As I have evolved my play, one of the key things I used to overlook was CS. Not that I didn't get CS friends and allies, but I often overlooked them for other things and didn't focus on their absolute importance.
I think part of the reason is....CS alliances can be very expensive towards the mid to later parts of the game. Sometimes it takes multiple diplo units to get an alliance, and that is a lot of hammers to spend. So often it feels too expensive to get those alliances....and often it is.
The Power of Friendship
But friendship is a different story. Even though friendship doesn't always seem that great, when you add it up over a lot of CSs, its an amazing amount of yields.
The trick is the Chancery and Wire Service. These buildings are actually the strongest yield buildings in the game once you start racking up the CS friends/alliances. Lets look at an example. I am currently in a modern era game and just picking up the Wire Service. What does 1 culture CS friendship get me (assuming a TALL 5 city play, with WIDE its even better)?
+5 GPT
+23 CPT (+10 from the wire services, +13 from the CS itself)
Right now I have just around 900 CPT, so this is 2.5% of my total culture output. If I bag 3 culture CS friends, that's a 7.5%. That is a big increase. Now consider there are often ~15 CS in a standard map...and the amount of yields you are giving up by ignoring friendship is actually incredibly high!
Further, a sneaky benefit is around happiness. Those Chancery and Wire Service yields go right to your city, meaning that they effect happiness. If you assume the simple +3 yields per city friend (not looking at the CS benefit like for maritime cs), that's 45 yields if you befriend 15 CS. That makes a big difference when it comes to happiness management.
Operation Total Friendship
Now that we recognize that CS friendship is the bee's knees, its time to go get them!
Timing: First question, when should you make the push? While you can always do it earlier, once Wire Services come out should be the flare that tells you its time for total friendship, as going forward you are giving up too many yields by not getting those friends. Also at this point you should have the map explored well enough to know where all the CS are.
Tools: What's great about CS friends is they are actually very easy to get in most cases, and the AI is fine with friends, so you get no diplomatic penalty. Lets look at our toolbox for snagging CS friends.
Quests: Your first push should be quests. If there are easy quests that will bag a friend...than do them!
Spies: With the most recent VP update, spies are now a solid way to grab a CS friend. It usually only takes one rigged election to get a CS friend.
Diplo Units: The last line is the diplo unit. They are expensive, but unlike allies that may require 3, 4, or even more units...friends can almost always be gotten with a single unit. This investment is a lot more palatable.
So its a simple operation but it requires discipline. You focus on using your tools until every CS is under your friendship. Then make sure to get a few diplo units around to top things off (at this point in the game I rarely lose a friend to decay....however, Great Diplomats will drain your influence in a CS so that's generally how you lose a friendship here and there).
And then once Total Friendship is done, if you want to keep investing to get some allies, than by all means. But unless the alliance is a militarily strategic one (aka its a neighbor CS that you need for war, and to ensure it doesn't war against you)….than at this point in the game I always focus on friends first before alliances. Often for the investment in one ally fighting with the AI I can snag 3 or more friends...that's trade off is simply too high to ignore.
So if you have not paid much attention to all of those CS in your late game, you are missing out on a big late game power. Give it a shot and you will be amazed at how much stronger your yields will be...and how much easier happiness becomes to manage. Good luck!
I think part of the reason is....CS alliances can be very expensive towards the mid to later parts of the game. Sometimes it takes multiple diplo units to get an alliance, and that is a lot of hammers to spend. So often it feels too expensive to get those alliances....and often it is.
The Power of Friendship
But friendship is a different story. Even though friendship doesn't always seem that great, when you add it up over a lot of CSs, its an amazing amount of yields.
The trick is the Chancery and Wire Service. These buildings are actually the strongest yield buildings in the game once you start racking up the CS friends/alliances. Lets look at an example. I am currently in a modern era game and just picking up the Wire Service. What does 1 culture CS friendship get me (assuming a TALL 5 city play, with WIDE its even better)?
+5 GPT
+23 CPT (+10 from the wire services, +13 from the CS itself)
Right now I have just around 900 CPT, so this is 2.5% of my total culture output. If I bag 3 culture CS friends, that's a 7.5%. That is a big increase. Now consider there are often ~15 CS in a standard map...and the amount of yields you are giving up by ignoring friendship is actually incredibly high!
Further, a sneaky benefit is around happiness. Those Chancery and Wire Service yields go right to your city, meaning that they effect happiness. If you assume the simple +3 yields per city friend (not looking at the CS benefit like for maritime cs), that's 45 yields if you befriend 15 CS. That makes a big difference when it comes to happiness management.
Operation Total Friendship
Now that we recognize that CS friendship is the bee's knees, its time to go get them!
Timing: First question, when should you make the push? While you can always do it earlier, once Wire Services come out should be the flare that tells you its time for total friendship, as going forward you are giving up too many yields by not getting those friends. Also at this point you should have the map explored well enough to know where all the CS are.
Tools: What's great about CS friends is they are actually very easy to get in most cases, and the AI is fine with friends, so you get no diplomatic penalty. Lets look at our toolbox for snagging CS friends.
Quests: Your first push should be quests. If there are easy quests that will bag a friend...than do them!
Spies: With the most recent VP update, spies are now a solid way to grab a CS friend. It usually only takes one rigged election to get a CS friend.
Diplo Units: The last line is the diplo unit. They are expensive, but unlike allies that may require 3, 4, or even more units...friends can almost always be gotten with a single unit. This investment is a lot more palatable.
So its a simple operation but it requires discipline. You focus on using your tools until every CS is under your friendship. Then make sure to get a few diplo units around to top things off (at this point in the game I rarely lose a friend to decay....however, Great Diplomats will drain your influence in a CS so that's generally how you lose a friendship here and there).
And then once Total Friendship is done, if you want to keep investing to get some allies, than by all means. But unless the alliance is a militarily strategic one (aka its a neighbor CS that you need for war, and to ensure it doesn't war against you)….than at this point in the game I always focus on friends first before alliances. Often for the investment in one ally fighting with the AI I can snag 3 or more friends...that's trade off is simply too high to ignore.
So if you have not paid much attention to all of those CS in your late game, you are missing out on a big late game power. Give it a shot and you will be amazed at how much stronger your yields will be...and how much easier happiness becomes to manage. Good luck!
