[NFP] City-States Elimination Thread

[GreenofKnight45]

Akkad [14]
Antananarivo [16]
Auckland [19]
Babylon [17]
Bologna [19]
Buenos Aires [14]
Brussels [16]
Caguana [16]
Cahokia [19]
Geneva [15]
Granada [16]
Hattusa [2] (1+1) A staving off vote out of love, I've had difficult games getting resources and getting Hattusa helps give strat resources I don't always get (especially in a more peaceful game with aggressively settling AI.) Also I like science CSs.
Hong Kong [1]
Hunza [13]
Kabul [17]
Kandy [5]
Kumasi [17]
La Venta [17]
Lahore [19]
Nan Madol [19]
Ngazargamu [5] (8-3) Not the worse but often I'm just buying units regardless of whether there's an encampment
Rapa Nui [19]
Taruga [11]
Valletta [18]
Yerevan [21]
Zanzibar [20]

 

[JJOne]

Akkad [14]
Antananarivo [16]
Auckland [19]
Babylon [17]
Bologna [19]
Buenos Aires [14]
Brussels [16]
Caguana [16]
Cahokia [19]
Geneva [15]
Granada [16]
Hattusa [2]
Hong Kong [2] (1+1) It's really useful for SV... and it gives you quicker/cheaper nukes.
Hunza [13]
Kabul [17]
Kandy [5]
Kumasi [17]
La Venta [17]
Lahore [19]
Nan Madol [19]
Ngazargamu [5]
Rapa Nui [19]
Taruga [8](11-3) Calculated the bonus in my current game (after coal, before oil). From 36 cities: 16 have no strategic, 13 have one, 6 have two and 1 has three. After calculating the bonuses, this CS would bring me 6,3% more science currently.
Valletta [18]
Yerevan [21]
Zanzibar [20]

 

[CoconutTank]

Akkad [14]
Antananarivo [16]
Auckland [19]
Babylon [17]
Bologna [19] If I wasn't trying to keep Valletta afloat, my vote would go to Bologna or Zanzibar. Hard to go wrong with more Great Persons.
Buenos Aires [14]
Brussels [16]
Caguana [16]
Cahokia [19]
Geneva [15]
Granada [16]
Hattusa [2]
Hong Kong [2] Edit: Is it bad to be running city projects for Great Person points? I find that if I want to edge out another civ for a certain Great Person, building up on GPP with a city project helps with that. Certainly feels quite painful to buy a GP with gold or faith, even with Oracle.
Hunza [13]
Kabul [17]
Kandy [2] (5-3) I'm a little biased since I don't favor religion much, but I find it difficult to rely on Kandy's bonus. Relic slots are very hard to come by in the first place, and finding natural wonders is very random, so one is almost incentivized to delay exploring for building up Holy Sites to Temples, in order to make sure one doesn't lose out on unslotted relics. I will say though, once the Voidsingers are available, Kandy will be much more enticing.
Kumasi [17]
La Venta [17]
Lahore [19]
Nan Madol [19]
Ngazargamu [5]
Rapa Nui [19]
Taruga [8]
Valletta [19] (18 + 1) Being able to instantly faith buy walls and flood barriers is an awesome bonus, particularly for low production cities that have trouble building said structures. Also useful for getting other city center buildings out of the way, such as Monuments and Granaries.
Yerevan [21]
Zanzibar [20] Having a ton of amenities is good, even if they're not necessarily well distributed.

Edit: Included JJOne's votes, and my post already has GreenofKnight45's votes.

 

[monikernemo]

Akkad [14]
Antananarivo [16]
Auckland [19]
Babylon [17]
Bologna [19]
Buenos Aires [14]
Brussels [16]
Caguana [16]
Cahokia [19]
Geneva [15]
Granada [16]
Hattusa [2]
Hong Kong [3] (2+1)
Last Hurrah for HK. Obviously, HK is paramount to fast SV.
You get more savings from HK if you do it in your high production cities.
Other projects you might consider running:
- Send Aid for multiple aid request for diplo vic
- Carbon recapture to earn diplo favours
- Projects to snipe good great persons (TS projects for GWAM, Campus to nail Isaac Newton/Albert Einstein etc.)

Hunza [13]
Kabul [17]
Kandy [2]
Kumasi [17]
La Venta [17]
Lahore [19]
Nan Madol [19]
Ngazargamu [5]
Rapa Nui [19]
Taruga [5](8-3)
While Geneva is reliant on civs not declaring on you (which in my opinion can be easily avoided if you are not going on a domination victory), Taruga is RNG reliant.
Your well-built cities may not have any strategic resources.
Valletta [19]
Yerevan [21]
Zanzibar [20]

Edit: corrected

 

[bbbt]

Akkad [14]
Antananarivo [16]
Auckland [19]
Babylon [17]
Bologna [19]
Buenos Aires [14]
Brussels [16]
Caguana [16]
Cahokia [19]
Geneva [15]
Granada [16]
Hattusa [ELIMINATED] 2-3 I haven't found Hattusa super useful - strategics are largely only valuable to me in dom games, and if I'm playing domination I often have a wide swath already. It might speak to the limited role of strategics more than the CS.
Hong Kong [3]
Hunza [13]
Kabul [17]
Kandy [5]
Kumasi [17]
La Venta [17]
Lahore [19]
Nan Madol [19]
Ngazargamu [5]
Rapa Nui [20] 19+1 - The amount of culture that can be generated from Moai is ridiculous, and they have pretty easy building requirements that actually encouraging chopping.
Taruga [5]
Valletta [18]
Yerevan [21]
Zanzibar [20]

 

[hhhhhh]

Kandy should be [2] and Valleta should be [19], to take voting by #143 into account.

 

[Josephias]

Taking into account the missing votes:

Akkad [14]
Antananarivo [16]
Auckland [20] (19+1) Even if there is the temptation to give an extra life to Hong Kong, I've already updvoted them. I've not upvoted Auckland, on the other hand, which has arguably one of the most clearly useful bonuses if you tend to put your cities near water. Yes, it has the "malus" coastal cities are subpar, but some of us are still obstinate in building our cities near the sea. But, before or after, depending on map type, you may be forced to settle getting water tiles in your city ring, and note you probably can still get full (or most of) Auckland bonuses with 1-tile inland cities.
Babylon [17]
Bologna [19]
Buenos Aires [14]
Brussels [16]
Caguana [16]
Cahokia [19]
Geneva [15]
Granada [16]
Hong Kong [3]
Hunza [13]
Kabul [17]
Kandy [ELIMINATED] (2-3) While an interesting bonus, giving relics and making them better than they are, I feel its usefulness is limited. As some commented, it is difficult to make the free relic bonus work (biased as we are, you'll always remember the games you discovered a natural wonder just the turn after losing suzerainty of kandy). And +2 faith bonus for each relic is nice, but nothing that special (as the envoy bonuses to any CS will make more than that on each holy syte with a temple, even if there is no relics in it). At this point the list has shortened, I think it is time for Kandy to go.
Kumasi [17]
La Venta [17]
Lahore [19]
Nan Madol [19]
Ngazargamu [5]
Rapa Nui [20]
Taruga [5]
Valletta [19]
Yerevan [21]
Zanzibar [20]

 

[TCBB]

Gotta say, I'm very surprised to see that the militaristic city-states are "winning" so far. Only one has been eliminated (Preslav). Probably speaks to the overwhelming power of domination in Civ VI?

And @hhhhhh (had to count the h's there), new posters are always welcome! Thanks for the vote correction too.

Akkad [14]
Antananarivo [17] (16+1) I want to see this make top 10. Yes, the use is limited in the very early game when it might only offer an extra +2/3 culture to your empire. But no other bonus scales quite like Antananarivo scales. And to repeat my earlier point, you (should) be earning great people no matter what victory condition you are pursuing, meaning that, alongside Bologna, Antananarivo is the ultimate flexible city-state.
Auckland [20]
Babylon [17]
Bologna [19]
Buenos Aires [14]
Brussels [16]
Caguana [16]
Cahokia [19]
Geneva [15]
Granada [16]
Hong Kong [3]
Hunza [10] (13-3) Ignoring the single-figure stragglers, I think Hunza is clearly the worst of the main pack. Its bonus is not bad by any means. The maximum a trade route can travel in the early game is 15 tiles: so with Hunza, this equals a possible +3 gpt for your first trader, instantly beating anything that Bandar Brunei or Antioch can offer at that stage. And the yields will obviously increase as the game goes on, with the result that your traders can regularly be clocking in an extra +5~10 gpt by the time you have sea routes up and running. Not shabby at all. However, as has been commented several times, gold is probably the easiest yield to secure in Civ VI. So while Hunza's suzerain bonus is not inherently bad, it still has a very limited impact compared to the default ways of earning big bucks – e.g. selling diplo favor, strategics, great works, or luxuries.
Kabul [17]
Kumasi [17]
La Venta [17]
Lahore [19]
Nan Madol [19]
Ngazargamu [5]
Rapa Nui [20]
Taruga [5]
Valletta [19]
Yerevan [21]
Zanzibar [20]

 

[Drivingrevilo]

... and to add to your point @TCBB, five out of seven of the religious city-states are gone – reflecting the overall weak position of religion in the metagame, especially relative to domination and science.

Akkad [14]
Antananarivo [17]
Auckland [20]
Babylon [17]
Bologna [19]
Buenos Aires [15] (14+1) I'd like to see the down-vote to understand the poster's logic, but I can't seem to find it. For me, Buenos Aires is a pretty simple equation. Are free amenities good? Yes. Does Buenos Aires provide lots of them? Yes. Undoubtedly, Zanzibar is the better amenity provider – or maybe even Cahokia – but that doesn't take anything away from Buenos Aires itself.
Brussels [16]
Caguana [16]
Cahokia [19]
Geneva [15]
Granada [16]
Hong Kong [0] (3-3) ELIMINATED. May as well get rid of these low-scorers. It's been said already: district projects are simply not an important part of Civ VI. With the exception of religion, you can go through a whole game without ever running a single project – and you will still win. And more to the point, a 20% discount off a project that only takes 6 to 10 turns to run is not an impactful bonus.
Hunza [10]
Kabul [17]
Kumasi [17]
La Venta [17]
Lahore [19]
Nan Madol [19]
Ngazargamu [5]
Rapa Nui [20]
Taruga [5]
Valletta [19]
Yerevan [21]
Zanzibar [20]

 

[JhGf_123]

Akkad [14]
Antananarivo [17]
Auckland [20]
Babylon [17]
Bologna [20] (19+1) more love for the bolognesi. Extra great people points just for building districts, which you'll do for any victory type. Mega flexible
Buenos Aires [15]
Brussels [16]
Caguana [16]
Cahokia [19]
Geneva [15]
Granada [13] (16-3) I like the Alcazar, a lot. However, it's difficult to find good spots where you can make use of the +2 culture and the science yields. Normal grassland, plains, and desert are low on appeal, forcing you to look near mountain ranges if you want the science – but then you're competing with good spots for campuses (and/or holy sites), which is a better source of science anyway. Doesn't help that you can't place Alcazars next to one another, limiting your options even more. Ironically enough, for a tile improvement based on Moorish palaces in the heat of southern Spain, one of the best locations to spam them turns out to be tundra, which usually has high appeal and nothing else to build there; but this comes with its own problems of food scarcity. So in all likelihood, you're only going to have a handful of good locations in your empire where you can get decent science out of the Alcazar. TL;DR: Alcazars work well in small doses, but restrictive appeal requirements mean you're unlikely to build more than a few.
Hunza [10]
Kabul [17]
Kumasi [17]
La Venta [17]
Lahore [19]
Nan Madol [19]
Ngazargamu [5]
Rapa Nui [20]
Taruga [5]
Valletta [19]
Yerevan [21]
Zanzibar [20]

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Akkad [14]
Antananarivo [17]
Auckland [17] 20-3 Coastal cities are still pretty weak especially early on and I've never found this bonus to be as impactful as I would expect
Babylon [17]
Bologna [20]
Buenos Aires [15]
Brussels [16]
Caguana [16]
Cahokia [19]
Geneva [15]
Granada [13]
Hunza [10]
Kabul [17]
Kumasi [17]
La Venta [17]
Lahore [19]
Nan Madol [19]
Ngazargamu [5]
Rapa Nui [20]
Taruga [5]
Valletta [19]
Yerevan [21]
Zanzibar [21] 20+1 I expect Zanzibar to end up top 3 if not win this thing, a powerful bonus helpful for all victory conditions.

Disappointed to see HK go out - just played a RV with them where for the last 30 turns I was just running Holy Site prayers so they were really helpful

 

[Leucarum]

I didn't expect Kandy to be one of the most contentious city states!

Akkad [14]
Antananarivo [17]
Auckland [17]
Babylon [17]
Bologna [20]
Buenos Aires [15]
Brussels [16]
Caguana [16]
Cahokia [19]
Geneva [15]
Granada [13]
Hunza [10]
Kabul [14] (17-3) Depends on how much of a warmonger you're being. Experience isn't too hard to come by usually..
Kumasi [17]
La Venta [17]
Lahore [19]
Nan Madol [19]
Ngazargamu [5]
Rapa Nui [20]
Taruga [6] (5+1) A flat +% to science is good...
Valletta [19]
Yerevan [21]
Zanzibar [21

 

[ZarduStar]

Akkad [14]
Antananarivo [17]
Auckland [17]
Babylon [17]
Bologna [20]
Buenos Aires [15]
Brussels [16]
Caguana [16]
Cahokia [19]
Geneva [15]
Granada [13]
Hunza [7] (10-3) > Surprised this one is still here when Antioch was voted out a long time ago. They're both similar in that you get a Gold bonus to your Trade Routes which is pretty unremarkable compared to the bonuses from other city-states. You're getting plenty of gold already anyway.
Kabul [15] (14+1) > Thanks to this city-state, I was able to get ALL promotions for many units for the first time. Super useful even if you're playing a defensive war.
Kumasi [17]
La Venta [17]
Lahore [19]
Nan Madol [19]
Ngazargamu [5]
Rapa Nui [20]
Taruga [6]
Valletta [19]
Yerevan [21]
Zanzibar [21]

 

[Francel]

Akkad [14]
Antananarivo [17]
Auckland [17]
Babylon [17]
Bologna [20]
Buenos Aires [15]
Brussels [17] (16+1) - This is one of those that will be pretty much always be of some use, regardless of what point in the game you're at, or what kind of victory you're going for. Alhambra and terracotta army are good for domination, oxford for science, cristo and eiffel for culture, hagia sophia for religious, etc - there's a wonder for everybody.
Caguana [16]
Cahokia [19]
Geneva [15]
Granada [13]
Hunza [7]
Kabul [15]
Kumasi [17]
La Venta [17]
Lahore [19]
Nan Madol [19]
Ngazargamu [5]
Rapa Nui [20]
Taruga [6]
Valletta [19]
Yerevan [21]
Zanzibar [18] (21-3) - It's about as good as building the Colosseum, if it only had the amenity benefits. I am honestly not sure why it's so high. I feel that I can mostly just ignore amenities tbh, maybe just slotting in a policy card or building an entertainment complex if I go negative.

Random thought: The importance of playstyle is evident in the rankings. I usually operate 3-6 cities max - anything else is too tedious for me. Another member said they have 36 cities when analyzing Taruga. I've never come close to that number, but maybe in such a case extra amenities matter much more.

 

[bengalryan9]

Akkad [14]
Antananarivo [17]
Auckland [17]
Babylon [14] (17-3) At only +2 science per great work of writing (and +1 per artifact) I'm not sure you're ever going to have enough pieces to make it *really* strong. How long will it take you to get, say, 10 writings? And by that point, is +20 science really anything to write home about? I'd say no.
Bologna [20]
Buenos Aires [15]
Brussels [17]
Caguana [16]
Cahokia [19]
Geneva [15]
Granada [13]
Hunza [7]
Kabul [15]
Kumasi [17]
La Venta [17]
Lahore [19]
Nan Madol [19]
Ngazargamu [5]
Rapa Nui [20]
Taruga [6]
Valletta [19]
Yerevan [22] (21+1) The ability to choose your apostle's promotions is huge when pursuing a religious victory, but even if you aren't you can still probably get some use out of this by getting relics (martyr), converting barbarian troops, enhanced healing, or some extra gold (the promotion that pays you for first time conversions).
Zanzibar [18]

 

[thekingofsalem]

Akkad [14]
Antananarivo [17]
Auckland [17]
Babylon [14]
Bologna [20]
Buenos Aires [15]
Brussels [17]
Caguana [16]
Cahokia [19]
Geneva [16] (15+1) Even in a militaristic game, you are still going to be at peace for long stretches. In a peaceful game, a flat 15% science throughout the eras is huge.
Granada [13]
Hunza [4] (7-3) Even if the extra gold can be nice, to me this is still clearly the weakest city-state left.
Kabul [15]
Kumasi [17]
La Venta [17]
Lahore [19]
Nan Madol [19]
Ngazargamu [5]
Rapa Nui [20]
Taruga [6]
Valletta [19]
Yerevan [22]
Zanzibar [18]

 

[Jewelrunna]

Akkad [14]
Antananarivo [17]
Auckland [17]
Babylon [14]
Bologna [20]
Buenos Aires [15]
Brussels [17]
Caguana [16]
Cahokia [19]
Geneva [16]
Granada [13]
Hunza [4]
Kabul [15]
Kumasi [17]
La Venta [17]
Lahore [19]
Nan Madol [19]
Ngazargamu [5]
Rapa Nui [20]
Taruga [3] (6 - 3): We've reached the point in this list where I begin to weigh the actually bonuses of the City-State way more than simply what type of City-State they are. As such, I'm not giving Taruga the benefit of the doubt for just being a scientific City-State. So as a disclaimer, percentage based boosts are generally good. However, it can be rare for a city to have more than one luxury resource within it's borders. Even assuming you get two, that's still less than Geneva's consistent 15% boost empire-wide. I still think Taruga is a solid City-State and can situationally be very good, but they're among the most inconsistent bonuses left.
Valletta [19]
Yerevan [22]
Zanzibar [19] (18 + 1): I'm boosting Zanzibar up again, because I really think people are downplaying how beneficial Amenities can be in their cities. You're going to get taller, and more yield-rich cities by just having them. Zanzibar simply gives you 12 Amenities for little opportunity cost. And on top of that, the extra resources can still be helpful in the Diplomatic game, and then there's Civs that simply benefit from having luxuries, like the Aztec. Amazing City-State, top of the bunch.

 

[Kmart_Elvis]

Akkad [11] (14-3) A bonus that obsoletes completely later in the game. And if you try invading Korea or another civ flying by in science, that point comes sooner.
Antananarivo [17]
Auckland [17]
Babylon [14]
Bologna [20]
Buenos Aires [15]
Brussels [17]
Caguana [16]
Cahokia [19]
Geneva [16]
Granada [13]
Hunza [4]
Kabul [15]
Kumasi [17]
La Venta [17]
Lahore [19]
Nan Madol [19]
Ngazargamu [5]
Rapa Nui [20]
Taruga [3]
Valletta [20] (19+1) On the flip side, this city state with wall bonuses is far more relevant. They offer the only means of instantly buying walls in the game, something that has literally saved me before when encroached by a bigger, nastier neighbor. But even if walls obsolete, global warming just gets worse, so you can protect your coastal towns with barriers.
Yerevan [22]
Zanzibar [19]

 

[Solver]

Akkad [11]
Antananarivo [17]
Auckland [17]
Babylon [14]
Bologna [20]
Buenos Aires [15]
Brussels [17]
Caguana [16]
Cahokia [19]
Geneva [16]
Granada [13]
Hunza [4]
Kabul [15]
Kumasi [17]
La Venta [17]
Lahore [19]
Nan Madol [19]
Ngazargamu [6] (5 + 1) Maybe not that strong objectively, but one of my favorites. If you have one core city with a Military Academy somewhere, a 60% discount on purchases is powerful. You can get an Observation Balloon (the biggest game-changer in Civ6 warfare) for next to nothing, and you can keep increasing your army whenever you want. With Democracy, you get a whopping 75% discount on gold purchases. Keep buying as many units as you need and send them to the front lines!
Rapa Nui [20]
Taruga [0] (3-3) ELIMINATED Sounds like a very strong city-state, until you read carefully and realize it works per city. Your early strategic resources are Iron and Horses, then Niter some time later. Most of the time Taruga will get you +5% in a couple of cities, maybe +10% somewhere. Not bad, but mid-tier as far as science goes, so time for elimination.
Valletta [20]
Yerevan [22]
Zanzibar [19]

 

[Amrunril]

Akkad [11]
Antananarivo [17]
Auckland [18] (17+1) The most comparable effect in the game is Petra's bonus to deserts. Both turn garbage tiles into decent ones and decent tiles (desert hills and oases in Petra's case, reefs and sea resources in Auckland's) into great ones. But while Petra applies only to a single city, Auckland boosts every coastal tile in your empire, including the newly founded ones where such a bonus is most helpful. Where Brussels provides a 15% bonus to wonder production, this can potentially provide a larger bonus to all production.
Babylon [14]
Bologna [20]
Buenos Aires [15]
Brussels [14] (17 -3) Wonders are just too small a fraction of your overall production for this to be competitive with more general yield bonuses.
Caguana [16]
Cahokia [19]
Geneva [16]
Granada [13]
Hunza [4]
Kabul [15]
Kumasi [17]
La Venta [17]
Lahore [19]
Nan Madol [19]
Ngazargamu [6]
Rapa Nui [20]
Valletta [20]
Yerevan [22]
Zanzibar [19]