What would you do?

[Cassius]

This is my first post here, and quite a quick and specific one really. The Egyptians, from across the sea, have just planted a little town on the fringes of 'my' continent. I've sent my Knight up to investigate and its TOTALLY undefended.

However, I'm not really in need another town miles away from my capital. I'm also pretty averse to starting a war but this seems to be easy pickings. I'm also conscious that this town could be used to oragnise an invasion.

Any suggestions? Is there any way to exploit this situation diplomatically to gain concessions like technology or gold?

Thanks!

 

[Jimcat]

Take a good look at the big picture before you make a move one way or another.

Can you bracket it with settlements of your own and overwhelm it culturally? How much open land is there on your continent? If there is room for another few cities, then Egypt or someone is going to want to settle there, and then you'll have a land grab competition. It might be best to culturally claim as much land as you can to forestall the Egyptians getting a toehold on your continent.

How does Egypt stand in the international arena? Do they have neighbors that you might turn against them? If so, place a couple of embassies and take the city. Then get Egypt's neighbors to join you in the war against them. Chances are, Cleopatra will be so busy fending off attacks from her neighbors that she won't even have time to send troops overseas to deal with you. Just be sure to wait twenty turns before signing the peace treaty, or you'll take the reputation hit for betraying your allies.

On the other hand, if they are large and powerful, and you don't have the wherewithal to bribe other nations into attacking them, then go for the cultural dominance. If their city is small and far from their main empire, chances are you can place a couple of towns with Temples and Libraries nearby before they can get their production up to speed. You'll box it in with your borders, and eventually it will culture flip to you. Just garrison those neighboring towns in the meantime, in case Cleo gets aggressive and tries the invasion option herself.

 

[LaRo]

The AI are pretty bad to make a land invasion. You should be able to keep the city if you take it and defend it correctly.

Do you have a navy?

Sometime, I went to war with someone from another continent because he cannot invade me. But I had a weak navy and he bring a lot of ironclad and keep destroying my tiles improvements.

So, I think the answer is the force of your navy (plus some bombers and artillery if you are in modern era).

 

[Moff Jerjerrod]

If you can't absorb this city culturally then conquer it. If the enemy is on a continent far away he's gonna waste a lot of turns and resources to mount an effective campaign against you. By then you may be able to ask for peace.

 

[whitlox]

Perhaps another more experienced player could comment on this, but I noticed that Privateers can attack without provoking war (they are unmarked.) Perhaps the egyptian city could be attacked by privateer?

 

[eyrei]

Keep in mind that if the city is size one with no culture when you take it, it will be destroyed.

 

[Cassius]

Well i chose to be a good boy and not just take the poor defenceless city. Anyway, it was far from my capital, not on particularly good land...

But then, as I was fighting the Russians to the north (needed their coal) the Egyptians declared war on me anyway. So I took their citys (by this time there were four) and razed two kept two. Egypt hasn't so far mounted much of a response besides sending her iron clads over (good call by the way) so I had to rush build a sub and a destroyer to deal with them.

Currently trying to make peace (I'm a democracy), but they are furious and won't talk.

Now the Americans (Egypt's neighbour) have planted two cities where the Egyptian ones used to be! And keep moving their troops into my area. Ugh. Maybe I should take those out too, but all this war is crippling my democracy.

Thanks for all the advice!