Not only can you not take "empty" cities in Civ5, you also can be damaged by that empty city. Why does Civ5 allow cities with absolutely no military protection or basic walls/defenses bombard enemy units? Is it supposed to help vs choking? Is it to encourage city spammers?

I know you guys hate warmongers, but it's really ridiculous in the ancient and classical eras that you basically cannot take cities until you research iron working and connect it. In other words, this really forces players to spam cities. The spammer will completely overwhelm the other player with his research/tech, gold, and production (couple that with France...) unless that player does the same. Why bother making Wonders or units until IW?

The warmonger is the counter to the spammer. Let warmongers make war!
1. Lower basic city defense.
2. Increase garrisoned city defense.
3. Don't allow unguarded cities to bombard the enemy.
4. Create happiness penalty for ungarrisoned (empty) cities.

GO!


Am I way off-base here?