Do you ever levy city-state military?

[Art Morte]

I have never ever done it. Do you do it and what do you think of the mechanic?

 

[Siptah]

I have, but it wasn‘t really necessary I think. I would do it more if aggressive AIs would be more of a threat.
It has a lot of potential in MP, but since you lose control if you lose suzerainty, it can be dangerous to rely on the extra units.
I like the basic idea.

 

[Prester John 2]

Yes, I've done it in all of my domination games. There are several advantages. If your land units can't yet embark you can gain suzerainty of a citystate on a neighbouring landmass in order to use their levied army to fight an opponent. Until late game, when ocean travel becomes significantly faster, levying troops on the other side of the world is also easier than painstakingly ferrying them over there. Just make sure you have enough envoys in that state. Actually, in some of my games I don't build many units at all, just rely on CS levys. Uprade them and then conquer all sorrounding civs.

 

[Pietato]

I do it to block the AI when they declare on my CSes.

 

[Victoria]

I have done it when bored and have too much cash, about 5 times.

 

[Karmah]

Saved me some headaches a couple of times , using troops from a well place CS avoid bothering about splitting your troops otherwise busing in another remote front when you get stabbed in the back.

 

[Karpius]

I've done it a few times, but only if I had three or more envoys than the next civ. Losing those units in the middle of a campaign just because suzerainty changed hands (there is historical precedent behind it) can be quite the blow.

 

[local_hero]

I've done it a few times. Sometimes to use their units in conquest. But most often to defend the city state or another one nearby. They can have a sizeable and up to date force, but they are worthless while using them. Steps into attack range of enemy cities without doing anything and etc until every unit is dead. Better to take control of them directly to organise an effective defense.

 

[WorldWarIV]

Rarely, I don't really like this feature.

 

[Weraptor]

Perphaps once as Sumer?

 

[bonafide11]

Nope, never done it once. I forget it even exists.

 

[Koot Katmandu]

Once. It was not worth the gold. You only keep them for a few turns.

 

[tedhebert]

I have in the past, but rarely... the problem with levy is that it's mostly only interesting in the first 2-3 eras...after that, usually, the CS units are too few or too low level to be of any uses...

Many times in the start games, I don't really have the money to waste on this... there are so many other better options for spending my gold than this... after that, I usually DO have money
to waste on things like this, but... it's has become useless to do so...

I hope that what I consider a BUG that makes it so that CS never really devellop an intersting army in mid-late game gets fixed one day to that this option becomes interesting

 

[Siptah]

Once. It was not worth the gold. You only keep them for a few turns.

I guess it is scales to game speed. I never felt it to be too short on epic.

 

[thecrazyscot]

I love this feature. If you have city-states strategically placed on your borders you never even need to build a military. Whenever you need to defend yourself just levy their military, and spend all your production on infrastructure and wonders. I've used it to great effect. It's also excellent for emergencies as often times there's a City-State that's much closer than you to your target.

EDIT: you keep them for 30 turns on Standard speed, which is more than enough time to do whatever you need to do. And gold is so easy to come by in Civ6 that upgrading their units is a snap.

 

[tedhebert]

EDIT: you keep them for 30 turns on Standard speed, which is more than enough time to do whatever you need to do. And gold is so easy to come by in Civ6 that upgrading their units is a snap.

Ah yes... seems a waste or money to upgrade them to me, but I see your point... that DOES imply that the CS has more than 1 or 2 units though

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

You get an era score bonus for doing so, which can sometimes make it worthwhile.

One thing to watch for is that when you levy the City State's units, they become part of your army, not theirs. So if they're being attacked and you aren't at war with their attacker, their units can no longer defend the City State against their attacker. They can't even enter the main city hex itself. I learned that the hard way once ...

 

[tedhebert]

You get an era score bonus for doing so, which can sometimes make it worthwhile.
.

Another example of how I have to update my way of thinking... I wouldn't have tought of that... great snippet to remember when you're 1-2 pts aways from a desired era score while the clock is getting in the last stages of the countdown... I suppose that bonus is only for the first time you levy ?

 

[thecrazyscot]

Ah yes... seems a waste or money to upgrade them to me, but I see your point... that DOES imply that the CS has more than 1 or 2 units though

Most city-states in my games usually have pretty robust armies with a few exceptions here and there.

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

Another example of how I have to update my way of thinking... I wouldn't have tought of that... great snippet to remember when you're 1-2 pts aways from a desired era score while the clock is getting in the last stages of the countdown... I suppose that bonus is only for the first time you levy ?

I think it's only for the first time you levy a City State's military, but I'm not certain. I'm fairly confident that it's one-time only per City State, but whether it's also one time only for any City State I'd need to look up, and I'm away from the Civilopedia right now.