Has the AI ever given you a free city?

[bhavv]

Ive just started playing my first Immortal space race race games to try and challenge the HOF for fun and to learn how to play the game better, and Togugawa just landed on my island and settled in one of my future gap-filler city spots which made me want to swear and hurl abuse, but then something that I have never seen before happened ....

He gave me the city as a token of his respect o.O

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/889/civ4screenshot0050qu8.jpg

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/4354/civ4screenshot0051xn2.jpg

But the bugger just crashed my economy, but I'll recover once it reaches city size 3 and a lighthouse is whipped.

I managed to chop the GLH, and am going to try and build research in every city to get Metal Casting after Alphabet for forges and the Collosus. Getting just those two wonders for my Dutch Island tactics is epic hard on Immortal, I dont think I will be building any others, but the Versailles and Statue of Liberty would be nice - my main island can accommodate 9 cities with overlap for the late game, which will be fine because I will be powering them using the sea tiles, and the free specialist in each city is kind of a must have to increase their productivity, plus I get extra :GP: points. Maybe the Eifell tower too for +2 Great Merchant points.

And I want the Great Library in my capital as well, but again it will be hard, should I tech for Literature before or after Metal Casting? This is actually my first ever time that I havnt picked up metal casting for free with the Oracle, I can always do that on Monarch I just want to pop lots of Great Merchants to help supersize the capital and boost my and a few scientists for academies, but I will need the Glib for that.

 

[bhavv]

This is my capital:

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/1130/civ4screenshot0052rx3.jpg

Theres also a spot to the east and south for extra coastal cities once I can afford them for the spices and the other crab, but I dont know how many spaces they will steal from my capital. I wish it was possible to choose which city can work overlapped tiles like it was in Civ 2, these coastal maps usually need a lot of cramped cities later on.

I got a great start after plenty of regenerates, and plenty of forests to chop for the wonders, but I need to get Literature and Metal Casting before the AI does, and also Mathematics to boost my chop output. I already had to chop two forests down to build the mines and speed up the GLH to recover my economy, and then Togugawa comes along and makes it crappy again.

I was crazy to pick a full set of Agg opponents for a challenge. If they attack me before I get to longbowmen, I'm as good as dead, but once I get Fudalism and Beurocracy I start spamming Longbowmen at the capital, that will be my third move after the GLH and Colossus, then Optics + Currency, then Feudalism and Beurocracy.

It will be possible for me to build 13 cities in total on my three islands I have so far by 0 BC if my lighthouse economy can handle it, but I will try and find some more land first. Actually, I think I need currency before the wonders for an economic boost, and can build wealth and marketplaces while expanding as quickly as possible.

 

[HornetCiv]

I got given a free city once. Don't know whether some or all of these contributed to it but I'll list them out.

* The city was size 1.
* It was closer to one of cities than any of the AI's (that's unusual in itself)
* Its only religion was my state religion, which was different to that of the AI.
* On the trade menu it had (liberate) next to it a few turns earlier (I didn't ask for it, I assumed it would never work).
* I control my state religion's holy city.
* Culturally I'm miles ahead of this guy.
* My relationship was already pleased.
* I hadn't reached feudalism yet, but I was probably big enough to get this guy to be my vassal if I had the option.

 

[ruff_hi]

I was given a city by Gandhi. He stole one of my filler sites, it was a long way from his empire and under lots of cultural pressure from my capital and other cities. He couldn't compete so just handed it to me.

 

[bhavv]

I was given a city by Gandhi. He stole one of my filler sites, it was a long way from his empire and under lots of cultural pressure from my capital and other cities. He couldn't compete so just handed it to me.

Yea, this is the same reason why I got given the city, Ive just never seen it happen before.

 

[Agent327]

Ive just started playing my first Immortal space race race games to try and challenge the HOF for fun and to learn how to play the game better, and Togugawa just landed on my island and settled in one of my future gap-filler city spots which made me want to swear and hurl abuse, but then something that I have never seen before happened ....

He gave me the city as a token of his respect o.O

In my latest RFC game as the Dutch I got a city from Germany after they took Paris (I think it was Bordeaux or Brest), collapsing France; because I usually build up Amsterdam culturally whenever I can the city was 1 square German culture surrounded by Dutch culture, so they might as well turn it over to save themselves the trouble. So it happens occasionally, I'd say.

 

[Calouste]

I have been given cities three or four times. Usually a barb city that was captured on the border of my empire, but far away from the capturing civ's empire. But in one case I got a city from Justinian that he had founded himself and was fairly close to two cities of mine where I was really crancking up culture.

 

[CCRunner]

Nope, never

 

[digitCruncher]

It's rare (one of the mods I play currently has a bug where you cannot accept cities given by a civilisation ), but it has happened before.

AFAIK, the only requirements are:

The cities culture is completely (or almost completely) surrounded by your cities. Normally, this means that you have 3 or 4 cities surrounding it, and they settled in the middle, but a MASSIVE culture push from one city can do it.
The city has a low cultural output
The neighbouring cities have high cultural output.
Your culture must be present

At least, that is the only things in common, maybe one or two of them aren't actually required, but in a regular game, those things happen almost all at the same time.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I've had it happen a number of times. Almost always this happens when the AI settled the city very recently and I got a border pop that pressed it almost immediately.

 

[Crime Doesn't Pay]

I've never seen this happen.

 

[Summoner]

This is my capital:

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/1130/civ4screenshot0052rx3.jpg

Theres also a spot to the east and south for extra coastal cities once I can afford them for the spices and the other crab, but I dont know how many spaces they will steal from my capital. I wish it was possible to choose which city can work overlapped tiles like it was in Civ 2, these coastal maps usually need a lot of cramped cities later on.

You can switch control of overlapped spaces from the city screen by clicking on them.

 

[eris]

I never had a city gifted to me (and I am jealous). I have had votes come up in the Apostolic Palace to transfer a city to me and the civ would vote to give up its own city. It is still a sign of how much they really wanted to get rid of that city.

 

[oranje willem]

Yup, got it once and I was very surprised as well. It was a very new city and I had a few wonders in nearby city so the curtural pressure on it was very high.

 

[Wodan]

Yes.