Venice: Which kind of city-states are best for grabbing with MoVs?

[tomtom5858]

Personally, I tend to go for a militaristic CS that has a sub-par UU attached to it. Mercantile CSes are next, since happiness tends not to be an issue in my Venice playstyle. Religious, Cultural, and Maritime CSes are the ones that I avoid grabbing if at all possible, due to their heightened bonuses for tall civs. Obviously, location is the biggest factor to deciding whether or not to grab a city-state, but ignoring that, what kind of city-states should be prioritized?

 

[cinattra]

I love militaristic civs. I have played games whereby I got the majority of my land units something like over 90% of my land units from the generosity of militaristic civs. I was playing defensive from a military standpoint so it worked out well.

 

[iggymnrr]

The one closest to me. If there are two, probably the hostile one. If there are a lot nearby, it depends.

 

[lymond]

I tend to like to keep some Food and Happy CSs alive, but yeah the closest ones I usually take first. Militaristic are always good since the tend to be the least valuable long term to your economy. Later I'll pick off a CS or two on Islands farther away for trade routes.

 

[Antarion]

The one closest to me. If there are two, probably the hostile one. If there are a lot nearby, it depends.

I do the Same? Hostile, closeby and New luxuries (different then in cap), sometimes i Prefer Not the nearest but easiet to defend one. And of Course coastal Type First for intern Trade routes

 

[Calouste]

The best kind of city states to grab as Venice are city states with Natural Wonders

Other than that, what people have already said above: coastal, within trade route distance, defendable, new luxury, decent location, those are the must haves. Type and personality are often more tie breakers, specially with the first one or two.

 

[Soronery]

Wait until around turn 100 on deity to grab them I think.

 

[_invy_]

When i was trying to win culture victory I bought cultural city-states to deny them to AI ; )

 

[joncnunn]

My own list:

#1. Those with a natural wonder (already within the borders; puppets are extremely slow to acquire a Natural Wonder next to them.)

#2. Hostile civs. Since I'm not going to spend gold to ally with them, the normal benefit doesn't tend to apply.

But avoid buying any Merch civ.

 

[budweiser]

The answer is Maritimes. Why, as allies they give you food. As a puppet, you hook up a food caravan from them to Venice. They give lots of boats. All the other types are more valuable as allies.

 

[Beld]

I usually take in this order of priority, though of course I'll deviate if there's a perfect spot.

Militaristic (You usually get the most "free troops" with this purchase, valuable early on, and late game if there are any left, I'm usually disbanding/selling their gifts)
Religious (I'm usually not going for religious enabled/enhanced victory and would rather deny AI +faith)
Mercantile (Happyness is important, but I'm usually small/tall and happyness isnt an issue)
Maritime (I try to save Maritime CS's to ally with, love that 50 pop Venice! I usually only have Venice + 3 Puppets, who send back food trade routes to Venice, and keeping Maritimes around as allies mean I get really tall in all cities, but Venice gets BANANAS tall, great for all that GPP)
Cultured (I almost never buy these with the MoV, I feel like they are the most valuable to keep allied, since culture is harder to come by now, and getting these allied ASAP denies culture to the AI, which is usually necessary if you have another AI on the map going for culture or diplo victories) but I also love having a lot of Social Policies so mileage may vary.

 

[neopara]

I get the ones that will open the most lucrative trade routes. This is especially important at the beginning when trade routes are hard to establish due to distance.

 

[casualplayer]

I try to avoid City-States that share borders with grouchy AI, because that is just asking for war. Usually I will perma-ally ones with heaps of military early game and then late game I start picking off the ones that the AI has invested the most in keeping. "You have 200 influence with Valletta and I have a big checkbook. BAM!"

 

[FrostK]

1. with world wonders
2. near mountain in jungles