Quick way to quell resistors

[satchel]

For me, a combination of the three strategies embodied by Mad Hatter, Zachriel, and Blake works perfectly. That is:

1. Before taking the city, I reduce the population as much as I can by bombardment

2. After taking the city, I occupy it with a stack of at least two units per nonresisting foreign citizen, or four per resisting foreign citizen, or as close to that as I can get

3. I starve the city to reduce the foreign population to 1 before allowing it to grow again with my own citizens.

If I follow the above steps carefully, I never lose recently captured cities to culture flips. Let me repeat: I never lose recently captured cities to culture flips. I generally have strong culture of my own, which also helps. I also begin building up local culture in captured cities immediately.

 

[DaveMcW]

Once you have 10 culture to push back the borders, more local culture will not help with resistance. After thousands of years you might cut the required garrison in half due to superior local culture, but it does not help while the war is going on.

 

[satchel]

Originally posted by DaveMcW
Once you have 10 culture to push back the borders, more local culture will not help with resistance. After thousands of years you might cut the required garrison in half due to superior local culture, but it does not help while the war is going on.

Dave, you've brought up a point that deserves to be made more precise. As you know (and referred to in your post) there are two ways local culture can help reduce culture flips. One is that it can push back the border, so that more of the city's squares are within your own borders, one of the factors in the culture flip formula. The other is that when your local culture exceeds the foreign civs local culture, the necessary garrison is half as much.

Your comment is imprecise in two ways: first, 10 culture may not be enough to push back the borders, if the neighboring civ's culture pressure is strong. Thus, it may be desirable to quickly build more than just a temple in a newly captured city, in order to achieve the second border expansion at 100 culture points. Second, there is nothing in the culture flip formula that depends upon whether you are still at war (except very indirectly, as whether city is in disorder will affect culture flipping, and this depends in part upon the happiness of the foreign citizens, which in turn depends in part upon whether you are at war).

 

[Mojotronica]

I never raze an enemy city unless it's so poorly placed that I can't fit it into my empire. I try to keep damage to enemy infrastructure and citizenry to a minimum. I deal w/ culture flipping by keeping my culture high and speed building cultural improvements once I have taken the city.

More importantly, I always target the enemy capital city first, or nearly so. And when the capital is relocated, I target it's next location, until I wipe the rival civ out.

I favor overwhelming force to attain total control w/in a turn or two, then link the city to my railroad, then maintain only a small force in each city so if I lose it, it's not a major problem.

I like having a diverse multi-civ citizen population -- makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. I always settle captured workers in my core cities. As I assimilate them I imagine their culture enriching mine as mine overwhelms their former national identity... All of this sits well w/ my bleeding heart sensibilities.

 

[DaveMcW]

Originally posted by satchel
Your comment is imprecise in two ways: first, 10 culture may not be enough to push back the borders, if the neighboring civ's culture pressure is strong. Thus, it may be desirable to quickly build more than just a temple in a newly captured city, in order to achieve the second border expansion at 100 culture points.

Only the 21-square radius counts in the culture flip formula. Your city normally expands this far at 10 culture. If two cities compete for a tile, the closest city (yours) gets it.

If both cities are equally close, the tie is broken by local culture. Building more local culture than an active enemy city is even more difficult than building more culture in a captured city!

Second, there is nothing in the culture flip formula that depends upon whether you are still at war (except very indirectly, as whether city is in disorder will affect culture flipping, and this depends in part upon the happiness of the foreign citizens, which in turn depends in part upon whether you are at war).

I agree, war itself doesn't affect flips much. But I often try to wipe out a civ, relocate their palace, or capture neighboring cities before the war ends. As a result, the chances of the city flipping are smaller when I get peace.

 

[Zachriel]

Originally posted by satchel
For me, a combination of the three strategies embodied by Mad Hatter, Zachriel, and Blake works perfectly. That is:

Sometimes each technique has advantages, depending on the strategic position and on the personal style of the player.

The simplest method is to simply ignore resistance, and keep out of the conquered cities. It's not the fastest, but it is the safest. I usually garrison with a unit or two anyway, and eventually resistance ends. Just have a couple of fast units in the area to squelch any open rebellions.

 

[Woody]

I use Zachriel's strategy, ignore it and keep moving. The best way to stop culture flips is to eliminate your enemy from the game. Wars in Civ III need to be fast and to the death, even if they have no cites or one city on an island haflway around the world you will eventually get a culture flip. If you conquer all cities and kill all excess settlers then the chance of a culture flip almost drops to zero. (I have still had newly occupied cites flip to a different strong culture if their borders are close.)

 

[Globetrotter]

Originally posted by satchel
Second, there is nothing in the culture flip formula that depends upon whether you are still at war (except very indirectly, as whether city is in disorder will affect culture flipping, and this depends in part upon the happiness of the foreign citizens, which in turn depends in part upon whether you are at war).

I agree regarding the formulaof culture flipping.
I don't know in your case, but one thing that always happened to me is that when you end the war, the resistance often stops (at least it does in my case), and so, it reduces probability of culture flipping.

 

[Globetrotter]

Originally posted by satchel
The other is that when your local culture exceeds the foreign civs local culture, the necessary garrison is half as much.

Just how do you count the local foreign civ culture to be able to compare it to your own in this case?
(this might sound like a silly question, but i never thought about this point as i always adopted starvation strategy, while rushing cultural stuff of course, managing to keep the city)

 

[satchel]

Originally posted by Globetrotter


Just how do you count the local foreign civ culture to be able to compare it to your own in this case?
(this might sound like a silly question, but i never thought about this point as i always adopted starvation strategy, while rushing cultural stuff of course, managing to keep the city)

No, Globetrotter, it's a good question. As far as I know there is no way to know the previous owner's local culture, unless you investigated the city shortly before attacking it. This is obviously impractical! I only raise the issue of building local culture to stress its value in reducing culture flips both immediately and over time, as I've been discussing with Dave.

I use the same strategies as you, plus a nice ample garrison, and I never have trouble with culture flips.

 

[satchel]

One further point on the use of a large garrison to quell resisters - this is a handy use for obsolete units that I haven't had an opportunity to upgrade. In a recent game I took some cities on a foreign continent with cavalry, and then moved in a large stack of medieval infantry and bowmen to garrison it, along with a couple of riflemen for defense, of course. It was very effective. As the resistance quieted and the city shrank by starvation, it was only a matter of a couple of turns before I was free to move the obsolete stack out to garrison another freshly acquired city.

With two or three stacks like this, I can take a city each turn or every other turn, and move the garrison forward as the line moves forward, as needed. Moreover, if you miscalculate, and lose the city to an unlucky flip, the loss isn't so great - mostly just a bunch of obsolete units.