Cannot gift units to city states?

[player]

You cant even gift units to city states that you are the suzerin of? however its spelled...

A declared friend of mine started a war with a city state that i was suzerin of, i cant attack my friend to defend the city state and i cant help the city state either?

[Dray Prescot]

What I do in that situation is hire control of the City State's units and have them surround the City so that the other power (Civ) can not attack the City without attacking my units first. But you need to completely surround the City, other wise he will use ranged units to lower it's defenses and then capture it from that one tile next to the City that you do not occupy.

Another thing that you can do is hire the City States military units and then upgrade them to your current more advanced unit types. That way when the 30 turns pass, the City State now has more advanced units to defend itself with in the future. You can do this even before the other CIV even declares War on them.

Another thing that you can do, if you are suzerain of the City State (and it is close enough to you) is to surround the City with your OWN military units, but that ties up your miliary units. It is better to hire the City State's units, if they have enough units and you can afford the hiring cost

[player]

That is a good idea, about renting their forces and upgrading their units.

[Dray Prescot]

But while you control them (during the 30 turns) surround their Capital (only) City with those units if you can, sometimes their own units, i.e. builders can get in the way. That is the best way to keep the City State from being conquered (for those 30 turns) by another Civ.

But it does cost you the upgrade costs which can be a lot of money, and it makes them more expensive to hire in the future. However, if you really Wanted to use those units for a military operation, you would probably want them to be up to date anyway.

Hired City State units, particularly early in the game, can change the balance of military forces considerably and suddenly. It is one of the rewards for cultivating City States. Even if you do not hire them, they will still be at War with your enemies. I once had a City State that I was suzerain over, use it's own units to Capture and DESTROY 2 Cities of a Civilization I was at WAR with (this happened very early in the game, around 2000 BC) while I was busy fighting (and conquering) the other 2 Cities of that Civilization.

[player]

I also did that in a previous game, payed 400 some gold and got control of about 4 or 5 warriors, then wiped out a second civ with them and got a large landmass to myself for early game.