace i had).

thoughts?

 

[undertoad]

Nice trick!

You're basically loaning the cities to powerful Civ A, with instructions to look after them and defend them against super-aggressive Civ B. They do this for you - then when all hell breaks loose you take them back in the confusion - preferably when Civ B has taken them but is trying to hold them against A.

Haven't had a situation yet where this would be good - I'm playing well below my ability at the moment (Warlord). But it's one to remember.

 

[nerovats]

You can also give cities to a power which is far away. Then take them back by force, make peace and because you took several of his cities they usually will give some techs for them.
Or sign a pact with 1 civ which is at war with someone, you can get techs for that, and if you make sure they can't reach you it's free techs (or lux, gold or whatever). Works great on archipello maps in the AA.

 

[Lord Emsworth]

Yes, yes, yes!

There is no better way to do leader-fishing on low levels than to build a few 'cities' with the sole purpose of time and again being gifted away and recaptured.

I would also gift away just captured cities that I know will come either under heavy attack or will be even lost anyway to my 'allies.' Let them have the WW.

 

[darski]

I did just play a game where England lost London to the Byzantines in a war. I went and took the city and gave it back to Liz. Personally, I don't think they care whether a city - capitol or otherwise- is or is not in their control.

I would move heaven and earth to get my capitol back but it didn't much matter to the AI.

 

[bryanwallace]

this sounds like a great idea..

if you gift a city to another civ-does it have to be a big one or will the city that lost it
even attack to get a small city back?

is a just captured city still likely to come under heavy attack if you gift it away??

can you trade cities for tec/gold/etc or is this not allowed?

 

[bryanwallace]

presumably this is also a good tactic when you get ambushed with hardly any defence available and are going to lose a city anyway?

 

[Aabraxan]

Just about the only time I give away cities is when I think I'm about to lose them anyway. As Lord Emsworth said, "let them have the WW."

 

[bryanwallace]

can you trade them for anything?

 

[TheOverseer714]

In the fully patched version of Conquest, cities can't be traded. Not sure about PTW or Vanilla.

 

[criminiminal]

ive never seen the ai ever trade a city for anything. you have to give it as far as i know.

 

[nerovats]

AI will give cities for peace. I even once got a city by demanding it. Just wanted to make them pissed, We'll free cities are always welcome.

Also you can give a 1 tile island city to let your last opponent live there so you don't have to pay attention to them as much after clearing the landmasses.

 

[darski]

this sounds like a great idea..

if you gift a city to another civ-does it have to be a big one or will the city that lost it even attack to get a small city back?

is a just captured city still likely to come under heavy attack if you gift it away??

can you trade cities for tech/gold/etc or is this not allowed?

1. Any size city can be gifted.

2. the trick is to gift the city to a Civ not in combat at the time. It will be left alone even if undefended then. I have gifted cities to allies in a war and had to defend it until they can get troops there.

3. I have never been able to use a city in a trade for anything. They will take is as a gift. Now I have never tried to include a city in another trade deal so that one may work.

 

[TheOverseer714]

About 3. Adding a city to a trade turns it into "they would never do that". Even 100gpt and a city for their WM.

 

[rysingsun]

could be fun on an archi map. works like this:

play on deity or sid. take over small island. although disappointed with size of island take heart that at least you are alone on your island.

give away 2 small cities to rival A. immediately declare war and take them with your horses on the same turn.

next turn give them away to rival B. conquer them with horses again.

do it each turn with another rival. after a few turns rivals will be willing to make peace. within 10 turns you should have all the aa technology and probably all the gold too.

i think that if these 2 cities have culture they will never autoraze even though you have been giving them away. (ok i'll admit i never actually tried this).

i guess you may need a lot of horses to keep conquering them like this. while you are building them you presumably don't need to be researching.

 

[bryanwallace]

sounds a bit like a cheat..!!
when you take over a city can you keep the buildings?

 

[rysingsun]

i'll bet in unpatched vanilla it could be a crippling exploit since back then the ai would give cities for peace much more willingly and if i remember right would also give middle ages techs much more willingly for peace. in conquests you will never get much beyond the ancient era techs.

yes it is an exploit ... legal i think ... i never actually tried it and i therefore really don't know if it is practical.

 

[Lord Emsworth]

sounds a bit like a cheat..!!
when you take over a city can you keep the buildings?

Cultural building - temples, libs etc - will always be gone. Conversely, there are certain buildings which will always remain, like aquaducts, hospitals.

Of the rest, there is a chance (don't know how high) that they are lost when you take over. And I think there is a difference between taking over via flip, extortion/gift on one hand and military capture on the other hand.

 

[Lord Emsworth]

2. the trick is to gift the city to a Civ not in combat at the time. It will be left alone even if undefended then. I have gifted cities to allies in a war and had to defend it until they can get troops there.

It is exactly the opposite. Gift the city away to someone who is also at war with your enemies. So that your they will lose the city and you can take it (again).

 

[rysingsun]

i always forget to do this. when i know i will lose a (small) city i will often abandon it to avoid the war weariness. i really need to learn to give them away. good advice