Contents
City
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.
A city with the structures build menu open
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.
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 Resource imperium.png Imperium per remaining turn to instantly grow the city 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.
Siege
When a city is attacked a Siege will take place. The Siege will 10 Fortification each turn, the rate which can be increased by Siege Projects or units with the Siege Breaker attribute. Once Fortification reaches 0 a siege battle can be launched. During a Siege the attacker can use Siege Projects to gain various bonuses. If two 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 Proejct | Cost | Fortification damage | Start of battle effects | Requirements |
| Headlong Assault | None | 500% | Attacker’s units take 20 Physical Damage | None |
| Construct Onagers | 250 Gold | 300% | Attacker starts with 2 Onager units | None |
| Harass Defenders | 60 Gold | 0% | Defender’s units take 20 Physical Damage | None |
| Tower Bombardment | 100 Mana | 100% | Half of the defender’s Tower units are destroyed | None |
| Undermining the Walls | 100 Gold | 300% | Additional wall breaches | None |
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