There's not much I can do because he doesn't care much about the qualitiy of his own cities or his research rate. All he does is steal and bribe the crap out of my civ. What can I do to stop this? Other than go into democracy. (Which is often too late, by then he's stolen 4-5 of my cities already)

Any help will be much appreciated!

Thanks!

Build your treasury up as much as possible and as geofelt hinted,have your own dips ready to buy back the cities at half price.This will defeat the bribing tactic by attrition.

better yet do as MWHC suggests and head them off.Watch the seas

Does that mean if BadGuy later tries to bribe that same city again, will it cost BadGuy 50% of what it would normally cost HIM, since he also previously owned it?

If it cost me 50% of what it cost my opponent to buy. Would it be 50% of my cost for him to buy it a third time?

Also, I like to play the tech lead style of game, which means that I'm usually in the lead for tech. With inciting revolts, they get a tech when subverting my city. And that's what boils me up!

Also, coastal cities are particularly vulnerable. Land a few dips near a coastal city, boom it's gone. I have had an entire side of my country subverted this way which of course makes that ocean unprotected and cuts down my ship-making ability...

Either no city bribe or a max say of five cities this would allow someone to bribe a choke point in an empire which seems realistic to me..... then again maybe not

Personally i prefer no city bribe , this way i dont have to build courthouses lol

seriously though..... most of the people i know and play prefer the no city bribe thing....

Maybe in civ 3 they will not allow city bribing period which seems unrealistic, at least with the current model... or perhaps they will not allow dips , and only spys to do it.....

As for the whole bribing thing, I prefer to go the expansionist route: build cities constantly, and it doesn't really matter if he bribes one or two...

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Scouse Git[1]

"CARTAGO DELENDA EST" - Cato the Censor

I guess the real way to "incubate" a city is to try to surround the vulnerable terrain (ie. terrain that allows easy movement for dips and spies) with defensive units either stacked or in fortresses, until that city has courthouse, and is big enuff to be too expensive to bribe.

Distance from capital
Your cash
Size of city
Courthouse in city (reduces distance to capital)
City in revolt (half price)

So, build big cities, with courthouses, close to your capital and keep lots of cash on hand to discourage bribery. City walls might help, too, else the briber can reduce the population in the city by killing your defenders.

While many may say that bribing the city to be one of yours is better, ie you get the city intact, you then risk the problem of the other player rebribing the city at half cost, thus losing tech at the same time.....

sometimes its good to flatten small cities to rubble especially in the mid to late game where a size two or three city isnt' all that important at this point in the game.

However early on , any additional city could be a benefit as you take it away from someone and add it to your own collection thus making it almost twice as valuable to take intact.

This is especially important with coastal cities for establishing a stronghold and for removing his potential navy.

?? does that work ??

All this talk about how to use dips and spies have revolved around the assumption that the opponent actually cares about how much it costs to bribe the cities.

Here's the scenario: The only person I play civ with is a friend on a lan. (In net play, games are too long and never get finished, so I've given up playing people I don't know on the net) He likes to go full military/expansionist route, giving little regard to research and improving the quality of his conquered cities. He steals all the techs he needs, either by bribing or stealing, or both (first stealing, then bribing the city thereby getting 2 techs)

The coastal cities are particularly vulnerable for reasons mentioned in previous posts. And until ironclads, there's little u can do to interdict triemes and caravels from unloading the dips right into the cities.

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Webmaster---Come to the Civworld Forums

"If you cannot beat them, don't join them, instead corrupt them, make them join you, then throw them off a cliff."

Also, sorry for being so newbie in the civ community at large... but what is: WLTPD? I have been playing civ since civ 1 but I haven't been keeping up in the online civ community so im afraid I don't know all the abbreviations...

And when you bribe a city you get all the units within one square of the city too, i believe.

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SandMonkey

"Shut up brain or I'll stab you with a qtip"
-Homer Simpson