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.
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.
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