Getting out of desparate financial situations.

[The_Cortez]

I thought I would post one method for getting out of a difficult financial situation that has enhance my enjoyment of the game. Others may add their own methods.

Playing as Carthage I found I was growing much too fast, each turn a new city would expand, and the unrest and squalor was rising.

My simply $$$ did not stretch. With cities growing faster than I could keep them happy, at war with Rome and the Numids, I was broke and facing rebellion in much of my empire.

So, I used this trick, which I have used before in other games. I gave all my cities to the Numidians, who were glad to have them.

Then, the same turn, I simply moved the armies back into the cities, exterminating as I went. The net was I made $50,000 and reduced the population of all of my cities to manageable levels. I was able to build imcome producing improvements and eventually became a World Power.

Some might believe this takes advantage of the AI's inability to occupy their new cities during my turn, and that is true. This post might lead to CA preventing this little maneuver in the next release. I hope not.

Additionally, one would think the AI would be too smart to fall for this trick twice in the same game. Not true! I have found that any nation you are at war with will gladly take the gift of a city. An ally may not! And you can do this more than once per turn, I have done it three times per turn.

Finally, with impressive growth rates, I was able to rebuild my population quickly. With a trade-based economy, the loss of taxes with lower porpulation didn't hurt me. With a slow-grower like Germania or Parthia, this may not be your best move.

Enjoy.

[Viking]

Yeah it`s a great thing to do. It`s also good if you have a rebellious city.

[Dutch_guy]

yeah I used to do it , but since squalor is reduced a bit in 1.2 it's not really worth it every time , plus when playing RTR ( rome total realism ) I tend to be glad when my citys get big enough to support my troop building plands

[PseRamesses]

I used to do that a lot in v1.2 plus let a city rebel and take it back again and enslaving or exterminating its populance. With RTR I found myself not having to do it anymore unless playing the Seleucids the eastern cities has some 10-12% growth rate.