Would this be a valid strategy?

[Brael]

I was thinking back to civ 3 where enslavement would be used on barb cities to make the barbarians build your worker force for you. I was thinking of how that could be adapted to civ 4 and was wondering, would it be possible to always be at war with a civ and leave them with only a small handful of cities, then as they produce more units farm your military some exp and GG points off those cities? I'm trying to figure out what the downsides to this would be. So far I've come up with war weariness which can be largely/fully handled and an increased likelyhood that the civ being farmed would beg others to fight you giving you more wars, potentially ones you wouldn't want.

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

Re: Would this be a valid strategy?

Originally posted by Brael
I was thinking back to civ 3 where enslavement would be used on barb cities to make the barbarians build your worker force for you. I was thinking of how that could be adapted to civ 4 and was wondering, would it be possible to always be at war with a civ and leave them with only a small handful of cities, then as they produce more units farm your military some exp and GG points off those cities? I'm trying to figure out what the downsides to this would be. So far I've come up with war weariness which can be largely/fully handled and an increased likelyhood that the civ being farmed would beg others to fight you giving you more wars, potentially ones you wouldn't want.

Your last point would seem to be the big issue. You might end up taking a hit diplomatically ("You declared war on our friend") and there is always the risk that your farm civ will end up as someone powerful's vassal.

Moreover, hunting experience for your units is risky. Sure, it can be done, but if the AI you're using for an experience farm is weak and their units are obsolete, you'll be getting experience one point at a time. That's tedious. And if they aren't weak, you'll lose valuable units.