CITY STATES, who's your buddy

[jshelr]

Should we spend the money on the deal or should we save it for use in gaining city state influence?

[jnh140]

I started by taking them, now i ignore them. I will participate in a research deal from a civ I intend to keep as a friend. I however, prefer the faceless civs as friends.

[rah]

Should we spend the money on the deal or should we save it for use in gaining city state influence?

Early in the game I'm going vertical on the tech tree so I think the money is better spent priming the CS PUMP to get the extra food, etc. Nothing worse than spending the 250 on a research agreement early just to get a tech you could have researched in 3 turns. Later in the game, if you've already bought all your CSs and still have a little money around is a good time for research agreements because every tech you'll need all cost about the same, so it's hard to get a clunker.

[jshelr]

I've been fooling around with this strategy and I'm beginning to think some combination of research deals and alliances with CS is necessary to win the tech race, assuming we are not talking about a straightforward warmongering strategy, which looks like it works best in Civ V as it always has.

On another issue related to this strategy, it also looks like the no stacking rules have made the AI unable to defend its own cities. If you stay small, it is very likely that one civ will emerge as a superpower. I'm currently watching about 100 elephants marching around a map, lol.

[rah]

This strat was obviously good, so in an upcoming patch, it is rumored that you will not be able to save up social policies. You will required to choose it at that time, like picking techs.

[AeonOfTime]

This strat was obviously good, so in an upcoming patch, it is rumored that you will not be able to save up social policies. You will required to choose it at that time, like picking techs.

Yup, confirmed with current patch notes:

http://apolyton.net/content.php/193-...-on-next-patch

[rah]

Next up, nerfing maritime CS bonuses.

[Aggie]

Hey there, just wanted to say that in all my years of Civ playing this strategy is one of the best. I also don't save up the social policies and it still is a dominating strategy. Rah this is a winner, even with any proposed changes in the upcoming patch. I really think city states have added a great dimension in the game. Also militarily even those that don't give units are a great help. In my last game Persia attack me and I had 3 cities. But, 4 of my little buddies were causing them a great deal of disruption and provided time for me to get my main force into position.
Aggie

[nikole95]

Hmmm. I hope they fix that.

I've found Siam to be the most effective Civ for this. You can get massive amounts of food and culture with their bonus, as long as you can afford it.

[Civ 2.5]

I have a feeling I'm going to try this only to have the AI build Chichen Itza before me, they always beat me to those mid-game wonders it seems even if I beeline for em

[jenny433]

Yup, City-States will conquer player cities but they always raze them. This can be sad, when the city has a wonder in it.

I don't know what happens if a player civ manages to lose its capital to a CS. I hope Firaxis QA has tested this scenario...

You can't raze a capital so if a CS takes one, it gets to keep it. This has been reported as happening at other sites

[Chemical Ollie]

*BUMP*

I returned to Civ a few weeks ago, after years of playing other games. I have tried this strategy a few times and on Emperor level, it's so effective it almost feels like an exploit. That level was supposed to be hard, wasn't it? I could just occationally win Emperor games in Civ4.