Shrinking Cities

finbar · January 11, 2000, 23:02

Stumbled on something infuriating last night. The guy I was playing with said he'd seen it happen before, but I hadn't.

I attacked the Japanese capital. It was size 5. As each defender fell, the city decreased one number in size. Stupidly - well, not paying close enough attention, because I was having a ball crunching the place - when I wiped out the last defender, the city disappeared completely.

I realise conquering a size 1 city causes its disappearance (except when Barbs attack and take your size 1 cities, as they sometimes choose to), but I've never come across that sort of shrinkage before.

When I took their next city (size 4 prior to attack), things progressed as per usual - knock out the defenders, city dropped in size, and I occupied it.

Talk about curse out loud!

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finbar
Mono Rules!
#33984591

Smash · January 12, 2000, 02:14

Walls

finbar · January 12, 2000, 05:29

What about 'em? The Japanese capital didn't have a wall. Or is that the point? I'm confused. And possibly stupid.

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finbar
Mono Rules!
#33984591

wonderdog4 · January 12, 2000, 05:36

When you reduce a city to size one, halt your attack until the next turn. It will almost always grow by one the following turn and be empty. Then you can take it and keep it the next turn.

If it so happens that it grows to size two and there is one defender in it, try it one more time. And keep doing it and keep waiting.

99 times out of 100 you will eventually get the city without destroying it -- unless it is a Zulu city, in which case it is better to exterminate than occupy anyway.

War4ever · January 12, 2000, 05:43

Death to the zulus long live the Mongols..... i just destroy whatever gets in my way unless the city is extremely important .....

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They call me Mr. Fierce

icq 30200920

Smash · January 12, 2000, 05:53

Every time you kill a unit in a city without walls the population drops by one.Walls prevent population loss when battles are lost by defenders.

finbar · January 12, 2000, 08:52

Ah. Okay. Live and learn. Ta.

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finbar
Mono Rules!
#33984591

DaveV · January 12, 2000, 09:17

You can use this situation to your advantage sometimes. Wiping a city off the map doesn't give the attacker any techs - he must march into a city to pick up one of your techs. So if you stuff an unwalled city with a number of units equal to its size, the opposition can't capture it - only destroy it (this doesn't help against diplos & spies, of course). Conversely, it can work to your advantage as the attacker to leave city walls in place, or to thin out the population with air and sea attacks, if your goal is to occupy the city.

Carolus Rex · January 12, 2000, 10:11

The same thing that DaveV brought up is also useful if a city with a wonder or two is about to fall early in the game.

Any wonders in a city that is destroyed are also destroyed. Don't know how many times I've burnt AI cities to the ground when I wanted to conquer them and their wonders...

Good to know for both attackers and defenders.

Carolus