city-states and being allied during war.

[roguepro92]

do city states every actually help you in war? it seems my allied city states only fight troops that come to their doorstep and not travel more than 2-3hex out of their boundaries. kinda useless gifting them nice units that only stays in the city...

 

[Jim Bro]

do city states every actually help you in war? it seems my allied city states only fight troops that come to their doorstep and not travel more than 2-3hex out of their boundaries. kinda useless gifting them nice units that only stays in the city...

you have obsolete units and you don't want to pay maintenance for them so what else are you suppose to do? you give them to a CS you know is at war with a rival. make sense. CS are not suppose to help you on the battlefield really that's why they are called CS. ask another civ for help. plus giving units to a CS gives extra influence (not a lot though) with the CS.

of course that depends on the level of difficulty. if you play so easy that you can afford to keep outdated units then forget what i said.

 

[Louis XXIV]

I was shocked, but a militaristic city-state ended up absolutely kicking the Aztec's ass. I wish they kept the city, though. After I made peace, the Aztecs re-settled it. The second time, I had to give artillery support because they couldn't take it on their own. However, with support, they took two cities (and razed them). This time, I wasn't even allied with them, they were just at perma-war with the Aztecs.

 

[wcbarney]

do city states every actually help you in war? it seems my allied city states only fight troops that come to their doorstep and not travel more than 2-3hex out of their boundaries. kinda useless gifting them nice units that only stays in the city...

The best thing about your CS Allies during wartime is that the enemy civs spend way more than half their resources & effort trying to take them out. So you can fight the entire war just supporting your CS Allies, without ever risking an attack on one of your own core cities -- and then, eventually, the enemy CS will offer you all their gold, all their gpt, all their luxuries, and maybe most of their cities just so you'll leave them alone.

 

[BobDole]

They can help, but it depends. If they are neighbors with the civ you're warring, then they may actually go on the offensive, which is always fun to watch (especially awesome if they capture and keep enemy cities). If they're not close, no, they're not sending units halfway across the world for you.
Gifting them units can be good actually. I still remember seeing a SS of some guy who gifted some GDRs to one...needless to say, the city state ended up bigger than some civs in terms of territory.