City State War Involvement?

[biohazard72]

Has anybody figured out the determinants for city-states helping you in war? I've seen allied city-states take a city or two, and I've also seen them do absolutely nothing despite having units they could be attacking with. Does being militaristic make them more likely to war on your side? Does being hostile?

From what I can tell, proximity of the enemy to the city state is a factor, but that's all I noticed. They also don't seem to like going through your own borders to attack.

 

[Zenstrive]

City States rarely venture far from their borders, but I have seen city states take over cities and don't raze them, so I guess it's possible.

 

[UknowsI]

It seems to me that it's all about the proximity to the enemy. If the city states is close to enemy units it will attack. If there are more units the city state will follow them and might conquer a city. If the enemy city is close enough it might conquer it by its own anyway.

 

[Dark_Jedi06]

I was Allied with two Maritime city-states, each had a Friendly personality. Between them was an American city that was equidistant from both of the city-states. Both of them had 3-4 military units, one had Rifleman and the other had Infantry.

I declare war on Washington, the city state with the Rifleman aggressively attacks the American city while the one with Infantry won't leave his borders to fight, despite the fact that he could easily take the city.

The lesson: I have no idea what determines how a city-state will act towards and enemy city.

 

[crazymarco]

I think if city state help attacking will make the game more interesting.

For maritime or culture CS, it is understandable for them not to join the war actively. But I guess if militaristic one still sitting at home, that's not what we want. If setting the militaristic CS to join war more active, this may be a good balance for the game to counter +food and +culture for the other two kind of CS.

 

[pickle]

just had a friendly culural CS that I was allied with take and burn chicago to the ground. do they ever keep a city? would be quite cool if they did.

 

[Slowpoke]

just had a friendly culural CS that I was allied with take and burn chicago to the ground. do they ever keep a city? would be quite cool if they did.

Probably depends on their happiness level. I find it hilarious that a friendly cultural city state is into mass citizen slaghter.

 

[DuseCutter]

I saw one take a city and puppet it.

 

[Varanid]

I've seen Florence, Kalua Lumpar and one or two others take cities. It surprised the hell out of me the first time. But I've alsos een 'em do nothing too, so I've got no idea how/why/what determines if they're passive or not.

 

[Snapp]

I wonder if this has anything to do with the dispositions of the city states, like "Irrational" and so on.

 

[biohazard72]

What I've learned so far: don't expect help unless enemy units are really close to the city-state. It seems pretty random whether or not the city-state will attack a nearby city, but it's a bonus if they do.

I just wish I knew why

 

[harry_flashman]

I've been warring against France for about 40 turns now. There are two very narrow fronts. On the western front I have one city, behind which is my allied city state Prague. Frances cities were very close to mine on a narrow peninsula. I say were as I managed to raze a couple.
Prague has about 3 units and a couple of boats. One of the units is a well promoted knight which I gifted them after it got caught in no mans land after napoleons Dow.
How have my worthy allies helped me in this battle?

By sitting around on their fat arses doing nothing. Gets!

Mind it has occurred to me that maybes they are programmer to do that so as not to spoil my nicely ordered tactics, especially on such a narrow front. They may have been more of a hinderance than a help if they'd stuck a pikemen in the forest where my super promoted swordsman should be, or the bit of turf where my xbows should be.

Anyhow does anyone know if napoleon ever will accept a ceasefire? He's refusing to even talk to me. Uppity little shortarse.

 

[Licinia Eudoxia]

I think it depends largely on proximity and things like if the enemy shares a border with them or not. They won't travel very far but they'll help if it's close enough, and once they're in 'attack' mode, they can actually push very very far.

Also, I have NEVER seen a City State keep a city, unless it was a capital (which you cannot raze). I have heard other people say this isn't true but never actually seen them keep a normal city.

There also might just be random personalities for them, where some are more aggressive than others.

I had Kuala Lumpur and Budapest right next to one another, fighting each other for the entire game, a constant war, and they were both bordered by France. Eventually I bought them both as an Ally. Kuala Lumpur never pushed, but Budapest took three cities and eventually sniped Paris from my troops. They only kept Paris, of course.

Also, to the poster above, most leaders won't accept peace until you've been at war for a few turns, even if you start rolling over them, they'll just refuse to discuss peace for like 5 or 10 turns. If it's an 'end-of-the-game' war, they might never accept peace.

 

[The Great Apple]

I've found most of the time they do nothing. The main use I've found is to draw away and hold up enemy units. If the city is in a good defensable position the AI can waste quite a few turns trying to take it down.