Resurrecting defeated civs

[James_Champagne]

I'm kind of curious what kind of gameplay experiences anyone here has had when it comes to the topic of resurrecting/reviving civs that have been defeated, as it's something I don't see discussed all that much.

In my last Civ VI campaign (in which I was Egypt and which was played at Marathon speed, which is pretty much the main speed I like to play), one of the AI civs, England, was completely wiped out by another AI civ (the Aztecs), in the year 840 BC (turn 267), which, in that game, fell in the Classical Era. Much later in the game, around turn 1066, in 1963 AD (the Atomic Era), at a period of time in which I was warring with the Aztecs, I ended up taking London (which the Aztecs had held for a great span of time), and, curious, decided to liberate it and bring England back into the game. This created an odd situation where England was back, yet their technology level was (naturally) still stuck in the Classical Era. Deciding to help them out (because let's face it, sometimes we do odd things to make the end game more interesting), I began liberating the rest of their captured cities from the Aztecs, and even began to give to them some of the Aztec cities I had captured in my war effort as gifts (the Aztecs themselves ended up getting wiped out by me in 1973 AD). And because I had a huge amount of gold to spare, I also began to give England gifts of gold, sometimes up to 10,000 or so (they seemed to use this gold to buy lots of builders, incidentally). Naturally, despite the fact I liberated them from the Aztecs and did all this to try to get them back into the game, they still ended up denouncing me for my warmongering against the Aztecs! Of all the ungrateful...

In any event, I ended up winning a science victory on turn 1282 (2021 AD). By that point in time, despite being out of the game for over 2,800 years, England had been discovering things such as gunpowder, astronomy, and mercantilism, so seemed to have advanced to at least the Renaissance Era in terms of technology/culture. Granted, most of the world by then was in the Information Era, but still, they seemed to be playing catch up pretty well.

 

[WillowBrook]

I had one game, soon after R&F came out, I think, where I liberated a civ, but the loyally pressure from its neighbor was too strong, so it fell again pretty quickly.

In another, Alex had conquered all four or five of Pericles' cities, but on the other side of the world. I later liberated them and was concerned about his very low tech level, but he managed to survive.

I don't often have the opportunity to liberate a civ, and I usually only do it if convenient, or if I want approval of other civs.

 

[Victoria]

Yep, done that game, even got one to win but I had to gift them most of my developed cities. If a warmonger then that liberation is detrimental but if you can flip half a civs cities to you then when the last one flips to free you can capture and revive that civ and they adore you. Situational but done it a few times and as long as you keep feeding them everything they ask for they vote for you in Congress. This also seeems to be a major decider in other civs.

 

[Naeshar]

Much later in the game, around turn 1066, in 1963 AD (the Atomic Era).

I found this pretty specific as 1066 is an important date in English history .
The ungrateful English didn't like you helping them out.

The game is pretty bad at simulating international relations, that much is certain.

 

[SephiBBZ]

Australia is for you man

 

[James_Champagne]

I had one game, soon after R&F came out, I think, where I liberated a civ, but the loyally pressure from its neighbor was too strong, so it fell again pretty quickly.

In another, Alex had conquered all four or five of Pericles' cities, but on the other side of the world. I later liberated them and was concerned about his very low tech level, but he managed to survive.

I don't often have the opportunity to liberate a civ, and I usually only do it if convenient, or if I want approval of other civs.

Yeah, I forgot to mention it but before I liberated London I had conquered/razed some of the Aztecs cities nearest them... and in subsequent turns I liberated most of the other English cities next to each other very quickly, so as a result there was very little pressure for them rebelling back to the Aztecs.

 

[LMT]

I think it was Civ 5 where a resurrected civ always voted for you world leader in the WC, correct? That was a great bonus. Showed real appreciation for bringing a civ back to life.

Plus, I recall one time when I did this for China the video that played after I resurrected them was almost spiritual in nature. As if they had actually come back from the dead. That was cool.

I resurrected Kupe in one of my recent games and I barely realized I did it. Should feel more special than it is now.

 

[Victoria]

where a resurrected civ always voted for you world leader in the WC, correct?

correct, but this time it is nurture rather than just their nature

 

[tetley]

In civ5, the warmonger penalty for taking the last couple cities was immense, so instead I left them naked and afraid for my ally(s) to take. Then I would backstab my ally and resurrect it. Totally asinine if you did that to a human, but the AI loves you for it.

I haven't seen that make as much sense in civ6? I very commonly leave a defeated civ alive, but pillage everything and knock off all their city walls. But never bait an ally to take it so I can resurrect it. If I was shown how it could make sense, I would do it.

 

[Beaver79]

In civ5, the warmonger penalty for taking the last couple cities was immense, so instead I left them naked and afraid for my ally(s) to take. Then I would backstab my ally and resurrect it. Totally asinine if you did that to a human, but the AI loves you for it.

I haven't seen that make as much sense in civ6? I very commonly leave a defeated civ alive, but pillage everything and knock off all their city walls. But never bait an ally to take it so I can resurrect it. If I was shown how it could make sense, I would do it.

In 6 it's almost always better to finish off a civ if you have taken a bunch of their cities. It wipes all of the grievances against them away and you get a 1 time -150 with everyone that saw you do it. They will all denounce you and you will have 0 grievances about the time those denouncements expire. If you leave that civ alive, you will have 1000 or whatever grievances against them and everyone will hate you for "you have inflicted grievances on others" until those expire. They will expire very slowly though as the decay rate is slowed by you took my city or you took my capital penalties. You will be denounced by everyone for basically the rest of the game and lose all your diplo favor.

Liberating a city state only gives -32 grievances with everyone, but you get auto Suz over them. I see no benefit from resurrecting a dead civ other than the laughs.

 

[tetley]

What about when you took all their cities in an Emergency war, or whatever good Casus Belli? If I finagled my diplomacy ahead-of-time, I usually don't have that many grievances unless I take those last couple.

 

[Hickman888]

A bit off topic from the point of this thread, but I gotta ask: Are you using any mods that would change the in-game year or the technological development? Because whenever I play Civilization 6 (on Marathon speed too, mind you) I always find the AIs and myself zooming through all of the eras, entering the renaissance before 800 AD, and developing modern technology before 1500 AD. It drives me a little crazy, I’d love to get a more accurate year in my game!

 

[Elhoim]

ZeesProperlyTimedEras works quite well. But the game is designed in a way that if a Civ becomes dominant in cities, it will start rushing eras no matter what.

 

[James_Champagne]

Last game I played the world entered the Renaissance in the year 1000 AD (my own civ hit it at 945 AD).

 

[cain3456]

I really think rezzed civs should have the tech level of their former overlords. Poland didn't stop technologically advancing when it was carved up between Germany & Russia before WW I.