How do you use envoys?

[travisdead1]

It took me awhile just to figure out how to send an envoy to a city-state. It said "send envoy" and I kept looking for a button next to the city labeld "send here". A left or right arrow isn't intuitive. Stylized the way it is, I didn't even recognize it as an arrow. I thought it was just part of the design.

But after I figured out how to send an envoy, I sent a bunch. But I don't understand the strategy I'm supposed to be considering. I sent a bunch of envoys to Lisbon and gained suzerainty over it, but I'm not really sure what makes that disireable. Lots of other nations have envoys to the cities too. I don't know how I'm supposed to be planning the envoy thing. What am I supposed to be considering, what do I get?

[ashvandam_uk]

It can depend on your personal tactis you are using to win that current game, i.e. if you are planning on winning a science victory, send your envoys to a science city state, (if non are available go for a production city state instead), if you are going for culture, then a culture City state, Religion then go for Religion City states first etc

[Synavix]

First, I totally agree with your complaint about the UI. Took me like half a game to figure it out even though it should have been super simple.

Each City State has a "type", which wil give bonuses whether you are their suzerain or not. You can see these by hovering over the 1-3-6 icons. For example, a "blue" city state will give science bonuses. If you send them at least 1 envoy you will get science in your capital. If you've sent them 3 or more, you *also* get bonus science in each Campus. For 6 envoys you get another bonus. "White" city states give faith, "yellow" gold, "purple" culture, "orange" production, and "red" military/encampment production. The bonuses are pretty unified throughout: the first is a small bonus to your capital, and the second and third bonus relates to their respective districts in every city. In general, I usually like to get at least one envoy in each to get your capital as many boosts as you can...but you don't have to rush it. Completing a single quest at any point will give you that first bonus. Getting the second or third bonus should be a bit more tied to your win goal. If you have a lot of campuses, the blue city state bonuses are great, as well as potentially the orange. If you are going domination, the red will be most useful. And so on.

In addition to those bonuses, becoming suzerain (by having at least 3 envoys and 1 more than the next highest civ) of a city state will grant you a unique bonus. You can see these by mousing over the "Suzerain" text to the right of the bonuses icons. These come in all different types, although they usually tie in to what type of city state that city was historically. For example, Amsterdam (a yellow city state) gives you bonus trade route gold based on the number of resources at the destination city. Geneva (a blue city state) gives you +15% science when not at war. Depending on what victory type you're going for, these can be very strong. Some are a bit weaker than others, but for each victory there is usually at least one or two that are worth trying to keep all game if you're lucky enough to have that specific city state in your game.

Another perk of being the suzerain is that the city state basically becomes an ally to you. They'll join in wars on your side, and if you want to you can pay them a set amount of gold to take direct control of their units for a certain number of turns. Otherwise they'll mostly just play defensively (but on your side). Some city states can build up pretty large numbers of forces and be quite a nuisance, so don't underestimate the value of having them on your side.

In terms of early diplomacy government cards, I usually like to switch between Charismatic Leader (+2 influence points per turn) and Diplomatic League (first envoy to each city state counts as 2) depending on what's going on. Diplomatic League can be really strong when you're first discovering city states (if you're the first to discover one you get a free envoy to them, and if you have Diplo League active it counts as 2) or if you know you're going to be spending a point on a city state you're currently at 0 with. Otherwise Charismatic Leader just helps you build up points faster. You don't have to spend your envoys right away, even though you'll get a notification each time you get another. Later on there are cards that offer you more bonuses for being suzerain or additional envoys in specific circumstances, but that's all stuff that's pretty situational.

[Lemurian1972]

I pick close 2 close city states if I can, and steadily work on maintaining Suzerain status with them, unless the CSs near me have really crappy bonuses. Using them as buffer states is a lot of help. Later on I expand taking over either very helpful CS bonuses, or taking advantage of CSs the AI is ignoring.

[travisdead1]

Thanks Synavix that is exactly what I wanted to know. Cheers!