How Do You Stop A Strike?

[JimOttoFan]

How do you stop a strike? I was doing fine then I found a new continent and started colonizing like crazy. I got to the point where my units were disbanding and it said strike, so I turned a couple of the bigger cities onto wealth and now I have extra money, but it still says strike. How do I stop the strike?

 

[ruff_hi]

In Civ4, going on strike occurs when you run out of money and you are spending more than you are earning. The game will automatically reduce your science slider to generate more commerce to gold, but if your gold per turn income is negative even at 100%, you will eventually run out of money and the game will start to disband your units.

The answer - cut your expenses (courthouses, change to cheaper civics), raise commerce (work cottages not mines, build wealth, run merchant specialists), raise gold (sell tech, goods, etc).

It sounds like you expanded too quickly - overseas cities are also expensive.

 

[Ataxerxes]

Welcome to the forums!

As ruffhi said, overseas cities are expensive. The city maintenance for overseas cities is higher than it would be for cities the same distance away on your own continent. You usually want to limit your overseas cities until you can build the Forbidden Palace or Versailles there or are able to get into State Property. It's usually best to control your own continent first.

 

[JimOttoFan]

Thanks ruff_hi and Ataxerxes.

I just started building the Forbidden Palace.

I appreciate your help.

 

[JimOttoFan]

After I built the Forbidden Palace and had a couple of my big cities produce only wealth, my money was out of the red. Then it took a few more turns than I wanted, but finally the strike ended.

 

[qyll]

Building wealth is very useful for stopping a strike especially in the late game.

 

[Psyringe]

Great to see that you didn't give up, but pulled through and solved the problem.

Strike is a very common problem for players new to Civ4. In all previous Civ games, it was always good to expand rapidly. In Civ4, each additional city costs more maintenance, so if you expand quickly (especially overseas, which entails extra maintenance costs), you'll run out of money and end up losing your units in a strike. To prevent that, I usually check my science slider when expanding, and if I already use most of my income to pay maintenance, then I build up my economy before expanding further. It _can_ make sense to risk high maintenance costs if it allows you to place cities at strategically important spots - but only if you're sure you won't go totally broke. After a few games, you'll know how to spot the difference.

 

[Sisiutil]

Another option to consider, provided you're playing BtS with the latest patches, is to make the overseas cities into a separate colony. The new civ will be your vassal and will adore you like a puppy dog. However, if you're going for a domination win, you may not want to go this route.

 

[mynystry]

Well, just learn from the mistake, colonizing "like crazy" is not a good idea because it will break your economy down. Think about making 'colonies'. I usually carry 2 settlers and once you have 2 cities in another landmass you can grant them independece and you will have a vassal and ally. If the continent is too big you can found more than 1 colony so they don't get too strong. Share your techs with them, be nice with them and they will reward you with any resource that you may need. "you granted us independence" gives you a +10 in diplomatic relations which is hard to spoil. IMHO The only reason why not to grant independence to a colony is if you need to settle a city where you can build space elevator, or if it is really a vital strategic place, i.e. in the landmass of your main enemy, religion shrine, etc.

 

[Ghpstage]

IMHO The only reason why not to grant independence to a colony is if you need to settle a city where you can build space elevator, or if it is really a vital strategic place, i.e. in the landmass of your main enemy, religion shrine, etc.

Or you want the cities to be actually productive....
Or you don't want to completely ruin your diplomacy.....
Or you don't want the AI to give your tech advantage away to your enemies......
and the space elevator isn't a reason not to create colonies, its awful in its own right.

Colonies are rarely of any value at all. The only cases are to abuse Deity (and maybe on occasion, Immortal) level bonuses, abusing the AI 'magic Rifles' phenomenon (again, pointless on most difficulties), abusing the fact that the colony gets 2 defenders per city.
and the most likely reason.... is dropping your population below the level where diplo win votes aren't allowed.

 

[Revenant]

The only way I've succesfully stopped a strike was:

"Are you sure you want to quit?"

YES!!

Damn it, really fast expansion and no luxury resources does not work very well..