In the grand tapestry of Civilization 6, city-states are the vibrant threads that can alter the entire pattern of a game. They are the neutral powers, the coveted prizes, and the kingmakers who can propel a civilization to glory or watch it crumble. Player communities have long debated the most effective strategies for securing their favor, but a fascinating hypothetical question emerges: What if the diplomatic landscape underwent a seismic shift? What if, upon entering the Industrial Era, every city-state on the map instantly and irrevocably became your permanent ally? This scenario transcends a simple advantage; it fundamentally rewrites the rules of the game, ushering in an era of unprecedented power and altering the very nature of victory.
Analysis on forums and among strategy experts consistently highlights the immense value of suzerainty. The suzerain bonuses, the yields, the strategic resources—each is a significant boon. Now, imagine possessing all of them, simultaneously and without contest. This guide delves into the profound strategic implications of such a world-altering event, exploring how every facet of a Civilization 6 campaign would be transformed. From an almost guaranteed Diplomatic Victory to an economic and military machine of unparalleled might, we will dissect the new reality of a world where you are the undisputed master of all minor civilizations.
The New World Order: Understanding Permanent Allegiance
To fully grasp the magnitude of this change, we must first define what “permanent allies” entails in the context of Civilization 6. This hypothetical scenario assumes that upon your civilization entering the Industrial Era, you instantly become the suzerain of every city-state in the game. This suzerainty is permanent; no other civilization can send envoys to contest your status. You gain every suzerain bonus, every yield bonus, and every strategic and luxury resource they possess, for the remainder of the game.
This immediately eliminates the entire envoy competition sub-game. The race to complete city-state quests, the strategic use of policy cards like Diplomatic League, and the construction of the Diplomatic Quarter to generate influence all become moot points for your rivals, at least in terms of city-state control. For you, the game shifts from a struggle for influence to the management of an immense, global network of tributaries. The strategic focus moves from acquisition to optimization, from competition to consolidation.
The Unstoppable Diplomatic Victory
The most immediate and obvious consequence of this scenario is the almost certain path to a Diplomatic Victory. According to the player community, securing a Diplomatic Victory in the late game is a delicate balancing act of accumulating Diplomatic Favor, winning key votes in the World Congress, and constructing specific wonders. Permanent allegiance with all city-states transforms this delicate dance into a steamroll.
An Unending Torrent of Diplomatic Favor
The foundation of diplomatic power is Diplomatic Favor, and in this scenario, you would have a virtually limitless supply. Each city-state you are suzerain of provides +1 Diplomatic Favor per turn. With, for example, 12 city-states in a standard game, you would gain a base of +12 Diplomatic Favor per turn, a significant advantage. This consistent, massive income of favor allows you to dominate the World Congress. When resolutions appear, you can single-handedly decide the outcome, consistently gaining the +1 Diplomatic Victory Point for voting with the majority.
The World Congress as Your Personal Council
Many professional gamers suggest that the AI’s primary strategy to stop a player from winning a Diplomatic Victory is to vote for them to lose Diplomatic Victory Points in the late-game World Leader resolutions. In this hypothetical world, that threat is completely neutralized. You would have enough Diplomatic Favor to not only vote for yourself to gain 2 Diplomatic Victory Points but also to easily overcome any and all opposition from other civilizations. The World Congress ceases to be a forum for international debate and becomes a rubber stamp for your agenda.
Furthermore, you can use your voting power to pass resolutions that further benefit your empire and cripple your rivals. You could, for instance, consistently vote to ban a luxury resource that only your opponents possess, or grant extra production towards military units when you are planning an offensive. The strategic possibilities are endless when you control the world’s legislative body.
Economic Powerhouse: Fueling a Global Empire
Beyond the realm of diplomacy, the economic ramifications of controlling every city-state are staggering. A popular strategy is to focus on a few key city-states whose bonuses align with your victory condition. In this scenario, you get them all, creating an economic engine of unprecedented scale and versatility.
A Production Juggernaut
The sheer production bonuses gained would be immense. Consider the combined effects:
- Industrial City-States: You would receive the +2 production bonus in your capital and in every Industrial Zone district from every single industrial city-state on the map.
- Auckland: With Auckland as a permanent ally, every shallow water tile in your empire provides +2 production in the Industrial Era. This makes coastal cities with sea resources incredibly powerful.
- Brussels: A permanent +15% production towards all wonders from Brussels makes securing wonders like the Statue of Liberty (+4 Diplomatic Victory Points) a trivial matter.
- Johannesburg: Your cities would receive +2 production for every improved resource type after researching Industrialization. In a wide empire with diverse resources, this bonus alone can be game-changing.
- Hong Kong: A permanent +20% production towards city projects allows you to endlessly run projects like Carbon Recapture, generating even more Diplomatic Favor.
This confluence of production bonuses means your cities can build districts, buildings, wonders, and military units at a pace no other civilization could hope to match.
A Flood of Gold and Resources
The economic benefits extend far beyond production. Your trade routes would become incredibly lucrative. With Kumasi, every trade route to a city-state provides +2 Culture and +1 Gold for every specialty district in the origin city. With a large, well-developed empire, a single trade route could generate massive yields.
Furthermore, you gain access to every single luxury and strategic resource controlled by every city-state. This has two profound effects. First, your amenities will be sky-high, leading to happy, productive cities and allowing you to push your population growth to new heights. The suzerain bonus of Zanzibar, providing the unique luxury resources of Cloves and Cinnamon for a total of +12 amenities, is a prime example of this. Second, you will never have a shortage of strategic resources. Coal, Oil, Aluminum, and Uranium will flow into your empire, fueling your late-game military and infrastructure without any need for conquest or trade with other major civilizations.
The Cultural Revolution: A Global Renaissance
While the path to a Diplomatic Victory is the most direct, a Cultural Victory also becomes significantly easier. Analysis on forums shows that a successful Cultural Victory requires a strong foundation of culture and tourism generation, often supplemented by key wonders and Great Works.
Unrivaled Culture Generation
The culture per turn you would generate would be astronomical. Consider the synergies:
- Cultural City-States: You would receive the culture bonus in your capital and in every Theater Square district from every cultural city-state.
- Antananarivo: This city-state’s bonus, which increases your culture by 2% for every Great Person you have ever earned (up to 30%), would be a constant, powerful multiplier on your already high culture output.
- Kumasi: As mentioned, the culture from trade routes to city-states would be a massive contributor to your cultural output.
- Nan Madol: For coastal empires, the +2 culture from districts on or next to coast or lake tiles would further amplify your cultural dominance.
This high culture output allows you to speed through the Civic Tree, unlocking powerful late-game policy cards and governments far ahead of your rivals.
Tourism Hegemony
The path to a Cultural Victory is paved with tourism. Your permanent alliance with all city-states provides several direct and indirect boosts to your tourism output. The production advantage allows you to build all the wonders that provide tourism. The high culture output allows you to unlock key civics like “Cultural Heritage,” which grants tourism from museums with themed Great Works. The gold you generate can be used to purchase Great Works from other civilizations, further accelerating your path to victory.
Scientific Dominance: The Unending Eureka Moment
A Science Victory, while perhaps not as straightforward as a Diplomatic Victory in this scenario, is also greatly accelerated. The key to a Science Victory is, unsurprisingly, science per turn, and the production capacity to complete the late-game space race projects.
Accelerating the Tech Tree
The science bonuses from scientific city-states (+2 in the capital and in every Campus district) provide a solid foundation. However, the true power comes from the suzerain bonuses of city-states like Geneva, which provides a +15% science boost in all your cities when you are not at war. Since you have little need to wage war, you can maintain this bonus for most of the game.
The massive production advantage also plays a crucial role. You can build Campuses, Libraries, Universities, and Research Labs in all of your cities with incredible speed. You can also secure all the science-boosting wonders, such as the Great Library and Oxford University. This combination of direct science bonuses and production power allows you to race through the Technology Tree, reaching the late-game technologies required for the science victory long before anyone else.
Waging a New Kind of War: The Global Police Force
Even a Domination Victory, which might seem counterintuitive in a scenario that so heavily favors peaceful victories, is transformed. While you may not need to conquer other civilizations, you gain the ability to project military power on a global scale with unparalleled ease.
An Army of Mercenaries
You have the ability to levy the military of every single city-state on the map. This gives you a massive, disposable army that can be used for both offense and defense. You can use these levied units to defend your borders, allowing you to focus your own production on a smaller, more technologically advanced army. Or, you can use the combined might of all city-state armies to launch a devastating surprise attack on a rival. The suzerain bonus of Kabul, which grants double experience to units that initiate combat, would allow you to quickly promote these levied units into a veteran fighting force.
Strategic Resource Monopoly
Your monopoly on strategic resources from city-states gives you a critical military advantage. While your opponents may be scrambling to find sources of Oil or Uranium, you will have a plentiful supply to build and maintain a modern army, navy, and air force. This resource advantage alone can be enough to deter aggression or to give you a decisive edge in any conflict.
Counter-Strategies: Can This Be Stopped?
Faced with a civilization that has every city-state as a permanent ally, what could the other players possibly do? The options are limited and likely futile, but some theoretical counter-strategies exist.
A united military front against you would be the most direct approach. If every other civilization in the game declared a joint war on you, they might be able to overwhelm you through sheer numbers, especially in the early stages of the Industrial Era before your economic and production advantages have fully snowballed. However, your ability to levy a global army of city-state units would make even this a difficult proposition.
Another potential strategy would be to focus on a religious victory. Religion is the one victory type that is least directly impacted by city-state bonuses. A player who has spread their religion globally could potentially win before your other advantages become insurmountable. However, your massive production and gold income would allow you to build a strong faith economy and field your own religious units to counter their spread.
Ultimately, the most likely outcome is that the game becomes a race against time for the other players. They would need to win before the Industrial Era, or be prepared to face an opponent with an almost insurmountable set of advantages.
A New Era of Civilization
The hypothetical scenario of all city-states becoming permanent allies after the Industrial Era presents a fascinating thought experiment that underscores their critical role in Civilization 6. It transforms the game from a competitive struggle into a strategic puzzle of optimization and resource management for the favored player. The paths to Diplomatic, Cultural, and Scientific victories become wide, paved highways, while even the nature of warfare is fundamentally altered. This exploration reveals not just the power of a single suzerain bonus, but the exponential, game-breaking power that comes from their combination. It is a testament to the intricate design of Civilization 6 that these minor powers hold the potential for such monumental shifts in the global balance of power, forever altering the course of history in the world you seek to shape.