City-State Perma-Friends

[Jacksonology]

First time poster, long time lurker here. Just wanted to chip in with a useful thing I found when playing today. Now I'm only a Prince player, so I don't claim that the following has any viability on the higher difficulties.

So it all started when I decided to take Greece for a spin in G&K, and naturally I chose to exploit Alexander's UA. This being G&K, I made an attempt to weave religion into my strategy. That's when I came across the Papal Primacy Founder Belief, which increases the City-State Influence resting point by +15 if your religion is the majority in that City-State. Combined with the Aesthetics policy in the Patronage tree, this pushes the Influence resting point past the friends threshold of 30, hence, perma-friends. This is further enhanced by Alex's UA combined with the Patronage starter which brings the influence decay down to a paltry 0.25 points/turn. To add to that, if they follow your religion, that influence decay is reduced to 0.

 

[Wuddel]

Yeah I really need to try him. I wonder how the AI will react. Near to the UN vote they will kill CS but before?

 

[nefloyd]

I pointed this out in a thread (though nobody commented) but if you have Papal Primacy and Aesthetics, you can actually become friends with city-states you haven't even met if your religion spreads to them out in the fog of war

 

[Barghaest]

Yeah, and Pledging to Protect adds another 10 to the minimum influence... so with Papal Primacy and Patronage you have a minimum resting point of 45... not too hard to get/maintain Ally after that.

 

[Bad Wolf]

Yeah, Patronage + Pledge to protect will perma-friend everybody also, I've found that very useful, but I didn't realize there was a way to get 0 influence decay, holy crap!

 

[Harv72b]

Just for grins I fired up a Greece game on settler the other night. Beelined to get my religion and open the Patronage tree; by 425 AD I was getting messages that my influence had increased to friend level...

...With city states I hadn't even met yet.

I got bored with the game & quit out around 1000 AD, but by that point I was allied to every CS on the map & had spent a grand total of 1500 gold to achieve/maintain that.

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

Yeah I really need to try him. I wonder how the AI will react. Near to the UN vote they will kill CS but before?

This doesn't affect UN vote at all, because you need to be Allies in order for them to vote you, but even then, you only need about 20 more points with influence which you can easily buy it with gold.

 

[nefloyd]

my influence had increased to friend level...

...With city states I hadn't even met yet.

you can actually become friends with city-states you haven't even met if your religion spreads to them out in the fog of war

nobody reads my posts!

 

[Denkt]

I think perma friends with city states could be as most potent then playing as Siam because their bouns should make it like you had 50% more friendly city-states (military ones excluded if Im corectly).

 

[stlh2opolo]

I think perma friends with city states could be as most potent then playing as Siam because their bouns should make it like you had 50% more friendly city-states (military ones excluded if Im corectly).

True, but remember: you have to be allies to receive the bonus goods from the UA.

 

[Harv72b]

nobody reads my posts!

type louder! :d

 

[Jacksonology]

type louder! :d

I crossposted him to another board.

 

[Siggy_23]

True, but remember: you have to be allies to receive the bonus goods from the UA.

Can you corroborate that? because the UA reads "Food, Culture and Faith from friendly City-States increased by 50%"

emphasis mine, but it seems like you should get the bonus to the "friends" rewards as well as the "allies" reward

 

[nefloyd]

Can you corroborate that? because the UA reads "Food, Culture and Faith from friendly City-States increased by 50%"

emphasis mine, but it seems like you should get the bonus to the "friends" rewards as well as the "allies" reward

You do get 50% bonus culture, food, and faith from the respective City-States when they are at friendly. I believe he is pointing out that the Mercantile states only give their unique resource (jewelry, porcelain etc.) when they are Allies. Not sure what that has to do with Siam.

 

[Wuddel]

This doesn't affect UN vote at all, because you need to be Allies in order for them to vote you, but even then, you only need about 20 more points with influence which you can easily buy it with gold.

Well, that was not my question. Last time i tried Diplomatic victory all the AI Civ turned on the CS in their vincinity and started killing my allies.

 

[Huaojozu]

Play Siam, pledge to protect every CS you meet (+10 Resting Point), open and take a Policy in Patronage (total + 30 Resting Point) and become Friends with everyone without taking a bad, bad, bad founder belief.

 

[RealHuhn]

Play Siam, pledge to protect every CS you meet (+10 Resting Point), open and take a Policy in Patronage (total + 30 Resting Point) and become Friends with everyone without taking a bad, bad, bad founder belief.

I agree. The founder belief isn't that great, at least on higher difficulties, just because it's much harder to get and maintain a dominant religion.

 

[stlh2opolo]

Can you corroborate that? because the UA reads "Food, Culture and Faith from friendly City-States increased by 50%"

emphasis mine, but it seems like you should get the bonus to the "friends" rewards as well as the "allies" reward

Really? I could have SWORN that back in vanilla, you had to be allies. I remember a siam game where I was getting the same amount of culture as normal when only friendly. Interesting.

My bad.