Do you tend to help weak civs?

[Spec]

I almost always do. I always go after the strongest and when I have to many cities on a large or huge maps and I give the newly conquered cities to the weakest civs. Do you do that? I mean, do you help weak civs or you obliterate them on first sight?

Spec.

[DrFell]

Yes I love to help out weak civs, by adding them to my glorious empire.

[Satis5d]

If they're close enough to be productive cities - they're instant toast. If they're way over in never-never land I'm their best friend.

[godinex]

Yes, for the diplomatic victory!

[Pius Popprasch]

Sometimes I help them for balance of power reasons. I give them excess strategic resources for free and sometimes suitable cities. I would like to give them strong defensive units. Not on my own continent, though.

[Bad Lieutenant]

I love getting those smaller guys to ally with me against a larger opponent, usually right before I sue for peace. Then I supply as much coin, resources, and workers as I can afford to help them fight my battles for me.

[Rotten999]

Makes me think of the old Civ 1 tutorial "general principle." Crush weaker civs, make peace with stronger ones, or something to that effect.

I've heard people talk about making "client states" but I've never been able to get this to happen. In fact, the only time I've ever gotten tribute is during a peace negotiation with a clearly prostrate enemy.

Even the best treated rival seems to become ungrateful as the game progresses. Let's just kill them, I think.

[petey]

If they're beside a strong civ, I like to give them resources and tech so that they can compete. It keeps the other civ from taking them over and becoming bigger and when I finally get around to smashing that guy, I'll have a nice ally to rush in from the other side. A lot of times, that weakens my ally, too, and then I can take his territory when the war is over.

[Inverse Icarus]

quoted from disney's "Education For Death" (anti-nazi war propaganda):

"the world belongs to the strong! and to the brutal! the rabbit is a coward and deserves to die, i spit on the rabbit. I hate the rabbit, there is no room for weaklings"

[Jawa Jocky]

The problem with giving week civs your captured cities, is they usually manage to lose them. Everytime I've tried it the city either flips, is traded, or is conquered by the Civ I took it from in the first place.

Once you have all of their tech, and have sold them as a contact, and they have no $ there is no point in letting them live.

[Ghengis Brom]

Yes and no. As some have already said, it depends on their proximity to my empire. If they're neighbors then I usually subjugate them fairly early in the game. If they are located far from my borders then I may help them but this depends on a couple factors as well. First, are they located near a rival civ, if they are then I will pump the weaker civ up with just enough gold and tech to be a nuisance to the rival civ. If they're out in the middle of nowhere or on a small island by themselves I will give them just enough that they remain on friendly terms with me and stay far enough behind me in tech that they're not a threat. This way if war breaks out they are less likely to side against me.

[ixnay]

Because I rarely go after stronger nations head on, I usually give weaker civs on other continents techs and resources. If possible, I'll station troops in their borders and sign MPPs with them so that I can get an excuse to go after stronger civs. Why do I do all this? I guess I just like to root for the underdogs.

[Skanky Burns]

I tend to help weaker civs - like the Romans - as I am normally crushing the biggest other civ and it is nice to have help to distract their forces. Also I don't want to have to leave units behind to guard all these new cities. The solution - donate to a weak civ, help them get stronger to put up a better fight, and help me finish destroying the other civ.

[Elucidus]

I usually help them out, but then again, I usually pay them to go to way with my enemies which makes them the weakest civ. And if they don't like me, or don't trade fairly with me, then I conquer them.

[ZigZac]

I try not to, but if they're really close to me and they keep violating my borders, and I have to keep warning them. I finally get sick of it and kill them off. But I have noticed since I downloaded the patch is the AI does trade tech a lot. I am just glad I can stay technologically ahead of the AI.