To Raze or not to Raze?

[AA-battery]

Welcome to civfanatics jbs!

Your question, I don't quite know the answer. But I heard somewere that if a city is only size 1, than it gets automatically destroyed. I am not so sure.

 

[citizen001]

I never raze. when u play, you usually need every city you can get your hands on, unless it's hard to defend.

 

[AA-battery]

Usually I just get the city, keep it and when conflict is gone from the area I rush projects and then abandon the city to put it somewhere else. If I am happy with it's location I just keep it there.

 

[Grille]

When my armies conquer a city, sometimes they are given the choice of installing a new gov or razing, and sometimes they just automatically destroy the city. Does anyone know what determines this? How do I control it?

That can only happen to size-1-towns, so you would only have to consider these.
If that town has an actual border expansion, it won't be autorazed.
Despite of any expansion, if the town has a citizen of your nationality (e.g. re-capture), it won't be autorazed.


Then there's some fuzzy scenarios I'm no way sure about.
Sometimes a town won't be autorazed, although it has no actual expansion and no citizens of your nationality.
some guessings:
-town has a citizen of another nationality than the current owner's (and that civ must be still alive?) [somehow I prefer this hypothesis]
-the town had an expansion under another civ's rule (that civ must be still alive?)


about rep testing:
pretty much what SJ Frank said, except that you probably don't really want to make a deal, but just test your rep.
Put a deal on the table that is simply not acceptable (watch your advisor) for the AI and press the "accept"-button (e.g. offer 1gpt for their 21g or similar).

If they don't accept because it's highway robbery (which we know it indeed is...), their leader will say so (or something similar in that fashion).
If they don't accept because your rep is trashed, their leader will also tell you ("we know what you did before..."). That is, if the leader is aware of your rep hit.

edit:
on-topic: I usually raze.

 

[stachnie]

I almost never raze but in my last game I had razed a city with 2 wonders: MoM and GL! The reason was that I was going for quick domination (I did some 10-15 turns later) and I didn't want to get Education because it would expire my ToA (captured on Americans).


Best regards,

Slawomir Stachniewicz.

 

[pason]

Only time i raze is when city risk culture flip or city have a bad wonder like slave trade like in rise and rule mod.

But it feels good to raze your most hated enemys capital as a nice vendetta

 

[jb1964]

There is a small movement advantage to abanboning a city as opposed to razing. Razing the city leaves your unit(s) sitting on an unimproved tile costing you a full movement to extricate yourself.

Go ahead and capture the city, then sell what you can (at fire sale prices ), and after moving your unit(s) abandon it.

BTW, "abandoning" is just another word for "razing". Either way the city and population are eliminated and the AI's dislike both equally.

 

[Nooble]

What would happen if I take over a city, keep it, THAN abandon it?

jb1964, how do you sell your things from the city?

 

[AA-battery]

What would happen if I take over a city, keep it, THAN abandon it?

You will get a settler, but you will still take an attitude hit.

How do you sell your things from the city?

Go to the city viewing screen, right click the improvement and click sell and a window will ask you if you want to sell it for x gold.