Favorite city-states?

[Hellenism Salesman]

Just list your favorite city-state and explain why you like them.

For me it's probably a tossup between Nan Madol and Antananarivo. Both can give stupid amounts of Culture. As Pericles, this makes me very, very happy.

 

[kaspergm]

Bologna, Auckland, Valletta and Yerevan will probably be my top picks. Kumasi and Chinguetti can also become extremely powerful in late game.

 

[Naeshar]

I do NOT like any powerful city-states that give amazing yield buffs.
Favourites would be mechanic-changing one like Valetta, Ngazargamu, Fez, Lahore, Vatican City or even Rapa Nui can be fun. Carthage in the base game, giving trade routes for encampments.
I generally like the unique improvements city states. I would much prefer to have them available at certain influence, not as a suzerain bonus.

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

I would much prefer to have them available at certain influence, not as a suzerain bonus.

But then you would have several civs sharing the same bonus, which wouldn't feel so unique anymore

 

[pokiehl]

I don’t really like the city states that grant unique improvements or units. I never use these things.

My favorite is probably Bologna. Great People points are always fun.

 

[Naeshar]

But then you would have several civs sharing the same bonus, which wouldn't feel so unique anymore

Oh but I feel the uniqueness in having the CS in one game and not in the other. It is not like every religious CS gives access to Monasteries. Fighting with envoys for access to an improvement is much less interesting.

 

[Codeword Iroquois]

I think my favorite is Auckland, as someone who plays a lot of maritime-based games; I do like the unique improvements even if I never use them, as they're pretty interesting mechanically.

 

[The_goggles_do_nothing]

I don’t really like the city states that grant unique improvements or units. I never use these things.

I can't resist building at least one improvement if I get Suzerainty.

 

[Disgustipated]

Aukland, I love settling on the coast even if it's not optimal, and this makes it more viable. Valletta just because I don't like my land getting flooded. I do play games into the late eras, and global warming happens quickly.

Cahokia is nice. Money and amenities, what's not to love. Amenities are always important to me since Iike to grow big cities (my last game I had a city at size 44).

Nan Madol is nice, but it's a pain fighting the AI for it. I usually can't get suzerain until late game. There are certain city states the AI just loves, and to me it's often not worth it to fight for them. I prefer to spread points to get more of the bonuses for my districts. I'm not sure if that's optimal, but it's what I do.

For a war centered game Kabul and Akkad are nice.

 

[Miserable Old Git]

Top 5, in order:
1- Valetta
2- Auckland
3- Mohenjo-Daro (but only if I find it early, before settling the bulk of my cities)
4 - Yerevan (but only if playing a religious or cultural game)
5 - Buenos Aires

 

[InsidiousMage]

One for each type.
Anshan - Big fan of artifacts and this just makes them better.
Brussels - I have an inordinate love for wonders. Always fun to build.
Lahore - Always fun to be able to just buy units with faith, especially since domination games don't usually have a use for faith otherwise.
Yerevan - Mostly because being able to pick your promotion is just too strong but, also, most religious city-states aren't that good. Chinguetti would be my pick if I wasn't worrying about religious units.
Zanzibar - Amenities are always nice and this works with civs like the Aztecs.

Also, bonus pick of Carthage in the base game because when I played on the Switch as England as suzerain of Carthage the game would always freeze up for a moment when I opened the trade route interface and had to wait and see if the game crashed. Fortunately, it never did.

 

[pokiehl]

I can't resist building at least one improvement if I get Suzerainty.

Yeah I guess I feel that obligation too.

Oh, I do like the Rapa Nui one. It’s unique and it feels cool to build those around volcanoes for some reason. But the monastery? Meh.

 

[Oberinspektor Derrick]

There is a difference to me between "great city state" and "fun city state".
There are many great city states - Bologna and Kumasi for instance, among the two best city states but hardly my idea of "fun" (it's a passive bonus that you rake in, and you dont really change your playstyle with them).

Fun city states however, that's more difficult.
I personally enjoy Nazca a lot. It's not fantastic, but it does give an incentive to settle more desert'ish areas.
It also requires you to think ahead in order to get good value out of the Nazca lines improvement.
It also helps that you actually get to keep the improvements afterwards, regardless of suzerain status, and the improvements themselves are gorgeous as far as tile improvements go.
Definitely a city state I enjoy seeing whenever there is some desert around, even if the game impact is usually quite minimal.

I also like Nan Madol and Anshan a lot.
Nan Madol is not only potentially very powerful (especially on water heavy maps), but it really rewards settling coast/lakes while it frontloads a resource that is usually quite difficult to get a lot of.
This unlike Auckland, which I personally believe is quite a boring city state and rather overrated.
Production is usually not too hard to get as a yield compared to culture, and Auckland doesnt frontload the yields the same way Nan Madol does (you need population to work all the tiles, and the sea tile needs to be better than any of the land tiles you have).
Nan Madol can often take care of all my culture needs, so that I don't have to bother with theatre squares or similar.
Anshan is just very handy in that it gives a yield (science) to a playstyle that usually involves sacrificing science for culture or faith (since campuses compete with theatre squares and holy sites for district slots), and thus allows you to skip on more campuses in favour of theatre squares and/or holy sites.
I've had a game before where I planned on playing for science, but changed my gameplan around when I spotted Anshan as my neighbour and had my great prophet available a few turns later, and instead went for a cultural reliquaries game with extra great works on top.

Not many city states will be able to influence my playstyle that much, but these (on the top of my head) can.