Stopping the cheapness! Inciting revolts

[Brainy]

Hi all... I'm new to this board. But I was wondering if anybody has any good tips on stopping a diplo take-over. What my friend likes to do, is buy all my cities when we're both early in the game (before spies)using diplo's.

There's not much I can do because he doesn't care much about the qualitiy of his own cities or his research rate. All he does is steal and bribe the crap out of my civ. What can I do to stop this? Other than go into democracy. (Which is often too late, by then he's stolen 4-5 of my cities already)

Any help will be much appreciated!

Thanks!



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Who Dares. Wins

[Empress]

1. I believe the magical number of gold is like 550 and the prices to buy your cities double.
2. Courthouses in each city make the price of bribing double
3. Also having a diplomat fortified in your city makes the price go up.
4. Democracy makes cities impossible to bribe, however, watch out for destroyed temples that can throw you into disorder and revolution!

If I am in err someone please tell me but these things seem to work for me.. unless I am playing Markus

[Brainy]

How does having 550 gold do anything? Does it mean that if I have 550 gold, it costs a lot more to bribe a city?

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Who Dares. Wins

[My Wife Hates CIV]

I still say the best defense is to keep the diplos away from your cities. How? I guess a lot depends on where you build your cities. I play MP with a small few from work only now... what I do works well against them. I try and build my cities within low movement terrain (woods, hills, mountains). Keep a watch on the one or two roads leaving the city and diplos will have a hard time getting to them. Also, after having played Ming, Rah and Xin (their type), I've given up on the science path as far as happy wonders go. Chances are someone will have better land than me. Now, I go for the military techs and wonders. Catapults will destroy most anything (thats not fortified) until riflemen as long as it's not on a mountain. So a couple, maybe 3, vet catapults can protect a city very well. Coastal cities are another problem as far as keeping diplos out. But hey, who needs them. With all the vet ironclads floating around they dont last long anyway.

[geofelt]

Remember that it only costs 50% of normal to bribe back a city you used to own.

[Smash]

a diplomat seems to stand a better chance at thwarting if they are in "sleep" mode.Don't think this effects inciting revolts though.

Build your treasury up as much as possible and as geofelt hinted,have your own dips ready to buy back the cities at half price.This will defeat the bribing tactic by attrition.

better yet do as MWHC suggests and head them off.Watch the seas

There seems to be 4 main factors which determine the cost
1.Government type
2.Treasury level(the more gold you have the more your city will cost)
3.proximity to capitol
4-presence of courthouse
[This message has been edited by Smash (edited March 22, 2000).]

[vik]

let's say "BadGuy" bribes one of "Brainy"'s cities. You say if Brainy buys it back, it will be at 50% of the normal cost to bribe it.

Does that mean if BadGuy later tries to bribe that same city again, will it cost BadGuy 50% of what it would normally cost HIM, since he also previously owned it?

just curious. thanks

[Brainy]

Thanks for the help guys... But honestly, there's something here that none of you have pointed out. And perhaps you guys can clarify...

If it cost me 50% of what it cost my opponent to buy. Would it be 50% of my cost for him to buy it a third time?

Also, I like to play the tech lead style of game, which means that I'm usually in the lead for tech. With inciting revolts, they get a tech when subverting my city. And that's what boils me up!

Also, coastal cities are particularly vulnerable. Land a few dips near a coastal city, boom it's gone. I have had an entire side of my country subverted this way which of course makes that ocean unprotected and cuts down my ship-making ability...

One final thing... will more dips in a city make it more expensive to subvert that city?

[Smash]

hmmm...not 100% percent sure but I think there is a turn limit on the 50% cost.Might even be 1 turn.Even if "badguy" rebought the city,it would still cost him more than the noble "Brainy"..so Brainy wins the attrition war.I suggest doing the same thing back.After awhile of this type of game you will begin to see why most play no city bribe games now.Its gets a little boring

[War4ever]

Smash hit the nail right on the head...... play no city bribe..... dips wars are an easy tactic against the ai but in MP they just downright suck and bore the hell out of the game......

Either no city bribe or a max say of five cities this would allow someone to bribe a choke point in an empire which seems realistic to me..... then again maybe not

Personally i prefer no city bribe , this way i dont have to build courthouses lol

seriously though..... most of the people i know and play prefer the no city bribe thing....

Maybe in civ 3 they will not allow city bribing period which seems unrealistic, at least with the current model... or perhaps they will not allow dips , and only spys to do it.....

Still i think that many people would prefer to fight the ai without city bribe.... would make it only slightly harder in reality but then slightly harder ai at this point is what i am looking for when i dont have time to MP

[KhanMan]

Hey War-
Nice to hear that our little game of ring-around-the-mountain-stronghold didn't shake your enjoyment of non-bribing games...



As for the whole bribing thing, I prefer to go the expansionist route: build cities constantly, and it doesn't really matter if he bribes one or two...

-KhanMan the ever paranoid lord of triemere-bribing...

[Scouse Gits]

According to Xin on another thread - and I have yet to find him in error! The 50% going price applies only to the FOUNDER of the city.

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Scouse Git[1]

"CARTAGO DELENDA EST" - Cato the Censor

[Scouse Gits]

There is some numerical data with regard to the cost of bribing cities here. It looks about right in my experience, but I cannot vouch for it.
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Scouse Git[1]

"CARTAGO DELENDA EST" - Cato the Censor

Sorry, guys - link now fixed
[This message has been edited by Scouse Gits (edited March 24, 2000).]

[Brainy]

Thanks SG... But that link was a bad one, if you have the data yourself... Can you send it to me thru email?

I guess the real way to "incubate" a city is to try to surround the vulnerable terrain (ie. terrain that allows easy movement for dips and spies) with defensive units either stacked or in fortresses, until that city has courthouse, and is big enuff to be too expensive to bribe.

Another question... when we get into spies... how many should i fortify in one city to prevent or reasonably cut down probability of stealing/sabotaging?

[finbar]

A fortified spy in a city will sometimes prevent theft of a tech, sometimes not. And if it does stop the theft, it might only be on one occasion. In other words, next time around, the theft could succeed. Problem is, it seems to vary a lot.

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finbar
Mono Rules!
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