I stole a City someone else did the hard work weakening

[Fluff Bunny]

Had to silently applaud the devs today. Turn away if you want surprises.

I, Egypt, was building my army to the border with the Etruscans (workshop mod) when Persia beat me to the punch and invaded first.

"That's OK," I thought, "I'll wait a few turns, let them move their army to the Persian front, lose some units and then I'll attack". Worked great. When I did attack took two cities quickly and then saw a city Persia had been working on didn't look like they could take it that turn, maybe the next. So I parked a couple of swordsmen just slightly further away than the attacking Persians (so Persians would get hit first) and waited.

I've don't similar tactics like this time and time again across all sorts of games in this genre. Never had any consequences. Anyhow spoiler tag in case anyone doesn't want surprise ruined:

Naturally, the next turn Persia gave the city a good battering and almost took it. I quickly marched in and took the almost defeated city with one unit. I patted myself on the back for a job well done. Then I was surprised, very next turn THERE WAS realistic consequences. An event, Persia, mad as hell, demanding I give back the city I stole. I laughed out loud. Refused and Persia declared war (not a problem, I was planning on going after them soon anyway, and with them attacking me, it brought my allies (the Greeks) in to the fight too.

I just had to applaud the devs for the attention to details. I've done a similar thing in so many games over the years and never had any consequences for it. Good job on the realistic response devs!

[harken23]

One of my faves is finding where a nation is attacking a tribe/barbarian hut, and I have a single unit there to go in and land the final blow on the unit inside and poach it. Helps if you're not at war with the nation, of course. They get quite mad, but I haven't had anyone declare war on me just for that. Yet.

[Fluff Bunny]

Originally posted by harken23:

One of my faves is finding where a nation is attacking a tribe/barbarian hut, and I have a single unit there to go in and land the final blow on the unit inside and poach it. Helps if you're not at war with the nation, of course. They get quite mad, but I haven't had anyone declare war on me just for that. Yet.

Well to be fair, the event had options that wouldn't lead to war, but I didn't want to give anything up to them so chose the war option.

[Twelvefield]

Poaching a city from the AI is absolutely delicious. One of the best moments ever, really, in the history of video gaming.

[krabdr]

The flip side to this is very frustrating. When another civ steals the barb or tribe site that you've been working to capture, now that's ugly. So yea, stealing a city site from another civ is always great, but having them steal one from you, ugh! That's a DoW in some cases.

[mk11]

Recently I had the event where you can sponsor 4 rebels in another nation's city. I had that, the rebels took the city, then I stepped in and took the city from the rebels. That was sweet!

[IceMatrix]

This is the way. City Poaching is an absolute necessity. Handle the consequences as you see fit. Sounds like you said "you want a piece of this?" and Weakened Persia was like...sure thing.
A great plan comes to fruition especially with that ally on deck. But if you didn't have the ally, and were not prepared to defend against them...pay the tribute. It's whatever the best strategy is given your position, but ALWAYS poach cities. Well done.