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City Walls or not City Walls that is the question
I agree with Birdman but with the following caveat: I do not build these city walls unless I absolutely have to. Early in the game when Slavery is a danger, city walls are sometimes the best choice on the frontier when the slaver nation is in close proximity but I always regret every city wall I build. At this early point in the game the time taken away from building up your population and the support cost of the city walls dampens progress within my nation. For every city wall built I could build an aqueduct or most of a granary. At a support cost of 3 in the early game if I have built city walls universally not only have I delayed other more important building progects but I am taking a chunk of change out of my per turn revenues early in the game. The best way to deal with slavers is to spot them with your own specialists and either boot them out or kill them. My favorite is to capture them and put them to work in my own mines thereby covering my costs for going out and having track them down in the first place!
Also, if you are mass settling as you should be, then your outer cities (at least) will only spend a small amount of time with a population higher than one during the early slaver period. A slaver can't hurt you when you are only a one. If you haven't built a granery yet in a city close to a slaver nation you can generally control the amount of time this city spends at 2 population often cutting it to 1 or 2 turns. Just make sure you have a unit to accompany your new settler or they are easy pickings. Building a couple of Warriors or Phalanx to protect the city and its progeny is cheaper, more versitile and dampens science output and growth less than building a city wall. Besides as soon as you build a city wall you are going to start to feel like you have to protect that city and things spiral from there. If you don't have to protect that city don't get sucked in. And if it is only a 1 city producing a settler if is easy to pick up and run. Just disband leave an unimportant location you may avoid a war when you can't afford one or at least choose where you will fight it.
Later in the game I build city walls for exactly the purpose that The Birdman suggests. By the Renaisance the cost of a City wall in both construction time and upkeep is far more negligable. They can be built fairly quickly and even their 'rush buy' a fairly affordable.
I agree with Birdman but with the following caveat: I do not build these city walls unless I absolutely have to. Early in the game when Slavery is a danger, city walls are sometimes the best choice on the frontier when the slaver nation is in close proximity but I always regret every city wall I build. At this early point in the game the time taken away from building up your population and the support cost of the city walls dampens progress within my nation. For every city wall built I could build an aqueduct or most of a granary. At a support cost of 3 in the early game if I have built city walls universally not only have I delayed other more important building progects but I am taking a chunk of change out of my per turn revenues early in the game. The best way to deal with slavers is to spot them with your own specialists and either boot them out or kill them. My favorite is to capture them and put them to work in my own mines thereby covering my costs for going out and having track them down in the first place!
Also, if you are mass settling as you should be, then your outer cities (at least) will only spend a small amount of time with a population higher than one during the early slaver period. A slaver can't hurt you when you are only a one. If you haven't built a granery yet in a city close to a slaver nation you can generally control the amount of time this city spends at 2 population often cutting it to 1 or 2 turns. Just make sure you have a unit to accompany your new settler or they are easy pickings. Building a couple of Warriors or Phalanx to protect the city and its progeny is cheaper, more versitile and dampens science output and growth less than building a city wall. Besides as soon as you build a city wall you are going to start to feel like you have to protect that city and things spiral from there. If you don't have to protect that city don't get sucked in. And if it is only a 1 city producing a settler if is easy to pick up and run. Just disband leave an unimportant location you may avoid a war when you can't afford one or at least choose where you will fight it.
Later in the game I build city walls for exactly the purpose that The Birdman suggests. By the Renaisance the cost of a City wall in both construction time and upkeep is far more negligable. They can be built fairly quickly and even their 'rush buy' a fairly affordable.
- just remember this have to be done in the same turn as the soothsay only lasts for 1 turn (soothsay first, then use the spy for whatever purpose).
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