when to annex

[DragonKnight]

Hey all,
playing again after waiting for patches and such...
What are the pro's and con's to annexing a city you have captured?

I know you can't choose what it produces, can't buy stuff with it (including new tiles), can't control specialists and all that. (some of these could be Pro's in that you don't have to deal with such things..)

But how does all this affect happiness, or anything else I haven't thought of...

DK

 

[chazzycat]

annexing improves happiness compared to a puppet, when you build/buy the courthouse. Annexing without a courthouse is generally a bad idea though, the negative happiness is quite high till you get the courthouse in there.

the major drawbacks are:
1) policy cost increases
2) one more building necessary for national wonders.

 

[Poomermon]

2) increased cost of national wonders, and 1 more building necessary.

I thought puppets already increased the costs of national wonders. That is why I don't usually build them. Or has this been changed in a recent patch?

 

[Mariner91]

Hey all,
playing again after waiting for patches and such...
What are the pro's and con's to annexing a city you have captured?

I know you can't choose what it produces, can't buy stuff with it (including new tiles), can't control specialists and all that. (some of these could be Pro's in that you don't have to deal with such things..)

But how does all this affect happiness, or anything else I haven't thought of...

DK

Just to clarify, what you're describing here is a puppet city, not Annexed. An Annexed city is the same as a city you built from the ground up (with more unhappiness) in terms controlling it.

 

[chazzycat]

I thought puppets already increased the costs of national wonders. That is why I don't usually build them. Or has this been changed in a recent patch?

you are correct sir, my bad. So it's only the "1 more building needed". I have edited my post for clarity.

 

[DragonKnight]

So basically, once you can afford the courthouse, annex it?
Or if you have enough surplus happiness to let the courthouse get built...

 

[chazzycat]

from a purely happiness standpoint, yes. But generally because of the policy cost it's best not to annex every single city. It depends on the game. If you're near the end of a domination push, for instance, policy cost is not a big deal so you can annex just for the happiness.

 

[DragonKnight]

So do puppets produce culture for your empire?

 

[chazzycat]

yeah a little, they will build the cultural buildings eventually after the commerce buildings. But the good thing is that policy cost does not increase with every new puppet you have. So you can have a giant empire with each puppet contributing a small amount, but because the cost is so low, your policies will come very quickly.

 

[Tiber4321]

A good strategy is to puppet, then annex when you have cash to rush a Courthouse. At that point you can turn the city into a producer. Annex only the larger, more commercial cites, leave the small isolated cities as puppets and kill their growth (turn all their farms into TPs). At this point, their main function is to occupy land mass, nothing more.

 

[snarzberry]

Think about annexing in these situations -

1. Building or buying a courthouse/happy building will take you above an important happiness threshold (-20, -10, 0).
2. To provide you with a controlled city close to the action of your current/future war in which you can build/buy units.
3. To take control of the production of a particularly good city, such as a high pop ex-capital.

 

[JamesCivFan]

Think about annexing in these situations -

1. Building or buying a courthouse/happy building will take you above an important happiness threshold (-20, -10, 0).
2. To provide you with a controlled city close to the action of your current/future war in which you can build/buy units.
3. To take control of the production of a particularly good city, such as a high pop ex-capital.

This. Especially the 3rd one is best when going for a Domination/Scientific Victory, because that high population city could already have a nice 10 pop and a university for two more specialists to boot.

 

[Cel.erity]

On top of everything that has been said, don't forget about the 5 gold upkeep on the Courthouse. It may not be a lot, but sometimes it can add up. In most of my domination wins I only annex maybe one city until the game is almost over, then I annex a couple of convenient cities to rush buy in.

 

[DaveMcW]

5gpt for a 3 courthouse is cheaper than buying luxuries from the AI.

 

[Buccaneer]

If I'm pushing a conquest on another continent or on the other side of a pangaea, then I would annex a city or two along the way. Sometimes it becomes critical to have a producer near the front lines or at least, a place you can rush build. Also, I'm not sure about re-basing bombers and such since I haven't had much experience with that but there could be something about not getting an aircraft into a puppet.

 

[snarzberry]

You actually can base aircraft in puppets. Minor additional point stealth bombers have 20 range for combat but unlimited range for rebasing, I think bombers can only rebase within their regular 10 range.

 

[WeaselSlapper]

You actually can base aircraft in puppets. Minor additional point stealth bombers have 20 range for combat but unlimited range for rebasing, I think bombers can only rebase within their regular 10 range.

I think bombers can actually rebase at range 20 (10 base range with 2 moves) and I think the Stealth bombers have a range of 40 (may seem unlimited) for rebasing for the same reason.

 

[snarzberry]

ah k, that's what must have made me think the stealth bomber range was unlimited. thanks.

 

[tetley]

What I do is annex when I'm in a golden age. Just make sure I've got positive happiness. If I'm not in a GA I usually annex when I have the money to rush a courthouse--or if it's a really small town and I really need to buy a critical tile with a key resource on it (which is likely why I took the city in the first place). I almost always start out as puppet city while the fist pumping is still going on.

There's also another trick I try: annex city, buy-tile + buy-tile (3 hexes away), then use the other GA (Great Artist), Culture Bomb.

 

[Scarpa]

Another small tip not yet mentioned is ALWAYS puppet immediately on capture if you decide not to raze the city. Only after the revolt is over should you annex. The revolt lasts as many turns as there is population left in the captured city, and while it lasts you can't do anything so you might as well not take the happiness hit until you can buy or start production on the courthouse.