Assault exploit?

[Hans Lemurson]

Whenever a city is attacked, it loses one population, right? If you attack a city multiple times in a turn, then it will lose a population each time. If you have 5 guys who each attack once, then immediately retreat, you can kill-off 5 population in a single turn.

Is there any way to prevent this from occurring? Do city-walls prevent population-loss from assaults? Could it be changed so that the city only loses a population if a defender dies? (A defender would only die if the attacker brought enough forces to constitute a threat, and was willing to commit to a long enough battle to get a kill, and so would likely suffer losses too)

Also, how much less would you respect me as a person if I took around a cheap stack of horse-archers and systematicly depopulated enemy cities that I couldn't conquer? (I'm sure I'm not the first person to have thought of this though.)

[hexagonian]

Is there any way to prevent this from occurring?

Simple...Don't do it, since it is an exploit.

[Maquiladora]

Whenever a city is attacked, it loses one population, right? If you attack a city multiple times in a turn, then it will lose a population each time. If you have 5 guys who each attack once, then immediately retreat, you can kill-off 5 population in a single turn.

Is there any way to prevent this from occurring? Do city-walls prevent population-loss from assaults? Could it be changed so that the city only loses a population if a defender dies? (A defender would only die if the attacker brought enough forces to constitute a threat, and was willing to commit to a long enough battle to get a kill, and so would likely suffer losses too)

It's not a sure thing though, so you could be wasting units.

BOMBARD_KILL_POP_CHANCE 0.1
ASSAULT_KILL_POP_CHANCE 0.4
CAPTURE_KILL_POP_CHANCE 1.0

But yes, if you have a stack of old units laying around that you don't want to upgrade (WHY?), then this is a good use.

(I'm sure I'm not the first person to have thought of this though.)

Nope, I did exactly the same thing in MP games a few times (this was without upgrades available then). Looking back though they would've been better spent on disbanding them in my cities to rush other things, or using them as lookout, or if they're quick using them to pillage the enemy en masse. Whatever return was the best.

[Hans Lemurson]

Ah, but you see, I retreated immediately, and so took minimal casualties. That is what makes it so exploitable.

[Maquiladora]

Ah, but you see, I retreated immediately, and so took minimal casualties. That is what makes it so exploitable.

Then it depends what you attack with and what is defending the city. As the defenders get a free ranged attack as your retreating IIRC, the unit could die.

I think it's just the AI not defending itself well enough though. If you can get a weak army inside it's borders and toy with it's cities, that is an AI problem, not an exploit with assaulting. But by all means use it if you need the leg up