Guide to City-States

Guide to City-States Guide

guide city-state

Compiled by Willowbrook

This guide provides information about Civilization VI city-states and how to get the most benefit from them. Comments, corrections, criticisms, and any other relevant discussion are welcome in the discussion thread.

What is a city-state?

How do I gain influence in a city-state?

How do I get an envoy?

Can I reassign or lose an envoy?

What are the benefits of sending envoys to city-states?

How do I become a suzerain?

What are the benefits of becoming a Suzerain?

What is the unique Suzerain bonus?

There were many city states and few envoys. How do I decide where to put them?

Are there any other strategic considerations?

Can I get a summary of all relevant government policy cards?

What is a city-state?

A city-state is a small civilization consisting of one city. It can build areas, buildings, improvements, and units, as well as wage war like a major civilization. However, it cannot find any more cities, and any cities it captures are razed to the ground (including capitals and other city-states). City-states can provide significant benefits to major civilizations with sufficient influence. They can also be conquered. Or ignored.

There are six types of city-states in Civilization VI, each offering a different type of benefit: culture, industry, militarism, religion, science, and trade. There are 24 city-states available in the base game, and an additional 6 city-states (one of each type) come with the Viking Scenario Pack. All 30 are listed here. The game is hardcoded to include 1.5 city-states for each major civilization on the map. Therefore, a standard game with 8 civilizations would have 12 city-states.

How do I gain influence in a city-state?

To gain influence over city-states, send envoys to them. When you have one or more envoys available, open the City Status screen to see a list of city statuses you've encountered. Click the arrow to the right of the current number of Envoys to assign additional Envoys, then click the green button to confirm the assignment.

How do I get an envoy?

Explore quickly

If you are the first major civilization to encounter a city-state, you will get an envoy.

point of influence

After accumulating enough influence points, you will receive one or more envoys. The number of envoys depends on your government type:

You gain influence points from government and policy cards:

Chief: 1 point/turn

Despotism, Oligarchy, Classical Republic: 3 points/turn

Monarchy, Theocracy, Merchant Republic: 5 points/turn

Democracy, Communism, Fascism: 7 points/turn

Monarchy's Legacy Bonus: +20% Influence Points, additional +1% per 10 turns at standard speed

Charismatic Leader: +2 influence points per turn, used to earn city-state envoys (Foreign Policy card provided by Political Philosophy)

Gunboat Diplomacy: Create open borders with all city-states and gain +4 influence points per turn to earn envoys (Totalitarianism provides the foreign policy card)

1 envoy at 100 points of influence: Chieftain, Despot, Oligarch and Classical Republic

2 envoys at 150 points of influence: Monarchy, Theocracy, Merchant Republic

3 envoys at 200 points of influence: Democracy, Nazism, Fascism

citizen

Obtaining certain citizens will give you one or more envoys:

Cultural Heritage: 3 Envoys

Protection: 3 envoys

Colonialism: 2 envoys

Opera and Ballet: 2 Special Envoys

Natural History: 2 Envoys

Scorched Earth: 2 Envoys

Naval Tradition: 1 Envoy

Mercenaries: 1 envoy

Theology: 1 Envoy

Mysticism: 1 Envoy

Military Tradition: 1 Envoy

ancient times

classical era

medieval era

industrial age

modern

atomic age

great people

Some great people provided envoys.

John Jacob Astor - Great Merchant - 2 Envoys

Simon Bolivar - Great General - 1 Envoy (when retired)

Jakob Fugger - The Great Merchant - 2 Envoys

Raja Todar Mal - Great Businessman - 1 Envoy

Ana Nzinga - The Great General - 1 Envoy (when retired)

Zheng He - Great Admiral - 1 Special Envoy (when retired)

Piero de'Bardi - The Gre …