Loyalty and capturing cities

[SheckyS]

So this isn't really specific to Gathering Storm, but I think maybe there may have been some changes - not sure.

Anyway... I really HATE the whole city loyalty mechanic. I play on King difficulty and I have found it's basically impossible to capture an enemy city. I mean... I can take the city, but then I almost always have about 3 turns before it rebels. And there's practically nothing I can do about it. Even if I garrison a unit and send a governor to the city, it wont get there in 3 turns. And just sending them there usually ups the time to maybe 5 turns and unless my military is like 1000 times more powerful than the AI player, there's no way I can take enough cities fast enough to be able to hold anything.

So I've taken to just razing everything I can and then settling the land with my own settlers, because there seems to be no other choice.

Am I the only one? Am I missing something?

 

[Medopu]

Try converting city to your religion. Buy some monument maybe, get some loyalty boosting policy cards.

 

[SheckyS]

Do religion and monuments have an effect on loyalty? That's news to me.

 

[Architect]

Loyalty from a Governor activates when it is placed not when it arrives.

Make sure your happiness is high and do anything you can to disrupt the happiness of your opponent.

Don't attack someone in a golden age if you are in a dark or normal age unless you have the loyalty boosts to counter the increased pressure of your opponent.

Victor is amazing now use him and his loyalty promotion (which will only activate on arrival but his +8 loyalty is on placement) to secure a foothold.

It sounds like you hate something you don't really understand. Don't underestimate the value of boosts like +2 loyalty.

 

[Dragabond]

Do religion and monuments have an effect on loyalty? That's news to me.

Monuments add loyalty to the city directly, and add extra culture (IIRC) when the city is at full loyalty.

Religion only affects loyalty if you founded a religion. If you didn't, feel free to ignore it.

 

[SheckyS]

Monuments add loyalty to the city directly, and add extra culture (IIRC) when the city is at full loyalty.

Religion only affects loyalty if you founded a religion. If you didn't, feel free to ignore it.

I don't see how this helps me, then. If I take a city and I only have 3 turns to hold it, I won't have enough time to build a monument.

Loyalty from a Governor activates when it is placed not when it arrives.

Make sure your happiness is high and do anything you can to disrupt the happiness of your opponent.

Don't attack someone in a golden age if you are in a dark or normal age unless you have the loyalty boosts to counter the increased pressure of your opponent.

Victor is amazing now use him and his loyalty promotion (which will only activate on arrival but his +8 loyalty is on placement) to secure a foothold.

It sounds like you hate something you don't really understand. Don't underestimate the value of boosts like +2 loyalty.

Hm, I knew about dark ages, but I didn't realize happiness made a difference. I will have to watch that.

 

[Infixo]

I don't see how this helps me, then. If I take a city and I only have 3 turns to hold it, I won't have enough time to build a monument.

You buy a monument or repair, repair is usually less than 3 turns.
Also, the best strategy is to take 2 cities at the same time, and if they are a bit far from your borders, have a settler or two to plop in between to streghten them.
Edit. Since R&F war actually requires preparation. You need to plan what cities to attack in what order, when to make peace, gather money, etc. It is not anymore just about killing units. And this is great, I might add.

 

[SxSnts9]

Why do people struggle with this one mechanic so much? Maybe Firaxis should make a tutorial specifically for Loyalty or something. Anyway...

You have 2 options. A) Don't go after a city that is surrounded by other civ's cities. B) Capture multiple cities so they keep each other loyal.

It's really not that complicated. The military AI in the game is bad enough that it shouldn't be too difficult to quickly capture 2 or 3 cities if you bring enough troops. Also, keep in mind that if the city does revolt into free city status it isn't the end of the world. It's usually very easy to capture it back with the only negative being reduced population. I wouldn't recommend doing this multiple times, but if it happens once don't worry about it.

There are higher level strategies like Bread and Circus usage and population management for your border cities, but if you stick to only going after the cities you can keep you'll be fine.

 

[SheckyS]

Why do people struggle with this one mechanic so much? Maybe Firaxis should make a tutorial specifically for Loyalty or something. Anyway...

You have 2 options. A) Don't go after a city that is surrounded by other civ's cities. B) Capture multiple cities so they keep each other loyal.

It's really not that complicated. The military AI in the game is bad enough that it shouldn't be too difficult to quickly capture 2 or 3 cities if you bring enough troops. Also, keep in mind that if the city does revolt into free city status it isn't the end of the world. It's usually very easy to capture it back with the only negative being reduced population. I wouldn't recommend doing this multiple times, but if it happens once don't worry about it.

There are higher level strategies like Bread and Circus usage and population management for your border cities, but if you stick to only going after the cities you can keep you'll be fine.

What difficulty level are you playing on?

 

[Karmah]

First you put a governor , the +8 kicks in as soon as he is assigned. and you buy a monument if you can, monuments are the basic tools for loyalty. Garrison a unit even without the card it has an effect. If that is not enough, victor gets a +4 loyalty aura. If that it still not enough there is one card per color to raise your loyalty up.

 

[AntoineS]

So this isn't really specific to Gathering Storm, but I think maybe there may have been some changes - not sure.

Anyway... I really HATE the whole city loyalty mechanic. I play on King difficulty and I have found it's basically impossible to capture an enemy city. I mean... I can take the city, but then I almost always have about 3 turns before it rebels. And there's practically nothing I can do about it. Even if I garrison a unit and send a governor to the city, it wont get there in 3 turns. And just sending them there usually ups the time to maybe 5 turns and unless my military is like 1000 times more powerful than the AI player, there's no way I can take enough cities fast enough to be able to hold anything.

So I've taken to just razing everything I can and then settling the land with my own settlers, because there seems to be no other choice.

Am I the only one? Am I missing something?

I won't repeat what the others said already regarding the technical ways to play woth loyalty, but I think you'll learn to play with, understand it and you'll end up really appreciating it. I personnally think it's one of the nicest features of Civ 6

 

[Shaf]

The thing is you have to stop consider taking 1 village. First you want to attack people you share a border with the biggest loyalty modifier is population. Next you need to forget about the first city you cap and go straight for their highest population cities. I like to cut their empire in half and cut their capital out first. After you have taken their top 3 biggest cities usually you can go back and recapture the one that flipped. Also tons of civs give bonuses to this. Also always capture in a path that gives you borders with your next target.

 

[Chefofrats]

I play on King, usually very aggressively with a lot of conquest, and using a combination of governors/garrisons/monuments and applicable policy cards I practically never have any issues with loyalty in captured cities. As for strategy, like others have mentioned, you have to focus on capturing the highest population cities first, and preferably get the enemy capital ASAP.

 

[SxSnts9]

What difficulty level are you playing on?

I play on Immortal, but the strategy is the same from Prince through Deity. Once you get experienced with the loyalty mechanic you'll know which cities to go after and how to manage their loyalty issues.

Just have a plan for each war and you'll be fine.

 

[SheckyS]

Okay, thanks for the advice, everyone. I feel like I have a better handle on it, now.