Noob ? on conquered cities

[Rag55]

Hi, new to Civ

I have found that upon taking a city I am left with hardly any workable tiles,
as if that cities culture is nonexistant. I am wondering if this city will gain tiles over time? I have tried to send an Artist for culture Bomb, sadly this hasn't made a big difference. Is the Great Artist a good option?

I've also noticed there aren't any buildings in these cities after i capture them. I am begining to question the benefits of actually keeping a conquered city.

-Will a city rebound and claim land overtime ?
-Do captured cities not keep any buildings?
-How could I possibly know if keeping a city will be profitable, and how could it be if its culture is near 0?
-Is the Great Artist a good option?

ty much for all your help.

[lordrune]

When you take over a city, it's initially in 'disorder' and no one does any work. You'll see a disorder symbol, and a number of turns remaining. Once the turns run out, the city will start working (with a culture of 0 - and a small cultural square) - although if the enemy has neighbouring cities they could likely swamp out your new city's culture, certainly at first.
The city will grow culture over time.

But the buildings are all destroyed, yes. You'll need to build new ones to make it develop. *Most* cities will be profitable then, but you need to watch the maintenance costs... if you have too many cities too early, your upkeep costs will be too expensive and you'll have to divert research income to keep your economy afloat - which is not a good thing.

[Rag55]

Hey thx for your help Lordrune

So it seems it may be difficult to make use of a new city since culture is 0 and any surrounding cities will likely outculture the new.

Im guessing it could possibly take a very long time and investment to bring a conquered city to a point of even use of the "fat cross"

also, no buildings in the new city... thats the way it works? wonder what happens to them?

[lordrune]

Im guessing it could possibly take a very long time and investment to bring a conquered city to a point of even use of the "fat cross"

Actually, it's not so bad. One trick I do is to move my culture slider up - sometimes even to 100% - just for a few turns. Assuming the conquered cities have a bit of commerce, this can help their borders grow very rapidly (especially if you've taken out the enemy cities that surround). And if you have universal suffrage, you can buy your culture buildings - theatre is usually the first I get because it's cheap and 3 per turn is a good deal.

I guess you could sum it up by saying it's much easier and faster to bring conquered cities up to speed in the middle-late game than the early game.

[joncnunn]

Here's the things to do to help your newly conquered city can tiles:

#1: Capture (or at least raize) the cities that are using it's tiles.
(Note that this is also why a city site that would look to be under strong influence of a 3rd party if captured is routinely raized to the ground by me)

#2: If you have a state religion, send it to the city in question. This will give the city +1 culture when it comes out of resistance.
If you have no state religion, then send all religions in which you own the holy cities for to give it even more culture.

#3: Get the city connected to your empire.

#4: Usually a theater and one of each temple for each religion are the cheapest local builds for boosting culture, and they also provide happiness as well which is probably needed if the war is still going on. If your Creative, Colossums are also reasonaly priced, but otherwise you may be better off with Market Places.

[Rag55]

Thx again guys, appreciate the info and advice

[Blake]

Captured cities never keep cultural buildings (except wonders and acadamies, altough they stop generating culture), and a random selection of non-cultural buildings are destroyed too. Altough SOME buildings will usually remain.

When conquering, you basically have to conquer extra cities to relieve cultural pressure on your new conquests.

[xxFlukexx]

Yup, Creative helps get some initial culture out as well as Caste System. Putting a lot of people on Artists(that are just starving anyways) can give you at least your first border expansion very quick and give you a great head start towards the next expansion.

Its good to have a 'city protection squad' in place so your army can keep moving and take out another city fast so by the time your first city comes out of resistance, it isn't still covered with enemy culture.