giving away cities

[Ben E Gas]

one strategy I use is giving away cities, or liberating other cities.

In a game where domination doesn't win the game I will attack other civs who have taken land from their enemies. I retake the cities, protect them for a few turns and give them back to their rightful owner. In a recent game, the zulus took all of africa from the egyptians and they took the mediteranean. I landed marines on italy(controlled by the zulus), took rome and veii and then gave them back to the romans. I then invaded africa. I first settled a city on the island where the prime merridean and equator meet. I used this as a base of operations. then landed marines, tanks, artillary, etc. and began attacking the zulus. I drove them back towards south africa and gave all the cities I had taken back to the egyptians. The Egyptians and Romans were very pleased by my actions. I also supplied them with captured workers. It was a lot of work but worth it. The zulus became almost no threat and I saved two civs from being wiped out. My next project will be to help the Arabs get back to their original homeland. They were cast out by the zulus and now reside in northern europe.

does anyone else use a similar tactic?

 

[dexters]

Well yes that is an obvious thing to do, especially if you're playing a large map and you have cities with no strategic value because of their distance from your capital.

If you're playing the great power type game where you are either #1 or #2, a good way to knock out your closest rival #2, #3 or #1 is to look for a rival civ closer to your target.
More than likely your target either has gone to war against that rival and took a few cities or if you're especially luckly, is in the process of going to war with the civ. One way to even things out powerwise is to take the cities and give it back to the civ, to keep the balance of power and keep your chief rival occupied with fighter a more powerful enemy. Unless of course you take the city and find out it's low on corruption and you want to keep it

This strategy also works if you're behind in the race by a long shot. In most standard to huge map games with more than 8 civs, there will always be wars as soon as the late early game or the early mid game. A good way to stay alive in these situations if to make sure one of the bigger powers, if not the biggest power, likes you. In a recent game, a blunder in the early game cost me and I spent the entire game catching up from a distant #5 position in a 8 civ map.

What's worse, across the straights are the Japanese, in what I can only describe as the "monstrosity" mode. On on continental pangea maps with wet climate, you tend to get AI civs like this. In the case of the Japanese, they ate up #2 (Russia) in the mid game. So their score was a devastingly large, twice that of the the new #2 (India) and three to four times the score of everybody else.

To make sure the Japanese don't get any ideas and attack, I partook in their adventures overseas. Landed my tiny offensive force against the remaining Russian cities on an Island, took a few cities, and gave them to the Japanese to win an MPP out of them. When I got my foot in the door, I started my own conquest in my continent and monopolized the trade in 4 of the 8 luxuries. This made me even more indispensible for them. The Japanese never attacked me and the MPP stood several 20 turn renegotiations until I grew large enough to not need it.

Because I wasn't hopeless and my neighbours the Romans were about as powerful as I was, going for the MPP was a no brainer. This may not be applicable to all cases. But yes, giving cities you have little use for is one of the most important tools you could use in the game.

 

[Ben E Gas]

In my current game the french and germans have been destroyed. Yet I did have the civ regeneration on. I thought after their last city was destroyed they would regenerate somewhere else. The aztecs were destroyed once and regenerated. How does this actually work? Do some regenerate and some do not?

 

[dexters]

They must have a space to regenrate on I assume.

 

[Shamus]

In all the games I have played, the AI civs are always really chummy with each other. They attack me from time to time, but never each other. Is there anything I can do, either when deciding what kind of map to use, or during the game to encourage the AI civs to fight each other? What is required for AI civs to attack each other?

 

[Ben E Gas]

well, if you have a real lot of gold. just bribe a civ to declare war on another civ.

 

[zerksees]

On giving away cities:

I have given away cities to improve AI attitude, to avoid a culture flip or to provoke war. To provoke war, take (or build) a city on the border of an aggresive AI civ (say Zulu). Give it to someone you want to fight with them (say English). Eventually they will fight (whether naturally or provoked my me using a military alliance with one against the other). Occasionally these turn out to be long drawn out wars that drain both sides, while you are staying out and getting stronger. This strategy can help you redirect an aggressive neighbor to chase another civ that is far away.

Ben E Gas - I personally would not give away so many of the cities. I agree giving away some is of benefit to you for diplomatic reasons. BUT, even if they give you very little, there are many ways they can benefit you. You can get happy faces and territory tiles that can help build your score. You can get luxuries or resources. You can irrigate all the tiles and set up the population to support lots of taxmen - giving you extra gold. You can use them to draft conscript infantry if you get in a pinch (if the citizens get too unhappy because of the draft, then you can give them away!). You can use them to be low value targets for the AI so that any sneak attacks will be on low value cities, giving you time to respond (a buffer zone between your rivals and your high production cities). Most importantly - you deny the other civs the power to do something with those cities.


On respawn: AI civs can only respawn once, and they need adequate space to do it. If I recall correctly, they need 4 or 5 tile radius of open space in order to respawn. I know I read this somewhare - I thought it was in the manual but can't spot it now (maybe in civilopedia or on this website). The AI will get to keep technology and gets some new units, among other things.

 

[dexters]

Hmmm... I can't say I've experienced this.

the AI aggressiveness in the game is (as I understand it) dependent on how many wars there are in the early game. The reason for a lack of war between the AI players may be due to a relatively peaceful early game.

There are probably reasons why the AI is declaring war on you :/

 

[Shamus]

There are probably reasons why the AI is declaring war on you :/

I intentionally treat certain civs like dirt if they rub me the wrong way, or if they take a piece of land I wanted. I get them so annoyed that they can’t help but declare war. I was involved in a humorous instance in my last game. The Germans demanded that I pay them tribute or face the consequences. I of course told them what they could do with their tribute idea, and they followed with the common threat that I would soon be sorry. After another turn or so, Germany declared war on me. A little while later Germany had relinquished most of its cities to my army and was begging for a peace treaty. It’s interesting how quickly AI civs will sign MPP’s with other civs when you start taking over their cities.

I also tend to try and be friendly early in the game so I can spread quickly. If what you say is true, this could explain why there tends to be peace through the game. I’ll have to change that next time.

Is there a certain map design that induces more conflict (i.e. more people on a smaller map)?

 

[Ben E Gas]

I like the world maps with many civs playing. There seems to always be war in asia, africa and europe. I've never had complete world peace but then again I've only played a couple games.

Zerksees,
I understand what you're saying, you're right, but:
I gave away so many cities because I didn't want to deal with managing them. Also I wanted the egyptians to become more powerful so that they'd be able to rule africa once more. Which they are beginning to do in my current game.

on respawning:
I may be wrong, but I think the aztecs I destroyed, respawned on a one tile island. It could've been that they just escaped in a vessel. If that is the case, then they are very lucky. The aztecs once controlled all of south america in my game, but now I control the entire continent. The aztecs have a one tile island to the west.

Is there anyway to tell if it is a respawn or just legitimate refuges?

 

[superslug]

I don't think there's a way to tell between a respawn and refugees. Your only clue might be the replay at the end of the game. If the destruction of their last city and the founding of the new town were within 1-2 turns, put your money on respawn, although I suspect it is that.

 

[theGhost]

How do you bribe civs to declare war? and how do you get them annoyed without starting a war? do you help their enemies?

 

[Benderino]

I too use this strategy, but mainly so I can keep other civs in the game. The more the merrier!

 

[Bozo Erectus]

Originally posted by theGhost
How do you bribe civs to declare war? and how do you get them annoyed without starting a war? do you help their enemies?

Shift-D, then click on the civ you want to bribe and go from there. Anyone remember if you have to have an embassy with the civ first, cant recall offhand. Anyway, this is great fun. Soon one thing leads to another and the whole world is at war. Usually theyre so busy trying to annhilate each other that I get left alone and can sit back and watch the fireworks.