Create Provinces

[Darth Tribble]

I'd like to see a feature where you can divide your empire into provinces or states. Maybe these provinces could provide extra bonuses, but also cost money to create and maintain.

The provinces would essentially be a group of cities under a governor or something, and you could tell them to build things just like cities, except the build queue would apply to every city that is part of that province. This could make micromanagement less of a hassle if you have lots of cities and find yourself constant switching between them for their building queue.

Also, every province could have a capital, which can be selected or assigned randomly. Or it could be the largest or most prominent city in that province.

 

[Manifold]

This goes in the direction of Civ 5 with the puppet states or Civ 4 with the vassals. I guess we do not get around this or a similar solution. I like the term you used: "Provinces" its from the Romans.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

This might be part of the solution to the real City State problem in Civ, in that City State Civilizations are very badly handled in the game, and that includes some very important civilizations in history. Aside from obvious candidates like the Phoenician city states of Ancient/Classical Eras, Greek city states of Classical Era and the Italian city states of the Renaissance, I suggest that many early 'states' consisted effectively of One City plus its conquests. It was only with the 'invention' of the Empire style of satrapies under Cyrus the Great of Persia, later perfected with the Roman Citizenship of Rome, that you really had the kind of centralized Overall Control and Coordination that we think of as 'normal' in Civ.

So, as a suggestion, combine the Province concept with the Puppet City concept.
Every new city conquered is automatically a 'Puppet' as in Civ V: you get the benefit of all or some of its Science, Amenity and Food production, but you cannot actually specify Construction of anything.
Every new city founded, if it is more than X tiles away (actual distance would vary with map size, Technology researched, and could possibly even be linked to Trade Route Length - communication by sea allowing the city to be further away but still under Central Influence - would also be a Puppet.
Any two or more cities with the same Culture Background and in proximity to each other could form a Province. That is, two cities you founded on the same island, for example, might turn all or most of the island into a Province, and two cities conquered from the same enemy Civilization which started as founded by them would form a Province.

Provinces could be Specialized in that you could either tell them what to Build OR simply specify that the Province is 'specialized' as a Food Producer, in which case they will build Granaries, Builders, and mostly Food Producing Improvements.
Provinces that Specialize in Defense AND came from a different Civ or are in an entirely different terrain/climate might even be able to Build Unique Units that your 'normal' Civ can't - your 'Scythian' province cranking out Horse Archers, for instance.

The size of a Province, again, would change with travel and communication Technology. By the Industrial/Modern Era, a Province could be pretty large, but you would have the choice of 'dividing' the provincial areas into smaller States, Provinces, Strapies, etc to better specialize them as needed. What you could not do, realistically, is re-arrange a Province after it has been set up for a while: people become attached and identify as Wurttemburgers or Texans and will not be happy if they are suddenly redesignated as something else by the central government.

 

[God of Kings]

In the Industrial era, provinces can be later split into prefectures and/or counties.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

In the Industrial era, provinces can be later split into prefectures and/or counties.

There are a LOT of ways 'provinces' can be redivided in the Industrial Era and later. Just for example, both the Oakland Bay-San Francisco area in California and the Puget Sound Area in Washington are 'Transit Regions' combining a number of counties, townships, cities and towns into single political/economic administrative entities which are much smaller than the states that (nominally) they are still part of, but with concerns and interests that d not really concern the rest of the state.

In many case, a major city becomes essentially a separate political/economic 'province' all by itself: New York City, Chicago, and Boston all dominate the rest of their respective states, and I believe the political organization of Germany still includes cities which are on the State level in the legislature. Vienna, Athens, and Seoul are all capitals that are so much larger than any other concentration in their respective countries that they are 'capitals in search of a country'. In other words, theoretically a city that is X amount larger than any other city near it could be a Province all by itself.

Another point: Conquest makes 'reorganizing' Provinces much easier. Napoleon redrew the entire political map of German after he beat the two major German powers, Prussia and Austria, and in one swell foop wiped out minor states and city states that had existed for centuries. After WWII the Soviet Union detached the city of Konigsberg and that part of East Prussia from Germany - which it had been part of for over 300 years - and renamed the city as Kaliningrad and made it part of Russia.

 

[Eric Guimarães]

I support it! I think this system would fit nicely with new diplomatic policies... it would be fun if provinces revolted against the capital too (if they are not provided enough amenities or infraestructure).