Unfinished buildings are destroyed instantly when city is reduced??

[KenR7A]

question is in the title..... I was building a wonder in a city and it was about 98 percent done when the enemy attacked. I rang the bell, so everyone ran to safety. I sent my army to crush theirs but in the craziness, they were able to reduce my city. I re-captured it, but my wonder was gone! They werent attacking my wonder, so what gives? Is that part of the game??

[shirleyrocks]

Maybe there's a special case for Wonders but I know that if you've started construction on a building and lose your city, you can continue construction.

Did somebody else build the Wonder first maybe? If someone else beats you to it, you lose all you work.

[Inverse Icarus]

sidebar: never ring the bell.

[FrustratedPoet]

Originally posted by Uber KruX
sidebar: never ring the bell.

Yeah, they should rename it the "Walk away very slowly with your backs to the enemy" button.

[Sarxis]

Never ring the bell? Are you guys kidding?

[FrustratedPoet]

Originally posted by Anun Ik Oba
Never ring the bell? Are you guys kidding?

I find that it serves no real benefit. If I don't have an army nearby the enemy will destroy whatever tower my villies are hiding in just as quickly as wiping them out one by one. If I do have an army around then my villies will be OK and the cost of having one or two of them die will be off-set by the fact that I won't completely halt my economy in that city.

It is sometimes a good idea to manually garrison some villies in a tower/fort to buy you some time, but sounding the bell and forcing EVERY worker in the city to stop and move (very slowly) towards safety just doesn't seem sensible to me.

[KenR7A]

now that I think of it, it is pretty darn slow. but still, what about the unfinished wonder issue??

[ayronis]

I think that the citizens begin firing arrows out of any buildings they are garrisoned in. That, as I understand it, is the main advantage of ringing the bell. The more citizens in a single building, the more they fire.

I have left them in the fields to die, and I have rung the bell... and everytime I've always preferred the results of ringing the bell.

[Inverse Icarus]

ringing the bell sends all the villies in the city radius in, even the ones on the fringe mining metal or chopping wood. they hardly ever make it alive.

select the nearby villagers and garrison them.

i often refer to the sound as the "victory bell".

[Snotty]

To bell or not to bell? I think it all comes down to having time to micro. If you are trying to manage a battle elsewhere and your opponent has sent a raid to divide your attention, then I think the only real option is to ring the bell, take the econ hit, and manage your main battle all that much more effectively.

Although I completly agree, If you have the time to micro your villies you should do so.

And sorry Ken, still no answer to your question....

[Solver]

In other RTS games with the Bell, like Age of Empires, you would never see a good player ringing it. It's too much of an econ hit. Much better to quickly drag a box around nearby citizens and garrison them manually. Doesn't bring your econ to a 100% halt.

[HalfLotus]

My opponents have no trouble runnning to my wood camp and killing them so I find that my citizens are much safer in the city than outside.

Early in the game, it only takes 2-4 citizens to get your city at full attack power. So you're fine only moving a handful in there. There is an icon on bottom right for attack power...says like 0/3. With 2-4 citizens in a city itll be 3/3. I dont know about larger cities.

Also ranged troops provide twice the attack bonus as melee troops when garrisoned.

[Solver]

Garrisoning Bowmen inside can actually be an interesting option for countering a rush.

[Brian Reynolds]

To answer the original question--

Unfinished buildings are destroyed when a city is -captured- not just when it is -reduced-. To be clear, a city is "reduced" when its hit points are reduced to zero, and being reduced is a prerequisite for being captured. But to be captured a city has to be reduced AND the enemy has to have superior military forces in the vicinity: each living "figure" counts as a point of military (so a full health infantry unit counts as 3, whereas a cataphract or tank is only 1, in abstraction/recognition of the fact that infantry are much more important in "city fighting"). Also towers count I think 6 and castles 12 if they're right nearby.

Brian

[KenR7A]

ahhh, thanks so much Mr. Reynolds. He did, in fact, capture my city during the fight. I wasn't clear about this earlier, sorry about that guys. thanks again!