What is the next level of city states? Empires?

States I guess, and from there it's setting dependent.

Why did you make this thread?

Well the Aztecs went from city-state to confederacy of city-states and then made the jump to Empire.

What would a city empire be, would it be conquering new lands to extend its neighborhoods?

>>49987416
I guess Venice at its height.

>>49989601

I assume it would be an empire with a single city, the lands it rules over being agrarian, barbaric, or a wilderness full of natural resources (gold, iron, etc).

>Hunter-Gatherers --> Proto-settlement ---> settlement ---> city ---> city-state ---> empire ---> nation-state

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>>49987416

>>49992156
I agree.

A single hunter-gatherer could kill upwards of 1,000 decadent city dwellers with his hunting-spear alone. His stone spear may well have been sharpened over one million times into a perfect killing machine (hunter-gatherers had a lot of free time for this stuff. Much more so than modern blacksmiths or sedentary office-workers).

I myself bought an authentic tribal spear in Kenya for 10 samsung phones (that's about ten fiery explosions), and after some practicing I can pierce 10x10ft blocks of steel with my spear.

It is clear to me that it could bisect a fully-armored knight with a single horizontal stab. In the hands of one of these physically-perfect elite nomads, it is a weapon of mass destruction. In the British invasion of Africa, British soldiers shot the Zulu spearmen first because their killing power was feared and respected.

So I guess what I'm saying is that nomadic hunting spears need much better stats in your campaign setting. Here's a simple framework
>10 foot reach
>3d12 damage (plus user's strength) to all creatures in a 10 foot line
>Range(when thrown): 200 feet
>instant kill when used against any city-dwelling intelligent creature
>automatic critical hit versus animals and any creature that has ever slept in a bed
>deals triple damage on a charging attack
>ignores all armor, damage resistances, and damage immunities
>weilder must be level 8 or higher to use effectively

>>49992156
Just pointing out that history/human development is not a straight line like this one comment would portray. It does describe how many Human Civilizations did develop, this much is true, but there are many tribes that would never have developed into Empires even had they been left alone for hundreds or thousands of years.

>>49987416
>next level of city states

Human organizations don't "level up" anon. History hasn't proceeded like a nice clean game of Civ 4. Development of human civilization has a lot more nuance to it than that.

>>49992156
>Hunter-Gatherers --> Proto-settlement ---> settlement ---> city ---> city-state ---> empire ---> nation-state

Can't agree with that. The post-Renaissance European empires and the most militarily successful horse tribes don't gel with this.

>>49987416
Hegemony or confederacy of city states. Usually empres appear where there were broader territorial states to begin with.

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>>49992511
>Civ 6.
There. Corrected it for you. Pic related?

Civ 4 is pretty great though, isn't it?

>>49992203
This is the most Autistic thing I've read all day.
Wew Lad

>>49987416
The city state would use it's resources to Colonise and found a new city. Literally like a game of Civ.

When the cities have total control over the land between the two cities, then it could be considered an empire. But usually, this takes a while. They either have to fight off nomadic tribes that would raid the land inbetween, or would have to fight off enemy states for the land.

>>49992203
Nice twist on a classic pasta.

>>49987416
Arcologies