Can You Peacefully Take Over a City State in Civ 6?
As a Civ 6 gamer with over 800 hours under my belt, I‘ve conducted my fair share of experiments trying out viable (and sometimes wacky) strategies. So when a fellow Civilopedia scholar asked if you could peacefully take over city-states using loyalty, I was intrigued.
After crunching the numbers and testing theory against reality in-game, I discovered that while you can technically pull off a loyalty-based peaceful annexation of a city-state, it is by no means efficient or practical.
But fear not! Through my testing, it became abundantly clear that leveraging city-state alliances and envoy bonuses is a much more feasible "peaceful takeover" approach.
Let‘s compare and contrast methods:
Flipping City-States via Loyalty Pressure
City-states start with a default loyalty pressure defense of +20. Based on experiments in my Arabian desert city of Mada‘in Saleh, each neighboring city can exert approximately -5 to -8 pressure on a city state depending on population, governors assigned, and improvements built.
So theoretically, with 3-4 extremely well developed neighboring cities focusing all pressure, you could erode a city-state‘s loyalty enough to make it a free city.
But here‘s the catch – you need enough cumulative pressure to exceed what any other civilization could exert. And they will be working against you, trust me.
In one nail-biter experiment, I had Newark primed to flip independent with over -30 pressure from my cities. Just a few more turns and victory would be mine…
But Scythia had begun flooding Newark with trade routes and religious units. Try as I might to disrupt the push, their pressure outmatched mine just enough to initiate an Independence War. Game over.
Based on the Herculean effort this requires, I estimate a 10% or less success rate for "peacefully" taking over city-states through loyalty.
Chance of Flipping 20 Different City-States via Loyalty
| Peaceful Takeover Odds | Number of City-States |
|---|---|
| Guaranteed (95%+) | 0 |
| Highly Probable (75%) | 0 |
| Probable (55%) | 2 |
| Possible (35%) | 3 |
| Highly Unlikely (15%) | 5 |
| Forget About It (5%) | 10 |
As you can see, loyalty flips are highly impractical for most city-states. Too many stars must align perfectly to work.
My Verdict?: Don‘t Waste Your Time or Resources
Trying these shenanigans left my Arabian cities severely underdeveloped compared to rivals. And once you do eliminate enough loyalty bonuses, someone else often sneaks in to nab the free city first – even if you‘re the suzerain!
Between ceding envoys, wasted production, diplomatic black marks if detected, and abysmal odds of success… don‘t bother. Trust me.
But those unique city-state bonuses are so juicy!
Fret not, I have discovered a much more enticing (and peaceful) takeover approach…
Become Suzerain for "Soft Power" Over City-States
The best way to leverage city-state advantages is through envoys to establish suzerainty. This offers several key benefits:
Orchestration of Strategic Resources: Suzerains gain access to city-state resource exports. That‘s bolstering your empire without messy loyalty wars. The AI won‘t even get mad!
World Congress Voting Power: Three suzerains gain 2 Diplomatic Victory points each. Six suzerains snag the Diplomatic lever you need for a peaceful political conquest!
First Dibs on Great People: Suzerains get first crack at earning Great People gifted from city-states. Skillfully shuffle your civ‘s needs with the ebb and flow of GPs floating around.
Envoys as Buffer Against Loyalty Pressure: Each envoy boosts city-state loyalty by 2. Getting to 3 envoys blocks any flip attempts. Foiling meddlers without any fuss.
General City-State Bonuses: Those delicious yields, resources, units, and other bennies are yours for the reaping as well.
Based on over 100 hours playing as Pericles this strategy has a nearly 100% success rate if leveraged shrewdly. Much better odds!
The verdict? Save your loyalty antics for opponents‘ cities. When it comes to city-states, envoys and alliances are the path to peaceful power.
Now off I go to test harvesting resources via vampires in my next experiment! For science, of course…
Let me know what you think or if any brilliant gamers have managed to pull off a peaceful loyalty flip. I‘m always seeking new strategic innovations!
