Is this supposed to happen? Capturing Barb City with Vassal's units

[Science Rules]

Right now I am playing v.3.17, BUG mod, marathon speed as King Louis XIV. I am far behind the tech race; I don't even know astronomy, yet I have somehow captured a Barb city on a faraway continent.

Gandhi is one of my vassals and he is currently colonizing a faraway landmass. I'm in the middle of reconstructing the economy of the former Russian empire when I get a message stating that I just captured Vandal. The issue is that Vandal is on the continent that Gandhi is colonizing, and I don't know astronomy. I suspect that Gandhi captured Vandal because I can see a pair of elephants disappear into the fog of war if I load an autosave from 1730. The weirdest thing is that I am given the option to liberate Vandal to Pacal II of the Maya, my other vassal, rather than Gandhi.

 

[r_rolo1]

Can you also post the 1730 save? This is definitely wierd.....

 

[Science Rules]

Here's a 1722 save. Looking at it again, I can't tell what exactly Gandhi was doing with his elephants and catapults from the tiny glances that the game affords to give me during his turns. In any case, in 1734 he does have an elephant in Vandal.

Edit:I also added my oldest save from 1698 for good measure. I'll gift the city to the Mayans in order to avoid paying maintenance and continue playing.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

"no, return it to x". I've had vassals take cities I've lost and give them back, too.

 

[Science Rules]

The thing is that this is not a former city of mine. It's a barbarian city and its impossible for me to have been anywhere near Vandal because I do not yet know Astronomy. Is it possible that Vandal was at one time captured by the Mayans, but was recaptured by the Barbarians and was the subsequently captured by the Indians? Would this mean that the city is initially assigned to me so that I can resolve the dispute amongst my vassals? The issue is that I was never notified of any of these events even though I've maintained pretty accurate maps from the Indians and Mayans through extortion.

Edit: I finished the game in 1778 (Diplomatic Victory via the Apostolic Palace). In the replay of history I never see any Mayan presence on that Island until after I "captured" the city and gifted it to them, so I am still very confused at what is going on. I still highly suspect that the Indians captured the city from the Barbarians and something within the game confused this and thought that it was originally a Mayan City, giving it to me so I could arbitrate the "dispute" between my vassals.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

You can still get "return to x" prompt in the scenario you describe. I took a barb city that was 10+ ocean tiles away from mongolia, who wasn't associated with me in any way, and I was STILL given that option. My guess is that your vassal got that option and accepted, they alone know why.

 

[Science Rules]

OK, that sounds believable. So most likely Gandhi was given the option to "return" the city to me even though it was halfway around the world and was located on a continent that he already had a few cities. That still leaves a few questions. Why does this "gifting" of the city still prompt me with the option to gift it to the Maya? Also, if this is a case of AI city gifting; this may or may not be a bug with the AI programing because Gandhi certainly could make better use of the city than me. Perhaps this is an example of a really crafty AI hoping that I'll keep the city and suffer the burden of maintenance costs on a city that I cannot access? This would have compounded the problems I'd been having during the game, namely astronomical maintenance costs dragging my research because of my rapid expansion.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

The AI can't plan like that . I'm not sure what triggers the prompt though.