Becoming Suzerain of City-States inSid Meier’s Civilization 7is a fairly straightforward process if you know what you are doing, but the process might be a little difficult to figure out without being somewhat familiar with the in-game menus and UI. Becoming Suzerain of a City-State opens up unique gameplay options with the Independent Power and can give you strategic advantages throughout the Ages. City-States are Age-specific, meaning they reset at the beginning of each Age. However, City-States can also be incorporated into their Suzerain’s empire, or overthrown and razed, just like any other major Settlement would.

Independent Powers, which can be turned into City-States using Influence, are automatically loaded into each Age with unique bonuses based on specific categories that happen to sync up with thefour Legacy Paths:Military, Gold, Science, and Culture. When you first interact with a unit from an Independent Power, they will be hostile, neutral, or friendly. Any civilization in the campaign can improve its relationship with a given Independent Power, and it’s first come, first served, meaning once someone claims an Independent Power, it’s under their control for at least forty turns.

Leaders from Mauryan and Egypt from Civ 7

Becoming Suzerain Of City-States In Civ 7

Independent Powers Are Converted To City-States Using Influence

At the start ofall three Ages, Independent Powers spawn on the map randomly and can be interacted with as you explore. After unveiling an Independent Power’s location, leaders can select the Befriend Independent option from the Leader menu under the Independents & City-States tab (the Heart icon).

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From there, a set amount of Influence can be spent to befriend the Independent Power over the course of several turns, whichtakes longer depending on their hostility level.

Confucious from Civilization 7 Cover

As Independent Powers become more friendly, hostile units will stop attacking, a one-time resource bonus is awarded, and the Independent Power becomes a City-State with the leader who befriended it as Suzerain.

However, any other civilization that has discovered an Independent Power is also able to befriend them and convert them to a City-State, and extra Influence can actually be spent to speed along this process. This creates a sort of race to become Suzerain of City-States at the beginning of each Age, lest an opponent claims them first.

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Once a City-State has a Suzerain,this status is exclusive and lasts forty turns,which in some cases means the remainder of the Age. As Suzerain, you have the ability to establish trade routes with the City-State, or spend Influence to levy their units, bolster their military, and promote growth in the Settlement.

Benefits Of Being Suzerain In Civ 7

City-States Provide One-Of-A-Kind Bonuses And Can Be Incorporated

There are four categories of bonuses that City-States fall into that line up with the four Legacy Paths: Gold (orEconomic),Military,Culture, andScience. Once a leader becomes Suzerain of a City State, they’ll be able to choose from aset of distinct Bonuses that can only be received once from that City-State type.

For example, once the unique Cloves Resource is selected from a Gold-based City-State, they will no longer be an option when other Gold City-States are established. This makes Suzerain’s status significant, as each of the bonuses for every category is unique, highly contested, and could potentially turn the tides of a given Age.

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Each category of City-State bonus offers a handful of choices, such as an improvement.For example, the Military City-State bonus allows leaders to construct the Shore Battery improvement, which offers multiple combat advantages. Similarly, the Science City-State bonuses include an Institute, a unique improvement providing considerable Science yields.

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Additionally,Influence can be spent to fully incorporate a City-Stateinto its Suzerain’s empire, so if it’s located in a strategic position on the map or has abundant resources, this needs to be done before the end of theAge inCiv 7. City-States and Suzerain status reset at the beginning of each Age inCivilization 7.

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