Loyalty

Something you need to watch out for is Loyalty. If one of your cities starts to find the neighbors more attractive, the city may decide to leave your Empire, and eventually join the other Empire. Of course, if you play your cards right you can use this to add cities from other players to your Empire. So understanding how the Loyalty mechanism works is important. Loyalty in a city is measured on a scale of 100 Loyalty points as follows:

• Loyal (76-100) – No penalties. Full population growth and full yields.
• Wavering Loyalty (51-75) – Population growth falls to 75% of normal, and yields are also reduced by 25%
• Disloyal (26-50) – Population growth falls to 25%, and yields are reduced by 50%.
• Unrest (1-25) – Population growth ceases, all yields are zero.

If the Loyalty hits zero and you are receiving net negative Loyalty, the city will revolt and become a Free City, no longer part of your Empire. At this point you would need to send in your Military to get it back, or any other player could conquer it without any diplomatic penalty. But if the nearby player is exerting net Loyalty pressure on the city, it will in time join the other player’s Empire without any shots being fired. You want to prevent this, so it is important to keep an eye on your Loyalty in every city, particularly those on the border of your Empire. You don’t want to let Loyalty fall too much because there is a penalty, and by all means don’t let it fall to Unrest if you can help it.

You can monitor the Loyalty by looking at the name bar for your city. On the name bar you will see the icon for your Empire. If you see a green up arrow that means you are geneerating positive Loyalty each turn. You cannot get above 100, but if it is positive each turn that gives you a bit wiggle room. If the arrow is red and facing down, you are losing Loyalty each turn. That means you should take action to improve the situation. And if you mouse over this icon you willl get a pop-up window with the details on what is contributing to your Loyalty. So what factors matter here?

The first is distance. If your city is far from the rest of your Empire, but close to another Empire, it will start to be pulled to that other Empire. But population also figures into this. The algorithm only considers cities within 9 tiles of the city in question, and then for each of them it does a calculation involving the number of citizens and the distance to calculate the Loyalty pressure. Then the Age you are in becomes a factor. If you are in a Dark Age the Loyalty pressure from your own cities is cut in half, but then the same applies to your neighbor: if they are in a Dark Age their Loyalty pressure against you is cut in half. And for a Golden Age the pressure is increased by 50%. So surviving a Dark Age with your Empire intact can be a real accomplishment.

Covernors are another factor. If you have a Governor in your city that is worth +8 Loyalty in itself. This is one reason for recruiting all of the possible Governors before you worry about promoting the ones you already have, but of course that is a choice you make. And on the other side, Amani is a governor that can can exert Loyalty pressure against you. If she has received the Emissary promotion she reduces Loyalty by 2 per turn in any foreign city within 9 tiles. But defensively, if she has the Prestige promotion she adds +2 Loyalty to any cities in her Empire within 9 tiles. And then there is Victor. If he has the Garrison Commander promotion he adds +4 Loyalty to any city within 9 tiles.

Buildings can help as well. Each Monument is worth +1 Loyalty per turn. The Government Plaza District is worth +8 Loyalty per turn. The Colosseum Wonder adds +2 to each city within 6 tiles. The Statue of Liberty locks in 100% Loyalty to every city within 6 tiles. And there are a number of Leader-specific effects on Loyalty/

Happiness is of course a major factor. This is determined by the Amenities you have provided. If you have a deficit of at least 3, citizens are Unhappy and Loyalty is reduced by 6 per turn. For a deficit of 1 or 2, the citizens are Displeased and the reduction is 3. If Amenities are at 0-2, Loyalty is not affected. At +3-4 the citizens are Happy and the Loyalty is boosted by +3, and if you reach +5 or greater, the citizens are Ecstatic and Loyalty is increased by +6. So you should keep an eye on Amenities. A temporary shortfall may not matter much in the short run, but if left unchecked it can turn into a big problem.

The last major factor is religion. This is most important if you have founded a religion. In that case, if one of your cities is not following your religion it loses 3 Loyalty per turn. But if it is following your religion it adds 3 Loyalty instead. And this can be used as an offensive weapon. Converting another Empire’s city to your religion will put added Loyalty pressure on that city, and may even tip the balance.

The Loyalty Lens accessed on the lower left is one way to see how your Loyalty pressure is flowing. It will display arrows that point in the direction of flow, and they will be in the color of the Empire that dominates the particular flow.

Now while we have suggested you should keep an eye on your Loyalty in your cities, the fact is that you can get busy with other things and forget. So if a city of yours is in danger rebellion it will display a red fist that throbs. You really can’t miss it. If you see this you know that unless you can turn things around pretty quick you are going to lose a city. And this happens in stages. When a city rebels, it becomes a Free City. It adopts the same colors as Barbarians and belongs to no Empire.

Defensive Strategy

What you will be doing in most cases is defensive strategy to keep your cities loyal to your Empire. And the ways you do this include:

• Installing governors in cities with low loyalty. And you can add to that by getting promotions for Victor and Amani and moving them to low loyalty cities or cities near to low loyalty cities since their effects cover nearby cities.
• Keep your Amenities up. Improve any luxury resources you have, and trade for ones you don’t have.
• Build Monuments. This has the added effect of increasing your Culture, which is how you move through the Culture tree, so it is generally a good idea.
• Build Entertainment Complex or Water Park, and develop them with buildings. Arena, Zoo, and Stadium can all be built in Entertainment Complexes, and Ferris Wheel, Aquarium, and Aquatics Center can be built in the Water Park.
• Add Shopping Malls to Neighborhood Districts.
• Establish National Parks. They not only provide Amenities to the city they are in, but also to the four closest cities.
• Choose policies that add Amenities.
• Look for Wonders that add Amenities. The best of these is Estádio do Maracanã which adds 2 Amenities to every city you have in your Empire. But the Colosseum and Huey Teocalli are not bad either.
• Wrap up your wars by suing for peace. The longer you are at war the more the war weariness adds up and this creates negative Amenities.
• Build ski resorts on Mountain tiles. Anyone can do this. But if you are playing as Canada you can build hockey rinks on snow or tundra tiles, and Scotland can build golf courses.
• Choose religious beliefs that increase Amenities.
• Increase your population by focusing on food. Remember that loyalty pressure is in part determined by population.
• Run a Bread and Circuses project. It doesn’t have to be in the city with the problem, though that will have the most impact. These projects can provide added loyalty pressure to cities up to 9 tiles away, though diminshing with distance.
• Form a Cultural Alliance with the Empire exerting pressure on your city. This will stop the loyalty pressure for the duration of the Alliance. Of course, you have to get them to agree to such an alliance.
• Avoid being in a Dark Age, and if possible be in a Golden Age

There are many other things that come up with specific leaders or specific circumstances, but listing them all would be tedious.

Offensive Strategy

If you can, you might want to turn this around and attack the loyalty of cities from other Empires. And you can do this by:

• Using spies to neutralize the city’s governor.
• Use Amani with the Emissary promotion by stationing her in a border city near your target.
• Convert the target city to your religion.
• Running Bread and Circuses projects in cities near the target.
• Use spies to foment unrest.

Bear in mind that a city which has flipped can always flip back, so make sure you know how to use the defensive strategy. Also, cities that have been conquered by your armies always start off with shaky loyalty, so you will need to bolster it.

If you want to have some fun with the offensive strategy you need to play as Eleanor of Aquitaine as Queen of France. Eleanor is one of those leaders who can be two different leaders, the other being Queen of England. Fun fact: she really was both Queen of France and then Queen of England in reality. But as Queen of France she has the Court of Love Leader bonus, which means that every Great Work in her cities will cause foreign cities within 9 tiles to lose 1 loyalty per turn. Well, start going for all of the Culture districts and buildings, fill them up with Great Works, and you are lucky you can take over the whole world without firing a shot!