City-States and Maintaining Relations...What's the Point?

agoodfella

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Obviously if you are nearing the end and are fishing for votes, yeah it makes sense.

If you complete a mission for some coin, I guess... but merely for the "relationship"? You invariably complete some mission for a measly 30 gold, when you could have been spending that time doing some with a higher net present value... its generally not worth the opportunity cost -- I mean if the payoff was something like 100+ coin, then sure...

and so for a good chunk of the game, you are merely turning over a very quickly flowing sand clock going from friendship to ingratitude way to quickly... what's the point? What am I missing here?
 
The cultural and food bonuses provided are pretty nice.

One maritime CS in your pocket is the equivalent of a granary in every city you own and the equivalent of two in your capital.
 
Obviously if you are nearing the end and are fishing for votes, yeah it makes sense.

If you complete a mission for some coin, I guess... but merely for the "relationship"?

But for a good chunk of the game, you are merely turning over a very quickly flowing sand clock of ingratitude... what's the point? What am I missing here?

Don't go halfway with a City State. Either go all the way to Ally or nothing. If you're at ally the rewards can be very helpful. Militaristic CS will gift you units. The paltry 250 you have to pay every once in a while is well worth the addition of another unit periodically. Maritime CS are integral to large maps and expansive empires since they'll gift you food in every city.
 
The cultural and food bonuses provided are pretty nice.

One maritime CS in your pocket is the equivalent of a granary in every city you own and the equivalent of two in your capital.

Exactly... and that's just one. Get 3 in your pocket and you can grow decent size cities in the middle of the desert.
 
Maratime City States are pretty useful. There's even a strategy on the Strategy Forum that shows how you can use them to fuel most of the growth across your civilization while all your cities focus on other things (gold/science/production).

Honestly though, I kind of agree with you. Basically it's easy keeping them friendly/allied with you. Just drop 250 :gold: every once in a while... By the time you reach 100 AD you're probably pulling in more :gold: than you really need anyway.

I've found the City States that provide military units to be the least important. I think they give you a new unit around every 20 turns or so. And you don't really get to choose what kind it is. I was building knights and Edinburgh was occasionally giving me a warrior. I could upgrade him to swordsman, but still...

I guess the thing that surprises me is that there doesn't seem to be any penalty for not completing their missions. If they ask you to destroy a different City State, it doesn't hurt your rep with them if you ignore that request. If they want a particular wonder or resource, they don't really care if you never provide it for them. I guess they're just essentially tools for additional :food: and :culture:. Maybe that's all they're intended to be.

(I have had them assist me in a war against Rome once. That was kind of cool.)
 
Cultivating a maritime CS sounds useful because that food bonus sounds sick...

I want even more to like cultured CS (I'm a pansy), but is there really any point? Anyone know if the culture benefit exceeds what the city could produce (including gold and hammers) if you just took it over?
 
I think I ignore them too. Probably to my detriment. I think incorporating them into your empire is a key part in getting the faster growth, money, hammers that we're used to in Civ 4.

That's the fun of Civ 5. Figuring all these mechanics out with each new game.
 
Cultivating a maritime CS sounds useful because that food bonus sounds sick...

I want even more to like cultured CS (I'm a pansy), but is there really any point? Anyone know if the culture benefit exceeds what the city could produce (including gold and hammers) if you just took it over?

Every city you conquer gives you +30% cost to social policies, so if you want a cultural victory you're better off just allying with them and taking the +8 culture per turn they give you.
 
I have found that City States are a little OP ATM. If you invest in the Social Policy line (Patronage??) which boosts relations with City States, then you can get alliances with multiple city states. I am Siam ATM, and have 4 ally city states (1 military, 2 maritime, and 1 culture), and that makes my capital yield a massive 14 food in the capital!! (Of course, most of that is Siams special ability: +50% culture and food from city states)

I guess you *could* ignore them or capture them, and then the 2,000-4,000 gold I have dropped in bribing them could have been used on units, or buildings, or something, but I don't really think so. Even then, 2k - 4k is pretty high: I spent 1.5k on getting one person from hostile to ally in one turn (the only cultural city state on the continent)

(I can't remember, but are there any civs that gain bonuses for killing city states?)
 
Early on, cultural city-states are the prime source of your cultural growth as an empire. If you want to get social policies faster (and with the way the costs ramp up...), get busy with the cultural city-states.
 
don't try to be allied with too many city states, it can be too expensive
choose one or two that give nice bonus that you need, obliterate the rest
 
It's a good indication that if you are unable to plop down 250 periodically to maintain allied relations with just one CS then you are doing something wrong economically.
 
Is anyone else seeing oddly inconsistent behavior in the rewards for city-states requesting that you remove nearby barbarians?

- Several times, I've eliminated the barbarians nearby and the city-state never recognizes I've done so; no influence reward or acknowledgement at all. Is the original request timing out, somehow?

- Half the time I see them saying "Sadly we are still plagued by barbarians" even after I've eliminated all the barbarians on the continent. Is there any way to find these mysteriously invisible barbarians if you weren't included on their initial memo?
 
- Half the time I see them saying "Sadly we are still plagued by barbarians" even after I've eliminated all the barbarians on the continent. Is there any way to find these mysteriously invisible barbarians if you weren't included on their initial memo?
Any pirate galleys in the city-state's waters?
 
Any pirate galleys in the city-state's waters?

Nope, none that I found. I was sweeping the coasts with a couple triremes and saw nothing. I assume their galleys can't cross open water, but maybe the city-state in question was somehow being attacked from a barbarian encampment on another continent? That's the only explanation I can come up with.

I just don't get why I'm seeing them complain with the "Sadly, we're still being harassed by barbarians" line, but when I eliminate the only barbarians in the area, they don't even notice. :( I love the role that city-states play, I just wish the influence game wasn't so inconsistent.
 
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