Management by Corruption

[Comrade Tribune]

OK, so you have noticed most towns in your magnificent empire produce exactly 1 shield and 1 trade because of waste and corruption, and you think you have a problem? Think again! If you manage these seemingly useless towns correctly, you will see you cannot have enough of them.

First rule: Do not invest! Do not waste a single gold coin on improvements or defense. Those towns do not need any public buildings, and if they are not your only home of a strategic resource, they do not need to be defended. They exist for one, and only one, purpose: To pay taxes!

First thing, make them produce a worker. Even with one shield, this will take them only 10 turns. Let the worker build irrigations. Forget about mines, roads and railroads, but build lots of irrigations. Food is never wasted, so your town will grow. Let it grow to size 7, if it has a river or lake adjacent, otherwise 6 will do.

As soon as optimum size is achieved, appoint as many tax collectors as possible without starvation resulting, usually 2 or 3. Put production on Wealth. This will result in:

1 shield converted to Wealth = 1 gold.

2 or 3 tax collectors collecting = 2 or 3 gold.

1 trade = 1 gold.

Which all adds up to: 4 or 5 gold without investment. Even better, if you have a stable government such as Monarchy or Communism, your size 6 town will support 2 free units, while a size 7 city will even support 4. This is why I advocate growing to size 7, where possible without an aquaeduct. 2 or 4 free units equal another 2 or 4 gold without any prior investment -a better deal you get nowhere.

Whiners may complain about waste and corruption. But I love those quiet places in the countryside, where nothing ever happens, except for gold coins being paid into my treasury. They pay for my rent, and keep my empire afloat.

[player1]

Interesting, I always thought that taxmen & scientists are weak in civ3.
I'll try this soon!

[Beau]

Great idea

This sounds like a really great idea. Thanks for sharing it. This post deserves 5 stars so others can see it.

[Easy Rhino]

Ya know, I've got a few distant coastal cities which are crap for production, but good for population.

excellent...


ER

[adaMada]

cool idea !

-- adaMada

[Enigma]

I will frequently turn *all* of the citizens in a high corruption city into taxmen and let them starve... if you conquer a high pop city then it is way to hard to try to hold onto it culture-wise, I would rather drain money out of the city using taxmen and then turn the city into a worker, thereby disbanding the city.

I hate cultural subversion.

[nato]

One problem, which is what discourages me in getting even semi - productive towns sometimes.

The more cities you have, the higher your corruption is in ALL your cities.

If more cities were strictly a plus, even a small plus, I would get as many as I could. But since they can hurt your good cities, I am less eager.

Anyone know how much each additional city increases empire wide corruption?

[Garrett]

A strategy I've used very effectively is to sell off high corruption cities to foriegn powers. Of course, you have to do so strategically. On one occasion I built a city right on the frontier between my republic and the chinese and then sold it off to the french for one tech and some gold per turn. The result was that I created a "buffer state" between myself and those pesky riders. The deal gave me the benefit of a "mutual protection pact" without the danger of being drawn into a war. The french capital was far enough away that I didn't have to worry about the city becoming devolped unless it was conquered.

On another occasion, I was playing the babylonians and my cultural borders put a city across a narrow channel in my sphere of influence. Over the course of the game the city revolted in my favor three times and three times I sold it off that round to another nation. Each time I made sure that the new owner was both distant and potentially belligerent to any neiboors on the other side of the sea. Within a few rounds tension over the city brought the powers to war each time.

Whenever you sell off a city, the fortifying units are transfered to your capital. This is a little bonus.

Cheers,

Reed

[KLIN-TONN]

this is very clever and well thought out. The only snag I see is that most cities I've had serious corruption problems with were captured cities, bordering unfriendly neighbors. A captured city immediately reverts back to zero culture, of course, and if they don't expand before too long, they're doomed. Rush building a temple after a couple turns, therefore, may prove ultimately useful - even though it requires a little investment.

[Roland Ehnström]

Ehm, in the editor, it sais that Wealth produces 1 gold for each EIGHT shields, not just one gold for one shield. Or?
-- Roland

[evil mookow]

I could never not invest in my cities. I built / conquered / bought the city and I'll be damned if it's just going to sit there and generate gold when it could be built into something so much better. I try to avoid corruption by using commercial civilisations and less corrupt governments.

If you want to start expanding your empire onto another continemt build the forbiden palace (I think thats what it's called but you all know what I mean anyway) and that really does help.

And wouldn't an investment in a marketplace pay off in the long run if you intend to turn the town into a city purely to generate gold? I think part of the challenge of the game is in trying to maintain my civilisation without building a money tree.

[Jaybe]

Originally posted by Roland Ehnström
Ehm, in the editor, it sais that Wealth produces 1 gold for each EIGHT shields, not just one gold for one shield. Or?
-- Roland

You get 1 Gold for every 4 Shields after you discover Economics.

[Comrade Tribune]

Originally posted by Roland Ehnström
Ehm, in the editor, it sais that Wealth produces 1 gold for each EIGHT shields, not just one gold for one shield. Or?
-- Roland

Correct. But the meaning is:

1 shield => 1 gold
8 shields => 1 gold
9 shields => 2 gold
...

Of course I wish they had made that clear in the rule book /Civilopedia.

[surazal]

Re: Management by Corruption

There is one item I do have to disagree with on the "corrupt cities" suggestion... but just one... otherwise it's great advice!

There are some investments that are worth doing in a corrupt city. Namely, anything that has anything to do with adding culture to your overall score. I always go for the temples, libraries, universities, etc when the dough becomes available because then you gain a competitive edge over your opponents in the culture department. Not only that it makes the map look prettier to see your claimed land fill up the gaps between cities (due to expanding culture influence).

[Roland Ehnström]

Ah, yes you are absolutely right Comrade, my mistake.
-- Roland