RAZE or ANNEX. Which is better?

[MiDEvIL]

i rarely, if ever, raze if i cant hold the city i just give it to some civ in exchange for $$$ or tech I still take cities though even though theyre useless and rush library or temple in them to try and get a domination or cultural victory or to just prevent the other civ(s) from making cities in my land

and its hell when your trying to kill a civ off and they keep founding new cities where you razed the old ones so... dont raze cities

 

[LKendter]

This is the ultimate of a poll that can't be answered.
I can't select both.


My general rule -
If a small size city (< 6) I generally will keep it.

If larger then 6, it gets trickier to answer.
Then I start looking at things such as
1) How long until the civ will be destroyed
2) Wonders that still have use.
3) Key location (land choke point)
4) First city on landmass.
5) Republic / Democracy and city gives a new luxury to help with war weariness
6) "Spare" troop to occupy the city.
7) It is close to my empire? I have raided deep into a civ area and razed just to cripple the civ.
etc., etc.,

Raze decision is made on a city by city basis.

 

[TrailblazingScot]

The only time I would RAZE a city is if it was especially important to the enemy and I couldn't possibly stop it from falling back into their hands.

Typically I will annex cities as I'm a nice kitten

 

[akinkhoo]

i always annex them as they provide allow me to claim the area as MY LAND. this also help to stop some stupid settler from 3rd party to drop a town over a vital attack route and cut my reserved force from reaching the seige army.

immediately after taking the cities, i will make them all specialist and course the food supply to run dry.... until the population reach 1!, while doing this, 2 defender and 2 offensive defender will guard the city while i regroup my additional forces (wounded to stay in the city, counter-defense reserve, and seige army etc...)

this tactic work for me and provide a shorter distance between my city and my next attack if any. the reduce open ground is important for me as my seige army needs to be defended by slow defenders.

 

[robinm]

I consider the following :

Default is raze, with the following being indicators to annex :

1. I have a superior culture.
2. I have spare untis to garrison ( wounded untis perhaps )
3. The city still has some improvements standing - exp barracks, aqueduct , hostpital.
4. The city is placed well ( river , luxury )
5. The city is close enough to my core to not be too corrupt.
6. The population is low ( ideally 1 due to bombardment, definatly must be below 6)
7. I can hold the city against expected counter attack.
8. I expect to annihilate the civ within 10 - 20 turns.
9. There is a wonder in there worth having for its effect - ( you don't get culture from captured wonders )
10. The 1 raduis culture of the newly annexed city will help my manuveurs this turn ( ie a few extra railroaded sqaures under my control instead of enemy control might allow me to hit the next city or a stack of wounded cavalry this turn instead of next ).
11. I'm not in danger of winning a dominion victiry I didn't want.
12. I have enough workers.
13. I want the territory more than I want to end the war (razing seems to get their attention for peace talks )

Robin

 

[Ranges]

But anyway, i annex whatever i feel i can get away with. If i'm afraid i will lose a city again i'll ust raze it.
The best use for razing that i've found so far is in punitive action. This is when i march into enemy territory, raze 3 or 4 of his border cities and withdraw. This moves his border away from me, and makes him behave a bit better.

 

[Phoenix]

Once the Aztecs Razed one of my cities! I went mad and started to throw NUKES at them. Luckily I had a SDI defence so when they tried to fight back with their ONE nuke it got intercepted. So I don't do it now as I know the horror it causes...I'm still having counciling over it

 

[EdwardTking]

I am playing a game now; 16 civs; maz size world, max land mass.

If I try to build a city it won't; it comes up with "too many cities".


So what do I do? I keep settler ready, provoke another civ to declare war; raze one of its cities and then in same turn build city.