"Here, have some pretty trinkets" - Buying cities from the AI

[_Tristan_]

lol, did you actually MAKE money on that trade?

Not really but at that time I had money to spare and I later exchanged Aleppo for Tbilisi

[SadCat]

Both times I received a city as a cease fire inducement I was not of that city religion. I did not receive units. Both were castles not cities come to think of it that may make a deference? Yet every time I give one to the pope he gets new units no matter what religion it was. So what auto-garrison script are you using? If it is making it to easy remove it but please tell me its name. I may have to try it. One of the times was in L.T.C. not 1.02 if that makes a difference. I do not have the data to even try to say what are the requirements needed to get free units. Looks like some have and others like me never have. Think I need to buy a city or two. SadCat

[Ramses II CP]

In vanilla 1.02 you almost always get units from buying or swapping. If the town/castle can train some of your units from it's buildings, you'll probably get some of those. Otherwise if there are mercenaries in the area, you might get some of those (Good way to get elephants in the ME). Only if neither of those is true should you get no units.

In my AAR I've been swapping my away across Europe, and I've gotten troops every time. Even at Durazzo, where there were no buildings at all, I got merc Knights.

[Fisherking]

I tried this last night and only got very demanding after offering 12000 for an HRE city... I didn't want to offer more as I can take it easy enough but how do you get them so cheaply? I haven't had that luck!

[ReiseReise]

Some cities they just won't give up, they are not going to sell their important trade cities, only Fortress, etc

[phonicsmonkey]

I'm not sure about the coding of this but anecdotally I can say I've found it easier to buy cities from factions with whom I have good relations and/ or an alliance, and also easier if my global reputation is good (although this seems to have less of an impact)

also remember the AI will not sell if it is down to three territories or less, will never sell its capital, and is unlikely to sell its highest-earning trade city

I think it must be tied somehow to the merc pool - there were no mercs available in the countryside around dijon, and when I bought it I got no free garrison...