I ussually try to turn a civ into a vassal and give back most of their cities except of it is close or got good wonders. It helps bring down matenance costs and keeps them strong enough to be useful but not so strong they rebel. Thoughts anyone??
How should Vassals be treated
- Thread starter sammoraj
- Start date
CocoIsKing28
Slightly less stupid
If you want to get rid of your maintenance costs, go ahead. Just be weary of the stats they have against you that keep them as your vassal. If you give back all of their cities, you could make them a lot closer to breaking free.
I dunno, personally I can administer their cities better then they can to meet my particular needs.... so why would I give them back? Unless the conquests are super early, but I tend to be more of a medieval conqueror it seems. By that time, my econ is approaching full swing.
Unless my economy is completely crashing, which has never really been the case... I have been able to maintain 5 vassals on a normal map with the economic mosquito that is Alexander, so I can't imagine it getting that bad if you play it well. Beeline Communism, cottage and windmill the hell out of everything.
This is only on Monarch so maybe it gets significantly worse at higher levels?
I typically find out what techs the un-vassaled AI have and give my vassals at least that much and also gift them the techs as I sell/trade them to other un-vassaled civs. I also typically gift surplus resources I can't sell. Even if they still end up no military or econ asset, it gets me their vote if I want it.
But then my reason for acquiring vassals is mainly to save time by not needing a full conquest to make them irrelevant. On normal maps, I typically want their good land anyway. And if someone attacks them, it saves me the negative diplo for declaring war on someone's friend. I am trying to recall the last time someone declared on my vassal, though.... can't recall.
Unless my economy is completely crashing, which has never really been the case... I have been able to maintain 5 vassals on a normal map with the economic mosquito that is Alexander, so I can't imagine it getting that bad if you play it well. Beeline Communism, cottage and windmill the hell out of everything.
This is only on Monarch so maybe it gets significantly worse at higher levels?
I typically find out what techs the un-vassaled AI have and give my vassals at least that much and also gift them the techs as I sell/trade them to other un-vassaled civs. I also typically gift surplus resources I can't sell. Even if they still end up no military or econ asset, it gets me their vote if I want it.
But then my reason for acquiring vassals is mainly to save time by not needing a full conquest to make them irrelevant. On normal maps, I typically want their good land anyway. And if someone attacks them, it saves me the negative diplo for declaring war on someone's friend. I am trying to recall the last time someone declared on my vassal, though.... can't recall.
capnvonbaron
Democratia gladii
I typically only gift back cities that are under 3rd party culture pressure or are completely useless to my cause and/or make poor sites to mount a proper defense. Sometimes I will even gift back a rival's capital if it doesn't house any good wonders and is too far from my core, just to keep the vassal from falling too far down the power pole. Gifting two cities back to your vassal will improve his attitude toward you slightly, so that may be worth it if you want to leverage AP/UN votes.
Otherwise, I'm mostly a d**k to my vassals. Steal and demand their techs, rob them of their spare gold and resources. I will keep them in the tech race but often force them to research back-fill techs that other AIs won't trade to me. On middle and upper levels (monarch+) I'll gift them some of my old, poorly promoted, outdated units for them to free-upgrade into things that will help boost my power rating if there's no chance of them breaking free.
Otherwise, I'm mostly a d**k to my vassals. Steal and demand their techs, rob them of their spare gold and resources. I will keep them in the tech race but often force them to research back-fill techs that other AIs won't trade to me. On middle and upper levels (monarch+) I'll gift them some of my old, poorly promoted, outdated units for them to free-upgrade into things that will help boost my power rating if there's no chance of them breaking free.
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