[R&F] Best City-State Suzerain Bonus

[PibbZ]

I know there will be a lot of different opinions on this one, but I'm here to learn. Tell me which of the suzerain bonus you like the most, and why. There have to be some hidden gems and tricks in there that I have not yet realized the power of

Discuss!

 

[AvianBritish]

I'm always very coastal in my games; being British I only ever envision boarders being that of the sea and my play style reflects that.
Because of that Auckland and Nan Madol are always my go-to's.
Valletta I also love as if you have excess faith you can get new cities up to scratch quickly and you can buy those last levels of walls before you get Steel (for bonus Tourism). It's always nice to have either LaVenta, Granada or Armgh for the unique improvement so you can build it on un-improveable tiles such as tundra, snow and desert.
Buenos Aires, Brussels, Geneva, Kabul, Palenque, Stockholm and Zanzibar I like too.

I've yet to have a game with Babylon in it without it being conquered but I would image that it would be pretty nice too. All over city states are Ok, but not my preference.

 

[Zike]

Zanzibar and Bueno are both insanely good for Amenities.

Auckland and Nan Madol both good for boat games (island/archipelago)

Antananarivo is really good once you've earned a bunch of great people, you can get like 50% bonus culture, if not more.

Valletta is really good, the faith cost of the buildings is really low.

Stockholm will also give you a billion great people points, even after the RAF nerf.

For religion game, Yerevan is game changing, and the improvements can also be a good boost to faith.

Rest are kinda poopy tbh. Kabul is okay, as is muscat and brussels. But a fair few of them are borderline useless.

 

[NeoNio]

I miss old Carthage :'(

 

[Lily_Lancer]

I guess it's Hong Kong and Valletta.

But industrial and militaristic city states do not provide good envoy bonus, so I only invest envoys in scientific ones.

 

[Disgustipated]

I like Muscat a lot. Buenos Aires is also nice for happiness along with Zanzibar.

Hong Kong I only consider good for Space victory, but I often win that with Segei + Mausoleum.

Auckland and Nan Madol are nice as mentioned.

Stockholm and the one that gives + science while at peace is nice.

And don't forget Brussels.

 

[Mojo85]

Kabul if you’re waring. Double XP for battles you initiate is amazing and you can have maxed out archers/crossbowman for double attacks in no time.

 

[God of Kings]

Toronto can redeem itself with Magnus.

 

[comatosedragon]

Auckland.
Remember that the bonus is applied to lakes also, and we seem to get a lot more lakes with R&F. IME.

 

[Art Morte]

Valletta is my favourite and actually very useful in almost all of my games. I almost never go for religious victory, so it's great to have something to do with faith.

But overall very few suzerain bonuses are actually useful, imo. Even some of the good ones are very situational whether you actually need them in that particular game.

 

[ChocolateShake]

I think the new Jerusalem bonus (I think it makes cities with a holy site exert the same pressure as holy cities?) would be really good for a religious victory, provided you find room to settle near areas where your religion isn't widespread. Or if you capture them I guess.

I like Buenos Aires a lot, seems like they'd go great with Scotland. Zanzibar is nice too, and Brussels whenever I'm going for a wonder building game. There's usually 1-2 city states that I'd really like to be the suzerain of, otherwise the remainder typically have situation bonuses.

 

[Shorlin]

Kumasi, even with the new ally trade routes, is insanely good.

 

[rattatatouille]

Just finished a cultural victory as Gorgo and I suzerain'd both Vilnius (Theater Squares get 50% more adjacency bonus for every active alliance level) and Antananarivo (+2% Culture per Great Person recruited).

By the end I had 1300 Tourism per turn and 800 Culture per turn, of which nearly half was from Antananarivo's suzerain bonus.

So based on victory type:

Science: Geneva/Stockholm

Cultural: Antananarivo/Stockholm

Domination: Hattusas

Religious: Yerevan

 

[Leyrann]

Yerevan is the best if you're going religious, because all apostles are proseletyzers and debaters (or whatever you need), otherwise I think Auckland and Stockholm are my favorites. Auckland just makes coastal tiles so good, with 3f2p1g just with a Harbor, Lighthouse and Fishery on every tile, not to mention resource tiles and reefs or the gold from Seaports. Stockholm because GREAT PEOPLE!

 

[NukeAJS]

I think the new Jerusalem bonus (I think it makes cities with a holy site exert the same pressure as holy cities?) would be really good for a religious victory, provided you find room to settle near areas where your religion isn't widespread. Or if you capture them I guess.

I like Buenos Aires a lot, seems like they'd go great with Scotland. Zanzibar is nice too, and Brussels whenever I'm going for a wonder building game. There's usually 1-2 city states that I'd really like to be the suzerain of, otherwise the remainder typically have situation bonuses.

I find Jerusalem to be useful if there are lots of unconverted cities nearby. The only other time it's useful is when it's on a religious "front" because it'll reinforce your cities and possibly force your opponent to buy inquisitors (which is both a waste of faith and potential targets for your apostles).