Favorite City-State Allies in early game (Pre G&K)

[comatosedragon]

I'm fairly certain of the outcome of this poll, but let's see anyway. So what is your favorite type of CS to ally with early in the game (lets say before turn 80). Obviously this is very map/CIV dependent, but on a whole, who do you try to ally with first? For me, I will go out of my way to ally with a Cultural CS as soon as possible. If there is not one around, I will more often than not save my money. I don't like to ally with a maritime CS too early, as this can make it hard to keep your happiness up.

 

[smallfish]

Cultural is by far the best to speed through SP trees, though having a Militaristic type is also helpful.

 

[PhilBowles]

If I have the money and find one early, usually military so that I can focus production on other things. Generally I find the strategic importance of allying close CSes (or, if I have an early war, CSes close to my enemies) and those with luxuries I need (what do my cities demand for We Love the King?) can outweigh the benefits of CS type - you can quite often get early influence from assisting them against barbarians (not so good with more distant CSes, especially since if a distant CS wants an encampment wiped out, it will probably be done by someone else before you get there), and they can act as a military bulwark against neighbours. Occasionally the diplo hit from 'competing for the favour of the same CS' is something I'm not willing to risk depending on my neighbours and diplo situation more generally.

In other words, my relations with CSes are very map-dependent, perhaps most of all in the early game, but given the choice and equivalently valuable resources I'd prioritise military CS, which unlike the others are only really useful in the early game. You can usually recoup the financial investment from early alliance with military CS with two or three units gifted from them, and they remain yours once the alliance is over - culture and maritime really require maintenance to keep the bonuses flowing, since the per turn benefits are small, and I'd rather invest in those in later eras when the CS bonuses are larger.

 

[comatosedragon]

but given the choice and equivalently valuable resources I'd prioritise military CS, which unlike the others are only really useful in the early game. You can usually recoup the financial investment from early alliance with military CS with two or three units gifted from them, and they remain yours once the alliance is over - culture and maritime really require maintenance to keep the bonuses flowing, since the per turn benefits are small, and I'd rather invest in those in later eras when the CS bonuses are larger.

This is something I have been thinking about lately, and indeed intend to try out before too long. As a side question -- will allied military CS only grant you a UU for a civ which is in the current game, or is it completely random?

 

[PhilBowles]

This is something I have been thinking about lately, and indeed intend to try out before too long. As a side question -- will allied military CS only grant you a UU for a civ which is in the current game, or is it completely random?

I think it specifically grants UUs for civs that aren't in the current game; it seems to be programmed not to give you UUs for in-game civs (which then wouldn't be unique...). The exception appears to be the Khan, but that seems to follow a different rule - the social policy that unlocks great people gifts from CSes includes the Mongolian UU as one of them by default, so I've been given a Khan by a CS surrounded by Mongol forces (which promptly killed it...)

My greatest success with this approach was when I found Budapest and El Dorado together, so got a very quick military boost. I went on to eventually concede the game in the 19th Century following a drawn-out war with Germany in which they finally gained the upper hand, but I was a major power before then and rapidly defeated early war decs by the Ottomans and Chinese.

 

[smallfish]

This is something I have been thinking about lately, and indeed intend to try out before too long. As a side question -- will allied military CS only grant you a UU for a civ which is in the current game, or is it completely random?

I feel its completely random, haven't played much with CS to know for sure.

Had a game as Russia where I allied Brussels, and had taken the Patronage SP that lets CSes grant you great people every now and then. The biggest one they granted me, and the one that eventually led the push into Runaway Korea, was a Great Khan.

Even though this game had no Mongolia in it.

 

[Tabarnak]

A (friendly if possible) cultural cs. One exception, if playing at warlord or below maritime cs rock.

 

[blackcatatonic]

I think it specifically grants UUs for civs that aren't in the current game; it seems to be programmed not to give you UUs for in-game civs (which then wouldn't be unique...).

I've definitely played at least one game where one of the AIs was Kamehameha and still got given a Maori Warrior...

 

[CoolLizy]

I don't bother buying favor with city-states early on. Their favor generally runs out before I have a chance to benefit much with their friend/ally bonuses, and the money is usually better spent on research agreements to get an early edge (or, in some cases, just keep up) on technology. I usually rely on returning workings/killing barbs/clearing settlements for getting on their good side until I'm built up enough to have money to throw around.

 

[smallfish]

Once I had conquered my entire continent as Bismarck. The setup was a bit of a lol - akin to putting a hungry tiger inside a populated schoolbus and then locking the exits.

I started off next to Gandhi and Sejong.

At some point after I dominated both their capitals, I realized I was sitting on oodles of gold. 2500 gold to be exact, mostly war booty from Sejong. Then I realized the CS to the northwest, Hanoi, was on the verge of having friendly relations with me due to killing a barb for them.

So I tossed a thousand gold their way, and we became allies for all time. It also resolved my happiness issues and allowed me to focus on producing other stuff efficiently. Like wonders.

 

[Camikaze]

Militaristic doesn't really pay off early on, due to the turn waits in between unit gifts. Maritime can be helpful, but usually there are happiness issues to contend with, and natural growth is enough. So cultural is handy, because it greatly accelerates the policies you get early in the game. Getting more policies earlier has a compound effect as the game progresses (e.g. getting a free settler earlier means getting a second city earlier means getting that city up and running earlier means pumping out an army quicker).

 

[PhilBowles]

Militaristic doesn't really pay off early on, due to the turn waits in between unit gifts.

My point is that the financial cost is usually matched or exceeded by the gift - for instance I paid 250 to be friends with Tyre at the start of my current game, and a few turns later was gifted a Spearmen (with a 260 purchase cost). You don't want to have too many units from a CS, since upkeep costs then restrict how quickly your economy grows, but getting several units early is valuable because it frees up production - I saved that 260 and a production slot in one of my cities for the turns it would otherwise take to build a spearman (had I wanted one, of course. Despite its lower cost I'd actually have preferred a Warrior which has a more useful upgrade path for domination...)

 

[historix69]

I found that in early game where you have only 1 or 2 cities the maritime CS cannot compete with granary or watermill. You have to pay to get friend / allied status and you have to pay to keep the status. I found that +1 Food costed me about 10 Gold per turn so it was cheaper to use the money to buy a granary with an upkeep of +1.

If you have 10 - 100 cities in late game it is different.

 

[James T]

My first gold expenditure is to ally a cultural CS, probably about 75% of the time (settler or military the other 25% of the time depending on opportunity and/or need). Early to mid-game, cultural is the only CS-type I will spend money on. Mid- to late-game, I prioritize resources or strategic positioning when allying CSs, with a preference toward cultural, if all other things are equal. I never spend gold on a militaristic CS unless it is the only way to get a must-have resource, it is strategically important, or I am at a point in the game where I have a lot of expendable income and am just allying the CS to deny another civ the benefits.