What a bommer!

[Arvedui]

I was playing as the aztecs, regent. 12 civs. I conquered Boston then Washington. Washington had the Pyramids. Good... Then, Washington turned back to the americans! OK, when a city does that, I usually raze it as punishment. But Washington had the Pyramids. When I conquered it a second time, I thought "oh well, let us give it another try. What happened? They deposed my governor again! This is BS! This would never happen in real life! Imagine if Paris would just flip back to France after being taken by the Germans! And what happens to your army? It flips together with the city!!! Absurd!!! This is a complete turn off.
I used to think that the worst feature of civ3 was corruption affecting the shields, but now I think that this is.
But what should I do? Always raze the cities that I take? Or build temples and librairies in all of my cities so that I have more culture and this happens less often? Anyway, I am just pissed.

 

[madhatter160]

Here's what I do - its kind of devious, but hey all is fair in love and war...

I make all the citizens I can entertainers in the captured city. It ends up starving the population, but at least they die happy. Also, by killing off the population you can then re-populate it with your own people. I've followed this strategy and haven't had any cities flip back.

 

[Akka]

Originally posted by madhatter160
Here's what I do - its kind of devious, but hey all is fair in love and war...

I make all the citizens I can entertainers in the captured city. It ends up starving the population, but at least they die happy. Also, by killing off the population you can then re-populate it with your own people. I've followed this strategy and haven't had any cities flip back.

Very sadly, it's entirely true. Slaughtering civilians is the best way to have a happy population in the game -go figure-...
The best way I've found is to bomb a city down to 2-3 population with artillery. Tremendously efficient to prevent any switch back.

 

[rdomarat]

While you're starving the city to death, I also rush build settlers and them instantly add them back into the city. When the settlers are built, two foreign citizens will disappear from the city, and a settler with your nationality will be created. When this settler joins the city, two citizens with your nationality are added to the population. If you're still in Despotism, this is even better, because you can pop-rush a settler, getting rid of probably 4 foreign citizens, and then re-add your people back into the city.

 

[WOPR]

Another strategy is to make sure that the capital is the LAST American city you take. No more resisters. I took the Aztec capital this way in one game -- 10 population or so, no flipping.

 

[Woody]

My theory is during war a certain number of cities are going to flip no matter what you do so I only leave one defender behind so I dont loose much when it does. If a city flips there is only one or two weak defenders left in it and it is easy to retake. I try to make my wars quick and to the death. The only way to completely be safe from flips is to destroy the enemy totally. Once war is over and all the cities are mine I start developing them.

 

[Buecephalus]

Another quicker (at least quicker than rush-building several settlers over two or three turns) strategy is to "piggyback" in settlers and strong defensive units. Raze the target city, drop your settler on the ashes, and POOF! you've got a city whose surroundings are already developed (roads, mines, etc.) you've pushed the enemy's borders back while increasing your empire and, at least if you've got strong culture, no danger of flipping. all of this in one turn. I realize this doesn't help if you're trying capture Wonders but it's a sound strategy for gobbling up their territory "safely".


"do or do not, there is no try."

 

[Troyens]

Conclusion: too much flipping. And garrisons should make a lot MORE of a difference in preventing flipping.

The mass starvation of a population is entirely unrealistic.