Free Cities

[Pellucid]

I've been trying to think of how to make city-states like Hamburg, Ragusa, Riga, and the like more realistic, and I think I've come up with a simple solution:

Non-vassal, one-province non-Merchant Republics should be considered "Free Cities," and with that status should come certain additional privileges:

1. A Free City can pledge itself to any neighboring state. (The pledge must be accepted by that state.)
2. A Free City can pledge itself to any Merchant Republic, whether or not that Republic neighbors them.
3. A Free City can be pledged to only one state at a time. The state they pledge to is their "Patron State."
4. A Free City never takes up a relations slot for a Patron. The Patron still takes up one of the Free City's relations.
5. A Free City can end a pledge to another state at any time, but that state gets a 6-month Subjugation CB against the Free City if it does and the Free City takes a -1 Stab hit.
6. If a Free City takes ownership of another province, it is given the option to keep it (and lose its Free City status), or release it as another, independent Free City (with a long-term relations boost). The new state (or states in the case of multiple provinces) would be given a new tag and named after the city present in the province (so in the unlikely event a Free City takes Ille de France, it would release a new state named Paris).

So what does a country get for accepting a Free City's pledge?

1. A Patron State gets half of the Free City's trade power.
2. A Patron State gets free Fleet Basing and Military Access to the Free City.
3. A Free City is always called into its Patron's wars on the Patron's side, and is never called into wars against its Patron. Unlike a vassal, it is not required to accept a CTA (Free Cities can always remain neutral for a prestige hit).
4. The Free City cannot become the vassal of any country other than the Patron for as long as it remains pledged.

And what do they owe the city?

1. A Patron is automatically called into any war declared on its Free City.
2. If a Free City is named as a co-belligerent in any war, it can choose to call its Patron. In this case, the Patron can decline (at a prestige hit).
3. If a Free City is annexed, the Patron loses 25 prestige.

How can third parties interact with this arrangement?

1. Any nation at war with a Free City's Patron can demand the Free City's charter as part of the peace deal, which switches the City's patron whether it wants it to or not. (The Free City can abandon this relationship as soon as the truce ends, but then the new Patron gets that Subjugation CB).
2. Monarchies which border a Free City have a permanent "Change Government Form" CB against Free Cities.
3. If the Holy Roman Emperor changes to another country, it loses all of its Free City charters in the Empire to the new Emperor (e.g. if Austria is the Patron of Frankfurt and Ragusa, then Bohemia wins the Imperial election, Bohemia becomes Frankfurt's new Patron. Ragusa would not switch hands because it's not part of the Empire).
4. A country may force a Free City to pledge to them as part of a peace deal against that city. In this case, the Free City could not break the pledge until the truce ends.


Note that, with this change/addition, the Hansa could be more realistically modeled as well, with Hamburg and Riga being Free Cities pledged to Lubeck. If we don't want to change Riga's status as a Theocracy, you could use a similar setup as this one to model Bishoprics.

 

[IIWW]

I like the idea of enchancing the free cities very much, but I'm not sure about the 50% TP. I feel like (correct me If I'm wrong) it's strongly based on the Hanseatic league. Maybe it would be better to create leagues, similar to how confederation works, where the cities are allies that are CtA like You suggested, but instead of making it major-minor partner, it would be made into partnership. Every city in league gets TP bonus, can't embargo nor rival each other, and solely being in league costs 1 relation slot for each country. Free MA and FBR to each other. And distant overseas not counting towards "OPM" limit (so they can conquer f.e. Hormuz, but not Holstein). And some bonus for beeing the leader, like +1 merchant (since it's basicly a merchant union, if it's based on heansetic league)

 

[Pellucid]

Yeah, I was writing up something more complex along the lines of your suggestion, but about a quarter of the way through realized it was way too complicated for a non-expansionpack feature. I'd like to see something like "Leagues" added at some point, too, but in the meantime I wanted to propose something that could be added without much fuss.

 

[IIWW]

I see Your point. But there is already a similar mechanism in the game (although only in CoP, I'm talking bout confederations), so maybe if it was more heavily based on it it could work?

 

[Pellucid]

I see Your point. But there is already a similar mechanism in the game (although only in CoP, I'm talking bout confederations), so maybe if it was more heavily based on it it could work?

Oh I definitely think it could work, and I'd love to see it. I just didn't want to propose something that could be the subject of an entire expansion.

 

[Incompetent]

I like this idea. Some more protectorate-like mechanics like this are definitely needed to curb the blobbing that currently afflicts the HRE. Some comments:
- Maybe some sort of upper limit on how many Free Cities you can have pledged to you at once (waived for Free Imperial Cities pledged to the Emperor)?
- Free Cities should be reluctant to accept diplovassalisation, like Merchant Republics are.
- I don't like the idea of monarchies having a 'Change Government' CB, unless the republican government is the result of a recent revolution
- There could be special internal bonuses for Free Cities, like increased goods produced or something (the OPM requirement means you can give them significant advantages without making them overpowered)
- Since Free Cities have the potential to be procedurally generated (named after provincial city, some sort of standard NIs), I think it should be possible for states in general (or at least Republics) to release Free Cities (pledged to you at creation), using a variant of the Client State button. As long as there's a limit on how many of them you can have at once, it shouldn't be too hard to balance.
- Pledged Free Cities shouldn't be able to activate any offensive alliances except with the patron and other free cities with the same patron
- Patron automatically takes over warleader status from a pledged Free City (OPM warleaders in major wars are a recipe for chaos)

 

[bisthebis]

I love this.

 

[Mauer]

I like this idea very, very much.

You should also be able to create free cities out of your own provinces with a certain basetax (like 8 and upwards).

 

[applecar18]

+1

 

[Friedrich von Deutschland]

Nice idea its one of those governmental things that need to be improved like the nomadic tribes, vassal mechanics for the shogun, or theocracies that would be far more interesting if they were more historical.

 

[magnusvejby]

+1

 

[saegoto]

I like idea of Free City. But what is the profit? I'd rather annex it and have 100% trade power than losing dip slot and have 50% trade power.

 

[Karnak]

I'd love the concept of free cities rather than things like the Hansa...

For balance, how about giving a free city double bonuses from province trade power features?
They lose the bonus once they grow larger than one province and stop being a free city, and their overlord would get the same TP that he would have gotten if he had annexed the city.
If a free city tries to survive as an OPM without pledging themselves for the trade benefits, then TRY IT CITY TRY IT.

I would not be unopposed to the idea of being given the voluntary ability to create a free city from any province which has a trade power feature.
Any province when making peace could if having such a feature be released as a free city that if not already an established nation becomes a generic nation just plopping up with 'free city' ideas and some random flag. Just like protectorates and vassals are released, these cities can be released also.

But they would not be a subject, since youknow... It's a free city. I guess they could be pledged to you during the truce after spawning them, and afterwards be free to go their own way as they see fit or something.

 

[saegoto]

my idea for Free City is:

requerments:
1. must be a single province
2. must be independent
3. can not be monarchy?
4. one of the following must be true:
- province basetax is 8 or more
- is in HRE
or
- is in baltic trade node
- has enstuary modifier
or
- is in baltic trade node
- has important center of trade modifier
or
- is in regusa trade node
- has important center of trade modifier

Free City Status gives +20% goods produce and +1 trade value

Diplomatic actions between Free City with other nation (protector):
Protection - Free City gives half of their trade income(not trade power) to Protector. Protector is called for all defensive wars. Free City is not called for Protector's wars.
it costs no diplo slot for Protector
cannot be annex by Protector
free military and naval accesess for both sides
renouncement of agreement costs stab hit for Protector and -100 relation penalty
Protector gets Libaration CB if Free City is annexed or vassalized

Force Danegeld - Free City gives all gold from its treasure to its Protector
-100 relations penalty for 25 years
bad relations with Protector causes that Free City seeks a new Protector or just cancel Protection

diplomatic actions between Free City with other Free City
Trade Agreement - every Free City in one trade agreement gives +5% trade power and 5% embargo efficiency for all Free Cities in this Trade Agreement (if there are 4 free cities in one trade agreement they all receive +20% trade power and 20% trade embargo efficiency)
it costs no diplo slot
cannot embargo a Free City in same Trade Agreement

and we've got The Hanza mechanic

 

[moscal]

Free city must have a political base - Free City of Krakow or the Free City of Danzig were not made for the economy, but for politics.

 

[Lord Chocolate]

I like your idea,Saegoto

Edit:What historical basis does the Force Danegeld have?

 

[saegoto]

Free city must have a political base - Free City of Krakow or the Free City of Danzig were not made for the economy, but for politics.

yes.. in 19th century

 

[Alias72]

Free cities are an important part of the HRE. I like the idea of free cities having strong trade alliances however a few changes are needed. 1. free cities should not be able to maintain vast alliance networks outside of HRE protectorates. by this I mean they should have a system that protects them through the empire. Free cities thrive when the empire is strong. They should have some of the advantages of merchant republics (leagues). And they should probably boost the value of trade across the HRE.

 

[Pellucid]

I like idea of Free City. But what is the profit? I'd rather annex it and have 100% trade power than losing dip slot and have 50% trade power.

That's why it doesn't cost a DIP slot.

 

[saegoto]

That's why it doesn't cost a DIP slot.

oh I didn't notice, sry.

What do you think Pellucid about my suggestion?