Cities (commerce)

Cities are a structure that can be purchased in Commerce games.

Cities are shown by a small house icon on the territory. If two or three cities exist on a territory, two or three houses will be shown. If four or more cities exist on a territory, the game shows the number of cities followed by the house icon.

By default, cities provide one gold per turn to whoever controls the territory, although the game creator can override this to any number from 0 to 500. If someone captures the territory, all income produced by the city goes to the new owner.

By default, cities cost 5 gold plus one additional gold for each city already on the territory. Game creators can override these values, and can optionally also specify a cost for every city that you already own. If costs per territory is enabled, it often makes sense to spread out your cities onto different territories, rather than stacking them all on your most defensible territory.

To build a city, select the gold button below the commit button, select Build City, then select a territory you control to build a city there. If you change your mind before committing your turn, you can delete the build-city order out of the orders list, or use the undo button to un-place the last city you placed.

Once a city is built, it can never be destroyed, unless done by a mod.

Blockading a territory with a city will not destroy the city. The city will simply be owned by neutral, who receives no benefit from the gold per turn. If a player later captures that neutral territory, they will then receive the gold per turn from the city.