Surrender to Barbarians!

[Hamsun]

Recently I discovered a new tactic in our wonderfull game: If an enemy civ. is residing on another continent/island, occupy one of his cities (preferable a large one) and then let Barbarians take it over. It will cost you a little money, but it will certainly keep your enemy civ. busy for a long time defending themselves from the massive amount of units, the Barbarians will produce.

Also the Barbarians will occupy the fortresses that the AI for some odd reason loves to build.

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Hamsun

 

[spycatcher34]

Interesting <IMG SRC="http://forums.civfanatics.com/ubb/smile.gif" border=0>will you explain in a little more detail how you can get the barbs to take it over and not the other civ<IMG SRC="http://forums.civfanatics.com/ubb/confused.gif" border=0> and how would this cost you money?

[This message has been edited by spycatcher34 (edited July 19, 2001).]

 

[Hamsun]

When the enemy city is captured, you will ofcause have to defend it against the enemy civ's counter attacks. But sooner or later Barbarians will land nearby (depending on the level of Barbarian activity, you have chosen). Then simply move your units out of the city and let the Barbarians have it. The amount of money, they will take, varies. If you have much gold and the captured city is of a big size, then it will cost a lot.

But then again: Your enemy civ. will have huge problems for a long time.

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Hamsun

 

[Thunderfall]

It may be fun to do that, but I would never do it in my games. Simply say, it's not wise to give up a bridgehead city. I would defend it at all cost and keep the AI busy myself. I have no faith in those barbarians.

 

[starlifter]

I've been known to use my ever-present hordes of veteran Ironclads to blast the defenders out of an enemy city when barbarians approach it, thus giving the barbs an easy city. It is annoying when they sometimes ignore the undefended city. On rare occasion, however, barbs have even ignored my own undefended cities, but then barbs are certainly not "smart"!

Sometimes, I have done this to reduce the cost of an expensive city, since bribing a barb city is inexpensive. If the AI city is democratic, it is not possible to bribe at all, unless a barb takes it or the AI switches out of Democracy. BTW, I almost always have a dip floating around on a galleon, and definitely on a transport... those dips are always looking for an opportune bribe (esp. hapless barb units near enemy cities; those will become NONEs), surbversion, exploration, etc. Ditto for spies... they also investigate and establish embassies.

But if I actually took an enemy city, I'd certainly not surrender it to a passing barb!! It's too valuable, and I can make more use of it than a barb can annoy then enemy.

 

[Hamsun]

You are right that a city is valuable, however I see that we don't play the same strategy. Usually I only conquer the continent on which I start, and then go for peaceful development.

I know ofcause that on higher levels of difficulty it is important to keep the other civ's busy, if you want to win. I do that by using dip's in huge numbers for destruction. And then I use the tactic mentioned above.

I never build large navies, but your idea of letting warships "empty" the enemy city for a Barbarian take over is good! I will certainly have to reconsider my wiew on navies in my future games.

Thanks.

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Hamsun

 

[HIEROPHANT]

a no cost way is have ironclads hit port city and make sure everyturn there is no troop later the barbarains will look for an oppertunity hehe and take the city. i like barabain cities cheap way to get nons.

 

[Relegin Bor]

A "nice little earner" I stumbled upon recently occurred through my neglect in building a city near the edge of my civ. This was in late expansion in a long game, only one enemy reduced to a single size 1 city and approaching 200 of my own cities.
Upon building this new city I forget to man it with troops (doh!

)!! It had built itself to size 7 (WLT_D) when some barbs just walked in and took it!

Imagine my pleasent surprise when 14 Non partisans took to the hills! Very cheep way to get these (IMHO) very useful units!
I haven't experimented to determine how predictable it is, but I will as I can see potential in early games.

Cheers,

Relegin Bor

 

[Hamsun]

Partizans are good defensive units, and they can be used to replace the shield eating riflemen in ones own cities.

Or how about just letting them ravage the enemys territory, just as they are ment to?

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Hamsun

 

[starlifter]

I haven't experimented to determine how predictable it is, but I will as I can see potential in early games.

You cannot have partisans in the early to mid part of the... you need Gunpowder + Communism. Guerilla Warfare increases the number of partisans released, as does city size and ownership history, plus certain relative comparisons of new & old city owner's tech.

14 partisans seems like a lot, based on own (incompleted) testing almost 2 years ago. Going to size 8 and 12 are "cutoffs" for larger partisan releases.

 

[spycatcher34]

Wait a minuet are you saying if i research commie i'll get more partizans cool

 

[starlifter]

posted July 20, 2001 04:34 PM
Wait a minuet are you saying if i research commie i'll get more partizans cool

Not exactly. What I'm saying is that, under normal tech progression, you must have Comminism to ever get partisans at all.

Said another way, you cannot get partisans at all, until you possess the tech of Communism (and Gunpowder). So until you have both, you won't be getting partisans when a city of yours is taken!

 

[spycatcher34]

Oh I understand now

so you need to have gurrelia warfare before you can actually build them Right?

 

[greenie]

Of course, if ur gonna let barbs take over a recently captured city, it would be ideal for you to sell off all improvements, not only will you make more money but the barbs wont be able to use them, nor the enemy civ if theyr ecapture. Maybe leave the barbs something useful like barracks

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- Greenie

" Let us take by
cunning what we would
take by force"

 

[Relegin Bor]

Originally posted by starlifter:

You cannot have partisans in the early to mid part of the... 14 partisans seems like a lot, based on own (incompleted) testing almost 2 years ago. Going to size 8 and 12 are "cutoffs" for larger partisan releases.

I went back to check that game and, of course, you are correct Starlifter

. My beer addled memory and the fact I was 2000km from my computer misled me. There were in fact 11 Partisans released from a Size 7 city. Which is still pretty good!

I'm intrigued by your comments about cut-off sizes. What, in your experience, is the optimal size city for this Barb Capture/Partisan Release scenario?

I find Partisans, with their defence of 4, effective movement of 3 and the fact they ignore ZOC, to be particularly useful in infiltrating rugged terrain or enemy territory and holing up 'til my engineers can get there and build. For some reason, I don't like to build them! I'd much rather have Leo's Workshop convert cheap Musketeers to Riflemen, or go Fundy and build Fanatics, to garrison my cities. So (relatively) free Partisans are a bonus in my book!

As for using them early in the game,

I know I can't get them in the "Early Game" but playing these high score games takes soooo long that the arrival of Partisans seems early by comparison

.

Cheers,

Relegin Bor

 

[allan]

I once filled a huge front with NON partisans by allowing barbarian takeovers of frontier cities, retaking the next turn with (what else) one of the partisans, then shipping most of them to the front. Since they're NON they don't affect happiness in republic/democracy at all, and they can easily reach difficult terrian and fortify all over mountain ranges and such.

I also bribe enemy partisans around cities I capture from the AI--they're cheaper than most other units, and good for fortifying the new cities so the offense can move on. Only thing is, they aren't NONs in that case....

I seldom pay barbarians tribute to avoid sacking a city even before partisans (unless it's a crucial one, in which case I tend to make sure it's well defended anyway)--I let 'em have it if they take it with a useful unit, let them replicate more of the same units, then bribe it back and gain those units, often at a cheaper price than the tribute they wanted in the first place!