GIFTING A CITY ~ to make allies after you've captured an enemy city ....

[grutz]

I only do this if I've captured an enemy city that I'm going to probably lose to a culture flip. Was at war with Louis XIV. Took a few cities, got the resource I needed (Iron, I think) and made peace. One of the cities, though, was almost surrounded by "French" culture (poor city), so I gifted it to Isabella. Best part is, Later on, when I wiped out the rest of Isabella's empire, I left her that one city. Now, her empire consists of a single tile! Teach her to make demands of me....

[Fried-Psitalon]

I'm pretty sure there's a mechanism to block excessive abuse of this installed in the game; just the same way you can't gift a unit to the AI after its science rate is below 30%.

[eiseike]

If you gift more than about 3 cities in a short time period , the AI will refuse anymore. This is probably because it cant afford the maintenance cost. To get around this problem and almost bankrupt them (because the AI runs on a very tight budget ) gift as many rubbish cities in one turn , not later.

It sends them to the poor house. Thats why over-expanding yourself is dangerous

[djpsychonaut]

Re: GIFTING A CITY ~ to make allies after you've captured an enemy city ....

Originally posted by eiseike
And heres another dirty trick ..... I've dont it every game with great success >
build a settler and establish a city at the outskirts of yours where a hostile civ. is ( or just one that might oneday be ) and gift the new founded city to someone you want to make friends with.......... BUT the trick is to found the new city on a really RUBBISH spot in desert or something. ALSO because the new city you give will be far away from the friendly civ. that gets it , they`ll pay huge mainenance costs and it will really cripple them !.

That's cold, man, real cold... I like!

[djpsychonaut]

Originally posted by eiseike
If you gift more than about 3 cities in a short time period , the AI will refuse anymore. This is probably because it cant afford the maintenance cost. To get around this problem and almost bankrupt them (because the AI runs on a very tight budget ) gift as many rubbish cities in one turn , not later.

It sends them to the poor house. Thats why over-expanding yourself is dangerous

HAHAHA! Read this after I posted my other reply! Brilliant! hahahahahahaha

[Riotamus]

Originally posted by Fried-Psitalon
I'm pretty sure there's a mechanism to block excessive abuse of this installed in the game; just the same way you can't gift a unit to the AI after its science rate is below 30%.

A city is unconditionally beneficial if it can pay for itself (in terms of its commerce, amplified by buildings in accordance to current rates, not just raw gold). It's not so hard to achieve if there's access to water, or a special resource, or maybe even a cottage. In the long run, it will stay net profitable if it continues to pay for itself assuming that it was founded the last (i.e. its number-of-cities costs are that of the last founded city). On top of that, a city gives some extra culture and production (potentially even GP points). I don't think this check is hard to code in.