if you are invading another continent, granting independence can be a powerful new tool. I am slowly taking over China's mainland but the unhappiness from "fighting the motherland" is making these cities basically worthless to me until I eventually reach peace with China - the culture is just too strong against me and the game is near the end so they will never really produce anything for me - they are just giving me some land and taking it away from China.
so once I get a few more cities, I am going to grant them their independence. this will be great, because I get their resources, I get credit for 1/2 the land, and I get a +1 happiness in my home cities for influencing another civ (and that +1 happiness back home is much-needed during war weariness). furthermore, some of the cities are formerly Saladin's which Qin had conquered. I get the option to liberate these cities back to Saladin if I want, on a city-by-city basis. So I am selectively giving some of those back to him because he is my other vassal and let him deal with the maintenance.
I am only keeping Bejing and a few more ... Bejing is the prize because it had the Statue of Zeus, Great Wall, shrine, etc...
I think the colony system is great. Think of them in terms of when you are conquering overseas land and you have a bunch of small junk cities. But you might not want to raze them for fear of the land being resettled.
One final point and this is key: airships are so powerful for overseas assaults early on... but you need them to be based near the front lines. And guess where you can base them? in your vassal's or colony's cities!
so once I get a few more cities, I am going to grant them their independence. this will be great, because I get their resources, I get credit for 1/2 the land, and I get a +1 happiness in my home cities for influencing another civ (and that +1 happiness back home is much-needed during war weariness). furthermore, some of the cities are formerly Saladin's which Qin had conquered. I get the option to liberate these cities back to Saladin if I want, on a city-by-city basis. So I am selectively giving some of those back to him because he is my other vassal and let him deal with the maintenance.
I am only keeping Bejing and a few more ... Bejing is the prize because it had the Statue of Zeus, Great Wall, shrine, etc...
I think the colony system is great. Think of them in terms of when you are conquering overseas land and you have a bunch of small junk cities. But you might not want to raze them for fear of the land being resettled.
One final point and this is key: airships are so powerful for overseas assaults early on... but you need them to be based near the front lines. And guess where you can base them? in your vassal's or colony's cities!
