City States in Civilization VI

City-State mechanics appear to be more of the same but improved to make it feel less gamey. Here are the details we know so far.

From Quil118's preview

-Assign envoys
-No more influence meters
-example given: more envoys = stronger bonuses related to city state bonus
-At a certain level, City-States become your ally
-Envoys can be reassigned
-Quests are still in; Gain envoy with completing quests
-His opinion: City-State relations will feel less grindy and spammy and more stability to relations.


From RPS article

A City State to the northeast of my capital (Beijing) marked my first contact and there were no problems there, but as soon as I met my American neighbours, rumblings of discontent were heard.

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All of that goes back to the reactive nature of the AI. Even the city state had involve itself, choosing to side with the Americans and producing armies of its own.

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The article seems to suggest the city-state in the preview build was actively involved in the diplomacy of the map, and not merely passively giving quests and picking fights randomly with other ciy-states.


New Info from 2K
- Quests only become visible after envoys are sent to a City-State (Author's speculation: This may reduce the quest spam from non-aligned City-States, but also mean relationships are more targeted and focused)
- Completing a City-State’s quests earn additional Envoys there, which help you enact more influence and earn greater rewards as you continue to strengthen your relationship that particular City-State
- Envoys: earn resources over time, the more envoys sent the greater influence the player has with that city state.
- With enough influence, you can become Suzerain of that city-state
- Currently there are three bonus tiers show plus a Suzerain bonus specific to that city state and a Diplomatic bonus
- Screenshots show bonuses up to bonus 3 for Jerusalem and Hattusa and bonus 6 for Zanzibar
- Speculation: Bonuses likely tied to # of envoys. With up to 6 envoys possible , at 6 envoys, players get bonus 6. Players with most envoys gain Suzerain bonus.
- Unknown mechanic if there is a tie of 6 envoys from different civilizations to a particular City-State
- Each city gets a unique bonus Confirmed by Ed himself
- May Pay gold to temporarily take control of the city-state's military forces
- May Send envoy to a City-State they are at war with, potentially changing the City-State’s allegiance in the middle of the conflict
- There will be a mechanic to remove envoys - To be announced

Government Cards
In the E3 Twitch Preview, two Diplomatic cards are shown to have City-State modifiers. Both are Diplomatic Cards


Diplomatic league- The first envoy you send to a city state counts as 2.
Charismatic leader- +2 influence per turn to earning a city-state envoy.

Noteworthy information: Envoys earned via 'influence' currency.

City State Types Shown So far said:

Scientific City State
bonus 1 +2 science to capital
bonus 3 +2 science to each science district
bonus 6 additional +2 science to each science district (speculation)
Suzerain Bonus (Hattusa) - Provides you with 1 of each strategic resources you have revealed but do not own
Diplomatic Bonus - City-State follows their suzerain into war and peace and may pay gold to temporarily take control of the city's military

Spoiler :

Religious City State
bonus 1 +2 faith to capital
bonus 3 +2 faith to each holy site
bonus 6 additional +2 faith for each holy site
Suzerain Bonus (Jerusalem) - Automatically converts to religion you founded and exerts pressure to nearby cities as if it were a holy city
Diplomatic Bonus - City-State follows their suzerain into war and peace and may pay gold to temporarily take control of the city's military

Spoiler :

Trade City State
Religious City State
bonus 1 +4 gold to capital
bonus 3 +4 gold to each commercial hub site
bonus 6 additional +4 gold to each commercial hub site
Suzerain Bonus (Zanzibar) - Receives cinnamon and clove luxyry resource; they provide 6 amenities each (author's note: Amenities have been suggested to the local happiness mechanic that controls population caps for each city)
Diplomatic Bonus - City-State follows their suzerain into war and peace and may pay gold to temporarily take control of the city's military

Spoiler :

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I interpret that last bit that America was Allied with La Venta and La Venta joined America at war, naturally. Interesting that La Venta might have been assembling an army to fight offensively.

Bumping with updated information. I'm aware there is another thread discussing this batch of information specifically, but I was trying to keep all the information in one thread.

the 2K site was a bit of a mess and or badly optimized and would not load on my phone, so I couldn't update while out.

dexters said:

the 2K site was a bit of a mess and or badly optimized

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That's an understatement. The website is a deliberate attack on humanity.

Anyway, what we know sounds good so far, I'm most interested in the Quests. I hope they managed to to increase the pool of quests with things that don't feel too game-y.

If they manage to do that, then I'll be very, very happy.

You seem to have left out that you can pay gold to take control of miliatry units if you're the ally (I am not bothered to spell that word)

TheMarshmallowBear said:

You seem to have left out that you can pay gold to take control of miliatry units if you're the ally (I am not bothered to spell that word)

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Thanks for pointing that out

In the second screenshot between the 2 religious city states theres a green/black shield city state which i assume is a military city state.

Nice compilation.

I hated Civ V's City States, but these changes are sounding great.

I liked the gunboat diplomacy because I snatch all the city states of the target I'm fighting to my side. Then start the war. Or at least served as a expansion site for where I should found my new cities at and move military there.

But the new city states is interesting enough to start a war over. And that what they give you for in exchange of protection is unique too.. That's really nice. Militaristic city states is my favorite in civ5 cuz they always offered something unique until the military unit they gift is obsolete.

Still won't stop me from capping one early on if its in a location I want though.

I am thinking, it would be nice if you could force a City State to be your ally by conquering them. I.e., you'd keep the unique bonuses and would have +10 envoys with the city state or something...

JtW said:

I am thinking, it would be nice if you could force a City State to be your ally by conquering them. I.e., you'd keep the unique bonuses and would have +10 envoys with the city state or something...

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I don't think it would be that good mechanic. Conquering city states will become a very valuable diplomacy approach.

stealth_nsk said:

I don't think it would be that good mechanic. Conquering city states will become a very valuable diplomacy approach.

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That's kinda my point. I hate it in Civ5 how it is always a bad idea to conquer a City State.

JtW said:

That's kinda my point. I hate it in Civ5 how it is always a bad idea to conquer a City State.

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That's difficult point. If you make city states to be conquered easily, they should have some way to reappear, or by the middle of the game the map will not have city-states at all. It's possible to have some system to create new city-states, like colonies, but this would conflict with unique city-states.

So, I'm afraid making city-states conquest undesirable is the only way to make them actually work.

Maybe in early eras there's no diplo penalty for capping them except if you capture a city-state that's been allied to someone making him mad.

Well, there are some situations where it should be okay to conquer a city state.

Them being allied with that guy who just declared war on you being the mot obvious example.

Maybe a really expensive option to fabricate a casus belli would also be a nice addition, that way you'd be able to conquer that one city state that has the really good position without allowing you to just take all of them.

Either way I think there should be ways that allow you to eat those really juicy city states in amazing city spots without destroying your diplomacy for the rest of the game, but it needs to be an expensive investment so that it's only worthwhile for the very best city states.

Or it could be done other way around. Instead of issuing too big penalties for conquering city-state, add huge bonuses for liberating them. Not only you get immediate alliance, but also some big one-time gain. Let the crusades burn!

In this case it also needs some way to reestablish razed city state either by building a new city nearby or conquering nearby city and making it "New X".

Is it safe to say that whatever districts get bonuses from city-states are districts available in the first era?

Campus (scientific city state)
Holy site (religious city state)
Commercial hub (trade city state)
Military encampment (?militaristic city state?)
?Cultural center? (?culture city state?)
Harbor (?maritime city state?)

These look like great changes. City States added a lot of variety to Civ, but that influence bar was annoying. If this brings more stability to the relationship that you can foster over thousands of years then that's awesome.

I hope that if you conquered a city state, you only get a malus to allied/friend Civ of this city.

I hate that in CiV, you just can not conquer any city state at any stage unless you want to be the next world pariah. Wiping a city state = wiping a full Civ always looks like a bad coding in my eyes.

JtW said:

I am thinking, it would be nice if you could force a City State to be your ally by conquering them. I.e., you'd keep the unique bonuses and would have +10 envoys with the city state or something...

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No, that would be a bad idea.
If you want the bonuses you get Envoys, quests.

Conquering stops others from getting the bonus.

That said, there should be a tribute mechanic, and it should be clearer.