VII is the time to return to a forced single city ability (aka V Venice)

[SemiLazyGamer]

I was mainly inspired by Tecumseh and how his abilities revolve around Independent Powers.

I feel something like V Venice could work with the change to how city-states work and the changing civs feature of VII.

At first I felt it could only be a leader ability, but you could still make several civilizations into forced single cities due to how the era changing works. You would just need to make it so you can turn captured cities into independent powers and force all of your cities to turn into independent powers if you decide to go for a forced single city civ.

 

[Haig]

I would love a civ with a powerful capital and needing independent powers to hold the empire.

Venice and Austria would be nice choices.

 

[RedCourtJester]

I think that is going to be difficult to pull off in this game, if civs are expected to (a) synergize to some extent with a natural path including two other eras, and (b) be expected, generally to work modularly with all of the other civs.

I think the easiest way to pull it off would maybe be to make it a leader trait that modifies all civs that they play equally.

 

[Lazy sweeper]

Suzerainty

I don't know how wars diplomacy will be tackled.
It could be one available option,
like demanding tributes even in peace periods, idk if it will be possible, to ask for example for a tech.
Or force a suzerain city to develop only some kind of items, or send resources, or force them to convert all production into science...
the concept of suzerainty has always worked as general buff, diminished happiness tradeoff, and very little power over its function.

One city gameplay will be massive despite not having specialized civs like Venice, or the Greeks city states.
But if the game mechanics requires four cities to advance to modern age it will not work,
and I smell this kind of requisites will b in the game.

 

[Aristotle Kzin]

Rome with Augustus could certainly do this in Antiquity, in fact it might be the best way to play Rome with Augustus in Antiquity! The question is, if you choose Augustus as your leader, what are your Exploration Age options going to be? If you find three horses you can go Mongolians, since conquered cities become towns when you conquer them. Augustus' ability will still be in action, so Rome can just be getting bigger and bigger! Also, Mongols don't need to focus on the Distant Lands as much as other Exploration Age civs. Alternatively, Normans create tough towns with free walls.... Finally, in the Modern Age, who knows (since we only have the details on two modern age civs so far) but America, if an option, wouldn't be bad, as all of their unique abilities affect SETTLEMENTS, not cities, i.e. including towns.....
Oh I forgot - Rome would be renamed TWICE in this option!

 

[uppi]

This could be very viable if by a single city you mean a single city and potentially multiple towns (like Civ5 Venice could have puppets). You are just not allowed to upgrade towns into cities for a huge bonus on the single city you have.