Why can't I draft?

[Purest Warrior]

I'm running a thriving Babylonian democracy, but as I'm spread out on 10+ islands, I often have the problem of rogue troops showing up on my turf, on some faraway little island.

Thats when I need to draft a few ekstra units for defence, but, alas, I can't. I can only draft on my main island, even if I have barracks in other places.

Can anyone tell me what's going on?

[Arathorn]

At first blush, I would guess city size. You can only draft from a city of size 7+ (I think, 6 might work). If it's a faraway little island, it might be having growth problems....

If that's not it, I don't know what it is.

Can you draft from a city full of foreign nationals?

Arathorn

[Purest Warrior]

Nope, it's the size thing. I didn't know. Thanx, man.
I'll try adding a few english workers to see if they're just as lousy soldiers as laborers.

[Bilo]

Originally posted by Arathorn

Can you draft from a city full of foreign nationals?

Arathorn

No, you can only draft citizens of your nationality, also you can't draft when the city is resisting.

[Purest Warrior]

At first blush, I would guess city size. You can only draft from a city of size 7+ (I think, 6 might work). If it's a faraway little island, it might be having growth problems....

I do indeed have growth problems: It takes about 2000 years to build a harbor with 99% corruption (in a full grown democracy) - I might as well have built a colony on Mars.

No, you can only draft citizens of your nationality, also you can't draft when the city is resisting.

So if if I draft from a city with 4 nationals and 2 foreign nationals, I will be left with a city of 3 nationals and 2 foreign nationals?

[Bilo]

Originally posted by Purest Warrior

So if if I draft from a city with 4 nationals and 2 foreign nationals, I will be left with a city of 3 nationals and 2 foreign nationals?

Yes. If you weren't a democracy, you could have pop rushed the unit production, which would have used the foreigners first.

[Willem]

Originally posted by Bilo


Yes. If you weren't a democracy, you could have pop rushed the unit production, which would have used the foreigners first.

But isn't that contrary to the Geneva Convention? The UN should have a word with those people at Firaxis.

[Purest Warrior]

Originally posted by Willem


But isn't that contrary to the Geneva Convention? The UN should have a word with those people at Firaxis.

When you're a tyrant you don't sign those conventions

[Bluefrog]

You also have to get Nationalism before you can draft, regardless of city size.

[pchang]

rush buy

Don't you have any extra cash lying around? Rush buy. (if not troops, then at least the harbor).

[Purest Warrior]

Re: rush buy

Originally posted by pchang
Don't you have any extra cash lying around? Rush buy. (if not troops, then at least the harbor).

Yeah, I would and I do, but with 18 cities w/ 1 shield production, that's going to cost me a lot of money.
Usually, I actually buy the harbor at a point when I get sick of waiting for for these pathetic little towns to grow/get access to resources.

I can't help thinking that it would actually be better for me to just forget about building these costly outposts and just focus on my main island, where corruption is considerably lower. The surplus gold from my early cities seems to be sucked up by my expansion adventures, and these new towns will never contribute anything, but costly wars and logistic heartaches, before the game ends.

All I am saying is that I corruption levels are to high. Not until I have built (bought) courthouse and police station can the city produce. Not until I have built (bought) harbor, temple, and cathedral can the city grow. That is costly.

I'm not whining. I guess everybody has that problem.

PW

[pchang]

Rush Buy Strategies

There are a number of ways to jump start the system.

1) Set up unit farms. Set one or two of your inner cities to build the most expensive unit that can be built in 1 turn. Send these units out in a chain (roads, transports, whatever you can manage) and disband them in your far outposts for their shields.
2) Set science to 0 for a few turns and save up as much money as fast as possible for a rush buying round.
3) Use a combination of methods 1 and 2.
4) Rush buy harbors in all your outposts, then switch to communism. Then burn population to build courthouses and police stations. Then, switch governments back. This is most useful for religious civilizations. You can set up worker farms a la method 1 to get population out there fast. Better yet, join up captured workers and burn them.
5) Send out workers to chop down trees nearby and irrigate/mine as much as possible nearby.