[NFP] City-States Elimination Thread

[Lily_Lancer]

Antananarivo [17]
Auckland [11]
Bologna [18]
Caguana [3]
Cahokia [19]
Geneva [5]
Kumasi [4]
Nan Madol [9]
Rapa Nui [13=12+1] The bonus is too general. You only need to remove trees and rainforests then Moais can be built almost everywhere, providing 5+ culture each, an adverse version of Great Wall, totally broken.
Yerevan [16=19-3] Yerevan does not mean autowin, you still have to found a religion and purchase apostles to win RV. And usually by the time you find Yerevan you already missed your chance to found a religion.

Even if you meet Yerevan early enough before you decided not to found a religion, you still need many more apostles to win RV using Yerevan than playing as Genghis Khan.
Zanzibar [10]

 

[Solver]

Antananarivo [17]
Auckland [11]
Bologna [18]
Caguana [3]
Cahokia [19]
Geneva [5]
Kumasi [4]
Nan Madol [6] (9-3) I downvoted Caguana last time, and it will probably go next, so a downvote for Nan Madol to put it closer to the exit. I rate it below Kumasi, perhaps below Caguana. You need to place your districts where the best adjacencies are. If the map happens to be just right, Nan Madol could provide a significant bonus, but most often you'll get a city with +4 culture somewhere, another couple with +2 and that's it. There's a good chance that one Kumasi trade route will provide more than Nan Madol's bonus.
Rapa Nui [13]
Yerevan [17] (16 + 1) Yes, Yerevan is basically an autowin if you can still contest for a religion when you discover it. If you found it too late, sure, it's too late, otherwise a Yerevan + Moksha RV is probably the easiest victory in the game, apart from Bolivar Domination. You barely need any Apostles. A Proselytizer + Translator Apostle can remove a religion from big AI cities in one charge, perhaps converting it to yours. Two of these Apostles will kill a religion in most civs. Two Debaters will win all religious combat against anyone except maybe Peter with ease.
Zanzibar [10]

 

[Leucarum]

Antananarivo [17]
Auckland [11]
Bologna [18]
Caguana [3]
Cahokia [19]
Geneva [5]
Kumasi [4]
Nan Madol [6]
Rapa Nui [14] (13+1) Moai can get pretty nuts if you go all in on them.
Yerevan [17]
Zanzibar [7] (10-3) Amenitiea usually aren't a limiting factor.

 

[bengalryan9]

Antananarivo [14] (17-3) This is a "win more" city state more than one that's actually going to help you. If you've recruited enough great people and have high enough culture to get a huge bonus from this, you probably weren't in trouble whether Antananarivo is in the game or not.
Auckland [11]
Bologna [18]
Caguana [3]
Cahokia [19]
Geneva [5]
Kumasi [5] (4+1) I've made my case already. This one's criminally underrated.
Nan Madol [6]
Rapa Nui [14] There *is* an opportunity cost here - you need to spend charges chopping everything, spend charges building the improvements themselves, and sacrifice huge amounts of land to really maximize what they can do. They're good, but they have some drawbacks.
Yerevan [17] Lily mentioned Mongolia - if you're playing the elimination thread drinking game, you have to take a shot!
Zanzibar [7]

 

[hhhhhh]

Antananarivo [14]
Auckland [11]
Bologna [18]
Caguana [3]
Cahokia [16] (19 - 3) Clearly Cahokia is very good but not the best. It's better than Zanzibar and very helpful, but mostly got it's current score due to being ignored.
Geneva [5]
Kumasi [5] It's at its strongest on Turn 70/500, when you have your Pingala-Oracle city well built (Oracle and 4 districts are all chopped out, population 10) and you can send all trade routes from there, each trade route is actually 9.2 culture (11.5 if Oracle can be made water-side) after Pingala's bonus and it can easily provide 1/2 of the culture of your empire.
Nan Madol [7] (6 + 1) I agree that Kumasi is criminally underrated, but I choose to upvote Nan Madol to make it survive one more downvote. Nan Madol's oppotunity cost is actually significantly lower. It also lasts longer and grows better. Even if you just have City Center and Harbor it's 4 culture. And even a carefully-placed aqueduct can get you 2 culture.
Rapa Nui [14]
Yerevan [17]
Zanzibar [7]

 

[JhGf_123]

Antananarivo [14]
Auckland [11]
Bologna [18]
Caguana [3]
Cahokia [13] (16-3) great bonus that I upvoted earlier, but I think too high relative to the ones I’d place in S tier: Bologna, Yerevan, and in my opinion Antananarivo.
Geneva [5]
Kumasi [5]
Nan Madol [7]
Rapa Nui [14]
Yerevan [18] (17+1) Lily’s mongolia fetish notwithstanding, I’m yet to see any arguments to convince me that the people downvoting aren’t just salty religion haters. Yerevan can create two of the fastest victories in the game: relic tourism rushes and super fast religious victories.
Zanzibar [7]

 

[Terminacarnival]

Antananarivo [15] (14+1) As an extra percent yield reward for getting great people which you want to do anyway, this offers both strong extra momentum for a culture game and a nifty catch up culture option in domination and science victories. It has earned it's place in the top 10 and is a strong contender for top 5.
Auckland [11]
Bologna [18]
Caguana [0] (3-3) Eliminated as at this stage it is the weakest tile improvement left, is the weakest for culture victory left and does not really compete as well with the passive bonuses remaining.
Cahokia [13]
Geneva [5]
Kumasi [5]
Nan Madol [7]
Rapa Nui [14]
Yerevan [18]
Zanzibar [7]

 

[TMC24601]

Antananarivo [15]
Auckland [11]
Bologna [18]
Cahokia [13]
Geneva [5]
Kumasi [5]
Nan Madol [7]
Rapa Nui [11] (14-3) I don't think the Moai is as good as the Cahokia Mound, if you want to build Moai before feudalism you need to use two builders to make a triangle which is a large investment, but Cahokia only needs a single charge.
Yerevan [18]
Zanzibar [8] (7+1) As previously stated, I think this is one of the strongest and doesn't deserve to be this low yet. Having 12 extra amenities is really useful, especially to trade with the AI early on

 

[Dotsworthy]

Antananarivo [15]
Auckland [12] (11+1) the backbone of an empire if you are stuck with lots of coastal cities and fits the play the map design.
Bologna [18]
Cahokia [13]
Geneva [2] (5-3) considering the ai, it's annoying to lose that 15% when trying to protect your city states.
Kumasi [5]
Nan Madol [7]
Rapa Nui [11]
Yerevan [18]
Zanzibar [8]

 

[Lupine]

Antananarivo [15]
Auckland [13] (12+1) With my play style I end up with lots of coastal cities. I rarely go for religions but in a lot of my games I will get God of the Sea pantheon. This makes a big impact on production. For those cities.
Bologna [18]
Cahokia [13]
Geneva [ELIMINATED] (2-3) While I love this bonus in principle, I play more for science victory, I watched part of Potato McWhiskeys live stream of Ethiopia. In that stream Teddy declared war on him and refused to peace out even after getting his but handed to him for a huge chunk of it. Potato finely gave him a ton of gold per turn to end the war as he was playing peacefully. This is a scenario you can end up in and lose your benefit.
Kumasi [5]
Nan Madol [7]
Rapa Nui [11]
Yerevan [18] Side note, I hate religious game due to the tedium of getting the right apostles and spam. However this CS is a true game changer more so than any other present
Zanzibar [8]

 

[Francel]

Antananarivo [15]
Auckland [13]
Bologna [18]
Cahokia [13]
Kumasi [5]
Nan Madol [7]
Rapa Nui [8] (11-3) - they take up too many tiles and builder charges for what u get and r situationally dependent.
Yerevan [19] (18+1) - In first now, as it should be. Debater promotion outweighs even plus 18 mongol apostles, and I don’t think u can have more than 1 debater at a time without Yerevan
Zanzibar [8]

 

[alancsilver]

Antananarivo [15]
Auckland [13]
Bologna [18]
Cahokia [13]
Kumasi [2] (5-3) Not enough at this point for me. I don't see more using trade routes to city states being that powerful especially as the game progresses
Nan Madol [7]
Rapa Nui [8]
Yerevan [20] (19+1) This is THE only city state that matters for any religious game
Zanzibar [8]

 

[Jewelrunna]

Antananarivo [15]
Auckland [13]
Bologna [18]
Cahokia [13]
Kumasi [2]
Nan Madol [7]
Rapa Nui [5] (8 -3): I personally agree with @Francel here, you can get a lot of Culture & Tourism out of them, but to maximize their yields you need to both meet a lot of conditions and spend a lot of valuable tiles on them. Can be amazing, but their inconsistency brings them down a peg. Personally, I like Kumasi a lot more due to their reliability.
Yerevan [20]
Zanzibar [9] (8 + 1): Realistically, Zanzibar should be in first. Massive amounts of amenities for your empire? Check? Extra gold infusion from bartering these resources in trades? Check. A diplomacy boost via trading with these resources? Check. Lots of synergies with Civ abilities? Check. Look guys, Colosseum is one of the best wonders in the game, period, and Zanzibar gives you comparable benefits from just being their Suzerain. It's an amazing City-State, and if Zanzibar finishes outside of top five, I've lost faith in this board.

 

[kaspergm]

Antananarivo [15]
Auckland [14] (13+1) - Yes they've boosted coastal cities, but production is still king in this game, and I just love the bonus from Auckland.
Bologna [18]
Cahokia [13]
Kumasi [2]
Nan Madol [4] (7-3) - I'm not sure this is better than Kumasi or Rapa Nui. I think all of them are situationally great.
Rapa Nui [5]
Yerevan [20]
Zanzibar [9]

 

[Josephias]

Antananarivo [12] (15-3) Unless you are catching up in culture after neglecting it for a while, I'm afraid by the time Antananarivo potential kicks in, you are already well ahead on cuture for it to be relevant (unless you look for speed play, but that's a factor I value less). Still, probably the greater culture producer of all culture producers still in the list, but the others are already near zero.
Auckland [14]
Bologna [19] (18+1) The sauce is great!. And the extra GPP too.
Cahokia [13]
Kumasi [2]
Nan Madol [4]
Rapa Nui [5]
Yerevan [20]
Zanzibar [9]

 

[Lamington]

Antananarivo [12]
Auckland [14]
Bologna [19]
Cahokia [13]
Kumasi [2] (2-3) (Eliminated) The trade bonus is great, which has been enough to place it here, but still you are limited by number of trade routes available, and there are incentives to send routes elsewhere.. you still have to build up the origin city first also to get big culture boosts from the route.
Nan Madol [4]
Rapa Nui [5]
Yerevan [20]
Zanzibar [10] (9+1) There’s much to be said for free amenities. The diplomatic and trade benefits can also be useful to the game too.

 

[Amrunril]

Antananarivo [9] (12-3)This should not be outlasting the competing culture options. Civ is a game of rapidly compounding growth, so a large late game bonus with no early game bonus is rarely competitive with a solid game-long bonus (and if you care about tourism, Rapa Nui and Caguana are arguably better even in the late game).
Auckland [14]
Bologna [19]
Cahokia [13]
Nan Madol [4]
Rapa Nui [5]
Yerevan [20]
Zanzibar [11] (10+1) Until the industrial era, it would take 6 districts to generate the same amenities that this city state provides. And, in contrast to many city states, envoys are the only investment required to maximize this bonus.

(Edited to account for preceding votes)

 

[hhhhhh]

Kumasi [2]

Just a correction, Kumasi is eliminated already.

 

[JJOne]

Antananarivo [9]
Auckland [14]
Bologna [19]
Cahokia [13]
Nan Madol [4]
Rapa Nui [5]
Yerevan [17] (20-3) What about the three games out of four where you don't go religious?
Zanzibar [12] (11+1) Good in every situation, and it doesn't matter if you get it late in the game.

 

[EmJayLambert]

Antananarivo [9]
Auckland [14]
Bologna [19]
Cahokia [13]
Nan Madol [1] (4 - 3) - can't let this beat Rapa Nui. IMO it's the weakest of the remaining Culture CSs.
Rapa Nui [6] (5 + 1) - Moai Triangles ftw
Yerevan [17]
Zanzibar [12]