Selling cities to the AI to bring down their tech rate

[CanaDutch]

I just had this idea but haven't tried it myself. Would be it be possible to seriously decrease the tech rate of an AI by settling crappy cities in a tundra area and then selling them to the AI who is ahead in tech?

 

[Matthew.]

AI has enough bonuses that even crap tundra cities would still be beneficial.

I suppose it may work on something like Prince and below, but then it is easy enough where you are tech leader unless you are trying to go slower.

 

[Mercade]

I just had this idea but haven't tried it myself. Would be it be possible to seriously decrease the tech rate of an AI by settling crappy cities in a tundra area and then selling them to the AI who is ahead in tech?

When you sell a city to AI, does it count as puppet or annex?

 

[Pythakoreas]

^^ Don't they usually decide whether to puppet or annex? They raze a lot of those if they can't handle the unhappiness.

 

[CanaDutch]

Additionally I suppose you can sell cities to encourage the AI to war on each other as well. Although personally I don't like to exploit the AI that way .

 

[Polisurgist]

Probably not worth the trouble, and will likely backfire. I know that if you did that to me, I'd say yeah, direct some internal trade routes to boost food and production and pretty soon be ahead of the game on tech.

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

Probably not worth the trouble, and will likely backfire. I know that if you did that to me, I'd say yeah, direct some internal trade routes to boost food and production and pretty soon be ahead of the game on tech.

I agree, the penalty isn't big enough to make that much of a difference, and I think you are even indirectly hurting your self (does the cost of everything stay constant with everything, or does it decrease when you sell cities, i.e next policy cost).

 

[Polisurgist]

I agree, the penalty isn't big enough to make that much of a difference, and I think you are even indirectly hurting your self (does the cost of everything stay constant with everything, or does it decrease when you sell cities, i.e next policy cost).

I believe last time I heard is that the culture penalty only ratchets up, but the science penalty will go down if you lose a city somehow.

Of course, it's not so much a science penalty as it is a diminishing of all the extra science you get from having another city, but don't try to tell anyone that here.

 

[Maxym]

I believe last time I heard is that the culture penalty only ratchets up, but the science penalty will go down if you lose a city somehow.

Of course, it's not so much a science penalty as it is a diminishing of all the extra science you get from having another city, but don't try to tell anyone that here.

Oh it is a penalty, but one that can be overcome. If you settle a fifth city once you have four good ones, just watch all the tech times jump up, its very noticeable. Of course once you grow the city and build science infra it will be a positive contributor but initially it will slow you down.

Relating to OP, it will work to slow AI down, but only if they take the city and puppet or annex. Same as for players if you raze immediately it won't raise tech costs. And in my experience AIs always raze sold cities. It is very useful tactic though if you are warring without a huge happy buffer as you can capture cities, sell, and let some other AI take the hit.

 

[MarshalN]

I sometimes sell cities I gain via peace deals if the cities suck, are far away, or both. It's sometimes better than razing them.

Also, with trade routes now you can use it to game the system a little bit - gain a city near you that you don't really want, sell it to the tech leader, send a caravan there - you get an instant tech boost.

 

[tat501]

I sometimes sell the ones that I get as a result of revolts. They're usually miles away in the middle of someone elses empire with no way to defend them - I raze them (which I imagine would be very annoying as a human player when your second city revolts and then is razed to the ground when its size 26!) or sell it to a third party to encourage war etc.

 

[Polisurgist]

Oh it is a penalty, but one that can be overcome. If you settle a fifth city once you have four good ones, just watch all the tech times jump up, its very noticeable. Of course once you grow the city and build science infra it will be a positive contributor but initially it will slow you down.

The way it's structured, yes, it'll slow you down; I wouldn't found a new city the turn before I discover Dynamite, same as I wouldn't do it right before completing the NC or a social policy. But overall, your new city will contribute more toward science than it will take away during its lifetime unless you're really spamming garbage cities and not propping them up.

I'd prefer something that made a small but cumulative penalty to your overall science output, such that the net science for a new city can never be negative, but it could be damn close to zero.