Razing Cities

[terveurn]

Just wanted to get others input:

Reasons for Razing a city

A captured city puts your Civ into unhappiness for a long time... easier to burn a city down in 3-5 turns and pop out a settler then to wait 50+ turns

1) Length of time captured city becomes useful,

2) Time to get your cities unhappiness out of the negative

3) Time for the captured city to build the courthouse

4) Captured city is a magnet for the original owner to want it back

Reasons for keeping a captured city

1) Firebase - good strong location for attacking a hostile civ

2) Lots of land associated with it

3) Outstanding Wonders / resources (making the city worth while to keep)


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For the most part, I can not see any good reason to keep a city once you have captured it - Captured cities cause way too much unhappiness and the time spend fixing a city can be spent doing something else.

Unless you happen to have 600 gold sitting around doing nothing (plus having a hostile civ wanting to recapture), I think the general rule should be 99% of the time is to burn the city down.

Suggest that you pillage the countryside around the city before burning plus sell off as many building as possible.

I would also station a unit where the city used to be to prevent another civ coming back and taking over this land....

 

[joncnunn]

My own lists would be:

Reasons to burn down a city:

1. City will never take in any *key tiles that another city does.

2. City's location actually prevents a *key tile from being worked by any city.

3. City has 4 or fewer population after conquest anyway.

* Key tiles = luxaries or resources you can either use directly or sell + natural wonders

Reasons to keep a city:

1. The game isn't allowing you to raze it (its a capital or city-state and you didn't select OCC)

2. It has one or more key tiles, is not other causing key tiles to be permantely unworked and is of decent size even after the 50% population loss from conquest.

Somewhat more than 50% of the AI's cities fall into raze category since it founds cities too close.

 

[Browd]

Although I agree with the thrust of your argument, I think you overstate things a bit and presume some things that are not quite right. In no particular order:

1. The most important reasons why a captured city may make a good firebase is to serve as friendly territory in which healing is accelerated and units can be upgraded. The city itself is beside the point. Until revolt is finished, it can't even defend itself against recapture. Puppet the city for as long as it is useful; you can later sell the city to another AI, if you desire.

2. So long as the captured city is in revolt, you can't sell off any buildings. To avoid policy cost increases, you want to make the raze decision at the time you conquer the city. Since raze time = revolt time, there is no opportunity to sell off buildings for gold.

3. If you are going to pillage local tiles, you need to either do it before taking the city or after the city's razing is completed. You can't pillage your own territory for gold.

4. Your overall conclusion seems driven, in part, by the cost of courthouses (either gold or hammers/turns). Courthouses are only relevent if you plan to annex the city and you should not annex a city unless there is a powerful strategic decision to do so.

 

[Xger]

If you are planning on just planting a city right in the same spot, I look at the population of the city in deciding to raze. If it is going to have 6+ citizens, I'm going to keep it.

Also the only actual modifier I have seen regarding an AI being angry about having one of their cities is with regards to the capitol, and you cannot raze those anyway.

 

[terveurn]

Has anyone done a mod to allow razing of capital cities...

 

[Mylor]

You may sell one building per turn in a city that you have captured then chose to raze. You may not sell buildings that require no maintenance fee: markets, banks, etc. But you may sell any other building that has an associated maintenance fee per turn, like granaries, lighthouses, workshops, etc. Only one per turn though so plan accordingly. Simply click on the building in the city list and then answer the prompt by clicking "Yes". You will get a little gold for doing selling it as well.

If happiness is not a serious issue, I prefer to puppet most cities I capture. A city has to be really worthless for me to raze it -- no luxuries or other resources and in a poor location.

 

[dashwinner]

Reasons for keeping a captured city

1) Firebase - good strong location for attacking a hostile civ

2) Lots of land associated with it

3) Outstanding Wonders / resources (making the city worth while to keep)

4) You want to keep it as a puppet, especially if it has a great gold generation location

 

[terveurn]

Here is a question - will a puppet city every build a courthouse on its own....

 

[Dogmouth]

Here is a question - will a puppet city every build a courthouse on its own....

I almost always play domination and always have numerous puppets. I've never seen a puppet build a courthouse.