Pillaging districts

[player1 fanatic]

I haven't done this myself, but I read that repairing districts take almost as much production as building a new one, including raised costs over the eras.

So isn't pillaging them brokenly powerful?

In one turn you disable all buildings and force rebuilding the district that could take over dozen of turns.

I'm now thinking that the best way to mess up AI civ, that you do not want to conquer, is to take some cavalry and pillage districts in all their border cities.

 

[TruthfulCake]

I have the same problem with spies who destroy my industrial zones. I think it is fair that they can sabotage my progress with spies. BUT, the rebuilding of the sabotaged zones can take way too long. I had to take 9 turns to repair the district, then a few other for the workshop, then the factory to get that 6-tile bonus going, then the power plant.

It makes me think that it's actually faster to just destroy the whole district and remake it, and buy the buildings with gold. Except that you can't sell or demolish buildings/districts.

Repairing needs some adjustment in terms of the amount of time needed. It shouldn't feel worse than a total reinvestment, at the very least.

 

[player1 fanatic]

Also in a war single unit can destroy another unit in a turn. But unit costs are fixed. While district costs rise over time, so destroying districts gives the biggest damage per turn.

 

[Xenotitan]

You should at least be able to repair them with gold. Repairing them quickly shouldn't be more difficult than building them quickly.

 

[dexters]

I'm unclear on this myself.

In most cases, a pillaged districts need to be 1) rebuilt first 2) repair the individual buildings

Yet I've also seen pillaged districts where only 1 of the building is damaged, and in one case, a spy managed to blow up my industrial zone's buildings only and it took maybe 4-6 turns to repair them all. The district itself was ok.

What determines if the district itself is destroy vs. the buildings?

A logical path seems to be buildings first then district, giving players time to gather units to take out the pillaging unit. But when I had a revolt, the 'barbarian' revolutions managed to pillage entire districts with 1 turn.

 

[TruthfulCake]

Does it maybe have something to do with the enemy spy's level? Would make sense that better spies dent the infrastructure more severely.

 

[dexters]

Does it maybe have something to do with the enemy spy's level? Would make sense that better spies dent the infrastructure more severely.

I've seen Sulla's let's play where Rome only pillaged his university instead of the entire district. That raised an eyebrow as my experience has been the entire district is pillaged.

 

[KmDubya]

Due to how long it will take to repair don't pillage any districts in a city that you will conquer. I pillaged a holy site in a Sumerian city, kept the city and then had to spend 25 turns to repair the district and another ten on the shrine. Never again

Also I'm starting to think that if the city has a holy site and you are not going heavy on religion, it might be better to just raze the city rather than have a wasted district that also makes all your good districts cost more everywhere.

 

[player1 fanatic]

District costs scale on tech/civic numbers. And there is discount for districts that you have less then average compared to other players.

So having extra district to repair, does not really affect you negatively much.

 

[kampori]

Units can only pillage one building in a district at a time. Spies however can sabotage the entire plot. (Altho I think only on industrial districts. For commerce/science/culture they steal the respective output)

 

[KmDubya]

District costs scale on tech/civic numbers. And there is discount for districts that you have less then average compared to other players.

So having extra district to repair, does not really affect you negatively much.

It does screw up building other districts in that city though. Without the worthless holy site I'd have room for the more useful commerce/industrial/entertainment districts that help more. Conquering another religion doesn't seem to do anything for you so it seems better to found your own or else just ignore it completely.

 

[Assault Lemming]

I haven't done this myself, but I read that repairing districts take almost as much production as building a new one, including raised costs over the eras.

So isn't pillaging them brokenly powerful?

In one turn you disable all buildings and force rebuilding the district that could take over dozen of turns.

I'm now thinking that the best way to mess up AI civ, that you do not want to conquer, is to take some cavalry and pillage districts in all their border cities.

You are expected to garrison troops in your districts, hence the promotions for combat bonuses if the unit is defending a district.

Cities are more than 1 tile now. You must defend your districts the same as your city centre which is just another type of district anyway.

Has anyone checked if the +1 amenities for garrisons extend to districts?