City States - are maritime civs still the best?

[Cicerosaurus]

I agree Matthew, the happiness is vital if you have a difficult resource to improve, or especially if you want to go wide.

Also position can be important. If you have any sort of a CS protecting your flank, it is great to be able to have them onside- especially if they can fight. It is so difficult to protect a CS on the other side of the world.

And while we address alliances and benefits, (and that is implicit in the OP) IMHO if you can find religious city states early- and especially first- they are by far the most important. If you get two you virtually have your pantheon.

 

[azzaman333]

I'm pretty sure there are no ancient era CS uniques. I've never seen a CS battering ram, jaguar, maori, slinger, immortal, hoplite, companion cavalry, war elephant etc...

Companion Cavalry are classical era (and I've definitely seen them).