How do you split an empire?

[rjmatsleepers]

Originally posted by Salaambo
For clarificaion, regardless of whether or not the AI Civ builds a palace somewhere else or not, there will still be a schism.

Are you sure that your enemy must be "stronger" than you? I thought schism will occur in any civ as long as

a) there is an open slot,

b) the civ is reasonably sized (i.e. they have at least 10 cities)

The real interesting question is does schism occur when a human player loses their capital in a multi-player game?

Conventional wisdom certainly says you have to be larger (not stronger unless I am misremembering). I rarely played a conquest game so I can't vouch for this from personal experience.

Similarly, I never played MP so I can't comment on what happens there.

RJM

[Peaster]

I have probably played hundreds of conquest games, and have (almost) never seen a split, because I am always larger than the AI. So, I think size matters here.

Not sure about MP, but I doubt a split can occur (surely the designers saw the problems with that). I've played about 5 PBEMs, and I have never seen a split.

[rjmatsleepers]

I mis-typed above.

Conventional wisdon says the AI has to be larger in order to split.

RJM

[St Leo]

In my (distant) experience, the size of the attacker's civilization doesn't matter.

1. You have to take the capital while the AI still has lots of other cities. This is tricky, as capitals tend to be in the well-defended center. They are usually taken last, so splits are rare.

2. The AI has to be broke, so that they can't pay $1000 to move their palace.

3. There have to be fewer than 7 civilizations around. Again, by the time there are fewer than 7 civilizations, the capital is the best-defended part of an AI's realm.

An AI can split several times over if it's large enough and the new capital city is in striking range of your armies.

Oh, and an AI can split a different AI. I've played enough hands-off games as Barbarians to know that.:-)

[Salaambo]

You have to take the capital while the AI still has lots of other cities. This is tricky, as capitals tend to be in the well-defended center. They are usually taken last, so splits are rare.

Tricky? All you have to do is send a spy in with a nuclear device, or drop 7 or 8 cruise missiles and send a spy together with a riflemen through an enemies railroad system to walk into the capital.

It is comparitavely easy when compared to the pay-off.

A typical AI city will have maybe 4 defenders in the late stage of the game, where as the capital may have simply one more (total of 5) It is so worth using the additional couple of cruies missiles to capture the capital if it means the rival civ loses half of their cities instead of just 1.

Oh and the rival civ does not have to be broke, even if they pay to move their palace, the schism will still occur.