[GS] How to make a foreign or free city merge into my Empire?

[Andiey]

I know of only two ways:
Appoint the governor,
Using Bread and Circus after building Entertainment district,

What are the others ?

 

[Buktu]

Grow the population of your cities nearby and get a golden age to generate more loyalty pressure for your empire.

 

[Andiey]

Grow the population of your cities nearby and get a golden age to generate more loyalty pressure for your empire.

Any good strategies to grow a city?

 

[Equilin]

Use your military to conquer the free city

 

[Andiey]

Because dramatic age splits my kingdom into halve in dark age.

Why? Flipped cities were 100% Full loyal?!

 

[Buktu]

Any good strategies to grow a city?

Internal trade routes for sure. You can take the magnus promotion for extra food and build all the districts that provide food for trade routes in his city (you can look those up in the civilopedia). Also Wisselbanken, democracy and traderoutes with allies are nice for food.
You can ofc chop ressources which provide food to grow even faster.
Keep an eye on housing to avoid penalties to your growth.
If you can grab the hanging gardens and the pantheon with extra growth. (Although the pantheon might not be the best and you will most likely not know if there are any free cities next to your borders when you chose a pantheon.)

 

[Equilin]

Why? Flipped cities were 100% Full loyal?!

Because imo military is much faster and cheaper than regularly flipping it with loyalty, especially since dramatic ages flip several at once it is hard to gather population to flip back.
Also free cities (at least in the mode) exert their own loyalty pressure to keep themselves free, and can even flip other cities to free as well