Should I keep or should I raze?

[LeonDeV]

I've been reading through the threads and I've noticed that some people say to just raze a city after conquering but then other civilizations come in and take the land and resources.

I always keep them as a "trophy" that I conquered a civilization. Should I continue to keep these cities or just raze them? Does it depend on earth size/time/difficulty level/opponents?

[Metaliturtle]

I almost always keep 'em. Great way to bribe AI into giving a tech or two and creating border tensions between two otherwise friendly opponents. I'll fold them into my empire if it's close enough to my borders. If the city is in a poor location or doesn't really have anything of value I may raze it early in the game if I was going to put a settler near there anyway.

[Ming]

It all depends on the city location, city value, my money situation, the ability to defend it... many different factors come into play. Early in the game, if I can afford them and if they are adjacent to my empire, and they are decent cities, I usually keep them. But later, when I'm on a roll destroying civs, I usually only keep a few key cities and raze the rest. I don't want to waste the effort to defend them, and they cost too much to keep them all. But again, it all depends on a lot of different factors.

[Sarco]

In the early game, you only want to get the cities that are really good. Let's say you have 4 cities and you attack a 4-city neighbour. Chances are that you want to keep his capital and perhaps just one other city if it's good.

Sometimes you might want to keep more cities if you have the economy and the cities occupy great locations/holy cities etc.

Later in the game, it still depends on economy but then you perhaps want to conquer everything on another continent in order to release it as a vassal for example, or give it back to your enemy once you have vassalized them. In the late game of course you want to keep most on the way to domination, but that's a bit different.

As a general rule, I always assume a city should be razed and try to find arguments for why I should keep it - not the other way around.

[Metaliturtle]

Does anyone else rename the enemy cities after you capture them and then give them back? Something fun about Monty only having one city called Sh*ttsville.

[Willem]

Does anyone else rename the enemy cities after you capture them and then give them back? Something fun about Monty only having one city called Sh*ttsville.

No, I can't say that I've ever tried that.

[wodan11]

The AI will keep naming new cities after the first unused one in the queue.

[LeonDeV]

(I'm new to Civ, so I'll have a lot of dumb questions like this one )

If I keep a city but then it turns out to be useless, can I raze it later? I'm in the middle of conquering the Russians (3 cities left) and there is one city that is crap, thought it has an Iron mine so I kept it. Now it's just costing money to defend it cause it's right on the border and it's in a dessert.

[wodan11]

(I'm new to Civ, so I'll have a lot of dumb questions like this one )

If I keep a city but then it turns out to be useless, can I raze it later?

Not easily. You have to gift it to an AI and then declare war on that AI, then conquer the city again.

[Willem]

You have to gift it to an AI and then declare war on that AI, then conquer the city again.

I though you weren't able to raze a city once you've owned it? So giving it to another civ then capturing it again wouldn't help.

[Unimatrix11]

I know you cant raze cities you founded (and were taken by the enemy and then retaken by you) - but i am not sure, if you cant raze cities you REconquered but didnt found yourself - additional elaboration on this would be appreciated. Thx.

[Blaupanzer]

Note I very seldom raze cities unless their placement interferes with my near-term plans. But I do get the chance an awful lot. AFAIK, the question is citizen orientation. As I understand it, you can raze a city upon taking it as long as the majority of the population is not your citizens. However, you can get rid of it by starving/depriving it to the point of revolt. If at the border, it will jump to the other border civ upon the second revolt, unless you originally took it from them. Revolts are hard on the garrison, so minimize that too. Note that any of your own culture activities acting on the city will turn more and more of the citizens into your own.

[James Lofton]

The only situations where I raze cities is when fighting a major power that has an entire continent(or most of the continent) to his/her self. I will raze its coastal cities so it wipes out the potential for naval warfare. I have noticed a key strategy is having naval/air superiority over your opponents.

In a scenario a few months back, I was taken aback when Churchill declared war on me. Churchill doesn't normally do such things(at least in my experience), but I was prepared. I immediately went after his four coastal cities(that had about 90% of his navy docked idly), razed them, and it was smooth sailing from that point on. A few turns later, he offered capitulation. It was a war that made little sense from his standpoint.

Churchill is actually quite the enigma in this game. He normally isn't a war monger, and when waging war, does it so slyly. I have also noticed that when I(or others) are in a major war zone, Churchill is sitting neck deep in it with a few settlers waiting to seize the opportunity.

[Blaupanzer]

The "keep neutral and hang back with settlers" AI strategy is used by several of the leaders including both Indian leaders, Churchill (see above), and Sitting Bull. Even realizing that their costs are not what mine are, I have no idea how they afford building cities so far from their capitols. Separate note: A lot of the civs keep a settler or two hanging around all game, apparently waiting for contingencies.

[joncnunn]

Here's the list of situations in which I'll raize:

1. Can't hold the city.

2. City is suffering too much 3rd party Cultural pressure.

3. City is absurdly placed.