How many turns you must hold an enemy city before it becomes yours, and what happens if you are pushed off early.
How the counter works
- Each turn your unit occupies the city, a hidden capture counter goes up by 1.
- When the counter reaches the number of turns needed, the city is yours, left at 50% HP.
- While no one occupies it, the counter falls by 1 per turn back to 0. You must hold the city for the full count without a break.
- The counter resets to 0 whenever the city changes owner, including a recapture or a liberation.
Turns needed
turns = 2
+ extra turns for the city's culture
+ 1 if your team did not found the city
→ minimum 1
The culture that counts is the highest culture level any other team has in the city.
| City culture | Extra turns |
|---|---|
| Weak | +0 |
| Developing | +1 |
| Strong | +2 |
| Legendary | +3 |
Retaking a city your team founded is one turn faster, even if an enemy has held and grown it since.
Turns to flip
| City culture | Taking a foreign city | Retaking your own |
|---|---|---|
| Weak (+0) | 3 | 2 |
| Developing (+1) | 4 | 3 |
| Strong (+2) | 5 | 4 |
| Legendary (+3) | 6 | 5 |
A new enemy city changes hands after 3 turns, and an old Legendary enemy capital takes 6. Liberating one of your own cities takes a turn off each.
When a captured city is razed instead
A captured city is razed instead of changing hands when:
- a Tribe captures it and the city razing game option is on, or
- a player captures it while already at their city cap.
Example
- You attack a rival's Strong-culture city that you did not found. You need 2 + 2 (Strong) + 1 (not your city) = 5 turns.
- Your unit occupies the city, and the counter rises by 1 at the end of each turn it holds.
- If a relief force pushes you out with the counter at 3, it falls by 1 per turn back toward 0 and you start over.
- Hold all 5 turns and the city is yours at 50% HP. If your team had founded it, it would take 4.