Hello, this is /u/No_Eight, maintainer of maps, here today to talk to you about city states. The vassals and NPCs of Mk.I are being replaced by city states in Mk.II, a change I think many of you will be happy with. You can read up more about how city states will actually behave here.

What I'm here to tell you now is that City State positions have been mostly finalized on the map. Rough locations were chosen a while ago, and have been shifted slightly as claims were made. Now that claims are slowing down, city state names and positions have become all but final. This means I will begin revealing city states!

How many city states are there?

Currently there are 63, including the ones placed by players

Isn't that a lot? Won't they take all my land?

No. Our cities have less range than Civ V cities, making our nations smaller as a result. The largest city state (not placed by a player) is 12 tiles, and they average in around 8. Considering a Huge civ map has ~26 city states, and that our map is at least twice that much land area, 63 is not an unreasonable amount.

Can I complain that city states stole land I wanted to expand into?

No. City states have been placed pretty evenly. If they took your land, you can war them, but they're not moving. City-States are much smaller than NPCs were in Mk.I, so don't worry about them snatching land.

I don't see them on the map. Where are they?

City States will only be revealed when players clear tiles adjacent to or containing city state tiles. Until at least one civ discovers a city state, they will not be shown on the map (currently most are completely surrounded by Barbarian Territory).

What happens when I discover a city state?

A post will be made, detailing who can communicate with the city state, and who has heard of the city state. In the comments, the discoverer will recieve 100-250 gold (determined by rollme).

I hope you all are looking forward to City-States as much as I am! To close this off, here are the current stats:

Total: 63

Discovered: 14

Undiscovered 49

Allied: 10

Expect several city state reveal posts in the immediate future, as 3 of the new city states border existing civs. The rest will be slowly discovered after the game begins, so clear those tiles!