City

A city with the structures build menu open

Cities are at the core of any empire. They use the surrounding land to provide the resources to raise armies, research Tomes of Magic and provide the mana to fuel spells. They are also the primary way an empire exerts control over the world. Cities lay claim to the surrounding area, making it difficult for enemies to come close without diplomatic penalties. And during war, cities are bastions that require a serious effort to breach.

Each empire will have a Throne City, which is the city where the empire's ruler resurrects should they be killed. If an empire loses simultaneously its ruler and its Throne City it loses the game. An empire's starting city will be its Throne City. Another city can be designated as the Throne City via the city information screen.

Stability

A city's Stability ranged from -100 to 100 and represents how much the population of a city supports the empire controlling the city. It is reduced by each annexed Province and increased by certain city structures. Stability has the following levels:

Level	Stability	City income
Harmony	80 to 100	+15%
Orderly	40 to 79	+10%
Stable	10 to 39	+5%
Neutral	-9 to 9
Unstable	-39 to -10	-10%
Unrest	-79 to -40	-20%
Rioting	-100 to -90	-50%

If a city's Stability reaches Rioting there is a chance that the provinces defect from the city.

The Dark culture Dread Spire (level II Town Hall) eliminates the economic penalties for low stability. The Dark culture city structure Overlord's Tower prevents provinces from defecting if the Stability level reaches Rioting.

Population

The number next to a city's name represents its Population. Opening the city menu will also show how many turns will it take for the Population to increase. An empire can also pay 15  Imperium (+3 per owned city beyond the first?) per remaining turn to instantly grow the city Population, putting it at 0  Food towards the following Population. Depending on its population, in the city menu the city will be called Village, Town, City or Metropolis. Each population allows the city to annex an adjacent Province, increasing its Domain. Annexing a Province involves constructing a Province improvement. The available Province improvements for each Province depends on its terrain and resource nodes. Province improvements will not produce anything if a hostile army is currently standing on them.

The  Food needed to reach the next population is as follows:

Current  Population	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16
Food to next	120	133	159	198	250	315	393	484	588	705	835	978	1134	1303	1485	1680
Current  Population	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29
Food to next	2000	2340	2700	3080	3680	4310	4970	5660	6380	7380	8420	9500	10620

This is a piecewise quadratic function with jumps after reaching 17, 21, and 26 population.

Settings

Governor

Each city may be assigned a Hero as Governor. The Throne City's governor is always the Ruler. The Governor does not have to be physically present in the city.

Each point of the Governor's affinity produces +2 of the corresponding resource for the city:

Affinity	Resource
Astral	Mana
Chaos	Draft
Materium	Production
Nature	Food
Order	Gold
Shadow	Knowledge

Feudal Lord hero skills can give a large bonus to a single resource:

• +25 Food
• +25 Production
• +15 Mana
• +15 Knowledge

Whispering stone

A Whispering Stone may be assigned to an owned city. This increases the city's Stability by 3 per turn, up to a maximum of 30. The bonus decays if the Whispering Stone is withdrawn.

Throne city

The Throne City can be changed at a cost in time. This blocks all structure and unit production in the new Throne City while the change happens. All Wizard's Tower structures will be migrated along with the throne.

Outpost

An Outpost may be founded by a Hero at the cost of 50 Gold and 2 turns. Barbarian Pathfinders can also build Outposts at a cost of 100 Gold and 3 turns. The Military Engineering Empire Skill reduces the Gold cost by half, the time by 1 turn, and grants a free Palisade structure.

The Outpost will annex the Province for the owner, including any Resource Node or Magic Material in that Province. Local resources ( Food, Production, Draft) are wasted (unless/until the Outpost is turned into a full City), but global resources are added to the empire's stocks as normal.

An Outpost costs 10 Gold in upkeep. Like a full City, an Outpost has a Stability value.

A limited selection of structures may be built in an Outpost:

Structure	Gold	Time	Notes
Palisade Walls	60	3	Kept if the Outpost is turned into a full City. Free with the Military Engineering Empire Skill.
Stone Walls	170	3	Requires Palisade Walls. Kept if the Outpost is turned into a full City.
Watch Tower	100	1	+3 Vision and Sensing Range.
Work Camp	100	3	Annexes an adjacent province by building a standard Province Improvement on it. If the Outpost is turned into a city, the city keeps the province and its population.
Teleporter	280	3	Requires the Teleporters Empire Skill.
Found a city	-	3	Costs 200  Imperium. The time can be reduced by 2 turns with the Fruitful Integration Empire Skill or the Haste Berries Magic Material; with both, founding a city from an Outpost is instant.

Siege

To attack an outpost or city with fortifications requires a siege. An army with a hero is required to start a siege, and at least one sieging hero must remain in the siege area or else the siege will automatically be lifted.

The objective of the siege is to reduce the fortification health to 0, at which point the walls are breached and the defending armies can be attacked. Each strategic turn, the fortification health is reduced by the attacker's fortification damage, which has a base of 10 and can be increased by Siege Projects or units with the Siege Breaker attribute.

Siege projects can only be chosen on the turn the siege starts. In addition to fortification damage can affect the battle after the siege has been broken. If multiple Siege Projects add siegecraft units, only the strongest units will be used. Each empire can use two Siege Projects at the same time, and the number can be increased by the Siege Specialization and Siege Masters empire skills.

Siege Project	Cost	Fortification damage	Start of battle effects	Requirements
Headlong Assault	None	5	Attacker's units take 20 Physical Damage	None
Construct Onagers	250 Gold	3	Attacker starts with 2 Onager units	None
Harass Defenders	60 Gold	0	Defender's units take 20 Physical Damage	None
Tower Bombardment	100 Mana	1	Half of the defender's Tower units are destroyed	None
Undermining the Walls	100 Gold	3	Additional wall breaches	None

Conquest

After conquering an enemy city, the victor has the following options.

Absorb

The city may be absorbed, becoming part of the victor's empire. This costs 200 Imperium.

Migrate

Similar to absorption, this additionally replaces the city's race with the victor's own. This also costs 200 Imperium but takes longer and reduces the city's population. Migrating a city is considered an Evil act (-10 Alignment).

Vassalize

Main article: Free city

The city may be vassalized, behaving the same as a vassalized free city.

Raze

The city may be razed, giving the victor a lump sum of Gold: 75 + 75 per population. Bonuses from razing may be improved by Chaos empire skills. Razing a city is considered an Evil act (-20 Alignment).

A razed city becomes a City Ruins. No province improvement can be built there. The city may be re-founded at the discounted price of 100  Imperium, taking 4  turns, which can be reduced using the Fruitful Integration empire skill. With a Shadow tome that grants Soul Harvest, the city may be animated for the same effect for 100  Souls and 2  turns, which is not affected by the Fruitful Integration empire skill.

Some realms may start with City Ruins already in place.